In These Boxes is an uncommon - and uncanny - mix of live music, narratives and video art that explores the human need to keep the dead from disappearing by holding on to their things. Personal contributions – gathered from the local Houston communities - will be incorporated into video art for Saunders' QFEST Houston performance.

For this performance, Saunders and QFest are asking community residents to take photos of the objects they have inherited and can’t let go, and then post them to Instagram with the hash-tag #InTheseBoxes or send them to directly to Dudley@dudleysaunders.com.

The piece is inspired by his own AIDS-era history: “In the fall of 1991, my two ex-lovers died within two months of each other. But what made it worse was realizing that everyone who remembered us together was also dead. Their few objects were the only evidence that they had existed, and had meaning no-one else could understand: how can you explain why an old spoon is important?” Dudley Saunders is a trans-disciplinary gay artist whose work explores the hidden lives of marginalized people: in performance art, video, fiction, documentary film and indie-folk music. Dudley’s life as an
activist was a subject in the recent documentary UNITED IN ANGER: A HISTORY OF ACT UP, which also included his music.