Photo by George Emilio Sanchez
Randy Reyes is queer Latinx choreographer-dance artist-curanderx with roots connecting the geographies of Guatemala, Massachusetts, NYC, Germany, Chile, Ecuador, & Nicaragua. This past summer he was a Creative Dissent Fellow at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) learning under the direction of Tania Bruguera & the Arte Util team as well as completed a 72-hour permaculture design course at Soul Flower Farm. Randy has now relocate to Los Angeles to begin an MFA in Dance program at UCLA where he will continue weaving together his interests in spiritual-environmental ecologies, queer choreography/systems of improvisation, and international-domestic exchange between artists, activists, ecologists, & healers.
Support Randy by donating to their Kickstarter all-or-nothing campaign, which ends on Aug. 11! All funds/donations will go directly towards supporting their cast who are amazing folks identifying along the spectrum of {queer- first generation – POC} and to expanding their production budget to include a sound artist from NYC and set designer.
Stephanie Hewett: Stephanie Hewett is a Bronx, New York native currently based in Oakland. She completed a one-year program at the Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, UK, and received a BA in Dance from Trinity College. She is a recent graduate of the MFA in Dance program at Mills College and enjoys caffeine, collaborations, and clarity.
Jose Abad:
Jose Abad is a queer social practice performance artist based in San Francisco, California. Born in Olongapo City, Philippines to a Filipinx Mother and a West Indian Father, Jose uses dance and storytelling to explore the complexities of cultural identity, feelings of landlessness and the memories and wisdom held within the body that the mind has forgotten, or history has erased. Abad has had the opportunity to perform in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco in collaboration with a variety of companies and artists including Keith Hennessy, Scott Wells, Anne Bluethenthal, Brontez Purnell Dance Company, #DignityInProcess and Detour Dance.
Emelia Martinez-Brumbaugh:
Emelia is a gender, sexual and geographical border crosser.
They white/latinx Chesapeake bay beast
source the power and creativity that
lives in between
personal and interpersonal divides,
the rainbow of perspectives,
to honor/hone
the potential/unknown/divine
for choreography
of a new reality.
years on years of serious play & social inquiry
facilitating embodied creative curiosity with adults and youth
from Mexico City to Washington, D.C.
Based in the Oakland bay area
Felix (Sol) Linck Frenz:
Felix Linck Frenz is a white queer artist, activist and femme-ish person who lives in Berkeley, CA. Born in Baja California to a German-Chilean mother and a formerly Texan father, Felix moved to Los Angeles at the age of ten already with many questions about origins, place, and personhood. She continues to think through these ideas in relationship to power, privilege and healing both as an experimental dancer and as a housing justice organizer. Felix is honored to be a part of Lxs Desaparecidxs and has been deeply moved by and through this collaborative process.
Gabriel Christian:
Gabriel Christian (t(he)y/(t)him) is a multidisciplinary artist/teacher. After receiving a BA in Theatre Studies from Yale in 2013, their work pivoted towards reifying queer desire, genderfluidity (or “juicyness”) and black resilience through conceptual art and performance. They’ve held residencies at Destiny Arts Center and Finnish Brotherhood Hall, and mounted/supported works at Counterpulse, SOMArts, CTRL+SHIFT Gallery, Brava Theater, Eureka Theater, and Stanford University. Upcoming projects include a residency with This Will Take Time in Point Arena, revisiting twenty-nine collaborations about Black Presence and using them as talismans for negotiating Black
Prescience. (www.blackpresence.xyz)
[Artist photo of Randy Reyes at This is What I Want (Tessa Wills) by Robbie Sweeny]
Telling myself what to do feels foreign And bends itself into what will turn into the first escape of many It takes a careful tread and a dissonant listening in order to achieve the uncut smile that spreads across my face So I scan wildly Wanting no one’s eye but my own Desperation and wanton […]
Stephanie Hewett is an Edge 2019 Artist-in-Residence. Witness /soft/c/ Thu-Sat, April 4-6 & 11-13, 2019. Learn more and get tickets >>
So CounterPulse is centering their second annual festival around improvisation and the pursuit of “freedom,” and this… is just a very real workout for all of me: brain, bod, heart, etc. I think it’s a bold move on our part. And I say: thank goodness for bold moves. Years ago, I used to co-teach a […]
Interview conducted by Claire Frost, Artspan Program Manager, on January 28, 2019 Claire Frost: How do you see your work and your practice fitting into CounterPulse’s space + programming? How does this space contextualize (or not) your work? Brea Weinreb: Similar to CounterPulse, community is integral to my work. Every figure painting I’ve ever made has […]
UNEARTHED is a night of video installations and performances by Bay Area emerging artists exploring ancestry and diaspora, trauma and healing, vulnerability and sexuality, and questions about our past and future. Co-curator Claire Staples interviews three of the artists: Titania Kumeh Claire Staples: You have been exploring the bathtub birth story in your performance work for […]