NYC Premiere at The Public Theater’s Under The Radar Festival

January 2017

Performer/creator with Anisa George

2014

This began during Swim Pony’s Cross Pollination Residency. Chelsea and I were paired with Jaime Alvarez, a photographer. Shame Portraits are photographic records of a version of the self that is both shameful and pleasurable to inhabit. Each shoot was predicated by writing exercises, strategic conversations, and liability waivers.

Teacher, January 2017-June 2018, Bok building, Philadelphia

As the “Creative Specialist” I taught Creative Movement, Visual Art, and Music Together to children ages 2-5. But because very young children are experts in fluidity and chaos I ended up doing a little bit of everything. We had to talk a lot about feelings and how to resist gouging each other’s eyes out when those feelings were raging. I don’t pretend to be an expert. I have just as much trouble telling someone they hurt my feelings as any three year old. It’s very real. And then there are all the biggest philosophical questions to tackle:

Where were we before we were born?

Can we choose what happens to our body when we die?

Why do people hurt other people and do you think someone who is evil thinks they are evil?

It was big philosophy with small people, every day.

My time at Project P.L.A.Y was also my own personal lab research. I brought the kids into my art studio and watched how they responded to paint and no rules. This research contributed directly to the development of my solo show: feral wild girl child.

Teaching Artist, October 2016-May 2017

The A2O program was a Partnership between Mural Arts and Parks and Recreation. Its goals were two-fold: to create a semi-permanent work of art at and after-school recreational center and to expose the students to nature.

I added my own goals: to facilitate vivid self-portraits of teenagers and explore their sense of fashion. I wanted the final product to say: we are the art.

The resulting portraits had a little bit of everything: art, nature, self and fashion.

Photos by Jaime Alvarez

Teacher, Spring 2016

Co-taught with Chelsea Murphy

An eight-week course with a group of 7 students: juniors and seniors in dance. Culminated with the creation of original solos, which explored the “Shame Portrait” research of the resident artists.