Meet Q-STAGE Artist Commarrah J. Yochanan

Meet Q-STAGE Artist Commarrah J. Yochanan

An interview with Q-STAGE: New Works Series artist Commarrah J. Yochanan

Who are you? 

Commarrah J. Yochanan, Black trans Jewish artist, activist, and shower rapper.

What can you tell us about the work you're presenting as part of Q-STAGE? Who or what asks this work of you?

Mx 4 Minneapolis is a love letter to Black queer trans people for existing and expressing themselves and a work of gratitude. It is a rebellion against dire circumstances cis people have put us in over the course of the emergencies of COVD-19 and Uprising and others they’ve caused in our lives. It’s a thank you especially to Marsha P. Johnson and I hope the continuation and escalation of whatever part of her soul initiated the movement of throwing the first brick. It’s Black trans Torah-Talmud commentary. It is my pure agony laid bare that I have no temple to keep and my attempt to bring the temple everywhere I step. It is the third option.

My pieces are never without their ritual and magic, so as Mx petitions for ancestral protection, so did I with this piece. This work asked me to leave my heart open enough to bring it through, to adapt with generosity and softness toward myself, and to let go of my limited understanding of who I am as a Black trans soul, person, creator, and leader.

For a long time the performing arts have been not just havens for young Queers but also an opportunity for expression and community, and for many a pathway towards identity. Any encouraging words to a Queer kid who's struggling with the limitations present in performance today?

The mother of a gifted child I know was telling me about how her daughter knew what sewing was around 3 and got frustrated when her fingers couldn’t do it. Cognitively, she was intelligent enough to break down the process and her hands just weren’t ready. Her body wasn’t ready. She cried about it and I cried hearing about it. I understood the child’s frustration because I’ve been there. It really be like that sometimes when you find your identity as a youth through performance. I’ve been on stage since I was eight. There was stuff I wanted to do, beauty I wanted to craft, and sometimes that just doesn’t happen. But unlike this blessed baby, no one ever took the project from my hands and told me that it was fine to be where I was at. I’m telling you that it’s fine to be where you’re at. It’s also fine to keep picking up the projects you aren’t ready for until you are. The following offerings might make it easier.

Forming an identity with yourself outside of performance is important. Having meaningful relationships with other artists that don’t revolve around work is important. Taking care of your mental health is the most important. Learning about co-creating healthy boundaries and practicing staying in line with them is important. Performance rarely gives you the justice you can give yourself by even just breathing deeper or drinking one more cup of water. Or by saying no to a project that might bring you more money because it just doesn’t feel right. I’ve left performing intermittently to work on everything I’m telling you about. I burned out or hurt people when I didn’t. I’m a better artist and more respected for it because I stopped and took the time. Then when you do perform, it’s much easier to do that complex work of being because you’ve rested other parts of your life that hold it up. That’s star behavior.

What's something you've learned about making art in the last few years that you think helped you become more in tune with your vision? 

There’s a false urgency cishet white supremacy puts on art because it’s turned a spiritual experience into a product. I cut my teeth in New York City, so I was used to a higher pace and higher demands when it came to art making. I was brought up in a very “show must go on” environment. But I’ve learned how deeply important it is to decolonize the work by just taking time. This production was wild, as productions that encounter ritual magic in process are wont to be. It changed shape a million times, critical set pieces broke, I ended up with glass in my feet at one point. It’s a pandemic, we’re still in uprising, and I’ve also been going through a lot of hard personal life changes. What ended up making this piece happen wasn’t driving it and pushing through every moment, but knowing when to push and when to stop. When to say “You know what, Shabbes got me on a film night and that’s ok.” And truly, it bears repeating that investing in myself outside of the performance space always shows ten times its worth coming back into it.

Who are some Queer Artists (local or otherwise) you want to shout out? Who should we be paying attention to? 

Literally I’d be fucked without my Q-Stage predecessors. I would feel some type of way if I didn’t say thank you publicly to Andrea Jenkins as she set a path for me into my first Walker gig and into City Hall. Shout out to Taylor Seaberg, who I met way back before I knew what was even happening with gender let alone my art. Basil Kreimendahl too because he taught a playwriting class where some of my channeling style emerged in longer form. C. Michael Menge doing Naked Stages, b always got my back. Big love to Mason Olay-Smith, my Black trans Torah club fam who just dropped a book, Crossbones on My LIfe.

Locally, please be checking for any of the artists awarded by the Black Trans and Native Two Spirit Fund.

Any plans for the work beyond Q-STAGE? What is next for you?

You’ll see.

Commarrah's new work Mx 4 Minneapolis will be screened Thursday, March 25 - Sunday, March 28. 

Meet Q-STAGE Artist Yoni Tamang

Meet Q-STAGE Artist Yoni Tamang

An interview with Q-STAGE: New Works Series artist Yoni Tamang

Who are you? 

I am in the phylum of vertebrates. Hominid, homo, gurl--I have used many pronouns. None of which fit. How will we work things out? (I believe that we will.) I am easily traceable; I have a miniature computer with a GPS tracking device that I take with me everywhere I go (no it’s not embedded in my skin; we are merely codependent). I know my ancestry for approximately 4, maybe 5 generations. After that things become...impressionistic. Although each of us possesses an infinitely complex bric-a-brac of genetic variance, in this society I have inherited the racial moniker of “mixed.”

What can you tell us about the work you're presenting as part of Q-STAGE? Who or what asks this work of you? 

I might call it a stab at something new. The genre of science fiction, the medium of film, writing for the screen, these are all novel pursuits for me. If you aren’t new here, I thank you in advance for your warm welcome. I’ve had fun in your wheelhouse.

For a long time the performing arts have been not just havens for young Queers but also an opportunity for expression and community, and for many a pathway towards identity. Any encouraging words to a Queer kid who's struggling with the limitations present in performance today?

I never got it right. I just got better at trying and failing. It never got easier. It just got familiar.

What's something you've learned about making art in the last few years that you think helped you become more in tune with your vision? 

In about 7.5 billion years the sun will engulf the earth.

Who are some Queer Artists (local or otherwise) you want to shout out? Who should we be paying attention to? 

The wit, devastation, and mutability of the work of the inimitable Aegor Ray. Although elusive, he can be found on twitter @itsteensy.

Any plans for the work beyond Q-STAGE? What is next for you?

I have been interested in becoming irrelevant, and in order to do this I think I’d like to start making cave paintings, entombed in unfindable locations. I wonder what the work of art is if it is meant for the eyes of god alone. If we are afloat in a cipher, and all that is left are the words, are they even the right ones? I’d like to find out. After that I’ll probably be making installation art in Portland or trying to get The Fawn published. I have a half baked draft of a novel too. We’ll see what happens.

Yoni's new work Excerpts from The Fawn will be screened Thursday, March 18 - Sunday, March 21. 

Meet Q-STAGE Artist Nakita Kirchner

Meet Q-STAGE Artist Nakita Kirchner

An interview with Q-STAGE: New Works Series artist Nakita Kirchner

Who are you? 

I am Nakita. I’m a queer Lebanese-American collaborator, dancer, and choreographer.

What can you tell us about the work you're presenting as part of Q-STAGE? Who or what asks this work of you? 

With the breakout of COVID-19, the impetus for the piece changed greatly. One of the many things lost during this time has been the varying forms of intimacy we give and receive every day. What I ultimately want to offer from this piece is a reminder of the intimacies that exist in this time. 

For a long time the performing arts have been not just havens for young Queers but also an opportunity for expression and community, and for many a pathway towards identity. Any encouraging words to a Queer kid who's struggling with the limitations present in performance today?

Performing arts have served a larger role in my life than I often remember and tend to take for granted. It’s an incredibly lucky experience not only to find creative expression, but also to find dear collaborators who see and respect you for who you are. Even when participating in work that doesn’t include those collaborators, it is heart-grounding to know that those people’s energies are still with you. 

What's something you've learned about making art in the last few years that you think helped you become more in tune with your vision? 

I have recently learned that the expectations and ways in which a piece serves a cast are just as important as how it serves an audience. Creating a piece takes a lot of work, but embodying someone else’s vision is a serious labor. I am incredibly grateful to my collaborators, Fei Bi and Sophia, for taking on this labor for Q-STAGE.

Who are some Queer Artists (local or otherwise) you want to shout out? Who should we be paying attention to? 

Having seen sections of work from the other Q-STAGE artists, I am excited to see the final products from Kat, Yoni, and Commarrah! It has been an honor to witness the unfurling of their work and to grow alongside them. 

Any plans for the work beyond Q-STAGE? What is next for you?

Right now, most projects are paused until vaccination is more widespread, but I look forward to sharing my work in the Lebanon International Contemporary Dance Festival and collaborating with dear friend and collaborator Leila Awadallah this summer. 

Nakita's new work Perspectives on Intimacy will be screened Thursday, March 4 - Sunday, March 7th. 

Juleana Enright | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Juleana Enright | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Tell us about the work you’re performing at Controlled Burn. What’s it about?

For my piece, “To Wash the Native Out of Us,” I wanted to create an audio and visual experience based on stories recanted from my family about being put into Indian boarding schools at a really young, impressionable age. I always grew up hearing these stories, but it wasn’t until I was older that I realized the history of Native culture being stripped away and the abuse that happened at these “schools” wasn’t a history that many non-Native individuals knew of. We often don’t find ourselves in history books, depicted as we are, as we were; we’re given a historical context that isn’t our own. I wanted to create something that allowed the audience to be immersed in an oral storytelling that was real and raw and, specifically, ours. For me, although these stories aren’t my own personal trauma, they are an intergenerational trauma, a shared blood trauma. The importance of keeping them alive, in their authentic form, establishing identity and talking about the separation of identity, was crucial to my process. 

What motivates your work as an artist? 

Uniting community; exploring identity; personal evolution; storytelling; the act of authentic self 

Talk about your background. What sort of experiences are you bringing to this production? 

My background has predominantly been focused on arts writing and the role of curator. I had a solo curatorial debut at Gamut Gallery in 2018 for an exhibit titled “Soft Boundaries,” which explored the vulnerable narrative as an act of healing and liberation. Since then, I was fortunate enough to be involved in 2019’s Lightning Rod production, which gave me the opportunity to perform in, write and direct a theater performance, something I hadn’t done since I was in high school. For this project, I wanted to push myself to explore retrieving, editing and mixing audio, and also to create a storyline that was incredibly vulnerable and difficult to share. I cried a lot through the editing process, hearing the pain and emotions that still defined my auntie and mom’s current sense of self. As a writer, I’m familiar with how the process of telling the story defines how universally palatable and impactful it can be, so I’m bringing that to the table. For this project, I wanted to translate how I do that with written word to a spoken word format of storytelling. 

Have you been involved with 20% Theatre in the past?

I haven’t! I’m more than thrilled to be part of 20% Theatre’s programming and excited to see more works from them this year and beyond. 

Which artists and/or performances have inspired you?

I’m the co-curator of a monthly performance and dance night, Feelsworldwide, and literally every show that my fellow curator, Dom Laba, and I have been part of has been overwhelmingly inspiring. Every artist we’ve worked with to make those events happen, has brought forth an experience that was raw, experimental, radical, thoughtful, original and, above all, hugely impactful on my existence as a queer artist in Minneapolis. 

Are you working on any other projects at the moment that you’d like to share?

Feels is an on-going project for Dom and I and we hope to expand our vision, so that’s forever on my horizon. I also have a feature coming out for Make MN Magazine on the illustration and fashion design duo, MegoLisaLand, which I can’t wait to have premiered in print. 

Aside from your artistic work, how do you spend your time? What are some of your hobbies or passions in life?

I’ve been kind of a recluse this winter, but DJing is my passion and I’m constantly on the prowl for new music to play out. I spend a lot of time making playlists and mixing beats.  

What’s your favorite thing to do in the Twin Cities?

I think we have an incredible art and theater scene here, so, when I can, going to art exhibitions and independent queer productions, being absorbed in that atmosphere and interacting with queer creatives is a highlight for me. 

Who are your favorite artists right now and why?

Honestly, so many artists who I’m sharing the bill with for Controlled Burn are among my favorites – Baki, Keila Anali Saucedo, Johanna Keller Flores, snem DeSellier, Maitreyi Rey (all of whom I was fortunate to work with on Lightning Rod). Sarah White, who I’m forever in awe of in terms of reparations and activism. Mixie, Puffy, Janet Regina Kolterman, booboo, Teighlor McGee, Godzilita, Kamilla Love, Ness Nite, Ashley Mari, Jenna Cis, Queenduin, Yasmeenah, Maiya Lea – like, literally all the artists who have been involved in Feelsworldwide. Dom Laba, who’s just my complete rock in my creative and personal existence, and who won the trust to take beautiful photos of the Native women in my family who hate to be photographed. Marcela, whose work and dynamic presence is inspiring in so many ways and who has been a ‘tour de force’ in helping me find motivation and explore different mediums of my work, and also in just helping me realize that my vision – no matter what abstract form it’s in – is important. 

Why do you think artmaking is important work? 

Expression is just essential to existence. And everyone does it in different ways. If you can be vulnerable and explore your existence through your emotions, your being, through art, then you should. And I hope we can create more spaces to make that accessible, inclusive, and a place to share regardless of how “polished” or “refined” we think our work is. The more experimental, the better. It’s political because it’s personal. And to me, the more artistic expression made by queer POC, trans and non-binary artists we get to experience furthers in creating a presence that says “we exist, we matter, and being made to feel silenced is unacceptable.” 

Juleana will be performing on Saturday, February 15 @ 7:30pm at Controlled Burn: Queer Performance for a World on Fire.

House of Larva | Controlled Burn Featured Artists

House of Larva | Controlled Burn Featured Artists

Controlled Burn artists Çicada L’Amour and Pouchet Pouchet from House of Larva

Tell us about the work you’re performing at Controlled Burn. What’s it about?

ÇICADA L’AMOUR: We are performing a new act called INSECT-A-DROME: think David Cronenberg meets pro-wrestling meets snuff film, but it’s also like a nature documentary. We love riffing on different media genres–the “trashier” the better–as a way to explore queer identity and the effects of interpersonal violence on our bodies and in our fantasies. There’s a lot about voyeurism and alienation in this one. You know. Comedy. 

What motivates your work as an artist in general? 

ÇICADA L’AMOUR: Frustration? Angst? Feeling like there is something under my skin, ready to burst! There’s always that “emotional” or spiritual side. A motivating force. But then there are also specific questions: What does it mean, on a physical level, to be socially constructed, to be shaped by imperialist, racist, and heterosexist powers? What does it mean to contain both the perpetuation of violence and resistance to it? I like that drag centers the building of a persona, and everyone is in on it. Like we are all celebrating this artificiality, and then suddenly “the artificial” character, the drag persona, helps reveal something about the “real me” or the “real you:” how we are made, how we emerge in the world, and how that whole process can be kind of ambiguous, even scary. 

POUCHET POUCHET: This may be bordering on cliche but I really do feel like I need to make art and perform to have a meaningful life. I’m sure my life would be a lot easier in my ways if I wouldn’t keep insisting on performing, making art, or trying projects and techniques. However, I was really very sad when I took a hiatus from dance a couple years ago. So I think in general, there is something in my nature that does need to be doing art to be fulfilled. Artist all the way down, I suppose. But as Max said, I also believe art has a special ability to interrogate parts of our reality that we take for granted as “natural” and therefore, unchangeable. What is it really about gender, for instance, that is so natural? We talk about “nature” versus “nurture”, but there is very little behavior that can be attributed only to nature, and even if it can be, it is still worth interrogating. 

Talk about your background as an artist. What sort of artistic experience are you bringing to this production? 

POUCHET: My mom is a child psychiatrist and I was a very anxious and neurotic child. So, she put me in dance classes and community choir as a type of exposure therapy. It worked very well, although I don’t think she anticipated that I would commit myself so fully to dance and art as I have. I still grapple with anxiety and shyness and I know I’m still neurotic, but I think that brings an interesting tension to performances, and besides, Merce Cunningham was shy, from what I hear. I was a musician and choral singer and classical music nerd for many years, so many of the classical music tracks you hear in House of Larva performances were my suggestion, although not always. 

ÇICADA: I first got into theatre through puppetry and costume, building body sized masks, hand puppets, shadow puppets, etc. In this show, we are doing our finest insect-inspired drag, so I am excited to include that part of me and play around with materials and fabrics that I don’t always get to. It’s also a great time for some more choreography, since McKay is an incredibly talented choreographer. This show really brings these sides of our artistic selves to the table. 

Have you been involved with 20% Theatre in the past and, if so, in what ways?

ÇICADA: Yup. We did Controlled Burn last year. It was awesome! It was an act dedicated to Brett Kavanaugh, but I guess he wasn’t interested in attending. C’est la vie. 

Which artists and/or performances have inspired you?

ÇICADA: This last year? Hands down: Marianne Williamson. What a performance. Slam dunk. Tens across the board.  Love her. The way she articulates and the corresponding movements of the cheeks, the eyes, the corners of her mouth, I am drawn into her persona like a metaphysical whirlpool, the embodiment of everything I both love and hate about new age. “We have a sickness care system,” I mean ugh, so good. Chills. 

POUCHET: My family doesn’t watch sports or wrestling so I didn’t grow up watching it. It wasn’t until a dear friend of mine, Danny Solis, introduced me to WWE, that I understood that professional wrestling is actually America’s most popular, and dare I say, finest theater performance. Professional wrestling is not “real”, it refers to nothing except the most abstract copy of a copy of a fighting match – professional wrestling is hyperreality itself. Professional wrestling is where we witness the real America. 

Are you working on any other projects at the moment or coming up on the horizon?

POUCHET: House of Larva always has many projects in motion on the horizon. We are all very inspired by sci fi, fantasy, horror, so we have a long list of ideas kicking around. 

ÇICADA: We want to do a Western show. Super gay, right? We also wanna poke a little fun at horse girls. There’s this Adam Ant song “Why Do Girls Love Horses,” and I just keep imagining this like tragedy where a cowboy returns home after a perilous trip to find medicine for his wife or something–very that–only to find out his wife’s left him for a horse. Relationships are hard. 

Outside of House of Larva, I am working on a book, The(y)ology: Mythopoetics for Queer and Trans Liberation. It’s sort of a manifestoabout mythmaking in queer and trans spiritual, religious, and theological movements. It’s about loving nonbinary god/s, rethinking what it means to be gendered selves through embodied practices, and imagining a sexually liberated, gender expansive cosmos. I study theology at United Theological Seminary, and this is the culmination of my time there. 

Aside from your artistic work, how do you spend your time? What are some of your hobbies or passions in life?

POUCHET: I used to really love reading and I’ve noticed that since I’m not in school anymore I don’t read very much, so I’m trying to get back in the habit of reading. I love sci fi and fantasy novels. Right now I’m re-reading a sci fi classic, Snow Crash. It was the first place where the word “avatar” was used to represent a person’s digital representation in an online world. If you read this interview and meet me later, please tell me book suggestions, it might seem weird but I’ll be expecting it so it won’t be weird.  

What’s your favorite thing to do in the Twin Cities?

ÇICADA: I love swimming, especially when the e coli levels aren’t too high. I also enjoy watching the orangutans at Como Zoo. 

POUCHET: I just moved to the Twin Cities from Rochester a few months ago so I’m still just so thrilled to be so close to so many artistic opportunities. 

Who are your favorite artists right now and why?

ÇICADA: I have been so excited about the Boulet Brother’s Dragula, particularly drag queen’s Disasterina and Biqtch Puddin and drag king Landon Cider. Weird, scary, sexy, gross. delicious. I got to see Biqtch Puddin when she performed at the Saloon. It’s not really my scene, so I was kinda uncomfortable, not really having it, but the Puddin gets on the stage in full Fiona drag and does this whole Shrek themed number where she’s pulling something–a braid?– out of her ass, and then jump ropes with it, which turns into her donning an ogre mask and leading sing-a-long of “Believer” and I am like yes, that, that is what I want! 

Why do you think artmaking is important work? 

POUCHET: The regular rules of day to day life are boring, restrictive, predictable, and oppressive. We need artmaking to get us out of what is allowed to happen in “regular” behavior. I think artmaking based in the body and performance is especially important because our society tries very hard to create a separation between the body and the mind, and many people conceive of themselves as a mind simply being carried around by a body, an unfortunate and clumsy housing for a brilliant brain. However, they are inextricably connected – and the body has other knowledge for us that isn’t as straightforward or easily pulled out. Bodies are weird and wonderful and uncomfortable and comfortable, and I think performance is a place where we get the opportunity to really explore that and see it laid out and experience it. 

ÇICADA: The fictional—and this is a big part of my upcoming book– is in the middle of what we imagine and what already exists. It uses already present language and images to access a moment that has not happened, even a world that is not yet. I think art creates new myths, and these myths expand our understanding of what is possible. How else could we possibly build a better world? 

Describe your pre-performance ritual if you have one.  

ÇICADA: We like to get our faces real close and just whisper “thank you, thank you, thank you” repeatedly. Or we’ll sing along to Oingo Boingo’s “Little Girls.” However the spirit moves us. 

POUCHET: Yeah, we spend most of the day together before a show, going over act, putting the finishing touches on props. I always force Max to take selfies with me before we go on stage. Max is correct, we always whisper “thank you” to each other at least six times. Are we saying thank you to each other or to Benoit, the patriarchal demiurge of House of Larva’s mythos.  Hard to say. 

Maitreyi Ray | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Maitreyi Ray | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Tell us about the work you’re performing at Controlled Burn. What’s it about?

I made a short movie paired with an abecedarian poem – a poem where each line is a successive letter in the alphabet. The poem is about falling in love on a faraway blue planet, and the movie is sort of unrelated – mostly capturing impressions of my winter in Minneapolis.

What motivates your work as an artist? 

I feel motivated by how wonderfully weird and horny the world is around me. I am interested in people having a sensual relationship with my work– sometimes that means arranging a poem so that you can feel a word like “bubble” in your mouth or pairing images together that produce delight, curiosity and sometimes revulsion. I am trans and think it is important to place my body, my desire, my community in a relationship with the strangeness and wonder of the deep sea, space and stars, fungal rhizomes in forests.

Which artists have inspired you?

I love AP Looze’s work so much! There was a piece last Controlled Burn by Jaffa Aharonov that has been on my mind ever since I saw it; that was when I started thinking about my transness as a kind of embodiment that is extra-sensory and spiritual. I am also really inspired by Dua and D. Allen. We are so lucky to live in Minneapolis among so many incredible artists!

What’s your favorite thing to do in the Twin Cities?

I love going to the steam room at the Midtown YWCA! I think it’s so lovely to be in the middle of a city and be in this room sweating in your underwear with strangers. I learn a lot about myself in the steam room.

Maitreyi will be performing on Thursday, February 13 @ 7:30pm at Controlled Burn: Queer Performance for a World on Fire.

Kōl | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Kōl | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Controlled Burn artist Kōl on grieving mass exctinction and taking the long view of time.

Tell us about the work you’re performing at Controlled Burn. What’s it about?

My work at Controlled Burn, along with everything I’ve produced lately, is an outward expression of private experiences of grief and isolation in response to the state of life systems on Earth. My method of coping with the potential extinction of almost everything I love has been in taking the long, long view of time— thinking of cycles of catastrophic change and renewal. Did you know that the first and perhaps biggest mass extinction on earth was caused billions of years ago by newly evolved cyanobacteria flooding the atmosphere with a noxious gas produced as exhalation? The air was filled with a compound that was deathly toxic to the anaerobic microbes that almost exclusively populated the world at the time—and is the entire reason that life as we beautifully know it exists today—one big out-breath of Oxygen.

What motivates your work as an artist?

Coping, expression, communication.

Talk about your background as an artist. What sort of artistic experience are you bringing to this production?

I am a writer and a theatrical designer of sound and video. I have also constructed multimedia installations and artworks and spent most of my life writing poetry instead of taking to people.

Have you been involved with 20% Theatre Company in the past?

I have contributed sound, video, and stagehand work to 20% Theatre. They are one of my favorite companies to work with 🙂

Which artists and/or performances have inspired you?

I know it’s a cop-out, but literally everyone in the queer arts community. Our resilience and good humor in the face of such BS all around us all the time is pretty rad.

What else are you working at the moment?

I’m working on a few shows and applying to grad schools.

Aside from your artistic work, how do you spend your time? What are some of your hobbies or passions in life?

I enjoy collecting large stacks of books from the library and then playing the “can I read them all before the fines are larger than the sticker price” game. I also hang out with my cat, garden when it’s nice, and spend quiet time with friends puzzling and gaming.

Describe your pre-performance ritual if you have one.

My body gets really jittery with nerves, so I do a lot of stretching and wiggling around beforehand.

Kōl will be performing on Friday, February 14 @ 7:30pm at Controlled Burn: Queer Performance for a World on Fire.

Hane | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Hane | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Tell us about the work you’re performing at Controlled Burn. What’s it about?

I’m an artist and musician in Minneapolis, and my work is from my upcoming album Diamond Eyes, which centers around queerness, revolution, pop culture, disco, and punk culture. Diamond Eyes represents a craving for impact while embracing and arguing about queer culture, among other things. It’s about the truths we discover in ourselves and the pursuit of our deepest desires. Having been deeply embedded in the queer community these past few years as a gogo dancer, I’m telling my stories through pop theatre and rock. 

What motivates your work as an artist? 

Genuine expression, truth-telling, politics, parties, and overwhelming fabulousness.

Talk about your background. What sort of experience are you bringing to this production? 

I’ve been passionately making art of all kinds since I was very young. I’ve always been singing, acting, painting, and writing, and I’m excited to feel a sense of focus with my current pursuits that isn’t always present. It’s important to strike while the iron is hot. I’ve been writing and performing my own music for a decade and have been involved in theatre forever, earning my degree in it in 2016. My artistic experience stems from my life experience, which is wrapped up in a tornado-range of experiences from a young age: great family struggles, poverty, identity conflict, and more, and I’m grateful to have a platform through which to share my stories.

Which artists and/or performances have inspired you?

I love local artists, musicians, burlesque performers, and drag artists. I’m also inspired by Prince, Bowie, and Lady Gaga, particularly her early work. I like theatre that uses wild metaphors to tell interesting human stories. Shock art and visual/emotional impact are important.

Are you working on any other projects at the moment or coming up on the horizon?

My album! Keep your eyes peeled for Diamond Eyes, which is planned to be finished and released in the next few months. There are tracks on this album that I initially wrote a decade ago in high school, intermixed with many new ones. A lot of hard work is about to pay off in fabulous fashion and I couldn’t be more excited. Follow me on instagram @sir.hane for updates.

Aside from your artistic work, how do you spend your time? What are some of your hobbies or passions in life?

Honestly, I love gardening. My plants are where I chill when I crave a certain kind of serenity, while the stage delivers another type of serenity. In fact, I have a track on Diamond Eyes called “Sunflower Sex Drive,” which will be pretty on-the-nose to anyone who knows how much I love my plants. I’m a green queen.

Why do you think artmaking is important work? 

Art communicates in ways that no other language can.

Describe your pre-performance ritual if you have one.  

I spend time stretching, do a quick, light workout, vocal warmups, put on some makeup, review notes for myself, maybe drink some coffee, and if I’m feeling anxious at all, I’ll take a shot of tequila. Then I rush out the door as fast as I can because I’ve taken too long getting ready. xoxo

Hane will be performing on Thursday, February 13 @ 7:30pm at Controlled Burn: Queer Performance for a World on Fire.

Jasper Rubin Hardin | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Jasper Rubin Hardin | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Controlled Burn artist Jasper Rubin Hardin on the importance of creating art.

Tell us about the work you’re performing at Controlled Burn. What’s it about?

My piece is a performance of a collection of poems I wrote about the six genders of the talmud. It’s an analysis of the ways my culture used to view gender, and a reframing of what it means to be trans and Jewish.

What motivates your work?

So many things honestly. I create because I’ve never known anything else. I create because it’s a great way to start important conversations. I create because sometimes it’s all my hands are able to do. And I mostly create because it’s what I know I can bring to the world. I want nothing more than to contribute necessary change. 

Which artists and/or performances have inspired you?

Takumba Aiken has deeply inspired me since I was young. His visual art is astounding and the way he’s nurtured and built community here means a lot to me. Meghana and Chetan Junurus’ commitment to by-and-for autistic advocacy through both their writing and the building of their housing center is my biggest inspiration. Sophie Campbell’s comics have a level of importance to the queer cannon in a way I’ll never be able to fully put words to.

Are you working on any other projects at the moment or coming up on the horizon?

I’ve got a few upcoming projects in the next couple months. I’m working on my upcoming performance in The Naked I: Revitalized. I have an upcoming performance at ERR in April. The second issue of my literary journal that is by and for non- and semi-speaking disabled writers and artists is currently open for submissions. It’s called Explicit Literary Journal. And lastly I’ll be reading at the release show for Can’t Somebody Fix What Ails Me?, an anthology by chronically ill and disabled writers. ​

Aside from your artistic work, how do you spend your time? What are some of your hobbies or passions in life?

I spend my time doing disability advocacy and consulting work. I’m often brought in to help local organizations improve their accessibility. I love taking care of animals and going on adventures with my friends. I collect comic books. I love studying resources and learning new facts. I don’t go enough, but I adore song sessions. And I enjoy cooking and making desserts.

What’s your favorite thing to do in the Twin Cities?

Exploring the variety of art communities we have here is always a joy. Also all our parks and lakes are gorgeous.

Who are your favorite artists right now and why?

Amethyst Kiah is a fantastic musician and lyricist. Her voice is enchanting and the way she tells stories inspires my writing. Ryan Smoluk’s sculptures are mesmerizing. His work showcases such a surreal and magical realistic perspective on life.

Why do you think artmaking is important work?

Art is necessary both for each individual culture and as a way to view our world as a whole. Art amplifies the voices of those who aren’t heard otherwise. Art allows people to heal in an inexplicable way.

Describe your pre-performance ritual if you have one. 

I usually listen to Hades Town or In The Heights while I recite my poems to myself.

Jasper will be performing on Thursday, February 13 @ 7:30pm at Controlled Burn: Queer Performance for a World on Fire.

Nakita Kirchner | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Nakita Kirchner | Controlled Burn Featured Artist

Controlled Burn artist Nakita Kirchner on performance for political and social change.

Talk about your background. What sort of artistic experience are you bringing to this production?

The work I create comes from the impetus of justice. In working with Ananya Dance Theatre and creating work for Dear Gaza (2018, 2019), I investigate the ways in which performance serves as a modality of political and social change. To this production, I bring my experience as a collaborator from past works such as Jaga Qalubna , co-choreographed by Fei Bi Chan.

What motivates your work as an artist?

I am motivated by the potential of dance to serve marginalized communities. I am grateful to have the role models I do in this performance community, and I want to continue that legacy as a growing choreographer and artist.

And which artists and performances have inspired you?

I was beyond inspired by Leila Awadallah’s work Ras Abu ‘Ammar is Here, performed at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, MI this past November. I’m greatly inspired by Leila in general, and chose to focus my senior undergraduate research project on this performance. I’m inspired by the academic intersection of dance and identity, especially identities that have not always been academically considered or even acknowledged.

Aside from your artistic work, how do you spend your time? What are some of your hobbies or passions in life?

In addition to studying dance at the University of Minnesota, I also study Arabic and Gender, Women & Sexuality studies. I enjoy volunteering teaching English as a second language to immigrants and refugees. I also love to study the works of scholars such as Jasbir Puar and Lila Abu-Lughod.

What’s your favorite thing to do in the Twin Cities?

I enjoy taking walks near the Haha Wakpa/Wakpa Tanka (Mississippi River) in both St. Paul and Minneapolis. I’m honored to witness the beauty of Mni Sota Makoce as I learn more about my responsibilities as a non-indigenous person born and living on this occupied land.

Who are your favorite artists right now and why?

One of my favorite artists right now is Fargo Tbakhi, a queer Palestinian-american artist based in DC. Fargo is an incredible poet who writes about the future of Palestine and ancestral knowledge, and tours his performance work entitled My Father, My Martyr, and Me. Fargo graciously agreed to collaborate with me last year by recording his poem In the year 2148, Wajieh gets Married in Al Khalil, to which I then created choreography that I performed at Dear Gaza (2019).

Nakita will be performing on Saturday, February 15 @ 7:30pm at Controlled Burn: Queer Performance for a World on Fire.