| La Mama Squirts: Generations of Queer Performance | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 06:10 pm EDT 05/17/18 | |
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| La Mama’s Squirts: Generations of Queer Performance La MaMa celebrates the 6th anniversary of La MaMa’s Squirts with three evenings of intergenerational queer performance, curated by women of color. La MaMa Presents A Helix Queer Performance Network Event La MaMa’s Squirts: Generations of Queer Performance Curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Linda LaBeija and Shannon Matesky June 8, 9, and 10, 2018 Friday, Saturday & Sunday at 7pm La MaMa’s Squirts gathers some of the most exciting voices from New York City’s queer performance world, across the generations. Over three nights, three curators sculpt the fabric of queer community to pose questions, honor legacies and ignite the present. Eva Yaa Asantewaa begins the series with Q(here)majiQUE, an evening of improvised dance. The next night, the legendary House of LaBeija returns to La MaMa for Linda LaBeija’s exploration of the House’s lineage and impact, The LaBeija Showcase. The series ends with Queer Abstract curator Shannon Matesky’s Four Questions, with spoken word and dance artists reflecting on common themes, inspired by Nina Simone. For six years, The Helix Queer Performance Network has invited the queer performance worlds of NYC to La MaMa’s Squirts for raucous family reunions to celebrate our legacy of community theatrics, multiple generations of queer genius and the precocious audacity of the millennial mind. Dozens of queer artists from their 20s to their 70s have crossed the stage of this uniquely intergenerational festival. “After curating this series for the past five years, I’m thrilled to pass along the reins to these three visionary thinkers,” says Helix director Dan Fishback. “Their commitment to grassroots queer culture is ferocious, and their taste is impeccable. It’s going to be a stunning weekend.” June 8 - 10, 2018, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 7pm The Downstairs at La MaMa, 66 East 4th Street, NYC Friday, June 8: Q(here)majiQUE, curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa Featuring: Antonio Ramos, iele paloumpis, Jasmine Hearn, Madison Krekel Saturday, June 9: The LaBeija Showcase, curated by Linda LaBeija Featuring Rozay LaBeija, NYC Father Legendary Freddie LaBeija, Krystal LaBeija, Yum Yum LaBeija, Egyptt LaBeija and more Sunday, June 10: Four Questions, curated by Shannon Matesky Featuring: Regie Cabico, Gary Champi, Aviva Jaye, Ni'Ja Whitson and Shannon Matesky Tickets: $20 / $15 Students and Seniors. 10 presale $10 tickets available for each performance, first come-first served. Available at www.lamama.org or 212-352-3101 http://lamama.org/squirts/ http://www.helixqpn.org ACCESSIBILITY: The Downstairs Theatre, box office and restrooms are all accessible by elevator/lift. PRESS QUOTES: HUFFINGTON POST: “For queer people, who often feel without a lineage or a place to call home, Squirts stands as a defiant reminder that our stories are important and part of a larger queer history. It also represents for me the best of what theatre and performance can do - provide a necessary confrontation with mortality and help us understand the possibility of something better.” SHOW SYNOPSES & CURATOR BIOGRAPHIES: Friday, June 8th at 7PM, curated by Eva Yaa Asantewaa: Q(here)majiQUE About Q(here)magiQue Q(here)magiQue thinking on my feet thought and motion thought emotion thought(y) motion an evening of improvisation, manifesting multidimensional queer space for queer spirituality, casting spells through dance and the word Featuring Artists: Antonio Ramos, iele paloumpis, Jasmine Hearn, Madison Krekel About Curator: Eva Yaa Asantewaa (2017 Bessie Award winner for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance) is a writer, curator and community educator. Since 1976, she has contributed writing on dance to Dance Magazine, The Village Voice, SoHo Weekly News, Gay City News and other publications and interviewed dance artists and advocates as host of two podcasts, Body and Soul and Serious Moonlight. She blogs on the arts, with dance as a specialty, for InfiniteBody (https://infinitebody.blogspot.com). Ms. Yaa Asantewaa joined the curatorial team for Danspace Project’s Platform 2016: Lost and Found and created an evening of group improvisation, the skeleton architecture, or the future of ourworlds, featuring 21 Black women and gender-nonconforming performers. Her cast was awarded a 2017 Bessie for Outstanding Performer. As EYA Projects, she has begun partnerships with organizations such as Gibney Dance Center, Abrons Arts Center, Dance/NYC, BAX and Dancing While Black to curate and facilitate Long Table conversations on topics of concern in the dance/performance community. She is a member of the faculty of Montclair State University’s MFA in Dance program. She has also served on the faculty for New England Foundation for the Arts' Regional Dance Development Initiative Dance Lab 2016 for emerging Chicago-area dance artists. In May 2017, she served on the faculty for the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography's inaugural Forward Dialogues Dance Lab for Emerging Choreographers. A native New Yorker of Black Caribbean heritage, Eva makes her home in the East Village with her wife, Deborah, and cat, Crystal. Saturday, June 9th at 7PM, curated by Linda LaBeija: The LaBeija Showcase About The LaBeija Showcase You can glimpse of the House of LaBeija in great films like The Queen and Paris Is Burning, but in The LaBeija Showcase, peek into the life and history of the House and where it is today, with an evening of collaborative, devised theater. Through vogue and modern movement, original music, and lip sync performances, bear witness to the performative talents and fashions of this iconic collective. Learn who they are and learn what they stand for. Learn it and learn it well! Featuring: Rozay LaBeija, NYC Father Legendary Freddie LaBeija, Krystal LaBeija, Yum Yum LaBeija, Egyptt LaBeija and more. About Curator: Linda LaBeija is a multidisciplinary artist, organizer and curator from Bronx, New York. Her work explores the complexities of living as a transgender woman of color in today’s America. With origins in both Black America and the English/Spanish-speaking Caribbean, Linda's transnational experience of living at the intersection of embodied, social, and national borders hones in on critiques of hegemonic power. Born out of the Iconic House of LaBeija in the underground New York City Vogue Ballroom scene, Linda’s pursuit of spoken word infused musical sound has been featured in articles in both Afropunk and The Fader. She has performed in various theaters and venues including The Cherry Lane Theater, The National Black Theater of Harlem and El Teatro of Museo Del Barrio. She has performed with wonderful voices and writers such as StaceyAnn Chin and Me’shell Ndegeoecello. She can also be seen in the feature film “Pariah” directed by Dee Rees. Through workshop facilitation and communal performances, Linda uses her autobiographical work to create greater social consciousness around transgender issues. In 2015, she helped organize Afropunk’s first Trans Awareness March. In addition to her work as an organizer and curator she devotes her time to providing services to LGBT homeless youth at the Ali Forney Center. As a performing artist, musician and author, Linda's work intervenes with confidence, politicized anger, and grace into a symbolic and literal economy which would otherwise render her bound and gagged. Sunday, June 10th at 7PM, curated by Shannon Matesky: Four Questions About Four Questions Shannon Matesky, creator and curator of Queer Abstract, curates an evening of theatrical performances highlighting queer artists as they grapple with four pivotal questions in honor of Nina Simone's “Four Women”. Featuring work by Regie Cabico, Gary Champi, Aviva Jaye, Ni'Ja Whitson and Shannon Matesky. About Curator: Shannon Matesky is an actress, writer, director, and producer from Berkeley, California. She is creator and curator of Queer Abstract, a monthly performance series in Brooklyn that has been featured in AM New York, Time Out New York, L'Express, and The New York Times. As an actress Shannon has worked with a range of theater companies including The Inconvenience, The Hypocrites, The Goodman Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theater. Shannon's poetry has been featured with Nylon, BET, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and HBO's Def Poetry Jam. Shannon is the author of four solo performances, Heartbreak Hotel: Whitney, She Think She Grown, We Gotta Eat, and The Saga of the Return. Shannon has produced campaigns and festivals across the United States, including the Brave New Voices International Teen Poetry Festival, Life is Living, and The Fly Honey Show. For more information visit www.shannonmatesky.com About The Helix Queer Performance Network The Helix Queer Performance Network is a collaboration between La MaMa Experimental Theater, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange and the Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics, seeking to nurture queer performers, empower queer communities, and celebrate the legacy and lineage of queer performance in NYC. Directed by playwright Dan Fishback, major programs include La MaMa’s Squirts, the workshop Needing It: Solo Performance in Queer Community, and the annual festival of queer and trans artists of color, Submerge. About La MaMa La MaMa is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. The organization has a worldwide reputation for producing daring performance works that defy form and transcend barriers of ethnic and cultural identity. Founded in 1961 by award-winning theatre pioneer Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has presented more than 5,000 productions by 150,000 artists from more than 70 nations. A recipient of more than 30 Obie Awards and dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie, and Villager Awards, La MaMa has helped launch the careers of countless artists, many of whom have made important contributions to American and international arts milieus. La MaMa’s 56th season highlights artists of different generations, gender identities, and cultural backgrounds, who question social mores and confront stereotypes, corruption, bigotry, racism, and xenophobia in their work. Our stages embrace diversity in every form and present artists that persevere with bold self-expression despite social, economic, and political struggle and the 56th season reflects the urgency of reaffirming human interconnectedness. |
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