EAST LIBERTY, PA (September 26, 2022) —It is from her these seeds are sown is a mango-infused story about second generation Latinx family building, personal desires, and mother daughter relationships by emerging playwright and KST Fall 2022 Freshworks resident artist Alyssa Velazquez. A deeply personal exploration of gender, pregnancy, autonomy, and choice, Velazquez’s work balances cultural critique with an expression of love that expands the canon of Puerto-Rican representation in theater.
It is from her these seeds are sown follows a young wife in Brooklyn, New York who is expecting her first child and craving a mango, but what begins as an infatuation or a pregnancy craving gives way to an obsession. As her bodily hunger for mangos — a fruit that originally made its way to Puerto Rico from India by way of colonialism — grows, so too do the external tensions to become a mother. Ultimately, the protagonist is pushed to reimagine the nature of the life she wants to create, and the audience is asked to reconsider whether the eventuality of motherhood is really as “natural” as we’ve come to believe.
“No one is going to look at a mango the same way again.” — Alyssa Velazquez
This Freshworks showing of It is from her these seeds are sown is an immersive and participatory excerpt of the longer play. Set in the rehearsal room, audience members can opt into the world of the play by volunteering to read one of the roles aloud. In doing so, not only are audience members invited to experience the work, but they are encouraged to participate in bringing it to life. Audience members who would like to participate can express their interest during ticketing at kst.imagebox.dev.
“I thought, what about taking the next step, that closed reading between loved ones and friends, and opening it up to the audience? What if you were to allow the audience into the process, a peek behind the curtain, if you will, of what it takes to make a play?” — Alyssa Velazquez
KST presents It is from her these seeds are sownon Friday & Saturday, October 7 – 8 at KST’s Alloy Studios, 5530 Penn Ave. For press comps, please contact lizrudnick@kelly-strayhorn.org
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Alyssa Velazquez is a writer specializing in the material culture of gender, performance, and women’s studies. Prior to living and working in Pittsburgh, she was the Curatorial Research Associate at Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina. She also assisted in the development of exhibitions at Bard Graduate Center Gallery, New York. Velazquez holds a MA in decorative arts, design history, and material culture from the Bard Graduate Center and a BA in history and anthropology from Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. She organized Locally Sourced, highlighting new work by the Pittsburgh region’s most talented present-day makers of functional goods and furnishings at Carnegie Museum of Art. Other projects include Extraordinary Ordinary Things and Sharif Bey: Excavations. She has published articles in AutoStraddle, GRLSQUASH, The Establishment, Women’s History Magazine, The Fashion Studies Journal, and Votive Project. Velazquez was selected in 2021 to participate in María Irene Fornés Playwriting Workshop, sponsored by the Latinx Theatre Commons that included writers from India, Mexico, Argentina, Canada and Puerto Rico. In 2022 she was writer in residence at City Books, Pittsburgh’s oldest bookstore.
EAST LIBERTY, PA — From September 12 through September 24, KST Presents a series of events featuring 7NMS | Marjani Forté-Saunders and Everett Saunders, culminating in the premier of PROPHET: The Order of the Lyricist. After establishing themselves in California and NYC, 7NMS returns to Pittsburgh to share this multi-layered, evening-length performance tracing the life-journey of a lyricist.
A four-year archival, research, and multi-genre storytelling project on the life journey of a Lyricist, PROPHET: The Order of the Lyricist illuminates the distinctive practices, systems, philosophies, and political ideologies that have shaped Hip Hop’s Emcees.Tracing the evolution of artist Mental, 7NMS invites audiences to enter a world of mind power, bravery, self-determination, and triumph — facets of the artist’s quest for self-realization.
On Monday, September 12, KST will hold a welcome dinner and moderated discussion between the two collaborators. Then, on Wednesday, September 14, 7NMS hosts The Spaces: Mvmt, Word & Sound, a meditation and movement improv workshop co-presented by PearlArts. Participants in the workshop will study timing, space, and story in the body using recorded text and sonic landscapes from PROPHET. Finally, on Friday and Saturday, September 23 and 24, KST Presents PROPHET: The Order of the Lyricist.
PROPHET is an imaginative new contribution to the scholarly, civic, and ancient bodies of radical Black expression. Light and moving-image visuals as well as multi-channel audio installation will accompany the live dance and vocal performances. Such layered, multimedia environments are the company’s signature aesthetic; previous works like Memoirs of a Unicorn featured a built multi-sited environment of sculpture, light, sound, movement, costume, and projection. PROPHET is an extension of this practice that acknowledges the Emcee and Lyricist’s role and presence more explicitly.
—Marjani Forté-Saunders
Prophet is co-commissioned by Abrons Arts Center and Kelly Strayhorn Theater. The work has been incubated in residencies at the Petronio Residency Center and Baryshnikov Arts Center, 7NMS own Satellite Residency (in response to COVID-19) in partnership with Brooklyn Academy of Music, Abrons Arts Center, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, The Yard, and Lawrence University (2021). 7NMS work with PROPHET and their #SatelliteResidency initiative was recently featured in the September ‘20 issue of Dance Magazine.
This engagement of 7NMS | Marjani Forté-Saunders + Everett Saunders is made possible through the ArtsCONNECT program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. PROPHET is a recipient of the New England Foundation 2021 National Dance Production & Touring award, the 2020 New Music USA Award, and the 2020 MAP Fund. Additional support from the National Performance Network Artist Engagement Fund.
For full season details, KST COVID policy updates, and tickets, go to kst.imagebox.dev.
EAST LIBERTY, PA — Opening Saturday, September 17 at 6:00pm, KST Presents Marking this Moment in Time: BOOM Capsule, a visual art exhibition featuring work by J. Thomas Agnew, DS Kinsel, and J.L. Mallis. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Heinz Endowments created Marking this Moment: Pittsburgh Artists in 2020, an initiative to put money in the hands of artists and document their impressions of the rapidly changing reality facing us all. Through the initiative, BOOM Concepts supported the work of artists J. Thomas Agnew, D.S. Kinsel, and J.L. Mallis. These artists use agitprop, surveys, and mixtape as mediums to document and share images, music, sounds, and writing from artists in the Pittsburgh community. The works can be experienced in the Kelly Strayhorn Theater lobby through December 2022.
To better understand the effects of the pandemic on the music industry in Pittsburgh, J. Thomas Agnew and Jourdan Hicks created the survey A Moment In TIme: Musicians Working In Covid. The survey was administered and monitored by Agnew and Hicks to document what life thorough COVID looked like for artists and creative entrepreneurs. The work provided insight into artists’ awareness of funding opportunities, whether they had felt supported or overlooked by the arts and finance entities in the city, and how they felt the Pittsburgh creative and funding landscapes could better respond to the needs of the community going forward.
DS Kinsel’s contribution to the exhibition, Sign O The Times: 2020 Protest Sign and Archive Reproduction identifies and reproduces protest signs from #blacklivesmatter protest and civil actions that happened across the country during 2020. The artist recreated a protest sign for each day of the year 2020.
Marking This Moment In TIme: In Pursuit of Visual Engagement, An anthology organized by intermedia artist J.L. Mallis documents the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on local creatives. The artists and artist collectives reflected in the anthology have demonstrated new ways of utilizing visuals, video, and visual imagery to tell their stories. The anthology highlights the renewed focus on visual media within a larger audio-visual landscape, exacerbated by COVID-19, and how the pandemic affected our experiences of interaction, engagement, communication, and the intake of media.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
J. Thomas Agnew is a consultant based in Pittsburgh, PA. Agnew is Co-Founder of BOOM Concepts Gallery, a co-working and community arts space in Pittsburgh, and EIC of JENESIS Magazine, a media outlet focusing on youth culture lifestyle and young creative entrepreneurs. Through JENESIS Magazine and BOOM Concepts’ national networks, Agnew has produced numerous arts and culture events, in collaboration with high level partners such as the Carnegie Museum Of Art,The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Thrival Festival, Pittsburgh Music Ecosystem Project, and Love PGH Music and more. “My passion is to create forums of expression to represent and build up underrepresented voices in media, entrepreneurship, and art businesses.” Agnew is known for his track record of early start-up mentoring, design and marketing, operations management, and content creation/management targeted to young adult audiences.
DS Kinsel is a Black creative entrepreneur and arts administrator based in Pittsburgh, PA. He expresses his creativity through the mediums of painting, window display, installation, curating, action-painting, non-traditional performance and social media. While Kinsel’s primary practice is painting, he believes that experimenting in other disciplines will ultimately further his development as a painter. Kinsel’s work puts focus on themes of escapism, space keeping, urban tradition, pop culture, hip-hop, informalism and cultural appropriation.
J.L. Mallis is an intermedia artist and community leader based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are the Executive Director at Repair The World Pittsburgh, a Jewish social justice organization connecting communities in meaningful service-learning programs. In 2020, Mallis was honored with a 40 Under 40 award by Pittsburgh Magazine and PUMP. Over the past 13 years in Pittsburgh, Mallis has been organizing creative endeavors and community programs. They perform live as a VJ and DJ and use digital media, paint, installation, performance, sound and audience interaction to create unique creative and enriching experiences. Their artistic production focuses on building community, audio-visual experiences and speaking truth. They utilize playfulness, maximalism, and imagined environments as critical elements in their work.
For full season details, KST COVID policy updates, and tickets, go to kst.imagebox.dev.
EAST LIBERTY, PA — The soul of a community lives in the spaces where people create, share experiences, and care for one another. Kelly Strayhorn Theater celebrates The Soul of East Liberty with a Fall 2022 season that centers the KST community and asserts our collective right to control our stories, our bodies, and our futures.
This season, KST will debut work from locally and nationally recognized artists. On September 17, a new partnership with BOOM Concepts populates the Lobby of Kelly Strayhorn Theater with visual art by J. Thomas Agnew, D.S. Kinsel, and J.L. Mallis. Later that evening Fully Expressed, a concert of local lyricists curated by and featuring emcee Adam “FRH” Golden, welcomes audiences into KST to kick off the season! Friday and Saturday, September 23 and 24 , we welcome 7NMS | Marjani Forté-Saunders and Everett Saunders home to present Prophet: The Order of the Lyricist, a new dance-theater work tracing the journey of the emcee.The Alloy School is also back in September with an eight-week session of professionally-led classes including Hip Hop, West African, Jazz Ballet, Creative Play and DanceFit.
October begins with a mango-infused play about agency and motherhood from Freshworks artist Alyssa Velazquez. Join us at KST on Saturday, October 29 for our Family-focused Halloween Mayhem, then get ready for a packed November featuring world premieres from recurring variety performance show Fail-Safe and The Theater Offensive. The November 11-12 edition of Fail-Safeincludes two evenings of new and in-progress works by interdisciplinary musicians, performance artists, and dancers including Los Angeles-based artists Young Joon Kwak, Kim Ye, and Xina Xurner (Marvin Astorga and Young Joon Kwak) as well as Pittsburgh artists Caroline Yoo, Goofy Toof, London Williams, MICHIYAYA Dance featuring Anya Clark, Swampwalk, Sacred Sauce (Samira Mendoza & Gladstone Butler), Formosa, and Davine Byon.
The month of November continues with Boston-based The Theater Offensive’s Gow of a Rosdeon November 18 – 19. Gow of a Rosde celebrates the perseverance of QTPOC femmes in the midst of a pandemic and cultural uprisings. Through choreopoems, an ensemble of four queer Black and brown women bring to light and confront complicated realities within their lives. November’s creative momentum peaks at Suite Life, KST’s annual celebration of our namesakes Billy Strayhorn and Gene Kelly. Finally, in December we welcome Freshworks artist Michelle Johnson to close out the season with a musical tribute to Diana Ross. It is more vital now than ever that Kelly Strayhorn Theater stoke creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people. This fall, join us in proclaiming The Soul of East Liberty.
EAST LIBERTY, PA—Kelly Strayhorn Theater is excited to announce a fresh interpretation of its annual summer fundraiser, House Party. Taking place at KST’s flagship location at 5941 Penn Avenue on Saturday, July 16, House Party promises an evening of unique and immersive performances, extravagant outfits, and an iconic dance party.
An evolution of KST’s historic Full Bloom event, House Party takes inspiration from KST’s updated mission to be a home for creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people.
“House Party is the culmination of our 2021–22 Welcome Home season,” says Joseph Hall, Executive Director. “By attending this fabulous party and having an unforgettable night, attendees also support our programs that bring vibrant performances and events to East Liberty all year long.”
House Party promises a fashionable and celebratory evening inspired by The Met Gala by way of Studio 54. Set in an immersive art installation, this event comes alive through a performance by artists and musicians. As KST’s signature fundraiser, House Party supports KST Presents’ diverse and engaging programming throughout the year.
Beginning at 7:00pm, the event invites VIP guests to explore an installation in the KST Lobby of digital portraits of House Party performers created by Scott Andrew, a multimedia queer-oriented video, installation, and performance artist. From the Lobby VIPs will encounter an immersive reception on the main stage, where attendees will hear from Executive Director Joseph Hall, enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres and have exclusive access to an open bar.
The theater will transform into a dreamlike landscape, creating the background for VIP attendees to experience a live performance created by Ariel / and Justin Kelly—artists who recently participated in Freshworks, KST’s creative residency.
In May, KST hosted Bad Form: A Scratch Symphony, a performance piece by percussionist Justin Kelly and dancer Ariel / that uses improvisation and play to explore sound and movement. At House Party, Justin Kelly and Ariel / evolve Bad Form into a group performance that will emerge from and interact with the theater installation. Featured artists include Luis Erick Zul Rabasa, Marcus Shutrump, BB Kenda, Samira Mendoza, Merisa Skinner, Zim Syed, and AJ Leibert. This rhythmic performance will activate the theater with an improvised performance score that connects the intimate VIP reception with the exhilarating Dance Party.
At 9:00pm, KST opens its doors to all attendees as the legendary Dance Party kicks off in the KST Lobby. The Dance Party, an annual high point in Pittsburgh’s nightlife, welcomes community members of all ages and backgrounds to dress up and party down. ICY PISCES fka Deejay Aesthetics a.k.a Tresa Murphy Green starts the party with retro beats referencing the 1990s and early 2000s, followed by DJ Femi whose set will turn up the heat with global sounds.
“House Party exemplifies the core of Kelly Strayhorn’s mission to be a home for Black and queer people,” says Hall. “Black homes are some of the first cultural institutions; they are places of music and artistry. Through our mission, we ensure that the historically Black neighborhood of East Liberty continues to be a site for Black and queer creativity, community building, and expression.”
Past KST summer fundraisers have included Hotline Ring—an innovative collective virtual fundraiser in 2020 and 2021 to support arts organizations led by or in community with Black and queer people—and Full Bloom, a summer dance party fundraiser that ran for 11 years.
For full season details, COVID policy updates, and tickets, go to kst.imagebox.dev.
House Party is supported by the Host Committee: Nisha Blackwell and Calvin Jackson; Demeatria Boccella and J.G. Boccella; Brian Broome; Marita Garrett; Jake Goodman and Sean Shepherd; Kilolo Luckett and John Barbera Jr.; Lori Moran; Cynthia Oliver; Kendra Janelle Ross; Rick Soria and Scott Fech; Mark Anthony Thomas; and Alecia Dawn Young and Damon Young.
Ariel / is an independent performing artist and educator working in dance/film/theatre and is a maker of transdisciplinary artworks and choreographies. They made an appearance in Tribeca Film Festival award-winning short Black Ghost Son and has worked with companies including Allure, Makeup Forever, Brunch Theatre (NYC), Vangeline Butoh Theatre (NYC), Attack Theatre, and PearlArts Studio Extensions. Notable venues where they have performed and displayed works include SPACE Gallery, The Space Upstairs, GPAC Center, Baryshnikov Dance Center, Alloy Studios, and New Hazlett Theatre. Born in the Hawaiian Kingdom and raised between Raymaytush (Northern California) and Osage land (Pittsburgh, PA), Ariel grew up in a home that practiced TCM, which distilled an awareness of being part of a provocative legacy of intel and experience directly at odds with Western societal infrastructures. This greatly informs their creative process where ancestral modalities for wellness, memory-keeping, and liberation are archived via performance/celebration.
Justin Kelly is a percussionist, DJ, and event producer exploring rhythm, movement, celebratory ritual, and improvisation. His background as a classically trained percussionist has morphed into a musical practice centered around improvised rhythm making in the contexts of jazz, electronic music, and experimental music. Hailing from the Washington, D.C. area, Justin lives in Pittsburgh where he regularly performs and produces forward-thinking events that seek to foster community and spark imagination.
Scott Andrew is a multimedia queer-oriented video, installation, and performance artist. He creates speculative fantasies that peer into otherworldly portals and voids. He has exhibited at MoMA’s PopRally Performance Series (NYC), Ballroom Marfa (Marfa, TX), the Hammer Museum (LA), and the J. Paul Getty Museum (LA), among others. Recently, Andrew has worked as a media designer, director, producer for collaborative stage performances with dance artist Jesse Factor, drag performer Veronica Bleaus, the opera, ‘Looking at You’ with the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music, as well as VFX editor for the documentary film, ‘Workhorse Queen’ by Angela Washko, and the interactive music video, ‘Gestures of Devotion’, by Congregation of Drones.
Scott is an educator, advising and teaching animation, video, concept, and performance courses as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University, a Visiting Lecturer in the Studio Arts program at the University of Pittsburgh, and with the CMU Pre-college program. Scott has taught at Youngstown State University, Seaton Hill University, The Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, and has conducted workshops at the Andy Warhol Museum, Mattress Factory, and Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.
Scott co-curates TQ Live! a yearly LGBTQ+ variety series that has been presented at the Andy Warhol Museum and the Carnegie Museum of Art. Along with Angela Washko and Jesse Stiles, Scott organizes a National Endowment for the Arts funded performance series called Fail-Safe, which seeks to provide a supportive space for the presentation and potential failure of performative works-in-progress. Other previous curatorial projects include the drift and the Institute for New Feeling’s Felt Book.
ABOUT THE DJS
ICY PISCES fka Deejay Aesthetics a.k.a Tresa Murphy Green is a young, dynamic, multidisciplinary artist and cultural curator. Creative, visionary and thinker Tresa Murphy Green poet, deejay, self taught artisan and organizer makes an intentional step to center the voices, perspectives and lives of black women and femmes in all forms of their work.
DJ Femi is an extremely talented multifarious DJ based in the city of Pittsburgh. Her DJ career started 15 years ago when she attended a local performing arts school, CAPA. Femi is one of the most popular DJs in the City of Pittsburgh. As she represents for all of the women in the music industry. She continues to stand for women in the entertainment industry as well as women worldwide. She is a beacon of light in the night life and a prime example that women can be great DJ’s too.
ABOUT KELLY STRAYHORN THEATER
Kelly Strayhorn Theater is a non-profit community performing arts center in East Liberty, advancing live art through strategic vision and community collaboration with two venues running along Penn Avenue. KST’s Alloy Studios is a cultural hub in the heart of East Liberty, and the historic Kelly Strayhorn Theater is located in the thriving business district. More than 20 years after its founding, KST continues to use its broad reach to impact the contemporary arts and the community. KST’s mission is to be a home for creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people. Welcome Home!
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THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
Duolingo, Northwest Bank, UPMC Health Plan, The Jewish Healthcare Foundation, Wagner Agency, Inc., Workhorse Collaborative
EAST LIBERTY, PA—As Theatre Communications Group’s national conference returns to Pittsburgh, Kelly Strayhorn Theater is proud to present a series of commissioned performances that highlight the city’s vibrant and diverse theater community. The events, which take place at venues throughout Pittsburgh, feature artists who range from theater performers to DJs to choreographers and more.
“Pittsburgh theater makers and performers will be on the national stage during the TCG conference, which attracts the country’s leading theater professionals,” says Ben Pryor, KST’s Program Director. “Through these events, KST is uplifting some of the creatives that make Pittsburgh’s performing arts community so dynamic.”
On Thursday, June 16, KST hosts an encore presentation of Lyam B. Gabel’s playful and touching piece, the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table, at the theater’s flagship venue at 5941 Penn Avenue. This poignant work slips between the past and present, becoming, interacting with, and learning from a chorus of voices from a critical moment in the queer liberation moment. In the KST lobby, attendees will experience An Archive of Queer Care, Gabel’s virtual reality installation created with Joseph Amodei. An Archive of Queer Care presents attendees with an interactive landscape where queer and trans people from Pittsburgh, San Francisco, New Orleans, and New York share their personal stories of navigating pandemics, from COVID-19 to the HIV/AIDS crisis. The installation is a companion piece to Gabel’s work, the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table.
Following the show, TQ Live!presents a dance party and performances featuring SUPA’ NxC, Remy Black, Jesse Factor, and DJ HUNY, all organized by Scott Andrew.
On Friday, June 17, KST and The Andy Warhol Museum partner to host Adil Mansoor’s heart wrenching and tender solo performance Amm(i)goneat 7:00pm at the museum, followed by a reception featuring Operation Sappho DJs. In Amm(i)gone, Mansoor exploors queerness, the afterlife, and obligation using Sophocles’ Antigone, teachings from the Quran, and audio conversations between him and his mother in a touching performance about love across faith. Amm(i)gone, which was co-commissioned by KST in partnership with The Theatre Offensive and National Performance Network, premiered at KST’s Alloy Studios in April 2022.
Following Amm(i)gone at The Andy Warhol Museum, KST and TCG present Vibes N’at, a celebration of the Pittsburgh BIPOC theater and artist community, taking place at 10:00pm at the çVibes N’at features performances from Alumni Theater Company, Jacquea Mae, Mita Ghosal, DJ Samira Mendoza, and more.
Theatre Communications Group (TCG), founded in Pittsburgh and now based in NYC, is a nonprofit dedicated to growing and connecting the theater community across the U.S. The TCG national conference, which welcomes hundreds of national theater practitioners for a series of professional development workshops, timely panel discussions, and performances, takes place from June 16–18 at the Westin Pittsburgh.
KST’s 2021–22 season, Welcome Home, explores the liberation and redefinition of “home” for Black and queer people and communities. Throughout the season, KST has hosted events anchored in creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action to advance the liberation of Black and queer people. As a site of community building and resistance, KST defines itself as a home for artists and a space of care for historically resilient people.
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Tickets for the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table are available on a sliding scale, from $15 to $30 per attendee, and can be reserved at kst.imagebox.dev or purchased at the door.
Tickets for TQ Live! are available on a sliding scale, from $0 to $20 per attendee, and can be reserved at kst.imagebox.dev or purchased at the door.
Tickets for Amm(i)gone are available for $15 adults and $10 for students, and can be reserved at warhol.org or purchased at the door.
Tickets for Vibes N’at are available for free with RSVP.
For full season details, COVID policy updates, and tickets, go to kst.imagebox.dev.
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the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, Chatham University, Contemporary Arts Center, and NPN. For more information www.npnweb.org.the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table by Lyam B. Gabel received developmental support as part of the 2021 Director Residency Program of The Drama League of New York. (Gabriel Stelian-Shanks, Artistic Director; Bevin Ross, Executive Director). A version was workshopped at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama in November 2019 and received additional support from the Carnegie Mellon University GSA/Provost GuSH Grant.
Amm(i)gone is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation & Development Fund Project co-commissioned by Kelly Strayhorn Theater in partnership with The Theater Offensive and NPN/VAN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information, visit www.npnweb.org. Amm(i)gone is additionally supported by the Frank-Ratchye Fund for Art @ the Frontier; the Point Foundation’s Andrew A. Isen Internship; The Heinz Endowments’ Small Arts Initiative; Opportunity Fund; PNC Charitable Trust; A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation; Arts, Equity, Reimagined Fund; and Dreams of Hope.
EAST LIBERTY, PA—Kelly Strayhorn Theater is proud to announce the final chapter of its 2021–2022 Welcome Home season. Throughout the summer, audiences will experience a dynamic range of performances and events inspired by building and sharing the concept of home.
“It has been a delight to welcome audiences back into Kelly Strayhorn Theater and KST’s Alloy Studios all year,” says Joseph Hall, Executive Director. “We are thrilled to present a summer of programming that continues to center creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people.”
JUNE EVENTS
Theater Communications Group (TCG) will have its first national conference in over two years in Pittsburgh. This event will welcome hundreds of national theater practitioners to town, and for the occasion, KST proudly remounts commissioned performances from Pittsburgh artists.
On Thursday, June 16, KST hosts an encore presentation of Lyam B. Gabel’s playful and touching piece, the dance floor, the hospital room, and the kitchen table. This poignant work slips between the past and present, becoming, interacting with and learning from a chorus of voices from a critical moment in the queer liberation moment. Following the show, TQ Live! presents a dance party and performances featuring Supa NXC, Remi Black, Drake and Jesse Factor, and DJ HUNY.
On Friday, June 17, KST and The Andy Warhol Museum host Adil Mansoor’s heart wrenching and tender solo performance Amm(i)gone at 7:00pm at the museum, followed by a reception featuring Operation Sappho. In Amm(i)gone, Mansoor exploors queerness, the afterlife, and obligation using Sophocles’ Antigone, teachings from the Quran, and audio conversations between him and his mother in a touching performance about love across faith. Later that evening, at 10:00pm at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, KST partners with TCG to present Vibes N’at, a celebration of the Pittsburgh BIPOC theater and artist community.
On Saturday, July 16, KST’s newly reinvented summer fundraiser, House Party, promises a fashionable and celebratory night inspired by The Met Gala by way of Studio 54. Set in an immersive art installation, this VIP reception comes alive through performances by artists and musicians. As KST’s signature fundraiser, House Party supports diverse and engaging programming throughout the year.
“Everything we achieve at Kelly Strayhorn is the result of collaboration with and support from our community of artists,” says Hall. “House Party is an invitation for our friends and family to support our collaboration as we continue to build a strong home for community.”
From July 28-30, Legacy Arts Project brings Dance Africa back to the KST stage, celebrating 10 years of Dance Africa in Pittsburgh. There will be performances and a marketplace with off-site workshops.
AUGUST EVENTS
Throughout August, PearlArts hosts PearlDiving Movement Residencies, a series that supports professional movement artists making dance-centered multimedia work by providing rehearsal space, technical support, mentorship, and a stipend through a four-week residency. The dual-track program serves both local and visiting artists and offers an environment where research, play, and risk taking are encouraged.
Artist applications for the residency are due June 29, and the residency takes place from August 1 through 26. On Friday, August 26 at 7:30pm, KST and PearlArts showcase projects in development from selected artists at KST’s Alloy Studios.
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Kelly Strayhorn Theater events operate on an accessible ticket pricing structure called Pay What Moves You. Over the last few years, we heard feedback from artists and audiences alike–our ticket prices needed to better reflect the value and importance of art, as well as supporting artists to live well and thrive. Pay What Moves You encourages audiences to choose a price that best fits their budget, while also still fairly compensating artists. It is also your opportunity to affirm the value of art!
Season events take place at Kelly Strayhorn Theater, located at 5941 Penn Avenue, and KST’s Alloy Studios, at 5530 Penn Avenue, in addition to off-site locations where noted. Attendees should check COVID protocols for off-site events on host location websites.
For full season details, KST COVID policy updates, and tickets, go to kst.imagebox.dev.
Kelly Strayhorn Theater is a non-profit community performing arts center in East Liberty, advancing live art through strategic vision and community collaboration with two venues running along Penn Avenue. KST’s Alloy Studios is a cultural hub in the heart of East Liberty, and the historic Kelly Strayhorn Theater is located in the thriving business district. More than 20 years after its founding, KST continues to use its broad reach to impact the contemporary arts and the community. KST’s mission is to be a home for creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people. Welcome Home!
EAST LIBERTY, PA—Kelly Strayhorn Theater is proud to present Abby Z and the New Utility’sRadioactive Practice at 8:00pm on Friday and Saturday, May 27–28, 2022, at Kelly Strayhorn Theater, 5941 Penn Avenue.
Created by choreographer Abby Zbikowski,Radioactive Practice is a genre-bending work informed by movement traditions that span hip-hop, post-modern dance, contemporary African forms, tap, synchronized swimming, soccer, and the martial arts. The piece, developed in collaboration with Senegalese dance artist Momar Ndiaye, explores survival instincts and pushes the limits of the dancers’ physical capabilities in the context of contemporary living.
Zbikowski says she founded Abby Z and the New Utility in 2012 “to experiment with the potential and choreographic possibility of the body being pushed beyond its perceived limits.”
The company, characterized by its intense physicality and blend of dance and movement styles, has performed original works throughout the United States since its inception. In 2017, The New York Times praised dance piece Abandoned Playground for its “gutsiness and serious regard for rhythm.”
“I make contemporary dance works that pay homage to the effort of living, tactics of survival, and the aesthetics produced as a result, utilizing the physical aspects and psyche-emotional experience of my rigorous training background in African and Afro-diasporic forms, as well as playing sports and performing requisite acts of manual labor,” says Zbikowski.
“As a white woman who has trained predominantly in contemporary African and African Diasporic forms, my goal is to create works that speak with dimension to multiple demographics simultaneously, as well as to broaden audiences that attend dance performances after experiencing firsthand the cultural divisions that exist along racial, cultural, and class lines in experimental concert dance.”
Radioactive Practice has its world premiere at New York Live Arts in NYC May 18–21, after which it will make its way to Pittsburgh. The piece will also be seen at Dance Place in Washington DC and with American Dance Festival in Durham, NC, this summer. In addition to Radioactive Practice performances in Pittsburgh, KST is thrilled to host two events that invite the dance community to meet with and learn from Zbikwoski.
On Monday, May 23, Zbikowski and Ndiaye join Pittsburgh choreographer Staycee Pearl for Welcome Dinner & Conversation at 7:00pm at KST’s Alloy Studios, 5530 Penn Avenue. Following dinner, the choreographers will facilitate an interactive discussion about dance in the 21st century, particularly across cultural lines.
On Wednesday, May 25, Zbikowski leads Reimagining Utility in the Body: A Class for Professional Dancers at 9:00am at KST’s Alloy Studios, 5530 Penn Avenue, presented by PearlArts. The class explores contemporary dance practices in the context of Pittsburgh’s diverse community and blue collar history.
Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) was founded to foster bold and innovative artistry with a global perspective. KST’s 2021–22 season, Welcome Home, features events anchored in creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action to advance the liberation of Black and queer people. Through its history, KST has remained a central site for artistic expression and creative movement in Pittsburgh.
Tickets for Radioactive Practice on May 27–28 are available on a sliding scale, from $15 to 30 per attendee, and can be reserved at kst.imagebox.dev or purchased at the door.
For full season details, COVID policy updates, and tickets, go to kst.imagebox.dev.
Radioactive Practice is commissioned by ADF with support from the Doris Duke/SHS Foundations Award for New Works and The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation. Additional commissioning funds provided by the Caroline Hearst Choreographer-In-Residence Program at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts, Dance Umbrella’s Four by Four program, United States Artists Fellowship, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and the Wexner Center for the Arts.
The creation of Radioactive Practice was supported in part by a commission from New York Live Arts’ Live Feed Residency program with additional support from the Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts, the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council with special thanks to Council Member Corey Johnson, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the Jerome Robbins Foundation, the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Scherman Foundation, and the Shubert Foundation.
Radioactive Practice is a National Performance Network/Visual Artist Network (NPN/VAN) Creation & Development Fund Project co- commissioned by New York Live Arts, Dance Place, American Dance Festival, Wexner Center for the Performing Arts and NPN/VAN. The Creation & Development Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency). For more information: www.npnweb.org.
Radioactive Practice is made possible in part by a grant from the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, made possible through support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Abby Zbikowski created her company Abby Z and the New Utility in 2012. She is a 2020 United States Artists Fellow and received the 2017 Juried Bessie Award for her “unique and utterly authentic movement vocabulary in complex and demanding structures to create works of great energy, intensity, surprise, and danger.” In 2018 Dance Umbrella UK awarded her a “Choreographer of the Future” commission. She is an inaugural Caroline Hearst Choreographer-In-Residence at the Lewis Center of the Arts at Princeton University (2017–19), current artist in residence at New York Live Arts (2018–20), and has been in residence at Bates Dance Festival, American Dance Festival, and the STREB Lab for Action Mechanics. She is an assistant professor of Dance at the University of Illinois and on faculty at American Dance Festival. She has taught at the Academy of Culture in Riga, Latvia; at Festival Un Pas Vers L’Avant in Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and studied at Germaine Acogny’s L’École de Sables in Senegal. Zbikowski holds a BFA in dance from Temple University and an MFA from The Ohio State University. Zbikowski has performed with Charles O. Anderson/Dance Theater X, Momar Ndiaye, and the Baker & Tarpaga Dance Project. Her company has been presented nationally, performing at venues such as Jacob’s Pillow in Becket, MA, and the Fuse Box Festival in Austin, TX, among others.
Momar Ndiaye is an internationally recognized dance artist from Senegal who has taught and toured his work both in the States and abroad. He received his MFA in Dance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he taught contemporary and traditional African dance forms from Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Congo, etc., as well as video dance documentation. Ndiaye has worked with many well-known choreographers from Africa, Europe, Asia, and America through the program Aex. Corps initiated by the Association Premier Temp in Senegal. Since 2010, Momar has danced for internationally acclaimed choreographer Andreya Ouamba in the Dakar-based company Premier Temps and was selected as a Dance Web participant at Impuls Tanz Festival in Vienna, Austria, in 2012. He has been developing work with his own company, Cadanses, since 2004 and has created and toured several staged contemporary dance works. In 2015, Ndiaye’s evening length piece Toxu was a finalist laureate in the Danse L’Afrique Danse (Africa and Caribbean in Creation) Festival in St. Louis and Senegal and was toured to Europe as part of the Belluard Festival in Switzerland. In 2016, Momar was selected to participate in two intercultural projects, Shifting Realities, supported by Tanz Haus and Hellerau in Germany, and 1space, a collaboration between KVS Brussel, Exodus in Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Alkantara Lisbon, Portugal.
Staycee Pearl is the co-artistic director of PearlArts and STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos, where she creates artful experiences through dance-centered multimedia works in collaboration with her husband and artistic collaborator, Herman Pearl. Staycee received her initial dance training at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. In 2009, STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos (SPdp&SS) debuted at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. Since then the duo has produced several works including ..on being…, OCTAVIA, and FLOWERZ, and are currently working on their National Dance Project supported CIRCLES. Staycee is passionate about sharing resources and creating opportunities for the arts community by initiating project-generating programs including the Charrette Series, the In The Studio Series, and the PearlDiving Movement Residency.
ABOUT KELLY STRAYHORN THEATER
Kelly Strayhorn Theater is a non-profit community performing arts center in East Liberty, advancing live art through strategic vision and community collaboration with two venues running along Penn Avenue. KST’s Alloy Studios is a cultural hub in the heart of East Liberty, and the historic Kelly Strayhorn Theater is located in the thriving business district. More than 20 years after its founding, KST continues to use its broad reach to impact the contemporary arts and the community. KST’s mission is to be a home for creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people. Welcome Home!
EAST LIBERTY, PA—Kelly Strayhorn Theater is proud to present Meg Foley’s Queer Parent Convening at 3:00pm on Saturday, May 21, 2022, at KST’s Alloy Studios, 5530 Penn Avenue.
Conceptualized by Meg Foley, a queer dance artist, educator, and parent who creates performances and somatic-based events, the Queer Parent Convening is a community session for queer and trans parents to explore questions of gender and sex in family building. This event is part of Foley’s multiformat performance project, Blood Baby. KST Presents is a commissioning partner on Blood Baby, which received a National Performance Network Creation Fund Award in June 2021.
Foley developed the Queer Parent Convening with a team of trauma-informed, queer- and trans-inclusive birthworkers and community organizers. In addition to facilitated discussion led by Foley, attendees will learn somatic and improvisational practices to help them process parenting experiences. Children are welcome to attend, and childcare will be provided to ensure caregivers can engage fully.
Through Blood Baby, Foley explores and embraces the experience of parenting queerly through choreography, sculpture, and drag. Developed through a collaboration of artists, Blood Baby takes shape through a series of public events, including intimate dance performances, environmental experiences, participatory community workshops, and more.
“I have begun to think of Blood Baby as a universe,” says Foley. “The project is a collection of performance and body-based explorations around and within the idea of queer and trans parenting, with the idea that these experiences are distinctly embodied by the parent or caregiver in question and that that experience is situated in a larger timeline of creation, specifically the earth’s creation and geological progress. The Queer Parent Convenings are a series of creative reflection and fellowship gatherings to share communal knowledge and care and build collective insight and connection.”
The Queer Parent Convening is part of an ongoing relationship between Foley and KST: in 2021, Foley joined Michele Steinwald for Identity as Prism & Genderful Family Building, a virtual conversation hosted by KST. Through 2022 and into 2023, Foley will host and perform elements of Blood Baby around the United States, culminating in a full presentation of Blood Baby in 2023. Kelly Strayhorn Theater will host Blood Baby as part of its Fall 2023 season, and the performance will also tour venues including Velocity Dance Center (Seattle), Painted Bride (Philadelphia), Kinsey Institute (Bloomington, IN), CounterPulse (San Francisco), and others.
KST’s 2021–22 season, Welcome Home, explores the liberation and redefinition of “home” for Black and queer people and communities. Throughout the season, KST has hosted events anchored in creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action to advance the liberation of Black and queer people. As a site of community building and resistance, KST defines itself as a home for artists and a space of care for historically resilient people.
Tickets for the Queer Parent Convening are available on a sliding scale, from $0 to $20 per attendee, and can be reserved at kst.imagebox.dev or purchased at the door.
For full season details, COVID policy updates, and tickets, go to kst.imagebox.dev.
Meg Foley is a Philadelphia-based performer, choreographer, and director of various dance- and performance-based actions that explore the materiality of dance and physical identity as form. For the past nine years Foley has been researching improvisational practices and embodiment frames that engage with meaning-making through practiced attention, danced affirmation, expansion, and relationality and a concern for the action of decision and engagement as form.
Foley’s work has been presented by the Philadelphia FringeArts Festival, Vox Populi Gallery, Moore College of Art & Design, Pilot+Projects, Bowerbird, Thirdbird, and Icebox Project Space, throughout the U.S., and in Canada, Germany, and Poland. Foley’s research has been supported by grants from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the Independence Foundation, and the Polish Cultural Institute and through residencies with Art Stations Foundation and Dancemakers Centre for Creation. Foley sometimes teaches at University of the Arts and is creative co-director of The Whole Shebang, an interdisciplinary arts space and studio in South Philadelphia that hosts workshops and classes and provides studio rental to artists at affordable rates.
ABOUT KELLY STRAYHORN THEATER
Kelly Strayhorn Theater is a non-profit community performing arts center in East Liberty, advancing live art through strategic vision and community collaboration with two venues running along Penn Avenue. KST’s Alloy Studios is a cultural hub in the heart of East Liberty, and the historic Kelly Strayhorn Theater is located in the thriving business district. More than 20 years after its founding, KST continues to use its broad reach to impact the contemporary arts and the community. KST’s mission is to be a home for creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people. Welcome Home!
EAST LIBERTY, PA, NOVEMBER 16, 2021 – Kelly Strayhorn Theater is proud to present the Freshworks showing, Aura: Reimaginedby Clara Kent and Ian Brill, December 3 & 4, 2021 at KST’s Alloy Studios, 5530 Penn Avenue.
Utilizing light sculptures created by Ian Brilland soundscapes with vocal arrangements, Aura: Reimagined is a personal testament by Clara Kent surrounding the experiences of Black artists in the city. Displaying narratives of frustration, celebration, and most importantly, facing the mirror of self-reflection, the work will merge art and music to immerse the audience into a new world where they can experience the music as it is performed.
“The goal is for people to connect with their emotions and inner truths, which we tend to hide away from ourselves, and come to peace with those things. We wish to take people into a new world but not distract them from themselves, using art and music to usher the audience into a vibrant space in expression and honesty in the message. I hope people see that no matter the obstacles they face within or out, they are capable of shining out and that we all have unique colors to display, like an aura,” reflects Clara Kent.
The immersive, audiovisual experience will feature the music and performance of Clara Kent, coupled with cued light sculptures created by Ian Brill.“The two of us are exploring ways of adding another dimension to her compositions using the visual methodologies and language of expression that I have been exploring with the visual aspects of my art practice. Audiences will see something powerful, unique, and unforgettable,” states Brill.
Clara Kentis an Afro-Oglala Lakota singer-songwriter and emcee from Homewood, PA, whose integrity and range in creating music, visual art, events, and connections within the community have made her well known amongst many organizations in Pittsburgh, her peers, and the music community. Artist Ian Brill creates interactive, performative, and multisensory environments that focus on the accumulation of form through process.
Freshworks is KST’s creative residency for Pittsburgh based artists and collaborators. The program provides artists with financial resources, studio space, production staff, lighting and sound design, professional development, and encouragement for creative risk taking. through interdisciplinary collaborations in contemporary dance, theater, music, and multimedia.
Aura: Reimagined is presented as a work in progress at KST’s Alloy Studios, located at 5530 Penn Avenue, on Friday, December 3 and Saturday, December 4 at 8:00pm. There will be a discussion panel with the artists following the performance.
Tickets for Aura: Reimaginedare now on sale at kst.imagebox.dev or can be purchased in person at the event. Pricing is Pay What Makes You Happy!, a sliding scale of accessible price points in order to truly welcome all to enjoy the arts.
For full season details, COVID policy updates, and tickets, go tokst.imagebox.dev.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Clara Kent is an Afro-Oglala Lakota singer-songwriter and emcee from Homewood, Pa, a Pittsburgh neighborhood known for its talented people. Clara is a self-proclaimed Multidimensional Artistic Individual for very valid reasons. Clara Kent’s integrity and range in creating music, visual art, events, and connections within the community have made her well known amongst peers, the music community, and many organizations in Pittsburgh.
Clara is a wearer of many hats! Most known for her professional music sombrero, Clara Kent has graced many notable stages across the country. Tempo Networks Grammy Broadcast at BBKings in Time Square, Opener for Wyclef Jean at SXSW, WYEP Summerfest 2019, Comcast’s Light Up Night 2018 & 2019, a 2019 Sofar Sounds Tour, Return the Heart Foundation Broadcast with Mac DeMarco, and many more. Kent earned a cover feature in the Pittsburgh City Paper in April 2018, named “Person of the Year: Music” 2019, and most recently landed an international feature in Photo Vogue Italia in May 2021.
Kent is set to re-release her statement project AURA under the title ‘Aura’s Imagination,’ featuring tracks and collaborations by Yorel Tifsim, Benji., Mani Bahia, and Tribe Eternal’s Bilal Abbey and Pharaoh Lum in early Spring of 2022.
Pittsburgh Resident Ian Brill‘s work focuses on the accumulation of form through process. Through the creation of interactive, performative, and multi-sensorial environments, he considers the boundaries of becoming (versus being) and our immersive relationship with technology. His installations, performances, and writing have been presented internationally, at conferences, festivals, museums, and galleries. Currently, he teaches at Penn State University.
ABOUT KELLY STRAYHORN THEATER
Kelly Strayhorn Theater is a non-profit community performing arts center in East Liberty, advancing live art through strategic vision and community collaboration with two venues running along Penn Avenue. KST’s Alloy Studios is a cultural hub in the heart of East Liberty, and the historic Kelly Strayhorn Theater is located in the thriving business district. More than 20 years after its founding, KST continues to use its broad reach to impact the contemporary arts and the community.
