Sanctuary, a Performance

        #sanctuaryperformance              Instagram @sanctuaryperformance 

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Creating space for joy.

 

Sanctuary: “To be protected (from harm). To sense, hear (those who often are not). To find sanctuary in our bodies. To create (something meaningful, in community). To be accountable. To explore possibility together. To have connection. To excavate.”

About Sanctuary:

  • “Sanctuary” is a collaborative one-day performance exploring women/queer people of color’s collective experiences of seeking refuge from persecution under the ongoing violence of colonization.
  • “Sanctuary” creates a space where sound, light, color and movement disrupt the colonial imagination, centering the voices, bodies and experiences of women of color to generate experiences of wholeness, and the embodiment of connection.
  • In “Sanctuary,” we ask if it is possible for all of us to experience what sanctuary feels like in our bodies – even if that feeling proves to be ephemeral and fleeting, if we can experience it, perhaps it can teach us about what our bodies are capable of holding, feeling, and knowing; perhaps we are capable of feeling all kinds of impossible, beautiful things.
  • “Sanctuary” creates space for students and the general public to tap into the wealth of communal resources for the production of joy.
  • “Sanctuary” is the first performance in Oregon’s recent history to center the collective bodies, experiences, insights and creative contributions of queer/women artists of color in a conversation of this kind.

LEAD ARTISTS

Ana-Maurine Lara (Lead Artist)

Rosamond King (Co-Lead Artist) is a critical and creative writer, performer, and artist. She is an Associate Professor at Brooklyn College, and teaches courses in Caribbean and African literature, creative writing, sexuality, performance, and immigrant literature. @RosamondDrKing  FB: Rosamond S. King; IG @rskhappens

Akiko Hatakeyama (Co-Lead Artist)  is a composer/performer of electroacoustic music and intermedia. Her music focuses on realizing relationships between the body and mind into intermedia composition, often in conjunction with building customized instruments and interfaces. Akiko is an Assistant Professor of Music Technology at the University of Oregon. Akikohatakeyama.com

Courtney Desiree Morris (Co-Lead Artist) is a visual/conceptual artist and an assistant professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She teaches courses on critical race theory, feminist theory, black social movements in the Americas, women’s social movements in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as race and environmental politics in the African Diaspora.  @creolemaroon

Directed by: D’Lo (Director) is a queer/transgender Tamil-Sri Lankan-American actor/writer/comic. His work ranges solo theater and stand up, tv/film, plays, essays and poetry. Currently a Civic Media Fellow at the USC Annenberg Innovation Lab. @dlocokid

Produced by: Alai Reyes-Santos (Producer) is a writer, consultant, and Professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies and Conflict Resolution at University of Oregon. She has produced and facilitated numerous events centering communities of color and migrant communities in the U.S. and abroad. @alaireyessantos

LIVE PERFORMANCE ARTISTS

Morgan Bates is a sound artist, musicologist, and trumpeter completing dual master’s degrees at the University of Oregon. A member of the Oregon Mozart Players, Rogue Valley Symphony, and Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble, Morgan works to deconstruct gender expectations within the classical music industry through their research, recitals, and interactions. @mmbates (IG), @MorganLeSlay

Kiana Nadonza is a Filipina-American healer, ethnographer, and doctoral student of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oregon. A performer of over 20 years, she is trained in ballet, contemporary, jazz, and various traditional Filipino folkloric dances. Her family is of Waray-Waray ancestry. @theoreticool

Hannah Salbador (they/ she) is a psychology undergrad minoring in Spanish and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. They are a mover, they love dancing, riding their bike, hiking and swimming. @hannahetshannah

Shira Bracha is a poet and translator. Her poems and translations are tucked into small crevices of the Internet. Her translations to Spanish of the poetry of Joseph Stroud and Eileen Myles have been published in book form in Argentina. She is proud to be from a family of globetrotters, polyglots, artists, and sages, and honored to participate in “Sanctuary.” @sameopsmeop

LIVESTREAM TECH

Megan Lau (they/she) is a queer, non-binary first generation Chinese-American originally born and raised in the Bay Area. They are a cinematographer, producer and designer who aims to uplift voices of the underrepresented through producing content that welcomes and accepts individuals as a whole. Megan’s work has screened at renowned film festivals from coast to coast within the United States and Canada.@megslau

VIDEOGRAPHY

Miche Dreiling is a doctoral candidate in Media Studies with a certificate in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Oregon. Michelle has an MA in Communication from Wichita State University. They have taught and researched at public and private colleges and universities, as well as served as Design & Web Editor for the journal Women & Language. Miche is a scholar-practitioner whose research and creative work explores social constructions of identity and portrayals in media, queer theory and praxis, and intersectional solidarity. Their dissertative written/filmic project focuses on nonbinary gender as a medium of communication using documentary filmmaking and collaborative ethnographic methods. In moments outside of academia, they enjoy spending time with family and in creative pursuit. In order to live on a graduate wage, they market handmade wares that they create from repurposed materials. @meeshdre

Beck Banks As a Media Studies doctoral candidate at the University of Oregon, Beck Banks specializes in transgender media and transgender/queer rurality. Originally from Dolly Parton country, Beck is curious about how rural-based trans media activists understand and work within their communities as well as how they are received by them. To boot, they examine trans television representation and its activist efforts – or the performance of those. Beck is a practitioner-scholar who teams with activist groups and creates the representation they would like to see in the world.

Kisa Clark is a documentary filmmaker and third year PhD student in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. My research is in the area of health activism and communication for social change. I am also documentary filmmaker and enjoy telling stories about artists, activists, and progressive leaders. My most recent project was part of Latino Roots in Oregon and tells the story of Oregon’s first immigrant Latina legislator, Representative Teresa Alonso Leon.

Production Assistants: Rose Poton, Polet Campos-Melchor

Sanctuary is co-sponsored by University of Oregon’s College of Arts & Sciences, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, the JSMA Black Lives Matter Artist Grant Program, the UO School of Art + Design, and the Black Studies program, the Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center, and the UO’s departments of: Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Theatre Arts, English, Cinema Studies, and Indigenous, Race & Ethnic Studies.