Vote Art Vote

Oct. 15 – Nov. 3, 2020

Conceived and Directed by Raja Feather Kelly
Curated by Dani Tirrell and Raja Feather Kelly

 

An online presentation


Vote Art Vote
is a collection of newly conceived performances from Seattle artists. Directed by Raja Feather Kelly and co-curated by Dani Tirrell, each artist will create an unabashed piece of new work defending their artistic expression and urging audiences to remember the power a single voice (and vote) can hold. The pieces are a queer instigation of the often forgotten, often underserved, and most important part of our city—the art in the heart of Seattle. 

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE TRAILER


With generous sponsorship from John C. Robinson.

 

VIEW THE DIRECTOR’S NOTE VIDEO

MEET THE ARTISTIC TEAM

Raja Feather Kelly

Director, Conceiver, Co-Curator

Choreographer/Director Raja Feather Kelly is the artistic director of New Brooklyn Theatre. In 2009, he founded the dance-theatre-media company the feath3r theory. The two companies merged in 2018. Raja is a Creative Associate at The Juilliard School, and has been awarded a Creative Capital Award (2019), a National Dance Project Production Grant (2019), a Breakout Award from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (2018), Dance Magazine’s inaugural Harkness Promise Award (2018), the Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography (2016), and is a three-time Princess Grace Award winner (2017, 2018, 2019). He was born in Fort Hood, Texas and holds a B.A. in Dance and English from Connecticut College.

 

Raja has been named as the 2019–2020 Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist at New York Live Arts and is an inaugural Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. Raja has also been awarded a New York Dance Performance “Bessie” Award, a Bessie Schonberg Fellowship at The Yard, a DanceWEB Scholarship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Choreography Fellowship, a HERE Arts Fellowship, 2018 Creator-in-Residence at Kickstarter, and a Choreography Fellowship at the Center for Ballet and the Arts at NYU.

 

Over the past decade he has created fifteen evening-length works with his company the feath3r theory to critical acclaim. Most recently, UGLY (Black Queer Zoo) at The Bushwick Starr, and We May Never Dance Again® at The Invisible Dog in Brooklyn.  Professionally, Raja has performed with Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group, David Dorfman Dance, Kyle Abraham|Abraham.In.Motion, and zoe | juniper. He has also managed a number of dance companies: Race Dance, Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion, zoe | juniper, and Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group.

 

Since 2016, Raja has choreographed extensively for Off-Broadway theatre in New York City, most notably for Signature Theatre, Soho Rep, and New York Theatre Workshop and Playwrights Horizons.  Kelly is the 2019 SDCF Joe Callaway Award Finalist for outstanding choreography of A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons) and Fairview (Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, TFANA and winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama). Frequent collaborators include: Lileana Blain-Cruz, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Sarah Benson, and Lila Neugebauer. Other theatre credits include choreography for Skittles Commercial: The Musical (Town Hall), The Chronicles of Cardigan and Khente (Soho Rep), Everyday Afroplay (JACK), GURLS (Princeton University, Yale Repertory Theatre), Electric Lucifer (The Kitchen), Lempicka (Williamstown Theatre Festival), The House That Will Not Stand (New York Theatre Workshop), Fireflies (Atlantic Theatre Company), If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must Be a Muhfucka (Playwrights Horizons, nominated for the 2019 Lucille Lortel Award and the 2019 Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Choreography), The Good Swimmer (BAM), and Faust (Opera Omaha). 

Dani Tirrell

Co-Curator

Dani Tirrell, Seattle’s Mayor Arts Award recipient 2019, is a Black, Queer choreographer, dancer, and movement guide. Dani has guided people in Detroit and Seattle as well as sharing movement practices in other cities in the United States. Currently Dani is the curator for Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas. Dani is the host and co-creator of several online talk programs including Sunday Dinner, The Living Room, and Intimate Conversations.

Dani is the founder and current artistic director of The Congregation, a movement/art group. Dani is currently teaching at Northwest Tap Connection and University of Washington Seattle and Bothell campuses. Dani has created work for Dance This (Northwest Tap Connection), Strictly Seattle (advance/professional track),  and Seattle Repertory Theater’s Nina Simone: Four Women (Directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton).

Dani is an Arts Matter Fellow, Artists Trust Fellow, and 4Culture Arc Fellow.  Dani is the Artist in Residence at Velocity Dance Center (2020/2021) and one of six Artists in Residence at On the Boards.

Dani’s production of Black Bois (On the Boards and Seattle Theater Group) was a locally critically acclaimed work that produced sold out shows in Seattle and is in development for a documentary film. In 2019 Dani was the recipient of an Artist Trust Fellowship Award and a Dance Crush Award for Black Bois (performance). Dani’s current work FagGod in collaboration with Anastasia Renee and Naa Akua was presented in Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas 2019/2020 season.  Dani’s new work 46, is a photo exhibit styled, staged, and photographed by Dani. This work can be found online under Dani’s Instagram profile.

Amy L. Piñon

Videographer

Amy L. Piñon is a freelance photographer, filmmaker, audio engineer, and vocalist.

Born and raised in Seattle, she has been deeply embedded in the arts and cultural scene her entire life. She believes that personal identity cannot be separated from art, and therefore brings her unique perspective as a mixed-race woman into every project and space that she enters.

She is an emerging voice in the field of visual storytelling with over 5 years of experience in photography and video production – beginning with youth program photography and fundraising videos – and branching out into creative video concepts, video marketing, and personal branding photography. She has a background and formal education in audio production and also mentors young artists in vocal expression and technique with the youth record label Totem Star.

As a freelancer, she works with organizations to tell stories and aims to disrupt white saviorism in depictions of BIPOC. Her priority is to uplift authentic representations of everyone’s stories by partnering with them in the storytelling process.

MEET THE ARTISTS

Anastacia-Renee 

Anastacia-Renee is a multigenre writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, TEDx Speaker and podcaster. She is a 2020 Arc Fellow(4Culture) and Jack Straw Curator. Renee is the recipient of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award for Washington Artist (2018), Seattle Civic Poet (2017-2019), and Poet-in-Residence at Hugo House (2015-2017). Renee has received fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA, Ragdale, Mineral School, and The New Orleans Writers Residency. She is the author of two full length manuscripts, “(v.),” and “Forget It” and three chapbooks. Her work has been published in the anthologies:, Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Spirited Stone: Lessons from Kubota’s Garden, Seismic, Seattle City of Literature and her poetry and fiction have appeared in, Spark, Foglifter, Auburn Avenue, Pinwheel, The Fight and the Fiddle, Crab Creek Review, Glow, The A-Line, Poetry Northwest, Crosscut, Ms. Magazine and many more.

Angel Baby Kill Kill Kill

A chaos imp perched on the edge of reality, Angel Baby Kill Kill Kill believes in the beauty of the brown body and the brutality it took to get it here. Since 2017 Angel has been bringing their own blend of heart and horror through the lens of drag, dance, and theater to Seattle’s filthiest underground establishments. Never one to shy away from a challenge, they continue to surprise audiences with an enigmatic display of irreverent wit and an uncanny interpretation of what it means to be glamorous.

A cast member of TUSH! digital drag show hosted by Betty Wetter every last Thursday of the month and founding member of Seattle’s only drag and performance art collective GloryHole, you can give them a follow on instagram @angelbabykillkillkill for the latest updates and goings-on. Happy October, Hispanic Heritage month, and remember: Black Lives STILL Matter.

Cipher Goings

Cipher Goings is an accomplished dancer. He is a 2019 YoungArts Finalist. He has been dancing since the age of 7 at Northwest Tap Connection Dance Studio and has been teaching since the fall of 2017. He has been trained in Ballet, Hip Hop, Modern, and Rhythm Tap. Cipher has performed professionally since the age of ten, first as a member of the New Horizon’s Modern and Tap Company and then with the Youth Tap Ensemble (YTE) beginning at the age of 12. From 2017-2019 Cipher was the dance captain of Northwest Tap’s YTE. He has received additional training and performance opportunities at the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, DC Tap Festival, the Floripa Tap Festival in Brazil and the Tap Fam Reunion in New York. He also was a part of the original cast of Black Bois by Dani Tirrell. Cipher also has premiered in music videos and short films such as Kwanza Jones: Problem- A Public Service Announcement, Awolnation- Bad Wolf which has over 15 million views, and Youngarts mini film- Hell You Talmbout featuring Northwest Tap Connection. Cipher currently is a junior at the University of Washington where he is studying dance and is the youth curator for the Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas.

Fox Whitney

Fox Whitney’s black, mixed, transgender and queer point of view is at the heart of his performance project, Gender Tender. GT engages a team of artists trained in Fox’s unique methods modeled on visual art practices, cults and riots. He is also a filmmaker, actor, dancer and teaching artist. His work has been commissioned and produced by the Henry Art Gallery, On the Board’s NW New Works Festival and Solo Festival; Velocity’s Next Fest NW and Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation; the Seattle International Dance Festival; Yellow Fish Epic Durational Performance Festival and was selected for the inaugural season of Seattle’s Gay City Arts. Melted Riot, a Gender Tender performance inspired by the Stonewall Riots of 1969 was presented by Velocity Dance Center on the 50th anniversary of the uprising. He has performed in work by keyon gaskin, Morgan Thorson, CommonForm Dance Project, Malic Amalya and Gabrielle Civi and has exhibited his dance films and visual art nationally. He is currently an artist in residence at On the Boards in Seattle WA.

LüChi 

LüChi aka Ümlaut & Isis, is your twinning, space-pop-punk star duo fantasy come to life. You can and may have seen them cut a severe rug at local (Seattle) drag spectacles such as BeautyBoiz (several events), Bubble Pop, Cucci’s Critter Barn, Family Meal, Freak Show, Fresh, Lashes, MixTape (Tacoma), Noir, Queer/Burlesque, Rapture, Sped Up, Tush (Beacon Hill), and Vibes. In Quarantine find them posting fantastic, showstopping, virtual performances on their Instagram, where you can also find out where to tune in for their next live performance! Follow @LifeWithLuChi on Instagram, Facebook, Venmo, and CashApp <3<3

moonyeka 

Moonyeka (@m00nyeka) aka Goddexx Yuna (@goddexxyuna) is a nonbinary, mixed-Ilokano femme movement based storyteller and pleasure practitioner who utilizes art creation, teaching, and organizing to realize a world that honors their communities’ stories in a way that is healing, celebratory, and generative. Amongst many projects and collaborations, Moonyeka continues to facilitate LIL BROWN GIRLS CLUB (a movement based mentorship program for young g*rls of color), is the Lead Storyteller of Kapatid Kollective, and is working on LOOB**—a multi-disciplinary biomythography/memoir as part of their 2020 Northwest Film Forum x Velocity Dance Center Dance Film Residency.

Goddexx Yuna continues to integrate their erotic power from various sectors of the sex work industry, performing arts, and Aswang* guidance to offer sacred, sensual, and body experiential healing spaces to (QT)POC. They are also the reigning deity of the Slut Sanctuary and do Animal XXX’ing, a monthly pet play peep show hosted by Obsidian La, featuring Pup Sanguine.
*Aswang is an umbrella term for various shape-shifting, mythological, animist, folkloric, “evil” spirits and creatures in Filipinx folklore?

Moonyeka is also manifested WHAT’S POPPIN’ LADIEZ?! (2016-2019)—a movement , culminating both as an ethnographic research project and community event series, that celebrates womxn in Street Styles providing them a platform to tell their own stories through teaching, battling, performing and more; a 2019 City Artist Awardee, 2018 Arc Fellowship awardee, the 2017 Tina La Padula Fellowship recipient, Ubunye Project 2017 contributor, Seattle Dances’ DANCE CRUSH 2016, Mary Gates Leadership awardee and George Newsome Humanitarian scholar. www.moonyeka.com / Instagram @m00nyeka

NEVE 

NEVE (they/he/she) is a Disabled multigender femme fop mixed-race {Indigenous}Black Choreographer/Dancer, Composer/Singer, Writer/Actor, Painter/Model, Hoodoo Voodoo Magician and Performance Artist based in Unceded Coast Salish Territories. Neve creates body based storytelling through a mixture of dance, music, and theatre particularly for people with body based trauma, in order to continue our true evolution towards liberation. They have been teaching, creating performances, spaces, happenings, and waxing lyrical about the magic of existence and the worthiness of all life forms for over a decade.

Levar Burton, Reading, and Rainbow Lover. Great Great Grandchild of the Author of The Velveteen Rabbit. Vice President/President-Elect of the Dance Educator’s Association of Washington. Selected participant in the Intiman Theatre Emerging Artist program 2018 and 2020, cast in ensemble devised THE RACE 2020. 2020/21 Pina Bausch Fellow for Dance and Choreography. Anarchist, Abolitionist, AntiCapitalist. Unitarian Universalist. Vodouisant. Cofounder of Access-Centered Movement, #newmoonmovienight, Mouthwater, and the Lover of Low Creatures Club. Neve is currently an arts writer at The South Seattle Emerald. He has also been published in Curve, Harlot, ModelViewCulture, Plenitude Magazine, The Black Scholar, Everyday Feminism, MaximumRockNRoll, and in the Jiz Lee edited anthology, Coming Out Like a Porn Star, among others.

Follow them and support her on:
Instagram, Twitter, Patreon, Facebook, Youtube
@nevebebad
& nevebebad.com
AllMyLinks.com/nevebebad

Randy Ford

Randy Ford, is a Seattle-born Creative. She created and co-produced her first full-length evening show QUEEN STREET at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute with CD Forum in September of 2019. She takes part in many collaborations and collectives: Au Collective, DANDY, The Living Room podcast, and recently the WA Black Trans Task Force. As an artist with many gifts and passions her 2020 Census project will be a peak into how she as a performance artist adjusts to our new virtual reality. She’s also ⅓ of The Living Room Podcast a weekly live podcast where Queer Black Trans folx tako their shit. Follow them on Youtube|FB|IG @thelivingroomseattle.

Saira Barbaric

Saira Barbaric (they/ze/she/he) is a nonbinary trans, Black queer, cane-leaning writer, performance artist and filmmaker. Saira’s work crafts nuanced representation and genuine exultation of trans people, of disabled people and of black people. A 2013 Costume Design graduate of the BFA program at The Theater School of Depaul University, Saira’s growing avenue is visual art that plays with fabric, crafts and collage through Dadaist principles. Saira strives to blend genders and bend genres in their films and performance while exploring speculative fiction, erotica, Afropsychedlic and glitch aesthetics. Since 2015, Saira’s work has shown in over thirteen cities around the United States, two in Europe and three in Canada. Saira is currently a coordinator for Night Crush, a queer Seattle nightlife staple; a producer/performer at Mouthwater Dance, an emerging dance and media company as well as a co-founder of Scumtrust Productions, a nonbinary porn project. Across medium and discipline, Saira is invested in making worlds that pursue all the possibilities of aesthetically specific, physically integrated Afrofutures.

Thumper Blu

Matty is so honored to be a part of the Vote Art Vote cohort making his digital WET debut! He is a multi-hyphenated artist and graduate of Cornish College of the Arts. Matty holds a BFA in Theatre with an emphasis in Musical Theater. He is also a Teaching Artist with Dandylyon Drama and the Seattle Rep’s Public Works Program. Through teaching, directing, performing and burlesquing he hopes to change the world and make it a brighter and safer place. When he’s not on the stage you can catch him running virtual puzzle rooms for Puzzle Break Seattle! Love to Jarrett and my family/friends for always supporting me. Previous acting credits include: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane (Seattle Children’s Theatre), 7 Homeless Mammoths (Fantastic Z), and Suessical! (Cornish College). mattysythandone.com