MEET OUR PAST ARISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
JANUARY 2023
Sad Boys In Harpy Land
Alex Tatarsky
Alexandra Tatarsky collages narratives of artmaking and despair into a semi-autobiographical tour-de-farce, as told by a young Jewish woman who thinks she is a small German boy who thinks he is a tree. Equal parts sad clown, demented cabaret, and extended crisis of meaning, this unhinged solo takes place in the hellscape of the mind.
ABOUT ALEXANDRA TATARSKY
I seek the slippery edges of disciplines—where one becomes another—as a mode ofquestioning the categories we use to organize our experience. My work is an ongoing inquiry into live performance’s unique ability to probe the construction of meaning, self and community in real time.
While I am devoted to pursuing hybrid performance forms and their potential to cause trouble at the border, I identify as a clown. The clown is the ideal model for our times:one who responds to what is actually happening in the room and considers failure a gift, a chance to explore what can be done with the available materials. My work embracesradical openness towards an audience and presence as the prime material for play.
FEBRUARY 2023
Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists
Philadelphia Asian Performing Artists (PAPA) is a grassroots, membership-based collective that exists to build community among, and address the lack of economic and artistic opportunities for, people of Pan-Asian descent involved in the performing arts in the Philadelphia region. We do this through member-led programming such as community-building events, professional development programs, performance opportunities, and grassroots organizing. These programs are designed and implemented through the framework of “For Us, By Us, Beyond Us,” and fueled by our values.
JANUARY 2022
Hagudeza Rullán-Fantauzzi
As an interdisciplinary artist, my work seeks to combine my contemporary ballet and choreographic training with my interests in film, projection mapping, and installation based art. I strive to immerse viewers into entire worlds of my creation visually, emotionally, and technically. After focusing more on creating rather than performing, I set my sights on exploring movement as more than just dance. This has created a new stage in my artistic journey that pushes the boundaries within my own realm of art making. In my work, I consider topics of gender, race, and sexuality while confronting the social constructs built upon the foundations of colonization and white supremacy. I hope my work allows others to question their own experiences, actions, and lives; to spark an emotion that sparks a thought which leads to introspective change.
Find Deza on Instagram
FEBRUARY 2022
Sabriaya Shipley
As a Queer Nonbinary Black educator, storyteller, and community ethnographer, I am determined to study, receive, and cultivate nontraditional performance/ art spaces centered around the preservation of Black and Brown stories using multiple tools of teaching and devising within the mediums of poetry as performance, poetic ethnography, playwrighting, and artistic archival work. Both my art and teachings focus on the decolonization of literacy and the increased inclusion of diasporic language and creative practices.
Find Sabriaya at sabriayashipley.com
MARCH 2022
Rodrick Edwards
I found joy in my ability to mend music, dance and writing. I entered college burning with excitement for the freedom I never had and the acceptance I always wanted. Neither came to fruition, and again, I retreated into myself, trying to make sense of these contradictions.
How can my presence as a black queer man always be wanted and perpetually disrespected? These thoughts plagued me for years as I grappled with my identity. My work explores the questions I confront daily and forces spectators to wrestle with their preconceived notions and ideals.
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