Photo credit: gif/meme from Annalise Keating character from How To Get Away With Murder played by Viola Davis
Hokum Arts
Sis! White Male!
Directed and Choreographed By
Louis DeVaughn Nelson
Performances: November 4-6 at 7:30pm
Tickets: $20
An homage to Adrian Piper and her The Mythic Being, Village Voice Ads (1973-1975) and Vanilla Nightmares which investigate how Eurocentric views of Black Bodies cross the border of admiration to exploitation, Sis! White Male! is a quick and dirty crowd-sourced artistic investigation about how the endurance of the cisgender white male gaze has expounded through the 21st century.
First, the creative team gathers oral histories and artifacts (cultural data) collected from WOC colleagues, collaborators, and calls for inspiration via social media. Second, work is devised through development rehearsals with the creative team. Both virtually and in a site-specific production, the final reflections are presented through a series of performance vignettes.
This production will feature performances by Nathalie Greogorie, Hannah McClean, Phillip Pineno, and Michaela Ternasky–Holland; with a special performance by Brian McQueen (opera).
Technical Director: Hunter Francisco
Stage Manager: Shari Nedd
COVID-19 SAFETY GUIDELINES
Per New York City's vaccine mandate, all attendees must show proof of a COVID-19 vaccine in order to be admitted to the event. Attendees are required to wear face masks throughout the performance. To read our full COVID-19 Safety Guidelines, please click here.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
HOKUM ARTS was started in 2006 with the mission to provide essential opportunities to local and international artists who have been underserved in their communities in order to enhance their artistic experience and professional development. Hokum Arts seeks to establish positive boundary-less environments and collaborations for artists and the communities in which they live.
The underlying themes of Hokum Art’s works create sobering entertainment alongside provocative education. Sis! White Male! uses theatre, modern dance, burlesque and multimedia to explore several facets of the minority experience, including domestic violence, external and internal racism, sexuality, discrimination, bigotry, misogyny/misogynoir, and the marginalization inherent in class and social systems.
LOUIS DEVAUGHN NELSON (Lead Artist/Director – he/him) is a Black, Queer Artist and the founder of Hokum Arts started in 2006. Nelson has worked for 20 years as a performer, choreographer, producer, and director for film, theater, dance, and more. His works have been shown in the USA, Europe, Australia, and South Korea. He has studied at DeSales University, Drexel University, The New School, The Jeanne Ruddy School of Dance, The Koresh School of Dance, and is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America.
His most notable pieces were included in his three-part dance-theatre series satirizing sociopolitical warfare and sensationalism in the media in America entitled Human Error (2007), Man Bites Dog (2010), and Until Proven Guilty (2018). In all of these works, he used innovative methods combining several media/disciplines - collaborating with photographers, filmmakers, fine artists, and performing artists.
During the pandemic – he directed six theatre/dance productions for ZOOM, YouTube, and Twitch with an aim to push the envelope in this time of burgeoning new media.
Credits Include: The English Theater Berlin, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, The Festivale! GLBT Arts Festival, The Philly Dance Collective, CEC's New Edge Mix Festival, The Peekaboo Revue, The HOT! Festival, Hearts on the Wall by Dark Matter Productions, The FailSafe Festival, Sans Limites Dance Festival, Manhattan Repertory Theatre, The Secret Theatre, Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, Dixon Place, Sitting Shotgun Theatre Co., Village Playwrights, Bloodline Dance Theatre, Exquisite Corpse Company, Musical Theatre Factory/Poetic Theatre Productions, Miami Queer Collective, The Tank NYC, Teatro Milagro, Ignition Arts, The Center at West Park. More Info: www.facebook.com/HokumArts
HUNTER FRANCISCO (Technical Director – he/they) is a New York City-based, Texas-raised artist whose personal work explores the taboo, unknown and often-overlooked stories of marginalized groups. He studies at Pace University concentrating on a Directing and Psychology double major where, through audio pieces, experimental performance, and film, he provides a space for healing and conversation by pushing an audience’s boundaries to worlds, situations, and conflicts outside their own. His live performances are sensory experiences of sight, sound, and smell, while his processes are collaborative and evocative of the present, providing him an opportunity to explore acting, direction, and design. He continues to create impactful and influential work in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, including acting in the short film Albedo by Carol Hu and Sean Dahlberg, devising the original work The Era or Our Times in the Near Future, and workshopping Raelle Myrick-Hodges’ original piece He Has the Prettiest Handwriting at the Public Theatre’s Under the Radar Festival.
NATHALIE GREGOIRE (Collaborator – she/her) “Well I Remember when I was a kid, I always loved to move. You could bang two spoons together and I was already moving my hips and tapping my feet. Dance has always been a part of who I am. It gave me a voice. when I dance, I could be whoever I wanted to be. Somehow dance connected to a world of unlimited creativity, where I found that I could say things that were difficult to put in words, or move in a way that makes me feel inspired and powerful all at the same time. To see me dance, is to hear me speak. And that speaks volumes.”
HANNAH MCCLEAN (Collaborator – she/her) is a Brooklyn, NY based dance artist. Brought up as a competitive gymnast, she has trained in a multitude of dance styles, eventually earning her BFA in dance from Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, WA (Cum Laude, 2017). Recently, McClean has collaborated and performed works for Amirov Dance Theatre, Beth Soll and Company, Sommer Ulrickson and David Parker. McClean has also produced her own works in Phoenix, AZ, Seattle, WA and New York, NY. Additionally, she is a movement educator in public and private schools and studios throughout the five boroughs.
BRIAN MCQUEEN (Opera Singer – they/them) is an operatic bass and voice instructor residing in New York City. They have appeared with the Lyric Opera Theatre of Arizona State University, Miami University Opera, Janiec Opera Company, and Trilogy: An Opera Company, and most recently as a guest in concert with New Camerata Opera. As a recitalist, Brian has served as Artist in Residence with the Tohno International Arts Association (Japan), Manchester Literary Festival, Poetry International (London), Poetry Press Week, and The Metropolitan Opera Guild. Brian holds a BA in Music from the University of South Carolina, an MM in Voice from Miami University of Ohio, and is an alumnus of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. As a performer, Brian seeks to marry their artistic pursuits with their social activism. As an actor Brian has performed in Alexandro Segade’s Future St. at both the We’re Watching series (Bard College residency) as well as in the series Tip of Her Tongue (Broad Museum). They were most recently seen playing the role of Cleopatra in Here, Serpent (Dixon Place, NYC), a trans-gender liminal experimental theatre piece devised by both Brian and actor C. Bain. Brian returned to ChaShaMa as artist-in-residence for 2019-2020 season after their 2018 debut in their original performance piece We Wear the Masc, presented by ChaShaMa in their Anita’s Way performance space. Brian is a 2017 fellow with Emerging Leaders in New York Arts and currently serves as Artistic Liaison for ChaShaMa.
SHARI NEDD (Stage Manager – she/they) started working in production during her first month into high school and has been in love ever since. She’s worked with different production companies such as Martha Graham and Ballet Hispanico. Shari now studies animation and continues her creative path.
PHILLIP PINENO (Collaborator – he/him) is a NYC performer who's worked in multiple artistic disciplines. Recently seen in The Dick and Anita Holiday Hour at Theater for The New City, Enemy of the People adapted by Smith Street Stage at The Actor's Fund, the award-winning Emerson at Big Mart produced at Planet Connections, and various productions created by Hokum Arts. He is also a co-creator of the comedy series Planners.
MICHAELA TERNASKY-HOLLAND (Collaborator – she/they) is an athletic movement artist who has been featured in music videos, fashion shows, festivals, theme parks, cruise ships, and live events.
After returning to Los Angeles from her contract on Disney Cruise Line, Michaela trained in jazz, contemporary, and theater at the University of California Irvine and the Edge Performing Arts Center, while honing street styles with America’s Best Dance Crew’s Season 1 Finalist, Kaba Modern. She also performed in parades and nighttime spectaculars at world-renowned theme parks like Disneyland, Legoland, and SeaWorld.
She is now based in New York City, where she continues to work with a variety of choreographers and companies. She extends her passion for teaching as a fitness instructor for Equinox and her enthusiasm for athleticism as an aerial artist, skilled in the apparatus of lyra and fabric. Her performance credits extend into movement technology with motion capture, volumetric capture, and augmented reality experiences. She has had the pleasure to advise and work with: Heidi Boisvert--who created the first bio-creative instrument; Melissa Painter, Founder and Creative Innovator of the MAP Design Lab; and Sydney Skybetter, who is hailed by Dance Magazine as “one of the most influential people in dance today.”
Currently, Michaela is a company member of Gotham Dance Theater -- a street and contemporary dance theater company that creates performance art in the disciplines of dance, theater, and music. With GDT, she recently filmed a dance segment for the virtual Inauguration of 2021.
Outside of her performance and movement career, Michaela is known as an Emmy, Webby, and Sheffield Doc/Fest award-winning documentarian, who combines experimental content with traditional mediums. She works with clients as a consultant and creative strategist. She is a recognized public speaker who has presented at international conferences, public institutions, and podcasts. Her work has been featured by TIME, Forbes, The Guardian, Cannes Film Festival, New York Public Library, Tribeca Film Festival, and more.
This program is made possible by the New York City Artist Corps.