KST Blog

  1. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: House Party Returns with a Night of Interactive Performance and Celebration

    EAST LIBERTY, PA — Kelly Strayhorn Theater is pleased to announce that House Party, the organization’s annual summer benefit, will come to East Liberty on Saturday, July 22, 2023. House Party celebrates the legacy of KST with a night of entertainment and unforgettable flavor from local artists, including music and dance artists anna thompson and taylor knight of slowdanger with lighting and visual effects artist Cornelius Henke III, also known as ProjectileObjects, and multimedia queer-oriented video, installation, and performance artist Scott Andrew. Funds raised through House Party will support the KST Presents Fall 2023 season.

    Inspired by the theatrics of Studio 54 and the iconic fashion of the Met Gala, House Party brings the mood with an immersive atmosphere and live performance. From the instagram-worthy VIP Reception to the rapturous Dance Party, you can expect a night of cool fantasy in the thick of Summer.

    Beginning at 7:00pm, VIP guests will arrive to encounter an installation in the KST lobby of digital portraits featuring the House Party Host Committee and KST Board of Directors created by Scott Andrew. Andrew has been a Pittsburgh resident for seventeen years, where he is a professor of digital media at University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Andrew co-founded the group Fail-Safe, a reoccurring frame for experimental performance, with artists Angela Washko and Jesse Styles, which was presented in the Fall 2022 season at KST. Andrew has also created media design and installations for House Party ‘22, last year’s Suite Life, and the March 2020 Freshworks presentation of I am a Haunted House in collaboration with dance artist Jesse Factor.

    Moving through the lobby, VIPs will encounter a transformed Theater, with the reception occurring on the main stage and throughout the auditorium. There, attendees will hear from Executive Director Joseph Hall and Board Chair Adam Golden, enjoy heavy hors d’oeuvres, and have exclusive access to an open bar. From the stage and the loge seating, VIPs will enjoy a performance from Pittsburgh staple slowdanger. Featuring their signature blend of electronic music, slithering and undulating movement vocabulary, and sharp eye for riveting and evocative aesthetics, slowdanger in collaboration with ProjectileObjects will present a short performance on a uniquely installed temporary stage constructed over the theater’s orchestra seating.

    Presented in the round for VIPs to experience from anywhere in the auditorium, the performance will give patrons a taste of the artists’ special brand of movement. slowdanger will be back at KST as a part of the Fall 2023 season, supported by House Party, with a new evening-length work to be announced later this summer. The project currently in development with support from KST was recently awarded $101,500 from New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project program.

    Additionally, VIPs can have their fortune told to them through tarot card readings by Amber Eps a.k.a. Hollyhood and get custom House Party temporary tattoos from artist Zhen Lee.

    Following the VIP reception, guests move to the KST lobby for a signature dance party with disco vibes! Dance Party guests can join from 9:00pm – 12:00am to get down and celebrate KST with the East Liberty community, and will receive one drink ticket after which they can purchase signature House Party cocktails from the KST bar!

    “House Party is our summer blow-out party that showcases the work we do to support artists throughout the year,” said KST Executive Director Joseph Hall. “We invite you to join us for this once a year spectacular event! We encourage guests to dress to impress and get ready to sweat it out on the dance floor as only one does at KST.”

    House Party is supported by our Host Committee: Kenya T. Boswell, Dana Bishop-Root, Anne Chen, Gina & Idris Evans, Sherree Goldstein, David Finegold, Kenya Matthews, Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes, Khari Mosley, Jessica Gaynelle Moss, Richard Parsakian, Barb Pugh, Hon. Erika Strassburger, Kannu Sahni, Gina Winstead & Donny Donovan. Thanks to our generous sponsors, Duolingo, Pittsburgh City Paper, FHL Bank, UPMC Health Plan, and Highmark Blue Cross/Blue Shield & Allegheny Health Network for supporting House Party and the Fall 2023 KST Presents Season. You can support KST HERE

    Download the .pdf HERE

    Join KST for House Party on Saturday, July 22. Immersive VIP Reception 7:00pm – 9:00pm and Dance Party 9:00pm – 12:00am at Kelly Strayhorn Theater, 5941 Penn. Ave. Tickets are Pay What Moves You: $50 – $250 For full season details, KST COVID policy updates, and tickets, visit kelly-strayhorn.org.


    ABOUT THE ARTISTS

    taylor knight and anna thompson are co-founding artistic directors of the Pittsburgh-based multidisciplinary performance entity slowdanger. Founded in 2013, slowdanger uses movement, integrative technology, found material, electronic instrumentation, vocalization, physiological centering, and ontological examination to produce their performance work. The more they engage in this collaborative work, the more they recognize the manifestation of their work as a non-binary entity that is one body amassed of multiple bodies in space. Each work seeks a deeper understanding through the practice of making. This ever evolving process is akin to the construction zone where inspiration was drawn for the name, slowdanger. anna and taylor have worked with Sidra Bell, Francesca Harper, Roderick George, Bill Shannon, MICHIYAYA Dance, Nile Harris, Jasmine Hearn, Maree Remalia|merrygogo, CorningWorks, Mark C. Thompson, The Pillow Project |Pearlann Porter, Jil Stifel, Shantelle Courvoisier Jackson and more.

    Cornelius Henke III, a.k.a. ProjectileObjects, is a multi-talented creative with a passion for video production and performance art. His work spans various mediums, including music videos, motion graphics, live events, and interactive installations. As a former fellow and artist in residence at the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, Cornelius has had the opportunity to showcase in venues including 9:30 Club, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Carnegie Museum of Art. He has participated in residencies at MANCC, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, The Yard Martha’s Vineyard, and Catskill Mountain Foundation. Cornelius is a contributing writer for VIDVOX and a partner at Merging Media, a boutique digital media production company based in Pittsburgh, PA.

    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. 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.

    Dr. Amber Epps a.k.a. HollyHood a.k.a. Amber the Witch is a hedge witch, psychic, trance medium, root worker, and daughter of Oyá. As co-owner of Arts & Crafts: Botanica & Occult Shop, she and her partners were voted #1 psychics/tarot readers in the 2022 Pittsburgh City Paper’s Best of Reder’s Poll. Amber is also a curator, advocate, educator, musician, mom, and inter and transdisciplinary artist. She loves cats, tacos, and collard greens.

    Yang Zhen Lee is a comics and tattoo artist who likes to dabble in many things. Zhen was in Teresa Martuccio’s Pink Potatoes, and in some City of Play events such as Emotional Landscapes, Intimate Subjects and Fantastic Adventure: Greenfield Bridge. When not rehearsing, Zhen likes playing games, moving through the world in new ways, petting animals, and seeing what art peeps have been making. 

     


    ABOUT KELLY STRAYHORN THEATER

    Named after 20th century entertainment legends Gene Kelly and Billy Strayhorn, both natives of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) is reflective of the passion that its founders had for the arts. Today, Kelly Strayhorn Theater carries on the legacy of its founders by fostering bold and innovative artistry with a global perspective. KST celebrates diversity in voice, thought, and expression, and upholds a firm commitment to inclusion. Furthermore, KST provides a safe and welcome space for dialogue and artistic expression for all who enter.
    Kelly Strayhorn Theater has a dynamic footprint in Pittsburgh, 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 the founding of the theater, KST continues to use its broad reach to impact the contemporary arts and the community.

  2. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: KST Announces Winter/Spring 2023 Season

    What you want            Baby, I got
    What you need            Do you know I got it?
    All I’m askin’
     
    Is for a little respect when you come home
    – Aretha Franklin, R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

    EAST LIBERTY, PA — As the winter months roll into Pittsburgh, Kelly Strayhorn Theater announces a season of programming to gather us and warm the spirit. The Winter/Spring 2023 KST Presents season continues to be a home for celebrating the Soul of East Liberty. Guided by our recently released strategic direction, “Owning Our Future. Thriving Where We Live.” KST is welcoming the new year with bold programming and renewed vision. We are determined to own our future and remain a home where artists and Pittsburgh residents of all backgrounds can thrive. 

    KST begins the Winter/Spring Season with two staples of Youth & Family Programming: On January 16th, The Audacity to Believe, an MLK day Celebration reflects joyfully on the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Then, The Alloy School Open House kicks off February 4 with a free survey of KST’s weekly dance classes, followed by an eight week class session and celebratory Let’s Move Family Dance Party!

    Our Community Partnerships this season will bring a Black Culinary Excellence from documentarian and Exposure Fellow Chris Ivey to KST. On February 4, four local chefs will present their artistry, followed by a moderated discussion with legendary Steeler and restaurateur Franco Harris. Our second community partnership on March 11 centers writers Dorothy Santos & Adrian Jones with a workshop co-hosted by The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry.

    Boundary-pushing new Freshworks performances will come to KST’s Alloy Studios in April and May. Choreographer Nick M. Daniels presents the globally-inspired Nonsensical search for truth and understanding, while B Kleymeyer uplifts Pittsburgh’s trans community and celebrates every part of transition with I’m not done with this body (and I never will be). 

    This season’s Local & Global Performance offerings include contemporary works of music, dance, and theater—Something for everyone! First, Dwayne Fulton returns to KST on February 11 with R.E.S.P.E.C.T., a celebration of soul music to soothe our spirits. Carrying on this musical momentum, on March 18 KST presents the annual Sunstar Festival: Women & Music, this year co-curated by the SCALE Fellowship Program

    From April 12-15, KST welcomes choreographer and 2020 Guggenheim fellow Shamel Pitts back to Pittsburgh with a Welcome Dinner and Artist Talk, Gaga Dance Workshop, and the Pittsburgh premiere of BLACK HOLE, an evening-length multi-media performance work that is a journey in movement through an evocative soundscape. Our Local & Global Performance program closes with Or Forever Hold Your Peace, a performance from Pittsburgh’s Big Storm with big dance numbers and even bigger laughs. 

    This Winter/Spring season, KST mutual Aid residents PearlArts are looking forward to bringing CIRCLES: going in, a work debuted with KST at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, Pittsburgh, on tour to The Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago on February 23. At home at KST’s Alloy Studios, PearlArts brings a full class season, with Open Company Dance Classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. For experienced dancers, 20 weeks of Adult Dance Clubs will begin on January 18 and run through the end of May. PearlWatch/Charrette is back on March 24, showcasing new and unseen dance-for-camera and live choreography in different stages of development. The process becomes the performance in this incubator series, which is followed by a discussion and response from a panel of multidisciplinary artists. Finally, on May 12, PearlArts share an evening of multi-disciplinary and collaborative explorations with INTERIM: Props Prompts Play.

    Finally, throughout this season of programming, visit the KST lobby for a new visual art exhibition from BOOM Gallery, Neighbor to Neighbor, featuring Takara Canty, Sophia Fang, atiya jones, Maggie Negrete, Jameelah Platt, Danielle Robinson , which will run from January 19 through May 27.

    Kelly Strayhorn Theater is a home where we respect and uphold each other. This Winter/Spring, join us in uplifting creative experimentation, community dialogue, and collective action rooted in the liberation of Black and queer people. 

    For full season details, KST COVID policy updates, and tickets, go to kelly-strayhorn.org.

    Joseph Hall, Executive Director

    For information on our COVID-19 policy and protocols, please visit this page.


    DANCE | MUSIC | PERFORMANCE | COMMUNITY
    The Audacity to Believe
    A MLK Day Celebration

    Monday, January 16
    12:00pm – 3:00pm

    Kelly Strayhorn Theater | 5941 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $0 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    DANCE | COMMUNITY
    The Alloy School  
    Winter/Spring Eight-Week Session

    Saturday, February 4 – April 8
    10:00am – 1:00pm

    KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $10/class for full session; $12.50/drop-in

    Click here to learn more…


    COMMUNITY | FOOD | DISCOURSE
    Black Culinary Excellence 
    Rander Thompson and Becky Cowan, Jackie Page, and Asante Samuels

    Saturday, February 4
    12:00pm – 3:00pm 

    Kelly Strayhorn Theater | 5941 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $0 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    VISUAL ART
    Neighbor to Neighbor 
    Takara Canty, Sophia Fang, atiya jones, Maggie Negrete, Jameelah Platt, Danielle Robinson

    Saturday, February 11 – Saturday, May 27
    Opening Reception: Saturday, February 11, 6:00pm 

    Kelly Strayhorn Theater | 5941 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $0 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    MUSIC | PERFORMANCE
    Dwayne Fulton with Anita Levels
    R.E.S.P.E.C.T. An Aretha Franklin Tribute Concert 

    Saturday, February 11
    8:00pm

    Kelly Strayhorn Theater | 5941 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $15 – $35

    Click here to learn more…


    MUSIC | DANCE | PERFORMANCE
    Synchronized with Soy Sos 
    Featuring Guest Artists

    Friday, February 24
    8:00pm

    KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $10 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    WRITING | WORKSHOP
    Dorothy R. Santos & Adrian Jones 
    Docu-poetics and Creative (Flash) Non-Fiction Writing
    Co-Presented with Frank-Ritchy The STUDIO for Creative Inquiry

    Saturday, March 11
    3:00pm – 5:00pm 

    KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $10 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    MUSIC | PERFORMANCE
    Sunstar Festival 
    Women & Music
    Curated in partnership with the SCALE Fellowship Program

    Saturday, March 18
    8:00pm 

    Kelly Strayhorn Theater | 5941 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $15 – $35

    Click here to learn more…


    DANCE | PERFORMANCE | FILM
    PearlWatch / charrette 
    Performance & Dance for Camera

    Friday, March 24 
    8:00pm 

    KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $10 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    DANCE | THEATER
    Freshworks: Nick M. Daniels
    Nonsensical search for truth and understanding

    Friday & Saturday, April 7 – 8
    8:00pm 

    KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $10 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    DANCE | COMMUNITY
    Welcome Dinner & Artist Talk 
    with Shamel Pitts | TRIBE

    Tuesday, April 11
    7:00pm

    KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $10 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    DANCE | WORKSHOP
    GAGA Movement Session 
    with Shamel Pitts
    Co-Presented with PearlArts

    Wednesday, April 12
    9:00am – 10:15am

    KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $10 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    DANCE | PERFORMANCE
    Shamel Pitts | TRIBE 
    BLACK HOLE: Trilogy and Triathlon

    Friday & Saturday, April 14* – 15
    8:00pm 
    *Post Performance Discussion with Alisha Wormsley

    Kelly Strayhorn Theater | 5941 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $15 – $35

    Click here to learn more…


    MUSIC | DANCE | PERFORMANCE
    Synchronized with Soy Sos 
    Featuring Guest Artists

    Friday, April 28
    8:00pm 

    KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $10 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    PERFORMANCE  | THEATER
    Freshworks: B Kleymeyer
    i’m not done with this body (and i never will be)

    Friday & Saturday, May 5 – 6
    8:00pm 

    KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $10 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    MUSIC | DANCE | PERFORMANCE
    Interim
    Props Prompts Play 

    Friday, May 12
    8:00pm 

    KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $10 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    THEATER | PERFORMANCE
    Big Storm 
    Or Forever Hold Your Peace

    Friday & Saturday, May 19 – 20
    Wednesday – Saturday. May 24 – 27
    8:00pm 

    KST’s Alloy Studios | 5530 Penn Ave.
    Pay What Moves You: $10 – $25

    Click here to learn more…


    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 to The Soul of East Liberty!

    Photo Credit:

  3. Owning Our Future. Thriving Where We Live.

    At the height of the pandemic, KST staff, board members, artists, and community members came together to reflect on the impact KST has made in our community and to imagine the impact KST will have 100 years from now. We envisioned KST as a national cultural destination, a brave and creative home for bold voices, owned by a Black Cultural Trust. Huddled around the Zoom screen, we recognized that the future of our organization hinges on our ability to strategically plan for the next three pivotal years. Owning our Future. Thriving Where We Live. sets forth KST’s path toward ownership, sustainability, and making this vision a reality.

    Our plan has four pillars — four interconnected priorities for realizing our goals: Our Story, Our Space, Our Capacity, and Our Money.

    Our Story guides KST’s strategic communications so regional and national audiences understand, share, and stand in support of major KST initiatives. The story of KST is not only the story of East Liberty, a Black neighborhood in Pittsburgh that was systematically neglected and is now re-emerging with high rents that push out historic residents. It is a story of so many Black and brown neighborhoods and organizations. Many Black-, Indiginous-, and people of color-led organizations and businesses get the rug pulled out from under their feet in gentrifying neighborhoods because they do not own their spaces. Owning Our Future is OUR story, where OUR represents the plurality of Black communities, the hundreds and thousands of Black-founded and Black-led organizations that want to thrive in a space that is owned by them. We are building for the shared futures of Black people. We want to create a model for other Black-led organizations to claim their impacts and future. And we want to do it together—across the nation.

    Our Space means developing and effectuating a plan that anchors KST in East Liberty as a property owner. Currently, KST is renting space in two locations: The main Kelly Strayhorn Theater and KST’s Alloy Studios. The lease on the theater is expiring in seven years, and the lease on KST’s Alloy Studios is ending in three. While we have been in conversations with the property owners about our future in those spaces, it is clear to us that our physical spaces are not guaranteed to stay as they are, and that their loss would possibly erase the KST from the map of East Liberty. We know with the loss of the other neighborhood cultural and social anchors that there’s no history of sustaining Black-led institutions in East-Liberty. We choose to find a pathway to achieving equity and owning our own space. We invite Pittsburgh policymakers to show up and stand in communion with us in ensuring that mistakes of the past, when East Liberty suffered an economic downfall because of urban policies, are not repeated.

    Our Capacity means ensuring KST is staffed and resourced sufficiently in order to provide our artists, patrons, and partners with high-quality, thought-provoking experiences. We realize that to effectuate our mission and vision, Kelly Strayhorn Theater needs to ensure that our people — staff — are taken care of, inspired, and equipped to do the work. During the last few years, low compensation, a fast-paced work environment, and long to-do lists have caused burnout and a high staff turnover rate. This, in return, has inhibited KST’s capacity and drained institutional knowledge that propels the organizational systems, culture, and learnings. We plan to grow the team in the upcoming years to meet our capitalization goals and to advance our vision of Owning Our Future. Our strategy includes cost-of-living adjustment salary increases and expanded benefits.

    Our Money addresses enhancing our business model in order to generate new earned revenue streams. KST wants to ensure that our organization grows and thrives in fiscally sustainable and generative ways. Like most nonprofit organizations, our revenue could be more diversified. We primarily rely on local philanthropic support, which makes us dependent on a few funders. The lasting reality of COVID-19 has affected in-person revenue opportunities such as rental income, tickets, and merchandise. Our goal is to diversify our contributed income moving forward by building relationships with national philanthropic funders, policymakers, and corporations who share our values.

    For KST, ownership is about safeguarding the spaces where we create as a community. Where we care for one another. And where we unapologetically claim our right to possess and present our stories. Our vision represents a collective moment to set brave intentions. For Pittsburgh, our region, and nationally. We must ensure our Black and queer communities have the freedom, ownership, and opportunity to nourish new generations. We must control our futures.

    We choose to own our futures.
    We choose to thrive where we live. 

    We will achieve our vision by working in partnership across sectors with community, allied partners, and You. We are determined to own our future and thrive where we live: Join us.

    As you read our strategic plan, imagine where you will fit into this journey. Consider Supporting the mission by adding your voice today.

    Add Your Voice

  4. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: KST Presents Fail-Safe

    EAST LIBERTY, PA (October 21, 2022)  — Fail-Safe is a recurring variety performance show bringing together artists exploring and expanding the performance genre. On November 11th and 12th, Kelly Strayhorn Theater (KST) will present the fourth edition of Fail-Safe, creating a dialogue between Los Angeles and Pittsburgh with two evenings of new and in-progress performance works by interdisciplinary performers from both cities.

    Fail-Safe was created by artists Angela Washko, Scott Andrew, and Jesse Stiles with the intention to become a safe space for failure — a safe space to perform works across fields that may not be fully figured out yet. Created in 2019, Fail-Safe is now a National Endowment for the Arts-funded project that invites artists to present new work that is experimental, in-progress, improvisational, or open-ended. The resulting projects span the fields of digitally mediated performance, cabaret, experimental sound art, interdisciplinary theater, readings, dance, music, body art and more.

    After a long pandemic (and a lot of fundraising), we’re back and partnering with Kelly Strayhorn Theater to have celebrated Los Angeles-based artists Young Joon Kwak, Kim Ye, and Xina Xurner join nine Pittsburgh-based artists, musicians, and performers for two evenings of daring new work presented for the first time at Kelly Strayhorn Theater.  We were drawn to the collaborative, experimental, aesthetically and conceptually maximalist, complex, challenging, and expansive approaches to body art, music, and performance presented by Kwak, Ye, and Xina Xurner (a music project by Young Joon Kwak and Marvin Astorga).  The Pittsburgh-based artists joining the roster share many affinities with the LA cohort including explorations of the body, queer aesthetics, mediated performance, deconstruction of gender/race power structures, sex work, and beyond.” —Angela Washko, Fail-Safe Co-Founder

    On Friday, November 11th, after a lineup of local performance artists exploring hybrid identities, queer futurities, and bodily liberation, Fail-Safe welcome Los Angeles-based artists Young Joon Kwak and Kim Ye as they present a new, experimental performance work, Matrilineal Ambivalences. The performance challenges limitations around cultural stereotypes surrounding womanhood, femininity, sexuality, and motherhood through a complex and interactive set of exchanges with each-other, the space, and the audience. We can’t wait to see what they say will be “a journey of failure and discovery of new selves and new bodies, and new forms of love and kinship.” Featured Pittsburgh-based artists include Caroline Yoo, Goofy Toof, London Williams, Davine Byon, and MICHIYAYA Dance featuring Anya Clark.

    “I’m most interested in working in and with the local Pittsburgh performance art scene to offer opportunities for performers to experiment, be celebrated, and create meaningful exchanges with other local artists and visiting performers from across the country.  Some Fail-Safe performers are community members we wanted to feature who we respect and have encountered professionally and performatively within the Pittsburgh performance landscape like Michiyaya Dance, Swampwalk and Formosa. Other local performers are also past or present students who we have developed long-lasting collaborative relationships with and whom we want to offer continued support.  I’ve known Goofy Toof for over a decade, as a past pre-college student and performer in classes I’ve offered at CMU. Samira and Davine are also past students that we have worked with in various capacities and who we are excited to continue a professional relationship with outside of the institution.  For me it is about both offering new performance opportunities to community members and to, in a small way, contribute to Pittsburgh being a city that can retain young artists and performers to grown and enliven the performance scene.” —Scott Andrew, Fail-Safe Co-Founder 

    On Saturday, November 12th, after a lineup of local musicians exploring experimental storytelling, embodiment, and power dynamics through sound, visiting Los Angeles-based artist duo Xina Xurner (Young Joon Kwak and Marvin Astorga) will present their cathartic experimental music set. Combining DIY and power electronics, mutated vocals, and bad drag, the artists expand ideas around queer and trans bodies. Xina Xurner melds a variety of genres, including happy hardcore, industrial, drone metal, and techno in order to create sadical and sexperimental noise-diva-dance anthems that evoke a sense of transformation, rebirth, and renewal. Local features include Swampwalk, Samira Mendoza, and Davine Byon. Both nights will feature ASL interpreters. 

    “Acknowledging and appreciating Young Joon’s commitment to collaboration and intentional community-building within performance, we invited Young Joon to bring collaborators along for their performances in Pittsburgh. We were thrilled that they chose Kim Ye and Xina Xurner to join them at Kelly Strayhorn Theater. We were so excited by Kim’s work exploring power dynamics – bringing together social practice, sex work, feminist performance, and institutional critique in brilliant new ways. We decided to add a second music-themed night to Fail-Safe in order to highlight Xina Xurner, whose drag and body art performance-infused electronic music promise to get us up and dancing and end the series on an exhilarating note.” — Angela Washko, Fail-Safe Co-Founder

    Saturday nights performances will be followed by a dance party in the KST Lobby with Formosa a.k.a. Steph Tsong of Jellyfish keeping the vibes bumping. 

    Please be advised: performances during Fail-Safe: Los Angeles x Pittsburgh will explore the topic of sexuality and some may include nudity.

    KST presents Fail-Safe on Friday and Saturday, November 11 – 12  at Kelly Strayhorn Theater, 5941 Penn Ave. For press comps, please contact lizrudnick@kelly-strayhorn.org

    ABOUT THE ORGANIZERS

    Angela Washko is an artist who creates new forums and forms for discussions about feminism. Washko’s practice spans social practice interventions in mainstream media, performance art, video, video games, and documentary film.  She is the founder of The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioral Awareness in World of Warcraft, a long-term intervention inside the popular online video game. A recipient of the Creative Capital Award, the Impact Award at Indiecade, and the Franklin Furnace Performance Fund, Washko’s practice has been highlighted in The New Yorker, Frieze Magazine, Time Magazine, The Guardian, ArtForum, The Los Angeles Times, Art in America, The New York Times, Rhizome and more. Her projects have been presented internationally at venues including the Museum of the Moving Image (New York), Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Milan Design Triennale, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki), and the Shenzhen Independent Animation Biennial. Angela Washko is an Associate Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon University.

    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 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 co-curates TQ Live!, a yearly LGBTQ+ variety series that has been presented at the Andy Warhol Museum and the Carnegie Museum of Art, and 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. 

    Jesse Stiles is an electronic composer, performer, installation artist, and software designer.  Stiles’ work has been featured at internationally recognized institutions including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Park Avenue Armory.  Stiles has appeared multiple times at Carnegie Hall, performing as a soloist with electronic instruments. In his music and artwork, Stiles creates immersive sonic and visual environments that encourage new methods of listening and looking.  His musical output ranges from highly experimental, using texture and spatialization to create abstract clouds of sound, to borderline danceable, exploring the sounds of electronic dance and rock music to create avant-garde performances and recordings.  Stiles’ installation artwork makes use of generative algorithms to control sound, video, light, and robotics – combining these mediums to create synaesthetic compositions that transform museums and galleries into evolving audiovisual environments. Stiles is currently a Professor in the School of Music at Carnegie Mellon University, where he leads courses on emerging music technologies.

    ABOUT THE ARTISTS

    Young Joon Kwak (b. 1984 in Queens, NY) is a Los Angeles-based multi-disciplinary artist who primarily uses sculpture, performance, video, and community-based collaborations to reimagine new and continually evolving bodies, selves, and futures. Kwak received an MFA from the University of Southern California in 2014, an MA in Humanities from the University of Chicago in 2010, and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2007. They are the founder of Mutant Salon, a roving beauty salon/platform for experimental performance collaborations with their community of queer, trans, femme, POC artists and performers, and lead performer in the electronic-dance-noise band Xina Xurner.

    Kim Ye (b. 1984, Beijing, China) is a Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist whose work incorporates performance, video, sculpture, installation, and text. She received her MFA from UCLA (2012) and her BA from Pomona College (2007). Influenced by language and aesthetics from BDSM, drag, and other avenues for self-actualization, her work explores the inversion of power dynamics through creating situations of exchange and intimacy. She has performed and exhibited nationally and internationally at The Hammer Museum, Getty Center, Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, Material Art Fair, Human Resources, Machine Project, Morán Morán, Satellite Art Fair, and Visitor Welcome Center among others. As a visiting artist, she has taught and lectured at institutions such as California Institute of the Arts, Pomona College, University of California Los Angeles, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Loyola Marymount University.

    Xina Xurner is an experimental music/performance collaboration between Marvin Astorga and Young Joon Kwak, whose cathartic performances combine DIY and power electronics, mutated vocals, and bad drag to expand ideas about queer and trans bodies. Their music combines a variety of genres (including happy hardcore, industrial, drone metal, and techno), in order to create sadical and sexperimental noise-diva-dance anthems that evoke a sense of transformation, rebirth, and renewal. Xina Xurner released their debut album “DIE” in 2012 and their follow-up, “Queens of the Night,” was released in April 2018. Xina Xurner will make you sweat.

    Caroline Yoo is an artist and community builder performing history. Born in Lawrence, Kansas to Korean immigrants, Yoo’s lived experiences in Anglo-suburbia as well as her time in Los Angeles surrounded by joyous Asian diasporic culture, have informed her art practice of searching for radical existence in creating safe spaces that allows her communities to dream wild, process unheard traumas, or plant grounds for new futures. Using making as a way to subvert, question and resist the silent, unseen systems of power we are ingrained, Yoo creates to imagine alternative education, unravel cultural colonialism, and pose questions on assumed narratives based on the consumption of other-ed bodies through social practice, intimate gathering space, experimental performance, and lens based installations. Yoo is additionally a member of Hwa Records, JADED PGH, and Han Diaspora Group all artist led collectives focused on producing spaces for diasporic Korean and/or AAPI narratives. Yoo has performed, exhibited, and/or culturally produced at Carnegie Museum of Art, McDonough Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, San Francisco, University of Southern California, LA Art Show, and more.

    London Williams is a practicing artist working in Pittsburgh, PA, and a second-year graduate candidate for a Master’s in Fine Arts at Carnegie Mellon University. Originally from Milwaukee, WI, Williams earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2021. Williams engages with his identity within his practice, exploring intersections of masculinity, sexuality, and Blackness. He imagines a home that cherishes his Blackness and Queerness. Identifying as an interdisciplinary painter, Williams uses multiple mediums as a response to a history of painter techniques. His paintings evolve as documentation of the domestic interior, a reproach of a past that has yet to be lived. Running parallel to how his grandmother curated her home, the influences of childhood guide his imagination of a home, familiar, but not inherited, in its uplifting of Blackness and Queerness. Recently Williams has developed a relationship with Ballroom and the art of vogue performance, utilizing the dance’s five elements—and the community that comes with it—to engage with an uncharted dimension of his identity. London is passionately collaging different themes, skills, and platforms that result in a manifestation of his Black Queer Utopia.

    MICHIYAYA Dance featuring Anya Clark (they/them) Born and raised in Brooklyn, with roots hailing from Trinidad & Tobago, Anya Clarke-Verdery is a queer choreographer, dance artist, and educator. They received their BFA in Dance from Long Island University, where they began their choreographic career, choreographing for the American College Dance Association. Anya has worked with choreographers such as Matthew Rushing, Sidra Bell, Earl Mosley, Clifton Brown, Holly Blakey, among others. Anya won 1st prize for Choreographic Excellence in the 11th International REVERBDance Festival. Described as movement that “moves between lucid and fluid to downright jarring in the most effective way,” Anya’s work has spread nationally at venues such as Brooklyn Museum, Andy Warhol Museum, Gelsey Kirkland Theater, among others. Alongside partner Mitsuko Clarke-Verdery, they were selected as the 2019 Guest Lecturers and Resident Artists at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Art & Drama, and 2018 PearlDiving Movement Resident Artists. Anya currently serves on the Junior Board and as guest faculty for Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance. With MICHIYAYA, Anya creates highly physical and visceral choreography that molds with each dance artists’ voice.

    Swampwalk (they/them) is a Pittsburgh writer/composer/producer/performer/translator who weaves tales of guts and glory, fear and sadness, love and hate, pain and suffering, tapping into the sacred pool of words that rhyme to reveal congruences and connections between things and people and experiences through their voice and whatever instrument(s) they meet, in an attempt to create and/or release energy, in between save points, singing for food or money, for medicine, in its many forms, to stay safe, or simply for the love of the game.

     

    Samira Mendoza (they/them) is an interdisciplinary performance artist, curator, and educator based in Pittsburgh, PA. Their work centers improvisation through different mediums including sound, sculpture, organizing, and movement to investigate oppressive systems, familial history, and personal experiences. Mendoza currently collaborates with Gladstone Deluxe and Lola Machine as Dendarry Bakery, The Universe Online, Ricki Weidenhof, and Johnny Zoloft as WFP, and XC-17 and Yessi as Dyspheric. You can catch Dyspheric deejaying live on their monthly radio residency on Verge FM in Columbus, Ohio every third Saturday at 9PM.

    Davine Byon (she/her) is a Pittsburgh-based interdisciplinary media artist from New York City. She received her BFA in Video and Media Design at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. In addition to her background in collaborative design for performance works, Davine is developing an independent practice in new media video and installation art. This work draws from personal archives, Internet culture, popular media, and lens-based artifacts to reveal and remix narrative. She is interested in what documentation of the sacred and mundane might elucidate about intimacy, particularly in the queer community and among people of color. This fascination is informed by her own experience constructing, interrogating, and appreciating her queer Korean-American identity via media found at home and online.”

    Formosa aka Stephanie Tsong is a multi-disciplinary Taiwanese-American DJ, artist, and designer who performs as “Formosa” and as one-third of monthly Pittsburgh queer party, Jellyfish. Raised on an eclectic mix of sounds that reflects a youth spent listening to global pop music and dancing in international clubs, you can expect their sets to range from international pop to disco, freestyle, leftfield, electro, boogie, and house. Jellyfish and Formosa have been featured at Honcho Campout, The Lot Radio, Nowadays, Maybeland, Haute to Death, 88.3 WRCT, and Hot Mass. You can catch Jellyfish every month at P-Town Bar (N Oakland) and Formosa every fourth Saturday at Cobra Lounge (Bloomfield).

    Goofy Toof is an erotic artist and self-proclaimed big weirdo. Winner of the London Fetish Film Festival’s Best Comedy award for directing and starring in- the asexual porn parody CREAMPIE GLORYHOLE. Graphic designer and video vixen of OnlyBans, a game about the surveillance and censorship of sex workers. Animator of sexy cartoons, pole dancer, and probably the neighborhood freak. www.GoofyToof.com

  5. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Kelly Strayhorn Theater Announces Suite Life, A Night of Music Celebrating Pittsburgh Legends Billy Strayhorn & Gene Kelly

     

    EAST LIBERTY, PA (October 21, 2022) Suite Life is Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s annual celebration of its two namesakes and Pittsburgh legends, jazz composer Billy Strayhorn and polymath performer Gene Kelly. The highly anticipated staple of KST’s Fall season, Suite Life offers KST patrons a night of illuminating performances during the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the tradition, and Suite Life 2022 promises to live up to its name with concept by Con Alma’s John Shannon and a VIP reception hosted by Duolingo.

    Suite Life 2022 will be under the stage direction of Monteze Freeland (Co-Artistic Director of City Theater) and musical direction of Akron-based Theron Brown. Lead vocalists Anita Levels and Billy Mason (Both Pittsburgh favorites) will have the audience swooning through an unmissable evening of sultry flare, as media design by artist Scott Andrew and lighting design by Jonathan Bucci Productions suffuse the East End tradition with sizzling atmosphere.

    Director Monteze Freeland is a multidisciplinary artist from Baltimore, MD whose talents include acting, directing, writing, producing, and teaching. Monteze is the current Co- Artistic Director of City Theatre Company and was named City Paper’s Person of the Year for Theatre in 2021, in addition to being named the Performer of the Year in 2017 by the Post-Gazette. 

    Musical Director and pianist Theron Brown currently resides in Akron, Ohio, where he is the founder of the Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival, which takes place in the city’s downtown historic district. A glimpse of gospel, jazz, and soul from the great legends is what inspires Theron’s sound. The artist is immensely involved in promoting the music scene and the arts, and takes pride in teaching musicians and volunteering his musical talent at community activities. 

    This year, Duolingo will host the VIP Reception at their East End headquarters. Taking place in the hour and a half leading up to the Suite Life concert, the intimate affair will boast curated cocktails, elevated hors d’oeuvres, and an opportunity to mix and mingle with Pittsburgh’s foremost Jazz enthusiasts. 

    KST presents Suite Life on Saturday, November 26 at 8:00pm at Kelly Strayhorn Theater, 5941 Penn Ave. VIP Reception at Duolingo, from 6:00pm – 7:30pm. More info at www.kellystrayhorn.org 

    ABOUT THE ARTISTS

    Theron Brown (musical director, piano) is a musician whose sound is inspired by glimpses of gospel, jazz, and soul from the great legends. But the reason he plays is to encourage and influence people through his talents. Originally from Zanesville, Ohio, Theron currently resides in Akron, Ohio, where he is Professor of Practice at The University of Akron teaching jazz piano, and the program coordinator for Curated Storefront’s Artist Residency Program at the ‘I Promise School’. Theron also serves as an educator for the interactive piano learning app, Playground Sessions. Theron is heavily involved in the music community as the founder and artistic director of the Rubber City Jazz & Blues Festival, which takes place annually in Akron, Ohio’s downtown historic district. Theron performs and tours regularly with his trio that includes Zaire Darden on drums and Jordan McBride on bass. Theron received an amazing opportunity as he auditioned for and was cast as young Herbie Hancock in the 2016 film, Miles Ahead, directed by and starring Don Cheadle. In 2019, Theron released his debut album, No Concepts. Theron is currently working on his second album titled Spirit Fruit, which reflects on essential and fundamental characteristics that bring positive vibes to peoples lives. This was inspired by Galatians 5:22-23.

    Monteze Freeland (director) is a multidisciplinary artist from Baltimore, MD whose talents include acting, directing, writing, producing, and teaching. Monteze is the current Co- Artistic Director of City Theatre Company and was named City Paper’s Person of the Year for Theatre in 2021, in addition to being named the Performer of the Year in 2017 by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Select directing credits include: The Santaland Diaries, The Young Playwrights Festival ’17 & ’21, Claws Out: A Holiday Drag Musical, The Garbologists and Clyde’s (City Theatre); King Hedley II and Fences (Co-Director with Mark Clayton Southers), Savior Samuel, Miss Julie, Clarissa and John, Christmas Star, In The Heat of the Night and Poe’s Last Night (Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company); I know Why The Caged Bird Sings (Prime Stage Theater); Hairspray, Shrek, The Addams Family, and Freaky Friday (CLO Summer Academy); readings of Trouble in Mind and The Coffin Maker (Pittsburgh Public Theater) and Flyin’ West (DEMASKUS). Many thanks to the incredible KST staff and creative team.

    Scott Andrew (media design) 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 (NYC), Ballroom Marfa (Marfa, TX), the Hammer Museum (LA), and the J. Paul Getty Museum (LA), among others. 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.

    Jonathan Robert Bucci (lighting design) is the founder and chief creative technologist of Jonathan Bucci Productions, LLC. Along with his team, Jonathan produces live, hybrid, streaming, and video production content with a theatrical flair. As an alum of Point Park University’s Conservatory of Performing Arts, Jonathan is especially at home working in music, dance, and theatre. In recognition of all of the mentorship he has received, Jonathan enjoys spending time paying it forward to young people entering the fields of lighting, audio, video, and management; especially to those who are walking non-traditional paths.

    James Johnson III (drums) is described as a chameleon with a wide range of musical talents and began his musical journey playing drums at five years old. His father, Dr. James Johnson Jr., a nationally known pianist and educator sparked his passion for music. Soon Precursory to his worldwide career, he attended Pittsburgh’s high school for the creative and performing arts (CAPA) where he was under the tutelage of jazz great Roger Humphries and Greg Humphries. This laid the foundation for a stellar career that has included performing as a regular member with legendary jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal.  His musical adventures have led him to play prestigious venues around the world such as North America, Europe, Africa and Japan. As a part of his portfolio he has performed with  jazz masters Monty Alexander, George Coleman, James Moody, Geri Allen, Bob James, Kenny Garrett, Benny Golson, Mulgrew Miller, and Kenny Werner. James currently serves as a faculty member at University of  Pittsburgh School of Music, Chatham University and Afro American Music Institute—a Pittsburgh institution that preserves the heritage of African American music.  As a versatile percussionist, songwriter, composer and producer, James maintains a diverse freelance career.  Currently, he has two solo projects:  Between and Full Circle.

    Anita Levels (vocalist) is a vocal artist, voice influencer, songwriter and producer who began singing at the age of 3 years old in Frankfurt, West Germany. Texas-born, being a preacher’s kid, and a member of a musical family from New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A, singing and performance are in her blood. Anita’s powerhouse, soulful, but lark-like vocals have graced national and international audiences. She has performed in London, England, has toured the country of Holland with world renowned ethnomusicologist, Dr. Portia Maultsby,  was featured in the NFL’s Super Bowl 50 commemorative commercial, has appeared in the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, and has performed in many, many other private, public and virtual events. Ms. Levels has a plethora of original music on all streaming music platforms and enjoys sharing the history and influence of Black American music on world and American culture. Anita Levels, MS, has a Masters Degree in Training and Development from Carlow University (Pittsburgh, PA, USA) and believes that instrumentation and the voice have the innate ability to vibrate truth, healing and thought.  Anita’s more recent venture is, Corn and Potatoes Are Good For You, a podcast exploring the soul’s journey through all things spiritual and sensual. She will always be the Mother of two magical daughters, put clorox in her water, powder her sheets, season her vittles, sing, laugh and cultivate spaces for communication and thought.

    Billy Mason (vocalist), a multi-hyphenated artist, director and producer, and Pittsburgh Hometown favorite, is thrilled to make Pittsburgh his home once again. After spending nearly a decade traveling the country as front man and soloist to a 36 piece orchestra, Billy has returned to his Musical Theater roots and cabaret roots. Locally, you may have seen him in productions at Pittsburgh CLO, the Strand theater, Quantum Theater and a host of others, gracing the stages of the Byham theater, the Greer cabaret, the Benedum Center and many more. Splitting his time between Pittsburgh and NYC, Billy has changed the focus of his career from performing to producing and directing, creating opportunity and safe spaces for artists both in Pittsburgh and beyond. Billy is also the owner and operator of PennyJar Media, LLC, A digital arts and media company that will, after delays caused by the pandemic, debut in 2023. Peace and blessings.

    Jordan McBride (bass) picked up the bass at age 12 and began to develop a sound influenced by the Philadelphia Jazz scene. There he joined a group of young jazz performers and began performing in and around Philadelphia. Jordan has studied with jazz greats such as bassist Andy McCloud, Mike Boon, Peter Dominquez and Gerald Cannon. As an artist, Jordan has performed with musicians across many genres. Jordan has shared the stage with the Sean Jones, Kenny Werner, The Theron Brown Trio, Dan Wilson, Jimmy Health, James Carter, Justin Faulkner, Jerome Jennings, Jamey Haddad, Paul Samuels, Jay Ashby, Chris Coles, Javon Jackson, The Admirables, Nathan Davis, and Tommy Lehman’s Squadtet. Jordan McBride holds an Artist Degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Jordan is a creative arranger and composer, as well, based in Akron, Ohio.

    Kelsey Robinson (dancer) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Pittsburgh and Brooklyn. She’s grateful to have worked with well-celebrated Pittsburgh theater companies including Quantum Theater, Bricolage Production Company, Carnegie Mellon University Drama and Pittsburgh CLO. She’s also played world-renowned venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, MoMA, The Studio Museum of Harlem and The Shed. Kelsey was granted the opportunity to bring the words of MacArthur Fellow, Claudia Rankine, to life under their direction in the newly released White Card. Kelsey’s own project Talking with Ghosts About Freedom, which traverses the nation by bicycle in search of regional Black history, has been produced in residence with Kelly Strayhorn Theater and received the support of The Opportunity Fund, Advancing Black Arts, Cultural Trust and #notwhitecollective. Kelsey choreographed Point Park University Conservatory production Everybody at her alma mater where she studied Musical Theater. She’s a proud recipient of the SCALE Fellowship and was recently commissioned by The Carnegie Museum of Art to reinterpret songs for the opening of Working Thought. Kelsey has spent the last year touring North America with Squonk Opera and is thrilled to be home celebrating a new year’s Suite Life!

    John Shannon (concept, guitar) is a guitarist and songwriter born in Pittsburgh, PA who grew up studying with local luminaries Dwayne Dolphin, Eric Kloss, and Mike Ross before attending the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. After college John moved to New York City, where he lived for over a decade, playing locally and touring the globe as a freelance guitarist for many prominent artists across many genres. John performed everywhere from Carnegie Hall to the MIDEM Festival in Cannes, France, as well as internationally releasing three critically acclaimed albums of his own music under his name with French/NYC record label ObliqSound. After accepting an offer to run the music for a modern circus show in Australia for two years, John returned to Pittsburgh to tour relentlessly with his rock’n’roll band theSHIFT, whose song “Dreams” became a Number 1 hit in South America. While back in Pittsburgh and reconnecting to the jazz scene where he spent many formative years, John was part of the creation of Con Alma Restaurant and Jazz Bar. Born through the concept of giving the Pittsburgh jazz scene a new home, Con Alma celebrates its legacy in a space of great atmosphere, cuisine and cocktails. In the summer of 2021 Con Alma was named in Esquire Magazine’s “Best Bars in America of 2021” and is the only jazz bar to ever have been named on the prestigious list.

    Treasure Treasure (dancer) is an artist and multi-instrumentalist working in music, comedy, film, and visual art. Theatre credits include Cabaret (Emcee, Hangar Theatre,) This Ain’t No Disco (Atlantic Theater Company,) Agnus Teaches Acting (The Duplex,) Fiddler on the Roof (CLO). She made her Broadway debut in the revival of Annie Get Your Gun. She holds a BFA from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Her debut EP, Hypnerotomachia, is available on all platforms. IG: @manifestingtreasure

    Reggie Watkins (trombone) Pittsburgher, trombonist, pianist, arranger and composer has released three recordings as leader and has been featured on many others. From 1999 to 2006 he served as trombonist and musical director  for trumpeter Maynard Ferguson and with singer-songwriter Jason Mraz from 2008 to 2013. In 2003 Watkins was chosen as a semi-finalist in the “Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition.” Watkins has performed and recorded with many great artists from various genres including  Aretha Franklin, Dave Matthews, Dianne Shuur, Warren Haynes, Beverley Knight, Jose Feliciano, Willie Nelson, The Backstreet Boys, Engelbert Humperdinck, Ariana Grande, Dumpstaphunk, Arturo Sandoval, Trombone Shorty, The Temptations and The O’Jays. Currently, in addition to leading the Reggie Watkins Trio, he is also a member of the Grammy nominated Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band, The Pittsburgh Jazz Orchestra, Scott Bradley’s Postmodern Jukebox and a founding member of The Keystone Jazz Collective and Steeltown Horns. Reggie plays a Michael Rath trombone and David Monette mouthpieces.

  6. KST Presents Fall 2022 Freshworks Artist Alyssa Velazquez: It is from her these seeds are sown

    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 kelly-strayhorn.org.

    “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 sown on 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.

  7. KST Presents Visual Art Exhibition BOOM Capsule: Marking this Moment in Time

    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 AgnewDS 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 TrustAugust 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 kelly-strayhorn.org.

  8. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: KST Presents Fall 2022, The Soul of East Liberty

    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-Safe includes 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 Rosde on 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.

    More Info and Ticketing HERE

  9. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Kelly Strayhorn Theater Unveils New Summer Fundraiser “House Party,” Night of Interactive Performance, Community Building, and Celebration



    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.

    Tickets for House Party on July 16 are available for $50–100 for the Dance Party and $150–250 for the VIP Reception, and can be reserved at kelly-strayhorn.org

    For full season details, COVID policy updates, and tickets, go to kelly-strayhorn.org.

    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.

    More Info and Ticketing Here

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    ARTISTS

    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

  10. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Local Artists Headline Theater Performances as Theatre Communications Group National Conference Comes to Pittsburgh June 16 & 17

    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)gone at 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 ç Vibes 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.

    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 kelly-strayhorn.org 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 kelly-strayhorn.org 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 kelly-strayhorn.org.

    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.