Intersectional Artist and Culture-Worker
My creative culture-work, or "bridge work," centers around melanated joy, humor, grief, Jazz, improvisation, fighting for equity, messing with the taboo, uplifting the healing arts, and being a channel for divine multiplicity and collectivity.
I often adapt old or spiritual texts through the lens of Black feminism, my Buddhist practice, and the best of my cultural, ancestral wisdom.
This "sound sculpture" weaves together personal loss and collective grief in the fight for the dignity of Black lives. It asks questions about giving and receiving Help via a Jewish prayer for mourning.
Text by me, original sound and music by my collaborator Avi Amon, and Rabbinic dramaturgy by Rabbi Kendell Pinkney. (It is recommended that people wear headphones to get the full stereo, sonic experience of the monologue).
Creating:
Grief Peace (monologue) "Force of Habit" (2024) at The Braid theatre, and many arts/culture spaces
Guest Artist Residency w/ Avi Amon USDAN camp for the arts (installation and musical storytelling project)
Written in Stone (Art Installation) Naming the Lost Covid Memorial Project NYC at Greenwood Cemetery
The Non Monog-ologues (documentary theater) The 14th st Y, Jewish Theological Seminary, and CBE (solo show)
The Blewish Dybbuk Project (play/film) The Workshop salon at the JCC Manhattan, Reboot screening
3 Questions (film) LABA LIVE
The Great Mother (culture play) Rosh Hashanah 2023, LAB/Shul Maven
Where is the Goat? (culture play) Yom Kippur 2021, LAB/Shul Maven
not all at once (audio monologue) music by Avi Amon. JTS, LAB/Shul, Avodah, Ammud, USCJ, JCC, UJA
Shakespeare than Fiction (play) NYU Tisch Freeplay. Development at Alter Theatre
A Psalm for Racial Justice (spiritual poem) Hillel International, various publications
A Psalm for Juneteenth (spiritual poem) Be’chol Lashon, various publications
I Know Nothing About Tisha B’av (essay) Lilith Magazine
Beyond Exodus (essay) Lilith Magazine
Shakespeare than Fiction (play) Alter Theatre, Freeplay Festival
Coaching:
Fearless Communicators Story Doula, Public Speaking Coach and workshop facilitator, 2020 - current.
Acting Coach (auditions, grad school auditions, scene work, Shakespeare).
Corporate Coaching and Role Play with Bi-Jingo.
Teaching:
Kriplau Retreat Center Fall Writing Series- Creative writing instructor "The Presence Palace" 2023, and 2024 (upcoming).
Killivipen Black Women's Writing Retreat- Facilitating creative writing, Massachusetts 2023, 2024 at Kripalu (upcoming).
Exploring Black Narratives- Teaching Black plays in Jewish Day schools and creating lesson plans, 2021 - current.
*Recipient of a Covenant Grant*
Putney Student Travel creative writing instructor, Dublin, Ireland 2022 and Castleton College, Vermont 2021.
Teaching Creative Writing "Improv and Imagination" at USDAN Adult Camp 2023.
Teen Theatre Monologue Camp JCC Global, monologue writing, acting and performance, Spring 2021.
Shakespeare Workshop Contra Costa School of the Performing Arts.
Directing and Assistant Directing:
A Moving Picture (29 hour reading) The Jewish Play Project
Romeo and Juliet (full production) Queen Mab Productions / Brooklyn Preserve Artspace Church, Oakland, CA
Bloom by Marco Antonio Rodriguez Quicksilver Theatre Company, Citizen One Reading Series
The Only One by Christina Nieves QTC's Playwrights of Color Retreat and “Go to the River Festival” at EST
Shakespeare than Fiction (Writer & Director) Freeplay Festival Grad Acting, NYU Tisch
Nat Turner in Jerusalem by Nathan Alan Davis New York Theatre Workshop / AD for Megan Sandberg-Zakian
Spunk by Zora Neale Hurston California Shakespeare Company / AD for Patricia McGregor
Fellowships:
The Rabbinic Arts Fellowship (current)
The Workshop inaugural cohort and alumni cohort (current)
B’Yachad Educator Fellow, 2021-2022
LABA Fellow at the 14th St. Y 2021-2022
New Jewish Culture Fellow with Brooklyn Jews 2021-2022