I split my time between creating performance work and developing programming for my art space. As an artistic director of a nonprofit space, I am able to produce and curate diverse projects, allowing new and emerging artists to stretch and grow their talents and bodies of work. Thousands of artists and community members have passed through our doors over the past few years. Here's a mostly complete list of events I curated or produced for artists at EMP:

2013-2014

Theatre
Night Witches - a new work-in-progress. Workshop date set for April 2014.

Spooky Action at a Distance - Page to Stage 2013 - New works development series at Kennedy Center.

Baltimore One Minute Play Festival - Produced in partnership with OMPF NYC. A lot or nothing can happen in one minute. 50 world premieres from emerging and established local playwrights connected to Baltimore.

Condo Condo Condoland - Playwright, Liz Maestri. World premiere.

Skunk Ape - Screenwriter, Brad Cartwright. Staged feature film reading.


Gallery Events
In the Palm of Your Hand - group show of miniature art curated by Sara Barnes

mIrrorspeak - featured in this nomination.

REJECT THE GAZE - featured in this nomination

Connect the Dots - A visual and dance exhibition exploring inexplicable human connections. Featuring Core Project Chicago.

Illumination + Snack - solo show featuring Kate McGraw.

Personal Space - group show featuring UMBC's Digital Imaging Dept.

Night Gallery - solo show featuring Chris Fitzwater.


2011-2012

Theatre
Source Festival 2011 - DC new work festival - 18 10-Minute Plays, three Full-Length Plays and three Artistic Blind Dates. Marketing team, Cultural DC.

(...and you're just not good enough.) - Devised work.

Shelter - Playwright, Josh Mikel. Reading.

NIGHT SWEATS - Devised work.

A Brief Narrative of an Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits - Playwright, C. Denby Swanson. Regional premiere.

The Emperor and the Moon - Playwright, Cameron Stuart. Pop-up performances for Artscape Baltimore.

Genesis - Multi-city pop-up performances.

Condo Condo Condoland - Reading for Centerstage 50Fest.


Film
Hoop's the Boss - Short film

Odd Sundays CineClub - Producer for this monthly free film screening series.

Gallery Events
FuckDoingShit - Solo show featuring Nolan Cartwright.

Girls & Skulls - Solo show featuring Craig Horky.

One Million and One Awful Ways to Die - Solo show featuring Josh Mikel.

Foundation - Solo show featuring Sara Barnes.

Lifetime Subscription - Solo show featuring Sara Moore.

Just What I See - Solo show featuring Greg Schmigel.

Fluidtoons - Solo show featuring Brett Thompson.

Down Through the Needle's Eye - Group show curated by Rotating History Project.

Genesis - Group Show featuring visual and performance art.

Exquisite Corpse - Group Show.

I am interested in melding live/performance elements into events typically regarded as passive viewing experiences, such as gallery openings. This is an exhibition of work I curated incorporating performance art, visual, and video work. mIrrorspeak examined the individual process of self-creation and self-identity as well as the forces that shaped that process. Twenty five artists were asked to create work that addressed this resulting in wholly unique "self-portraits".

Throughout the opening of mIrrorspeak, viewers were surprised by a dance piece exploring black male identity in the United States from choreographer Alexis Renee, a performance piece addressing memory, loss, mental disease, and the resulting undulating notions of identity from Annex Theatre's Trevor Wilhelms; a theatrical personal interpretation of Salome from Philadelphia's Foxwife City; and cafe cubanos from Miami's Juliesy y Karla, drag performance artists.

Readings, films, and staged works.

Inspired by book one of Eduardo Galleano's Memoria del Fuego, I organized a gallery show and night of performances concerning creation myth, origin tales, and our own ideas of where we come from.

The performance and exhibition took place over two weekends and in two cities, Baltimore and Washington, DC. Performances included spoken work, original music compositions, audio installations, visual art, and dance.

Using the work of the short, nightmarish work of four writers as a springboard, I created the outline for a multi-level immersive play called Night Sweats. This project that took audience members through an acid-laced dreamscape complete with puppet confidants, murderous vultures, swamp things, and all the terrors that keep us up while the whole world is sound asleep.

It was pretty damn fun to work with over 30 artists on this project.

ABOUT THE SHOW
NIGHT SWEATS follows 17-year-old, Gordon on the hunt for his missing psychiatrist-prescribed beloved puppet, Bluebarb. As Gordon searches for what has been his only friend and safety blanket he must fight against a long-time fear that has plagued Gordon for years: a 7-foot-tall anthropomorphic bird character from the popular children’s show, Poppyseed Place. Wandering through the nightmarish world of Gordon’s subconscious, we embark on a journey through the middle of a dark sea, a Technicolor tripped-out children’s show, and the wooded swamps of Florida. In the end, NIGHT SWEATS is about the irrational fears that don’t just haunt our hero, but us as well.

hopelessly devoted 2 u was created for Ladyparts, a gallery show and night of performances inspired by feminist exhibitions such as Womanhouse (1972). The show was curated by Alexandra "Rex" Delafkaran and Eames Armstrong.

This piece is about control, real or imagined, over one's identity. Everyone engages with cultural and gender stereotypes both consciously and unconsciously in forming an individual sense of self. hopelessly devoted 2 u acknowledges that a woman can operate in the world simultaneously enlightened and oppressed. The performance is a disappearing act from these constraints.

A one-on-one piece on intimacy I did for Transmodern Festival 2014. Participants were invited one at a time to enter a glowing room. Inside, I was lounging in a viscous pool. After a series of questions that ranged from formal and impersonal to increasingly personal, I would invite the participant to undress completely and lay with me in the thick pool of matter as we got to know each other further.

This piece was part of a multi-performance installation I curated for Current Gallery's exhibition, Of screens, remainders, and holds; with an eye towards separation, nose for the drift.

Sin Eater was a simply constructed piece about the interplay of guilt and money. During the exhibition, I sat in the gallery window and silently allowed participants to exchange their money for the lifting of their guilt, sins, and emotional weights. After placing money in a jar, participants were sat in my place as a kneeled before them, placing a dish of black liquid at their laps - never breaking physical or emotional contact with them. As we watched each other, I would slowly produce a white ball that would be dipped and rolled in the black liquid, over and over again. Eventually, I would eat the ball at their knees and the cleansing process would end. By the end of night, my mouth and hands were blackened with the residue of my interactions.

Additionally pictured are the other performances I curated featuring artists Alex D'Agostino, Isa Leal, Zac Lawhorn, and Jake Budenz.

This piece was performed for an event I organized called Femininity and the Feminine Image. Featuring myself and Jake Budenz, the work incorporated vaudeville, melodrama, song, and striptease into a frantic exploration of gender performance.

Additionally pictured are the other performances of Femininity and the Feminine Image event.

In 2014, I initiated an ongoing curatorial project called Pulse. Pulse is a regularly-occurring salon and event series for the discussion and development of performance art work in Baltimore. The salons feature 3-4 performance artists a month and are open to everyone. The aim of these salons are to provide a consistent outlet for performance artists to create new work and connect with fellow regional performers. Pulse is also a platform to educate audiences about the breadth of variance in performance art and encourages audiences to experience and participate in it regularly.

Building off of these salons, larger, curated performance events occur throughout the year, continuing to activate various venues and public space throughout the city.

Events thus far:

"What is Queer Performance?" (EMP, July 2014)
An investigation of queer performances in its many facets.

"Of screens, remainders, and holds; with an eye towards separation, nose for the drift" (Current Gallery, October 2014)
Performance works aligned with the thematic content of the exhibition.

"Femininity and the Feminine Image" (EMP, December 2014)
Exploring the social constructs of gender identity with a focus on the feminine image.

TBA Performance Projects (Current Gallery, EMP, and Howard Street, March and April 2015)