S P E C U L U M
A Multimedia Performance Project
Photographs by Tyahra Angus/Afrocentered Media.
To be black and queer is to be rendered invisible. Throughout our existence, black queer and trans people have carved out our own spaces to overcome dominant social perspectives that invalidate our lives and experiences. SPECULUM investigates black queer identity through the context of color and visual theory.
What is color? What is identity? Does it exist beyond the way it is perceived by us?
Color as we know it is not reality but, rather, a vast and complex relationship between light energy and our ability to see. Humans have invented tools to help us explore parts of our universe unseen by the naked eye. SPECULUM digs deep to shed light on that which reaches beyond the limits of human sense and perception. Art and storytelling allows us to reclaim the parts of us that are silenced and invisibilized. Through sharing our stories, we challenge the cis-white male heterosexual gaze and other “common sense” notions of identity in order to invoke black queer visibility.
SPECULUM aims to open eyes and minds to the unbound complexity of lived experiences. This is for black queers who consider existing when the rainbow isn't enuf. Journey with us through the intersections of black queerness.
This project was sponsored by The Theater Offensive's 2017 OUT'Hood Artist Residency.
SPECULUM
- VIDEOS -
- CAST & CREW -
Ny
Performer + Co-Creator
Ny (she, her, hers) is a Boston based spoken word artist, singer/songwriter and actress. She makes a point to unapologetically bring her black queer identity into any space she enters. Especially in places that are constantly trying to silence black voices. She is extremely passionate about discovering more about what her blackness means. And constantly questions what it means to navigate the world as a dark skin masculine women. Her art is very much a reflection of this, along with her social justice background, her truths & messages people need to hear. As a new and growing artist she is exploring herself and her artistic identity daily. In hopes she can become a known artist around the country, impacting black queer people along the way.
Destiny (Radical Black Girl)
Performer + Co-creator
Destiny Polk aka Radical Black Girl (she/her/hers) is a Boston born performance artist and art activist, currently studying as an undergrad in Dance and African American Studies. She has been dancing professionally since the age of 5 and sharing her poetry with audiences since age 12. She is concerned about speaking truth to a country that attempts to rewrite its own history while having actively tried to suppress African and Native American history and culture. She is also deeply passionate about advocating for marginalized groups of people, especially low-income communities of color, womyn of color and young self identifying black girls. Destiny wants to create platforms for performance artists of color to share their work and use their art as a way to uplift their communities.
Arira Adeeke (Seed of Osun)
Performer + Co-creator
Arira (he/she/they) is a mover, choreographer, healer and community organizer. Studying dance since the age of 4, they have used dance to unlock the hidden language of the soul. They have travelled the world in search of how to create sanctuaries for Black bodies with the traditions of their ancestors. As a certified Reiki Master and practicing herbalist, the offer a variety of healing services centered around African indigenous practices under the name Seed of Osun.
Tyahra Angus (Afrocentered Media)
Photographer/Videographer
Tyahra Angus (he/she/they) Boston Based photographer and artist started AfroCentered Media in 2015 and has been collecting and publishing photographs that increase representation of black/brown people in our media, particularly black women, even more particularly black queer "women" like herself.