Pioneers Go East Collective to Present CROSSROADS

CROSSROADS is a dance, film, and cross-disciplinary performance series curated and presented by Pioneers Go East Collective. The spring 2022 series will feature works by 10 artists with diverse aesthetic and conceptual approaches to performance and storytelling. CROSSROADS will take place Thursday-Saturday, May 26-28, at 8pm, at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South (between Thompson and Sullivan Streets), in Manhattan. Performances are free. Advance registration required at http://pioneersgoeast.eventbrite.com.

Pioneers Go East Collective launched CROSSROADS in 2017 in partnership with Judson Memorial Church. The series centers the voices of queer, BIPOC, and feminist artists. The format provides artists with both an opportunity to present work in a low-pressure setting that encourages experimentation, and space to share their creative practices with other artists and audiences. The series is multigenerational, focusing on community to foster a network of support, exchange, and dialogue. In addition to the performances, CROSSROADS offers workshops by participating artists and Pioneers Go East Collective's collaborators.

The spring CROSSROADS features Angel Acuña, Yoshiko Chuma, Symara Johnson, Anabella Lenzu, Amanda Loulaki, Molly&Nola, Doron Perk, Paz Tanjuaquio, Dane Terry, and Pioneers Go East Collective. The spring series was curated by Daniel Diaz, Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, and Philip Treviño.

CROSSROADS Spring 2022 Schedule

Thursday, May 26, 8pm

Dancer and designer Angel Acuña's video EPIFANIO - DV no.0001 introduces one of the artist's entities, EPIFANIO, the disruptive party dancer with inelegant mannerisms; subtly appearing visually on the transfixed body, persisting in strenuous conflict with Acuña's lack of submission to finally then complete its undivided energetic interference between itself and the dancer.

Doron Perk's Grandfather Visit is a solo dance exploring themes of grief and heritage inspired by Perk's many visits with his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor. After his grandfather's death, Perk felt the need to bring his inspiring story to light as a way to deal with personal loss as well as the collective trauma of the third generation to genocide. Using the framing narrative of a visit, Perk dances out embodied memories, using the movements to evoke forgotten sensations. This work is the result of a two-year process brought to life thanks to a fellowship at LABA - Laboratory for Jewish Culture with the theme of Chosen.

Paz Tanjuaquio will present Dead Stars Still Shine, a new work created in collaboration with visual artist/composer Todd B. Richmond, digital artist Onome Ekeh, and incorporating poetry by Luis H. Francia. Inspired by "Dead Stars," a short story written in 1925 by Paz Benitez-Marquez, one of the first female literary figures of English literature in the Philippines, the work centers on the idea that lights from dead stars still shine and create a vibrant luminous atmosphere light years away. For Tanjuaquio, these stars can be seen as a metaphor for both lives lost and a loss of culture that still resonates in our communities and within our bodies.

On Eternity, written and performed by pianist Dane Terry, is a surreal series of autobiographical stories about Terry's time spent working as a cocktail pianist on a cruise ship in the late 2000s. Visuals are by Bizzy Barefoot.

Friday, May 27, 8pm

Yoshiko Chuma will present Hey women!, a quartet that is part of her ongoing performance series Head in the Sand. Chuma is joined by dancers Emily Pope and Sarah Skaggs and multi-instrumentalist Ginger Dolden.

Symara Johnson will present The Kitchen Sink Ranger at the Midnight Rodeo. The piece pulls from current research that Johnson is conducting in relation to her most recent work in development, Symara and Her Lasso. It is a practice of ideas that have surfaced from intensive periods of working on what is intended to be a multi-hour durational piece. A condensed score will be presented as a trial-and-error process for Johnson to learn from.

MOLLY&NOLA will present STEER, a work that tumbles into an unforeseen territory where livestock auctioneering, cloning, and a brief dalliance with the Pentecostal Church collide. STEER was developed with support from New Dance Alliance's 2021 LiftOff Residency.

Pioneers Go East Collective's new film, My Name'Sound, investigates our role as artists and how our everyday struggles affect our creative paths. James Baldwin's Artist Manifesto on the artist's responsibility and the same-sex intimacy of Giovanni's Room will launch a passionate exploration of the history, empowerment, and visibility of the LGBTQ experience in pursuit of artistic freedom. Creative team: Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte (creative director/filmmaker); Philip Treviño (creative designer); Mark Tambella (installation designer); Mert Erdem (director of photography); Bryan Baira (sound designer); performances by Daniel Diaz (writer); Agosto Machado (writer); Joey Kipp (dance-maker); and Richard Morales (writer).

Saturday, May 28, 8pm

Yoshiko Chuma will present Hey women!, a new quartet that is part of her ongoing performance series Head in The Sand. Chuma is joined by dancers Emily Pope and Sarah Skaggs and multi-instrumentalist Ginger Dolden.

Anabella Lenzu's A bone to pick with you exposes the inner dialogue of an artist in the examination of the creative process. Lenzu shows the struggles, the desires, and the internal contradictions that make visible the vulnerability of the performer. The work reflects Lenzu's experience as a Latina artist living in New York and comes from a deep examination of her motivations as a woman, mother, and immigrant.

Describing her new work time trace, Amanda Loulaki writes: "There is something that is never able to be described, just to be sensed and that is the place where we sometimes could meet." The piece is an exploration of present and past collapsing into one surface. "Traces of actions and faint memories wondering for their place in time. The focus shifts, the essence morphs, and pause gives meaning to time and sense to presence."

Pioneers Go East Collective's new film, My Name'Sound, investigates our role as artists and how our everyday struggles affect our creative paths. James Baldwin's Artist Manifesto on the artist's responsibility and the same-sex intimacy and sensuality of Giovanni's Room will launch a passionate exploration of the history, empowerment, and visibility of the LGBTQ experience in pursuit of artistic freedom. (See May 27 for artist credits.)

NEXT! Workshops with Doron Perk (May 26, 6-7pm) and Parijat Desai (May 27, 6-7pm) will be held at Judson Memorial Church. Workshops are free and all are welcome. Advance registration required at https://pioneersgoeast.org/upcoming.

About Pioneers Go East Collective

New York City award-winning Pioneers Go East Collective is a laboratory collective of multimedia and performance artists. The collective challenges viewers by exploring pathways to communicate psychologically complex experiences. Reimagining the creative lineage that informs their work, Queer and Feminist theory, conceptual art, pop culture, institutional critique, and LGBTQ community-based activism, they create poetic fictionalizations that alternately stand in for a silenced past and act as the starting point for a viable future. In residence at two historical downtown venues - La MaMa and Judson Church - since 2014, the collective has built a sustainable creative platform of performances, films, and curated series to celebrate multigenerational radical queer artists. By connecting the community's history, they deepen understanding of social justice, civil rights, and human rights.

The collective has developed 12 original works, collaborated with over 450 art-makers, and through performance, video, curated series and festivals, they build platforms of inclusion that link audiences throughout all of New York to celebrate LGBTQ and feminist artists. Under the leadership of Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Daniel Diaz, and Philip Treviño, the collective merges storytelling and interview-based documentary to expose the realities of queer identity and otherness to provoke understanding and promote social justice. Inspired by Walt Whitman's poem "O Pioneers!"-an homage to the pioneers' search for a brighter future-the collective is comprised of artists who explore stories of collective courage and conviction. For more information, visit PioneersGoEast.org.

Follow Pioneers Go East Collective on Facebook at PioneersGoEast and follow on Twitter and Instagram: @PioneersGoEast.

Pictured: Amanda Loulaki

Photo Credits: Scott Shaw