The climate crisis and the rise of anti-queer sentiments and actions can stimulate fear and anxiety. They are also an invitation to mend, tend, and befriend our relationship to our own bodies and the earth, who supports our lives even in her own state of woundedness, and an invitation to get creative, think and act differently. Join us in Patterson Park for a grounding and centering session with Michele, your own body, and some beautiful Baltimore trees. Back in the studio at the Creativity Center, Jacob takes us through an overview of his work uniting drag and queer ecology and a printmaking experience that will leave you with some take-home art! Nigel rounds out Workshop 1 with an overview of sustainability practices in theatre and performance and devising exercises that integrate and synthesize elements of the workshop.
Where: Creativity Center, 3137 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, MD 21224
When: SAT OCT 19 | 3-6PM
Age Range: 16+
Cost: $15-75 Sliding Scale
Materials: Clothes to move in!
Nigel Semaj (they/them) is a Baltimore-based director, movement director, choreographer, and educator from Washington, D.C. They are an Assistant Professor of Performance and Affiliate Assistant Professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Nigel’s directing credits include the Off-Broadway premiere of Bloodshot by Elinor T. Vanderburg, and Ntozake Shange’s Spell No. 7. Nigel holds an MFA from The New School for Drama in Theatre Directing and New Play Development. Their adaptation and devised work include 10,000 Moor, a five-woman adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, For Hylas, a queer retelling of the Hercules myth, and Call Me By Any Other Name…Just As Sweet, a queer deconstruction of Romeo and Juliet.
Jacob Marrero (He/They), who holds a BFA in Printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, is a multidisciplinary artist whose creative expression spans printmaking, photography, sculpture, and performance. Originally from Miami, FL, and influenced by travels to Puerto Rico, Jacob has always admired the natural world. His work explores the intersection of queer ecology and drag culture, emphasizing adaptation as a core theme.
Shaped by the vibrant world of drag, Jacob’s work celebrates diverse queer themes, exploring the complex journey of self-perception and acceptance of one’s queerness. Through incorporating natural elements into his creations, he highlights the fluidity and resilience found in both nature and identity. His most recent exhibition, ADAPTATION, was shown at The Gateway’s BBOX, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
Michele Minnick (she/her) Ph.D., CMA, SMT/E, has been a theater artist and somatic movement educator for 25 years, primarily in New York, Baltimore, and Brazil (see https://bakerartist.org/portfolios/michele-minnick for artistic portfolio). Her performance work incorporates Rasaboxes (see www.rasaboxes.com ) and other somatic practices, including Bartenieff Fundamentals, Laban Movement Analysis, Body Mind Centering, ecosomatics and mindfulness practices. She is co-author of Inside the Performance Workshop: A Sourcebook for Rasaboxes and Other Exercises (2023). Michele’s university teaching includes performance theory and practice at NYU, Towson University, and Kennesaw State University. As a teaching artist, she brings emotional awareness and the creative process to K-12 classrooms with Arts for Learning Maryland. Her training in performance studies has given her an intellectual framework for theorizing and practicing in the territory linking historical trauma, somatics and performance, and queerness and performance. She uses these tools, as well as learnings from Resmaa Menakem’s Somatic Abolitionism and other anti-racist practices, and her study of climate and environmental justice to collaboratively build community and shape change with Vital Matters (founded in 2021).
Location: The Creativity Center
Location: The Patterson
Location: The Creativity Center
Location: Creativity Center
