Queer (Re)Public Emergent Artist Residency, an Incubator for Creatives of Color

Gender euphoria is bliss. >> Freedom to experience masculinity, femininity and everything in between >> without any other thought that my own pleasure. >> Gender euphoria is opening the door to your body and being home >> unabashed bliss. >> You can feel it. You can you can feel the relief >> and the sense of validation and actualization. Or sometimes it means >> being confident in who >> but also to see yourself reflected on >> or maybe not but being excited to find out. >> Hello and welcome to Gender Euphoria the podcast a series produced for Hal Theater Commons a free and open platform for theater makers worldwide. I'm your host Nicholas Shannon Sevard. My pronouns are they them and theirs. Today I am here with Dez Bennett of the theater offensive in Boston. We're going to be talking about the Queer Republic's um emergent artist residency. Um but before we dive fully into that, uh Dez, could you tell us a little bit about who you are as an artist? >> Yeah, hello. My name is Dez Bennett. I use they them pronouns. Um, I'm the associate director of queer public programming at the Theater Offensive and I am a theater artist at large. I direct. I primarily do a lot of dramaty and new development work. That's how I kind of found my way to um leading our residency. I've led new play festivals since I was in college. [clears throat] Um, and this feels like the grown-up version of that. Um, I'm also a um 2D artist. I do a lot of collage work and make zenes. Um I love zi as something that we can use as archive and also distribute information, distribute ideas, distribute radical imagination. I'm also a drag artist um under the name Desdmonic um where I explore villain in a queer and black community. my like art handle is like making whatever the hell I want. And that is kind of my whole vibe. And I feel like the interdisciplinary way in which I approach art and the way that creativity just shapes my just daily existence really is apparent in the ways that we also do a lot of multiddisiplinary trans media art here at the theater offensive. So it's exciting to be able to shape programs that allow other artists to work in that kind of way. I have so many follow-up questions about all of that that would get us so off track. Um, but I'm gonna stay focused >> for the next episode. [laughter] >> Different episode. Here we go. Um, how did you find your way to the theater fensive and Queer Publix? >> Yeah. Um, in my senior year of college, I went to Northeastern uh University like you know down the street. Um, we had to do a senior project that was like [snorts] research theater companies that you might want to work at in the future and do a deep dive on their values, their organizational structure, their programming. And the theater offensive was the one that I really hung on to because at that time they had just gone through a strategic planning shift um under Harold Stewart's leadership and there was a lot of kind of signaling around like this is going to be a place where you could work that works with youth. It works with emerging artists. Um they're working with emerging strategies. They're taking cues from you know black feminist leaders. This is an organization that's really rooted in the history of Boston, which as a transplant is something that's very important to me to be deeply knowledgeable and involved in the continuation of like the ways that QT bipac folks have fought for liberation and like defined culture in Boston. A friend of mine actually started working at TTO before me. Shout out to Robbie Flanigan who is our development operations manager. He started working at TTO and was like, "Does you have to work here?" And I kind of waited patiently in the wings for their programs manager um position to open up and was able to meet the previous programs director, Tanisha Jones, at their gala. And I think this is just like a story of if you're interested in working at a place, like you got to find where they're having events and show up and be like, "Hi, I want to work with you. Like this is my dream job. How does how do I get here?" And so I was really patient and also determined um and joined the team in fall of 2022. We'll talk about this a little bit later, but in my first week truly like I signed my contract and the next day I was on a road trip to Double Edge Theater, which is our um Harvest partner on the Queer Republic Residency um to kind of understand what the partnership was like, see the work that they're doing there, get to know the people. And I didn't really understand that that would be like such a defining relationship and defining place like sense of place for me and for the work that I would be doing at TTO. Oh, and I skipped a bit which is that um in the interlude of like waiting patiently to have a full-time job at TTO, I also um directed their True Colors troop. That season the theme was queer republics. TTO was really trying to understand like what the phrase queer republic brought out in people and like what it meant to people especially youth which was really really fascinating um and I loved having those kinds of conversations. I directed and then was able to transition to programs manager and then over the years have moved through the company and am now the associate director of our queer public programming. Um, so can you tell me a little bit about what the Queer Republic's residency is? Um, who are the artists that the program aims to support? What are the goals of this residency? What is it that you do in your time together there? >> Yeah, all all good questions. Um, the residency is one of those things that I feel like we like keep on the down low sometimes, but like like is beginning to become really one of our flagship programs. So, you're letting the podcast audience in on like secrets here now? >> I am. Yes. >> Listen to Gender Euphoria, you'll be in the know. [laughter] >> Exactly. You'll get all the get all the gore details. Um but no, we're actually really trying to share a lot more about the residency because it is something that is so transformative. It's very, it is a radical um residency program and we are really wanting to share this work and specifically the format of this residency um the challenges, the successes with people to be able to replicate something like this um and to really like learn from what we've learned um by um engaging with it. But the residency started really from this kind of mindset, the scarcity mindset of there's really not a lot of opportunities for QT bipok artists in Boston and nationwide to really incubate their work without the kind of pressures of an institution telling them what their work has to be. Part of the work that I was doing before I came to TTO, even as an undergrad, was how do we keep artists in Boston? Um, and how do we keep them from, you know, leaving to go find other opportunity because there is an opportunity here. And so most of my artistic mission, like personal mission is to create more artistic opportunities in Boston and keep artists here and keep them being able to like sustain themselves here. It's an expensive city. Um, but it's also one full of like amazing culture. So it really grew out of that void and this desire from really Tasia Jones to say like what kind of residency could we create? If we think about this from an abundance mindset and a mindset of we can create the world that we want to see, we can create the programs that we want to see. And this really stems from our queer liberatory aesthetics um which really identify key values that go into cutty bipok work and creating it and the cultural impact that it has. It really comes from the idea of space and segregation honoring the kitchens peers and community centers. The spell for that is we make magic wherever we go making do, making beautiful and making the spaces our people most need. We remember and uplift the queer stories that shaped this place. We make our own because we refuse to be disappeared or forgotten. So the residency is really about making that space for artists. Part of the particularity of that is a this is a dedicated residency to QT bipac emerging artists. B we incubate the work for 22 months which is one of the longest residencies um for new work development. oftentimes you'll have someone like you know casually you know we'll do a reading then maybe we will do a workshop then maybe we'll do a full production and it's kind of this extended maybe we will maybe we won't um kind of relationship but we say you know we really want to work with you for these two years and develop something really special. It is fully funded in the sense that we um provide an artist stipend. Um each time we have kind of our residency intensives, all artists are paid additionally. All their creatives and collaborators are paid additionally. They receive housing, travel, meals as needed. um when we're especially when we're out of the city and traveling together. And they receive dedicated rehearsal space for weeks out of the year in order to develop their work as well as mentorship, cohort meetings, leadership, artistic development. We work with a leadership coach on what it means to be a collaborative leader. Um, and really like decolonize the leadership practices in working in this way where you're a lead artist, but you're also working with your friends to lead like a particular vision and want them to be able to influence that. We have three different levels of the residency that folks can enter through. The first is True Colors, which was originally dedicated to youth, um, but has expanded to also be open to educators and folks who are wanting to develop a new practice within theater, but also just live performance in general. Um, that could be like vocal workshops, that could be devising workshops. And then the next kind of tier which is really the queer republic residency leg of it is the level one which is usually a project that is almost like brand new in its baby stage. Um that is working towards its first public showing that has been generally our most flexible residency because you know you could be working towards a reading. Um you could be working to I don't know like create a first demo of your album. That hasn't been something that we've done but I would love to do that. um >> speaking that into existence. >> Exactly. I'm like we're trying to I mean we're really having a lot of discussions about like how do we move this away from like just kind of like theatrical type performances, but in the past it's been new play development and right now we're working on a drag theater project that I'll tell you a little bit more about later. Um so it's a very interdicciplinary piece and a very experimental throughine. And then our kind of most robust um productionwise uh residency is the level two. Usually it's a project that has already had a public showing but is wanting to be reworked or explore an essential piece of the experimentation that they really need to be able to incubate and take that time to play off of each other. often involves bringing in new collaborators or bringing in a new element to the work um that hadn't been explored before and results in a full production of the work or workshop production. It kind of depends on like what the needs are of the play, but typically it's working towards a full production. And we also work with all of our artists to really define like yes, we want you to be able to leave the residency with something um that you're really proud of, but we also want to help set you up for the next steps as well. So, are you looking to tour this work? How do we create a piece together that is also tourable and doesn't just live in one theater in Boston um in its grandest form? Or, you know, are you trying to like do workshops across the city um in schools? Are you trying to get published? like there are lots of avenues for success that follow the residency that we're also trying to set people up for success when in which I think is maybe one of the hardest parts of the residency is like planning that far into the future. The residency culminates in a festival in usually in the culminating June of the residency program called the queer public festival where we show all of the work. Um it's a week of week or two of workshops, performances, work in progress, showings, and then we also do alter work, ceremony work. Um we're thinking about having a mutual aid market. There's lots of ideas about how we want to include the community in this work that isn't just performance, but also giving back to the community as they join us in the celebration of the work that we've created together. We work with, you know, over a hundred artists, technicians, crew members, designers, venue staff, front of house staff, volunteers for the festival. And so it's a huge opportunity for community and it's also a huge opportunity for employment for um queer folks who are involved with the work that we do outside of just, you know, who's on stage, right? Those are kind of the bones of the residency. It's a lot of bones. Uh very lots of bones. >> [laughter] >> It's a a whole skeleton. >> Oh, yeah. Absolutely. >> I'm going to jump a little bit back to this road trip. Um, right from the beginning. Uh, so I was surprised and honestly kind of delighted and then really inspired to learn that part of the Queer Republic's uh, residency takes place on a farm in rural Massachusetts. Um, I I grew up in New Hampshire, so like when I think Boston, that was the big city. And then I saw a bunch of theater happening on a farm, and I was like, what is Okay, here we go. Um, so you have this partnership with Double Edge Theater, um, that you called a Harvest partnership. I'm intrigued. What does that mean? >> Yeah. Um, uh, harvest partnership is something that, um, we are I I I can't I can't say that we've coined it necessarily. I'm not sure where the phrase came from, honestly, but we define it as a commitment to mutual collaboration with another organization through program development, organizational learning, and resource sharing as a means to water and harvest both organizations crops, which for both of us is life sustaining liberatory art. Um and in particular our partnership really aims to uplift the work of queer public residency. Yeah, we have been working with Double Edge for many many years and actually um both of our organizations grew up kind of in the same cohort. Um they've both been around for roughly 40-ish years. Um 30 30 to 40 years. Uh, Double Edge also used to be based in Boston um, before moving out to Ashefield, Massachusetts and produced uh, TTO's like first full production. Um, so this partnership goes really deep, but Double Edge itself is a cultural cooperative based in Ashefield. Um, they have a 110 acre center for art, living culture and art justice. They farm, they eat, they live, they make art, all in the same place. Many of the people who are currently working at Double Edge grew up in the area and have literally physically built the facilities that they work out of. So, it's a really, really special place to make art. And they've been making art for a lot longer than we've been there. And our partnership is rooted in three week-long residency intensives at Double Edge where we bring about 20 to 30 QT bypock people to their farm and create art. Part of the reason why we, you know, uh, work together is because there just physically isn't space in Boston to sustain, you know, three individual projects um, with multiple people coming from different places and the kind of breath and um, relationality that's needed and feels like it can only exist when you're able to detach from a city. Um, we recently, me and Kariel Klein, who is the producing director at Double Edge Theater and really my like partner in crime there. Um, we recently uh did a talk on the rural urban divide and bridging it through this partnership. And it's it's really a beautiful thing to be able to bring a bunch of black people to the woods. That's not something that I think many of us have been able to grow up with or have had the privilege to grow up with. And to create art in that kind of space is extremely freeing. I mean like your mind just quiets and is then able to be open to more creativity, more relationality. Many of the artists who have worked with us um in the residency, especially those who have been kind of like repeat creatives, collaborators with us, also start to form a relationship with the land that's there as well. Um, you know, many start their mornings going down to the river on their property or walking through the labyrinth that they've created. We swim in the lake there. Uh, there's like my like consistent waterfall that I go to um on my day off. Like there's there's deep relationality that comes with being able to incubate the work there for three different residencies over the two years and that kind of return to place in that way. oftentimes, you know, we're just inhabiting a rehearsal hall, a cold blackbox theater where there's like no light coming in. So, it's a very different and special experience that's able to have their double-edged supports by offering a lot of um administrative support when it comes to housing us um when it comes to helping make sure that we are logistically supported. they have a lot of staff that is present and is working behind the scenes to make sure that you know food is made. Um that the rooms are set up the way that we need them to be, that we have the supplies that we need. Um when it comes to tech, if it if they have that kind of tech, um one of the things that I think we run into oftent times is like we're making work in a barn, the tech is different. Um, but also they have like wild capabilities of like flying people outdoors or like lighting a show in a pond. So there's really like a a dichotomy there um of what's of what's possible which is a really a wonderful creative problem to have >> using the space that you got. >> Exactly. And they use every bit of the space that they have and I think that's deeply inspiring for the artists to think outside of the boxes that we usually create theater in. And that's really the you know the huge value of it is that kind of expansion of imagination, expansion of resources, expansion of capacity because you know each one of our organizations might have you know we're an organization of like I think less than 15 and we partner with an organization that's like 30 to 40 and that just expands both of our capacities to hold the residency. Yeah. So I it's it's definitely one of the most lifeaff affirming um parts of this work, not only for myself, but I think for the artist as well. There is a lot of love for this aspect of the residency for sure. >> All of that just sounds wonderful. And I very badly want to go see some beautifully lit theater on a pond. >> No, >> I'm completely changing directions here. Um just flagging that. Um so from whatever I Queer Republics is, and you mentioned earlier, pretty strongly rooted in a virgin strategy and queer like liberatory aesthetics. I apologize in advance for this impossibly large question. Um, but how do these practices of emergent strategy and queer liberatory aesthetics inform your work in the program? Incomplete, but honest answers only. >> Incomplete. Incomplete for sure. Um, yes, it is an impossible question that I'm still consistently trying to answer. >> Quick bit of context on emergent strategy. The concept was popularized especially in social justice oriented circles by Adrienne Marie Brown in her book Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, published in 2017. The author describes the text as, and I quote, "A guide book for getting in right relationship with change, using our own nature and thought of creatures beyond human as our teachers." It's inspired by and engages deeply with the work of science fiction author Octavia Butler, as well as other afroofuturist and feminist thinkers. Highly, highly recommend reading it. Uh, I mean, first the way that I define emergent strategy is um a process of how to navigate change or plans, you know, your bestlaid plans um that kind of get turned upside down due to unforeseen circumstances and the methods that you use in order to kind of make your next plan of action. And for us, that's towards the goal of creating queer and trans life affirming liberatory art. And of course, Adrienne Marie Brown in emergent strategy defines it in many ways, but the way that I um cling on to the most is emergent strategy is how we intentionally change in ways that grow our capacity to embody the just and liberated worlds we long for. And I've recently been thinking about it as like it feels like I I talk often about producers having to be time travelers who, you know, travel into the future and they say in you, you know, 2 years you're going to be thinking about how to tour this gigantic set that [laughter] like doesn't fit into a van and I have to come back from the future and be like, "Hey, we need to be thinking about this because you're going to need to know about this later." But it often feels like when it comes to uh emerging strategy that it feels like a process of time traveling, but like your GPS is like really broken. Um and so you're landing in like different timelines that you did not prepare for and really having to navigate, you know, what what comes next? Um how can we make the most of this possible change of plans? There's a lot of delight in general in TTO itself being really grounded in emergence strategy. even before it was kind of publicly named as something that we really dedicated ourselves to. And what I mean by that is that TTO grew out of a gorilla theater troop, United Fruit Company, which was a gay theater troop founded in 1984 in response to the HIV AIDS crisis and was itself like an emerging strategy towards responding to the US government's poor public health response to the crisis and an emerging strategy towards gay liberation. So I feel as if TTO over these, you know, 37 years of existing has really continued to clarify and shift its mission in order to really uplift emergent strategy um and uplift, you know, ever unfolding struggles, successes, poly crisis that we find ourselves in um that inhibit queer and trans liberation. the way that emergent strategy kind of functions within the residency itself. Again, the residency is an emergent strategy of TTO to continue to fight for QT bipac liberation in the arts by being its own methodology to creating space for QT bipok artists to creating job opportunities for QT bipac artists. But then within the residency each year we're kind of growing and shifting the way that we run the residency, the way that we structure it, how we decide who and how we want to support the artists that we're working with. So from the pilot year for example, the first pilot year was I had come in truly at the last few months of their residency. The first thing that I had noticed was that their projects were being shown asynchronously. So each of the artists were kind of in a different part of their process, which I think actually led to a lot of disconnection because they couldn't relate to each other on what struggle they were in in the very moment. Not to mention that their projects were so different from each other. One of the major things that we shifted was that we all were starting on the same not the same playing field but kind of starting from day one. We're all going to residency together three times. We're all going to perform together kind of in rep at the queer public festival. Yeah. So the changes that were implemented between, you know, pilot year and then our first official year were that we were all working together on the same timeline. we really emphasized the necessity for cohort and chose artists whose work could kind of bounce off of each other. Um, so if anyone was at the queer public festival in 2025, the work we were doing with River Gry of Union was a practice towards devising work within a community that also would promote social justice within a particular community. So they might be examining a particular question, a particular phenomenon, a particular social justice issue. Um or even just like what does it mean to be an ancestor? Those kinds of questions within community and create a work based on that. Their kind of methodology around theater of union then created a lot of conversations and inspiration and methodology for the other works that were happening alongside them and through workshops that River was leading as part of their residency. All of the artists participated in those workshops and all of the artists were able to learn more about how to use the emerging strategy that they were even talking about in theater of union within their own work. So that kind of um ficcundity of one person's work then influencing anothers. So really being intentional about choosing projects and artists who we think will be able to really learn from each other and also thematically align in some way um and align towards a particular practice. So that was a huge change that we made not only in the way that we structured the residency but also in how we chose artists because it became relational not just you know dependent on the success of one person. And then there's like micro ways in which we are constantly running into you know the the our own capacity or our own capacity for imagination honestly of like how do we push past this obstacle of you know uh [clears throat] a good example is like ice at the airport like that's an obstacle that we are currently navigating when we work with artists who are coming outside of Boston who are taking planes is that it's scary to fly. It's scary to like go cross state lines right now. Um so that is an obstacle that we've had to like shift how we interact with folks when it comes to travel or we have to you know structure the residency to accommodate the evershifting ways in which capitalism means that we have artists who are working day jobs who can only come with us for a weekend of the residency. So how does that drastically shift how we even you know schedule that week? So there's micro ways in which we're constantly re-evaluating process and how we move for the process and that's different for each artist. And so having as producers um across TTO and Double Edge, how we show up to those challenges, I think is really rooted in emergence strategy and a deliberate consistent decision to be in practice together and to enter conflicts, enter you know issues within the industry as partners and not just partners with each other but also partners with the artists. You know, there's a lot of transparency that has to come with that as well that I think is radical transparency and that I think really defines our artist producer relationship as well. >> So many things. >> I could talk about this forever. [snorts] People usually only give me an hour. [laughter] >> I have a feeling this is related. pulling from your website here. I am interested to hear more about the work you're doing with the residency in decolonizing the relationship between artists and producers. Um, and this is the question that I sent you that had like five parts because my brain was going in 15 directions, but I will ask them one at a time. Broadly speaking, what does it mean for you like as a producer in this residency to be decolonizing that relationship? And I guess what are some of the aspects of the traditional meaning, you know, patriarchal, white, eurosentric, capitalist, etc. uh producer artist relationship that you're questioning, resisting, intervening in here. Yeah, thank you for asking this huge huge question that I certainly >> I apparently only ask huge >> huge questions, >> impossible questions. [laughter] >> No, but I love that. And also >> like I know you're going to have things to say. >> Oh yeah. Um and so much of this is in draft because I think like you know one of the biggest kind of um pieces that we're still working on uh organizationally when it comes to decolonizing is just like allowing ourselves to sit in what we know and what we don't know and actually talk about it. But yeah, I think one of the biggest things that we aim to decolonize is the hierarchy between producers and artists. And there are of course always going to be that kind of bottom line ideology. Really, one of the things that we aim to be transparent about is financial transparency. And that is a radical thing that we've begun doing with our artists, particularly our resident artists who are operating at, you know, a level in which financial decisions about their work really influences, you know, who they're able to hire, what they're able to um explore creatively, the amount of time they have to do it. All of those kinds of questions are really tied to finances and really tied to money and resources are um something that is finite. So, we're constantly balancing the like what is the reality we're in versus what we want to manifest when it comes to abundance and how do we do that? And a lot of it comes through transparency and consent in a way. So in this way like we work with the emerging artists to really um have them understand the budget and how we're managing and considering their needs um and also allowing them to have influence on that budget and make informed decisions about how their work is funded, how that money is utilized. And so we'll sit down with an artist and say, "Here's the budget line by line. Um what isn't here that we need to be thinking about? And if this is the finite number, what decisions do we need to make? You know, what concessions might need to be made in order to bring a certain collaborator on or you know build this huge thing or whatever it is. And then I think the other huge way that we disrupt this is um not really working towards a profit or finite goal. All of our programs and tickets are pay what you can. This isn't something that we plan to really change. And uh so we're not trying to you know maximize sales or leverage profit in that way. We're always trying to maximize artistic development and you know not necessarily the end product but a feeling of I accomplished something and I feel like this was excellent work that I was able to do. Um and I was able to do it with care and with grace and without urgency. I think, you know, one of the biggest thing that I think is hard for literally all creatives right now is resisting urgency. >> Yeah. >> Um it's it's like, >> yeah, I just watched you be like, "Yeah." Um it's almost an impossible task. I swear. Like it it's I also I often find that when you're trying to resist urgency in one avenue, you actually lead to creating urgency in another. And I think um that is you know a constant you know battle we're having especially because the residency doesn't exist in a vacuum. It also exists alongside other programs that we're working towards um all the time. But when it comes to urgency I mean the length of time that we have to incubate the work in itself is a disruption against that. Um we're not asking you to turn around a product in a year or a couple months. were a sort of end goal, an ideal end goal um of what the work might look like at the end of your residency and at the festival. But that goal can change and that goal might change for a lot of different reasons. Again, emerging strategy, not being beholdened to it must be this. But what are the different ways that this work might emerge? What are the kind of goalposts in which we make the decision about whether this is a full-scale production or a workshop because you're a burnt out artist and you need more time and you don't want to push yourself towards a particular goal or like how do we really push your dreaming and imagination and reach for that higher goal? You know, how do we fully support that? So um yeah, I think that really um assists to yeah destabilize that relationship. Um and it it really I mean I aim to always balance what is the issues around capitalism and racism and queer and transphobia society and within organizational processes or within artists. producer relationships because oftentimes, you know, you might be in a particular struggle struggle um having a particular conflict and it's like the the problem is not us. The problem is like society or the problem is you know like something that me and the artists don't have control over. Um you know it could be the venue is you know putting particular pressures on us. oftentimes it's also partnering with each other to say we're trying to fight the same system. Let's not use that system on each other and let's not turn it back as a weapon that actually destroys trust. It destroys really the purpose and vision that we're all moving towards, not just within this residency, but within, you know, changing the ecosystem of Boston theater, changing the relationship between artists and Boston itself and really, you know, looking at those tenants of white supremacy and really like as much as possible not allowing them to exist in our work um or our relationship with our artists. Cutting in to provide a reference here. Uh Dez is talking about the anti-racist framework proposed by Tima Oaken. In her article, white supremacy culture in its original publication in 1999. Oaken describes 15 key characteristics of white supremacy culture as it shows up in organizations and offers antidotes or shifts in practice that can disrupt white supremacy. She published an updated version of the article as well as a website in 2021 in partnership with Dismantling Racism Works. Both are linked in the transcript for you. Okay, back to Dez. and you know being super open to feedback. We have a pretty rigorous debrief process where we debrief you know each engagement that we have with our artists um v either as like a group or through feedback forms and we then you know implement that feedback and solutions for our next residency or next process. Um and there will always be roadblocks. There will always be like I think um a limit to what we can do but we continuously try to push past that limit when it comes to what feels comfortable as an organization. You know >> I think you started to touch on it a little bit but what are some of the areas that you hope to like deepen that [clears throat] decolonizing work going forward? >> Yeah, it's tricky. I think I mean I think one of the ways is spatially and within our partnerships how we're able to influence other organizations to decolonize to continuously become welcoming spaces for QD bipok people without also doing a lot of that labor ourselves. Um and >> that is the trick. That's the trick. Yeah, that's the rub. One thing that I will kind of drop as a resource is the decolonization writer, which is by uh Emily Johnson um created this. It was originally designed to create conversation with organizations and artists um specifically indigenous artists around things like land acknowledgements um but going really beyond that. And a lot of the work and a lot of the opportunities for implementation are not just related to indigenous needs and indigenous practices um and solidarity. I think there's a lot of things that we can learn from indigenous practitioners and artists about how to engage in work in a decolonial way and truly decolonial, not you know the the kind of metaphorical but truly in the practice. And so I think a lot of the ways that I am myself keeping my mind and practice open to is aligning myself more with indigenous practices and things that we can learn from the really complex like organizational societywide [laughter] um questions that decolonization really poses to us about land, about space, about capital. These are all things that I think we're thinking about quite heavily. And when it comes to that, also, you know, inhabiting organizations and venues um and having partnerships with folks who feel the same way um and who are also aiming to truly decolonize. And I think that is, you know, a culture shift that underpins a lot of ways in which we can even really fully have a decolonized practice. I think a lot of people are experiencing this within institutions, within educational institutions is like again this question of how much can you actually decolonize when the container is literally not built for that. And I think that's true for the nonprofit industrial complex. I think that's true for just theater, the theater industry at large. Um, so a lot of the things that I'm thinking about are like how do we shift culture outside of us so that we can further like even further decolonize the industry and our relationship with it and who we work with and where we work all those kinds of things. Um, >> yeah, that's the first thing that's kind of been on my mind recently. the first >> first 20. >> Yeah, first 20, you know, first 20. Thanks. I'm like, yeah, I'm thinking about landback. I don't know. [laughter] Just an easy an easy one to start. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> I guess are there practices or like general shifts in approach that you would hope other producing organizations might learn from the example that DTO is setting? Yeah, I think this is a good opportunity to bring up the queer liberatory aesthetics which are really our guiding values towards creating a QT bipac aesthetic, but also it just honors the cultural contributions to society and art that QT folks have made um and the methods that they use to do it. These were created by cultural strategists um Sage Crump and Maria Sherry Reangel and other groups of local and national artists to really develop an aesthetic of values and methods that continue to come up in QT bipac art, but also are like I think what society often sees as like the honey that comes from our labor. And not to say that I think this is like an an extractive way that we can share um our methods, but more so that the the things that make our work feel special and meaningful and life affirming are also things that can be practiced in other organizations and by other practitioners. So QLA is a set of eight pillars around that really just like they shape the way that we navigate conflict. They shape the way that we, you know, think about programming. They navigate the way that we think about relationships, what kind of collaborators we want to work with. And so in the way that you might think about like a writer, these are kind of like our ways of saying this is how we work. This is how we want to work with other organizations, with other artists, this is what we're valuing in process. And I already spoke about one which is space and segregation. Um, but another one I think about is medicinal and healing. And I bring this one up because I think it's honestly one of those that we need the most in order to decolonize, which is the understanding that we're born with the ability to heal ourselves and our kin. And is really a offering strategies towards recognizing that harm is systemic and not just interpersonal and how we embed those kinds of healing into our own organizational culture. and then use that as medicine outward. It's where we often turn when we're trying to, you know, resist urgency and say we actually need to slow down. We need to rest. We need to reflect. We need to emotionally process. Um the work that we do is extremely heavy and often times we find ourselves just moving right past it to the next thing. I think this is a really key one for us right now as we're entering a period of producing more, producing larger scale that looking back and saying and how do we prioritize this because this is key for our success too and it's key for our wellness um and the work feeling good for us within that too. It's also like allowing us to think about the fact that we don't want to burn ourselves out by trying to fix the whole world um and be the savior. And I think a lot of times people look to the QT bipac organization or the QT QT bipac artist and trans and black people to, you know, fix all their problems and it's like, girl, I need to go lay down. Like, you need to figure this out yourself. Um, and so in in in some ways the QLA offers like an ability for us to um engage with folks without also, you know, burning ourselves out having to be the only like physical individual teachers of the work that we do and the process in which we do it. >> Cannot emphasize enough how important that is. >> I appreciate that. So yeah. Yeah. Um we'll definitely link uh the queer liberatory aesthetics info in the transcript so folks can read the whole thing. >> Yes, please do. >> It is good stuff. >> It's a really beautiful document. Um yeah. Um, so looking ahead, what is in store for the Beer Republic Emergent Artist Residency in the coming months? [snorts] Oo. Um, well, first I'll use this opportunity to just share about our residents. Um, cuz they're all such wonderful people. Um, and I'm really excited to share their work with the Boston community. Our true colors resident artist is Desiree Graham um who is working on a song research project um and will be offering workshops and a singing session as their kind of contribution to the festival. They'll also be having a few workshops in Boston. So keep your eyes out for those in the coming year leading up to that as practice and really like doing that kind of research of how can I implement this? How can I better myself as a teacher in community? Our level one artist is Jav Sanchez aka King Kilabyte. He is a a Filipino Japanese drag artist and drag king specifically who is embodying the character of Kilabyte um who is an oni um halfh human half demon character. And the work that Jav's working on is a theater drag amalgamation. Um, it will include other perform other drag performers um in the scene who I'm really excited to be working with in this capacity and will be like a long form drag performance um exploring King Kilobyte's background and journey rediscovering his heritage. And then our third artist is Ian Andrew Skuw um who actually directed um In the Space Between which was part of our first queer public festival last year. And Ian is working on a project called Sorry, John Henry, The Song Does Not End, which is inspired by um the musical John Henry and is really a a experimental opera version that um destabilizes the myth of John Henry in in terms of the all of the stories that have been told about John Henry that actually like miss the point of this anti- capitalist story. So, it is an offer that is going to be exploring music. It's exploring um technology and exploring our relationship to capital capitalism um as black queer people. And so, those are the artists. Um we've already done one residency intensive back in April um that was really beautiful and was really like a kickstart to um the whole process. And we go back to residency in September for a week. they'll be working towards their projects, bringing in even more collaborators. One of the things I'm looking forward to is um some cross sharing that we'll be able to hopefully do between the song research project and the other projects that are also still also working with music and working with voice. And then we have a third residency next April and then the Queer Republic Festival that will be happening in June 2027 um which will be twice as long as the first one. Um the first residency was basically a weekend. Um we're extending it to two week and really spreading out um the projects so that each of them are able to really find the ways in which they bounce off of each other but also give the spaciousness of working and presenting each of them so that everyone can see the work and don't have to feel like oh no I missed this one on Saturday cuz you know this other woman's happening. So we're really trying to give as many opportunities for people to see and participate in the work as possible. Yeah. So, I'm really I'm really excited about the next couple months and you know there's so much that we learned from the first residency and the first uh festival where it was like this is a massive thing that we're doing actually. Um, we need to really anticipate it in a in a and grow in our capacity and our, you know, ways of thinking about it in so many ways so that again we can be dedicated to this feeling like something where we're also in a culture of care with our own work so that we can put this on and feel really good and proud about it. So yeah, there's a lot of kind of behind the-scenes things that are happening to help support that work um that yeah, I'm just really really proud of our team, really proud of the artists for continually being in relationship with us in which we can grow um and really create a residency that is just I don't know like truly consistently hearing from them unlike anything they've been a part of and wanting to make that as sustainable as possible That is a solid little button to end on. Um, so in closing, I've got a couple of questions that I ask all guests of Gender Euphoria, the podcast. Uh, the first one is I would like to invite you to give a shout out to a member of your queer trans artistic family tree. um who is someone who has inspired you, supported you, showed you a path to becoming the fabulous queer artist that you are today. I'm going to shout out Allison Chu. Um [clears throat] because Allison is someone who I like started early career with working at uh Central Square Theater as a drama turk and we had partnered with chunk stage like truly right before chunk stage like really blew up outside of Emerson. And I just remember this like fervent feeling between us of like really wanting to change the landscape of Boston theater and this desire for partnering and lifting each other up in that pursuit. And the work that Chunk Stage does is so phenomenal. anytime I'm like walking into that space and just seeing them continuously grow in a way that I think like is so steady and really aims to support the artists. They are the definition to me of like creating a culture of care for their artists and creating work that really touches and reflects and gives back to the community. Um, I find the work that Trump stage does led by um, Alton Jude to be some of the most inspiring in Boston and like in the nation. Like I'm constantly taking my cues from them and we have some secret inspiring and very exciting collaborations coming in the future and I just I love working with that team. Um, so shout out to Allison. >> And finally, would you leave us with a snapshot of Joy Square community? [laughter] Um, to me, Joyous queer community has really looked like bringing my gaggle of queer black and brown and trans friends to the beach. And truly anytime I'm I'm able to spend time with cutie bop people in nature feels so healing and like such a beautiful and joyous resistance to all of the things in our society right now that tell us that we, you know, shouldn't be able to rest and shouldn't be able to play and shouldn't be able to have joy. It feels like such a big release into all of those things. And yeah, I love to bring many blankets and lots of food and a little craft and truly just like camp out for the whole day like until sunset. Truly, that is really the most healing and joyous part of community that I've been experiencing recently. >> Yeah, sounds lovely. >> Thank you. I hope you get to do that. I hope anyone who needs to go to the beach can go to the beach this weekend. >> All right. >> Get yourself to the beach by the end of the summer. >> By the end of the summer. By the end of the week, bro. Like [laughter] >> Okay. By the end of the week. I'm in Michigan. I've got to travel a bit further to get to the beach. >> That's so That's so real. Any body of water. Any body of water. Like I I I cannot emphasize enough um the power and cleansing of just putting your feet in water. This has been gender euphoria the podcast hosted and edited by me Nicholas Shannonard. The voices you heard in the intro poem were Rebecca Clling, Dylan Wega, Siri Gur Dev, Azer D Osborne Lee, and Joshua Bastian Cole. The show art was designed by Gasham Gulven. This podcast is produced as a contribution to Halound Theater Commons. You can find more episodes of this show and other hound shows wherever you find podcasts, including on non-commercial open-source apps like Anytime Podcast Player for iPhone and Antennopod for Android. If you loved this podcast, please share it with your friends, your colleagues, your students. You can find a transcript for this episode along with lots of other progressive and disruptive content on howround.com. 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