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Axis 5: Decolonizing Nature

Community Care Strategies (2020-Present)

“COMMUNITY CARES: All Together Now”
Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 | 6:30pm-8:30pm | Via Zoom
For Tickets, click here

Now, more than ever, we need artists and community members like you to imagine with us a culture of peace.

Shaped like a stakeholder gathering for artists, donors, community partners, and funders, Kyoung’s Pacific Beat’s “Community Cares: All Together Now” is an opportunity for you to support KPB’s mission to advance a culture of peace and non-violence.

Our bi-annual, virtual gala will honor KPB Board member Tiffany Vega-Gibson and Theater Advocate Arnaldo López. Our program will also offer previews of our upcoming world premiere and next projects and facilitated discussions to further our flagship programs devising peacemaking theater and celebrating our local, community-based, partnerships.

“Community Cares: All Together Now” is hosted by Ariel Estrada, PennyMaria Jackson, Laurence Pagnoni and Ryan Shen.

Our Host Committee is co-chaired by Jason Chan, Ann Marie Lonsdale and Gary Yu and “Community Cares: All Together Now” is sponsored by Arts FMS.

Tickets are available at a suggested donation of $50 and $25. $10 tickets are available for artists, low-income, BIPOC LGBQT+ members of our community. All ticket purchases and sponsorships are tax-deductible and will support Kyoung’s Pacific Beat’s mission of working with artists, non-artists, and local communities to transform personal and communal experiences of oppression into peace messages made public through performance.

Event sponsorships are available with $250 donations or more and our Host Committee is still recruiting new members. For sponsorship or Host Committee inquiries, please email Kaila Saunders at [email protected].

HONOREES

Arnaldo López
Arnaldo López

Arnaldo J. López is an arts manager and strategist with a Ph.D. in Latin/x American Literatures and Cultures from New York University. He joined Pregones Theater to help carry out its first capital campaign and later helped engineer merger with the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater. As Managing Director, he is thought partner to Pregones/PRTT’s artistic directors, providing leadership in strategic planning, program and facilities stewardship, engagement, fundraising, and board relations. Versed in a broad set of creative, community, and nonprofit topics, he serves the field through mentorship, advisement, and consultation in support of sustainable arts practice. Representative affiliations include The Bronx Council on the Arts, the National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures, The DeVos Institute of Arts Management at The University of Maryland & Bloomberg Philanthropies Arts Innovation and Management program (associate consultant to national cohorts), the Mosaic Network & Fund in The New York Community Trust (steering committee member), and LxNY | Latinx Arts Consortium of New York (co-founder and steering committee member). Prior arts experience includes ten years in letterpress and graphic design.

Tiffany Vega-Gibson
Tiffany Vega-Gibson

Tiffany Vega-Gibson is a Puerto Rican arts administrator, creative producer, and educator from East Harlem, NYC, co-founder of Evolution Management Consultants and is the President & Founder of La Vega Management. Tiffany served as Secretary of KPB’s Board of Directors (2020-2023) and served in KPB’s Leadership Council (2016-2020). She is a trained and certified Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion facilitator through artEquity and Northwestern University. She was Co-Producer of the WE WILL DREAM: New Works Festival, an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University-New Orleans, and a Senior Consultant with Jennifer Brown Consulting. Previously, she was an Associate and Consultant with ALJP Consulting, the General Manager at Hi-ARTS NYC (Formerly Hip-Hop Theater Festival), a Client Success Manager with AudienceView, and an Adjunct Professor at Dillard University. Tiffany is currently on the National Board of the Parent Artist Advocacy League, an organization that advocates for parents and caregivers who work in the performing arts. She has over a decade of experience of serving on various national grant panels for the arts and is also an active member of the Latinx Theatre Commons, Alternate Roots, Women of Color in the Arts, Arts Administrators of Color, Creative and Independent Producer Alliance, the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, and the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. She was also a recipient of the Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Scholarship. Tiffany is considered an industry expert in Black, Latine, and Hip-Hop Theatre. She holds an MFA in Theatre Management & Producing from Columbia University and a BA in Theatre Performance from the University of Maryland-College Park.

“COMMUNITY CARES: All Together Now”
Thursday, December 9th, 2021 | 6:30pm-8:30pm | Via Zoom

Shaped like a stakeholder gathering for our artists, donors, community partners, and funders, “Community Cares: All Together Now” will celebrate Kyoung’s Pacific Beat’s ten year history of making an impact in our community through peacemaking theater and foster conversations about where we’d like to head towards in the next ten years by asking:

How can we come together to practice community care?

Our event is facilitated by Cristina Pitter and will include special appearances by Daniel K. Isaac, Claudia Acosta and Joe Tolbert, Jr.

“Community Cares: All Together Now” is hosted by Raquel Almazan, Kirsten Berkman, Jason Chan, Stephanie Hsu, PennyMaria Jackson, Kyoung H. Park, Ryan Shen and Jason Tseng.

Our Host Committee is chaired by Ann Marie Lonsdale and “Community Cares: All Together Now” is sponsored by Laurence Pagnoni & Wei Ng, Partake Arts, Marty Linsky, Korean American Rainbow Parents, Robert Foust & John Lee.

Tickets are available at a suggested donation of $50 and $25. $10 tickets are available for artists, low-income, BIPOC LGBQT+ members of our community. Event sponsorships are available with $250 donations or more. All ticket purchases and sponsorships are tax-deductible and will support Kyoung’s Pacific Beat’s mission of working with artists, non-artists, and local communities to transform personal and communal experiences of oppression into peace messages made public through performance.

KYOUNG’S PACIFIC BEAT’S
“Community Cares”

Saturday, July 10th, 2021 | 3pm-5pm | FREE
Albee Square [551 Fulton St, off Nevins – 2,3,4,5 or DeKalb – B,Q,R]

What does Community Safety look like to You?

Join Black, Latinx and Asian American performers, healing artists, and local community members to engage in joyful non-Western artistic expressions, restorative exercises, and our community-driven mutual aid drive.

Inspired by Kyoung’s Pacific Beat’s ongoing community-based conversations, Whiteness on Fire,” our theater company is hosting its first, live event since the theater shutdown in March 2020.

In partnership with GAPIMNY – Empowering Queer and Trans APIs, The Exponential Festival, and Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, KPB invites its community members to gather in Downtown Brooklyn’s Albee Square to examine: “What does Community Safety look like to You?”

In addition to cultural programming, Kyoung’s Pacific Beat will lead a mutual aid drive to provide pre-packaged food and goods for local community members. Sign-up to volunteer or donate food here.

For questions regarding our events, please feel free to contact Ishmael Thaahir, Associate Artistic Producer at [email protected]

Graphic Design by Jonathan Gibson

FEATURED ARTISTS

Salomé Egas
Salomé Egas

Salomé Egas is a proudly Ecuadorian mestiza performer and powerhouse who is permanently questioning her identity through dance, theater and film. Her works focus on racial justice, immigration, femme empowerment, radical self-love and queerness; and are always looking for new avenues to liberate and indigenize the body, mind and soul. She is the founder of F.U.N. Theater Collective and has performed nationally and internationally in venues and festivals across the Americas. Recently, Salomé played PACHAMAMA at HAUS of DUST, an immersive theatrical experience. IG:@salomeegas

Cristina Pitter
Cristina Pitter

Cristina Pitter (they/she) is a queer afro-latine fat babe artist who wants to burn it all down and plant new seeds in the fertile soil. Founder of The Ashe Collective – an ancestral storytelling and community outreach group, Community Director of Pipeline Theatre Company, and company member of Ensemble Studio Theatre. She also has the best laugh ever, SERIOUSLY. You may have seen her work at JACK, Target Margin Theatre, Abrons Art Center, The Metropolitan Opera, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Mabou Mines, 59E59, Ars Nova, New Ohio Theatre, Joe’s Pub, The Tank, or three separate but specific bathtubs. You can follow her other antics at cristinapitter.com, including her solo show, “decolonizing my vagina” and as Mistress Lola on Netflix’s Bonding.

How do we find our voice and presence through collective healing? In a time of public trauma, how do we attain grounding in our bodies in space?

Join us Tuesday, June 22nd, 2021 from 7:30pm-9:30pm for “Community Care Healing.”

“Community Care Healing” is a virtual healing session centering vibrational healing, somatic body work, and somatic vocal work, designed to address the mental health care needs of Black, Asian, and artists of color working in New York City’s Indie theater community. Curated by Kyoung H. Park, this free, 90 minute, online Zoom session will be followed by an optional 30 minute conversation to reflect upon the healing work practiced together.

“Community Care Healing” is collaboratively led by Amy Lam PhD (writer/performer), Margherita Tisato (dancer) and Anastasia Marie (vocal coach). Registered participants are asked to connect to this Zoom session in a quiet place where you will not be disturbed, and have access to 6 ft. X 6 ft. of moving space, an open window and a clear glass bowl of water.

Please note that this session of interdisciplinary, healing arts will be recorded and edited, so that each segment of this evening can be viewed online, providing continuous access to 20-30 minute, interactive healing sessions that can be repeated at home. For questions regarding our events, please feel free to contact us at [email protected]

“Community Care Healing” is funded by the Hans, Renate and Maria Hofmann Trust

HEALING ARTISTS

Anastasia Marie
Anastasia Marie

Anastasia Marie (she/her, African-American): Born and raised in Memphis, TN, my story begins in the rich musical history of that city. When I left home, I pursued a diverse education in conservation biology, animal studies, environmental studies, and music. I participated in various spiritual communities, including the Shambala Center, Wicca, Queen Afua’s Sacred Woman, and the Native American church. Eventually, I built a career in music and education. I perform with Asheville Symphony and as the regular featured musician for the Asheville Storytelling GrandSlam and the Moth Radio Hour. Before long, I studied several modalities in voice training, including Estill Voice and the McClosky technique. Currently, I am training in Alexander Technique. My memberships include the National Association for Teachers of Singing, the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, the Voice Foundation, and the Association for Body Mapping Education. I hold degrees from the University of Vermont and the UNC School of the Arts. I live on the ceded land of the Cherokee in Asheville, NC with my loving husband and our two dogs.

Amy Lam
Amy Lam

Amy Lam (she/they, Chinese American) is a Canadian Chinese American genderqueer healer/coach/writer/community advocate living on unceded land of the Ramaytush Ohlone in San Francisco, California. For 20 years, Amy has explored health, healing and transformation through the lens of an Asian-in-diaspora. Utilizing research, interethnic community-building, energy healing and art, Amy experiments with blending Eastern and Western concepts of health, community engagement and spirituality to seek creative solutions for personal- collective-intergenerational healing with modern diasporic communities. Amy is the Founder of Vibrational Energy Coaching & Healing, a healing method that is rooted in Taoist principles. As an artist, Amy has developed devised performances and community engaged art practices to elevate voices of immigrant and refugee communities in the Bay Area. Amy is currently working on her first musical which has received support from the SF Arts Commission and Theater Bay Area. Amy holds an MA in Counseling Psychology (UCSB), PhD in Cultural Psychology (UC Davis) and training certificates with American Conservatory Theater, Bioenergy Balancing and VortexHealing. She grew up in NY con un corazón latino and speaks conversational Spanish, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Margherita Tisato
Margherita Tisato

Margherita Tisato (she/her, Italian-American): I see myself as a movement practitioner and a seeker of somatic wisdom and integration. My mission in sharing information and experiences with others is to soften the dichotomy between body and mind, to investigate visceral sensations in order to create emotional resilience, through the main mediums of embodiment, curiosity and dialogue. I facilitate a range of movement experiences spanning from Trauma Informed yoga and somatic movement to dance, Butoh and body suspension; my educational offerings include experiential workshops in anatomy, pain science, embodiment and trauma theory. I draw from decades of studies in dance, Butoh, yoga, somatic and developmental movement, meditation, anatomy and kinesiology, shibari and flesh hook suspension, and my offerings are informed by all my practices and interests, including seemingly less embodied practices such as poetry, metaphors, neuroscience and music. I am also a performer whose work aims at letting audiences into my process through shared intentions and vulnerability, often in intimate settings where the journey through emotions and heightened senses takes the foreground over mastery.

How do we hold each other in this moment? How are we building collective resilience and reflection? What can we imagine and desire for our collective well being and survival?

Join us Monday, May 4th, 2020 from 6pm-8pm for “Building Community Care Platforms for the Indie Theater Community.” Our goal is to catalyze a community-wide conversation to establish the platform(s) necessary to foster local mutual aid, advocacy and support for the New York City Indie Theater community.

This free, two-hour online session will be co-facilitated by Cara Page (Founder & Lead Organizer/curator of the Changing Frequencies), Kyoung H. Park (Artistic Director of Kyoung’s Pacific Beat / The Indie Theater Fund Board Member), and guest speakers Amy G. Lam, PhD (Founder, Vibrational Energy Coaching & Healing, San Francisco, CA) and Christopher D. Sims (community leader, art-activist, Rockford, IL). This interactive chat will center the needs of individual artists and indie venues and will be rooted in healing justice work. We’ll provide self-care and community care resources and facilitate break-out groups to pod map our communities to address rising issues in our Indie Theater community.

Following a city-wide shutdown of all public assembly, indie theaters have suspended their programming and thousands of theater artists have been left with no employment or sources of income. Displaced from our places of creation and congregation, how do we build the networks of care we need to remain resilient, healthy, and imaginative? How do we remain grounded in reality and observe change manifest in this present moment?

Join us next Monday, Mar. 23rd, 2020 from 7:00pm-8:30pm for “Building Community Care Strategies for the Indie Theater Community.” During this free, 90 minute online session, Cara Page, Founder & Lead Organizer/curator of the Changing Frequencies Project, and Erica Woodland, founder of the National Queer & Trans Therapists of Color Network, will provide participants with community-care frameworks, strategies and resources to New York City’s indie theater community in the midst of COVID-19’s global pandemic, centering Black, Indigenous, People of Color, Queer and Trans experiences.

Weaving Histories (2023-Present)

With support from the NEA and Brooklyn Arts Council, OTHER NO MORE is a docudrama based on real-life interviews with queer elders and leaders in our community who spearheaded the LGBQTIAGNCTS+ grassroots campaign of the same name. Our event will feature Suki Terada Ports (Co-Founder of APICHA), Gil Gerald (Former ED of Coalition of Black Lesbians and Gays), Curtis Harris-Davia (Former ED of American Indian Community House), special guest speaker Hassan Naveed (ED of NYC Office for the Prevention of Hate-Crimes) and more to be announced.

From 1986-1991, elders of NYC’s QPOC community organized OTHER NO MORE, a queer advocacy campaign that lobbied for the US Surgeon General to remove “Asian Americans” and “Native Americans” from the “Other” box, so that Asian-American and Indigenous Peoples could be federally funded to meet the needs of people suffering from HIV/AIDS. 

KPB has begun the Research & Development phase for this piece, which includes WEAVING HISTORIES. This free event will be taking place on Wednesday, June 21st, from 7:00-8:30 PM EST via Zoom!

A guiding question we ask in our research and upcoming event: What has our BIPOC LGBQTIAGNSTS+ community learned from the HIV/AIDS crisis that helps us respond to the COVID-19 pandemic today?

GUEST SPEAKER BIOS

Gil Gerald

Gil Gerald, now retired and writing a book about his LGBTQ and HIV activist years, has more than three decades of non-profit management, capacity-building, and fund development experience in organizations and projects addressing urgent needs in socially and economically marginalized groups. After graduating with a Bachelors in Architecture and nine years of work in that field, he became involved in the effort to curb the crisis of HIV and thus involved in nonprofit social services and issue advocacy. He has served in executive, senior management and Board positions in national and in local, community-based organizations. As the head of his consulting firm, established in 1990, he developed into an experienced provider and broker of technical assistance, training and capacity-building services to community-based non-profits and government agencies. He is an accomplished grant writer, having assisted very small organizations to obtain their first grant, and larger ones, including a County health department he assisted to renew an $8 million cooperative agreement with the CDC.

Gil Gerald’s personal background informs his work; he possesses bilingual and multicultural competencies based on being a first generation immigrant to the US, a naturalized US citizen, a native of Panamá, a member of the African Diaspora, and part of the Post-Stonewall lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. He is featured in the documentary film, After Stonewall. His writing has been published in two anthologies and in various periodicals.

Suki Tareda Ports 

Suki Terada Ports was born and raised in New York City. Her father was born and raised in Hawaii, graduated from the University of Oregon, and took classes at Columbia University’s School of Business. Her Japan-born mother grew up in Seattle, Washington, graduated from the University of Washington, and came to NYC to attend Columbia University’s Teachers College and Juilliard School. Unbeknownst to Suki and her sister, their grandparents were under FBI house arrest during WWII. Their father ran the shop Aoyagi Shoji after the original owner, Mr. Aoyagi, was deported to Japan at the outset of WWII. Upon her graduation from Smith College, she taught a year in Istanbul, Turkey, and upon arrival in the US taught an additional Fair Lawn, New Jersey. While raising two children, she devoted her life to community service, volunteering for the local school board, Morningside Park, and advocating for the rights of HIV/AIDS patients of color and their families. Her service on many boards of not-for-profit organizations includes The Japanese American Association of New York, Inc. Among her many awards, she has received the Smith College Medal and the Emperor of Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays.

Curtis Harris-Davia

Curtis Harris-Davia (San Carlos Apache), a TSIPA organizer and one of the founding members of New York City’s “We’Wah and Bar-Chee-Ampe” – the second ever Two-Spirit organization in the United States, has been advocating for the Two-Spirit community since 1989. He continued to do so at the HOP town hall meeting held at NYC’s LGBT Center on August 13th, where he demanded that HOP include the “TS” in “TSLGBTQ” on all print media and communication for World Pride 2019/Stonewall 50. This gesture would show respect for the First People of Turtle Island as well as honor Two-Spirit Indigenous People who are an integral part of the modern LGBTQ+ movement.

 

Hassan Naveed
Hassan Naveed

Hassan Naveed serves as executive director of the New York City Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. He previously served as acting executive director of the office.

Naveed has a decade of experience working on criminal justice issues impacting vulnerable communities. He previously served as director of outreach at the New York City Department of Investigation’s Office of Inspector General for the New York City Police Department (OIG-NYPD). Prior to OIG-NYPD, Naveed led community efforts in Washington, D.C., that worked to improve hate crime responses and prevention by the local police department involving the LGBTQ+, Muslim, immigrant, and other communities.