Receive Weekly Email and Text Message Updates:
Sign up for latest info on concerts, dining, promotions and more!
Go!

Related Stories ...

Most Popular

National Features >

  • Broward-Palm Beach New Times

    Freeze Frame

    A visit to the strange and wonderful world of Vanilla Ice.

    By Michael J. Mooney

  • Miami New Times

    Young Blood

    As the Supreme Court considers whether to ban life sentences for juveniles, it should remember the evil deeds of Dewayne Pinacle.

    By Tim Elfrink

  • Riverfront Times

    Cannonball Re-Run

    A screwball crew of gearheads retool outlaw cross-country car racing.

    By Nicholas Phillips

  • Houston Press

    The Idiot's Guide to Smoking Pot

    Lesson one: Do not eat your weed in front of a cop.

    By John Nova Lomax

Art's Progress

Burn

Share

  • rss

By Todd Dayton

Published on January 05, 2000

Subscribing to the theory that the means are equally as important as the ends when it comes to the artistic process, Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts' AIRspace(Artist in Residence) program gives queer artists a place to create, perform works, receive feedback, and ultimately develop their talents and ideas for the future. Artists in various disciplines take four-month residencies in order to work on performance pieces that explore same-sex and gender issues. From January 7 to March 24, the four winter artists in residence -- Shari McKoy, Minal Hajratwala, Ryan Galbreath, and Tomi Paasonen -- will trade off Friday nights as they present their works in progress. Audiences get the opportunity to watch the development of individual works through monthly updates, and to witness different performances each week. Each performance is followed by a discussion between artist and audience.

Shari McKoy's Burn draws on her experiences as an African-American lesbian, exploring life, love, and survival. Performed as if around a storytelling-friendly fire pit, McKoy's piece merges video, sound, spoken word, hip hop, movement, and song as she delves into issues of self-perception and how people deal with their own perception by others. The work examines the artist's relationship to her ancestors and her anger at historical and social injustice as she explores sexuality, self-worth, and spiritual growth. McKoy, who has lived in San Francisco since 1996, has been actively involved in community-oriented lesbian theater since her arrival, performing and working with both Luna Sea and Theater Rhino on several occasions. She performs Burn at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 7, at the Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts, 1519 Mission (at 11th Street), S.F. Admission, is $5-10 (no one turned away); call 554-0402. AIRspace works in progress continue on a rotating basis each Friday evening at 8:30 p.m. through March 24.