7 STAGES PRESENTS

THE MOST DYNAMIC ARTS FESTIVAL OF THE SUMMER

Human Lights Festival: A Curious Encounter

June 18th – 20th (Juneteenth/Father’s Day Weekend)

 AND June 24th – 27th (PRIDE Weekend)

⇓ Click through the dates below for detailed festival schedule ⇓

THE FESTIVAL:

7 Stages is bringing you a revolutionary selection of local, national, and international artists, virtually and in person!

Join us for 7 days in June to experience the 7 stages of empowerment:

AWAKENING, RAGE, REBELLION, DECONSTRUCTION, HOPE, RECONSTRUCTION, & CHANGE

THE LINEUP:

This multidisciplinary art extravaganza will include projects by artists from China, Serbia, the Netherlands, Canada, all over the United States, as well as local favorites!

Selected Projects Include:

• EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILMS by Tye Alexandra, Brittney London, Diego Serra, Steven Hao, Jesse Rasmussen, Kāli Quinn, Leila Ghasempor, Autumn Davis and Ben Yoganathan

• VIRTUAL PERFORMANCES and INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES by Anicka Austin, Danse Theatre Surreality, Last Call, Saviana Stanescu, Banana Effect, Corpus Acrobatics and Maja Mitic

• COVID-SAFE IMMERSIVE, LIVE THEATRE and INSTALLATIONS (indoor and outdoor) by Christopher Hampton, Aysha Waheed, Katelyn Greaton and Jenna Edmonds & Naomi Lavender

• LIVE DANCE by Frankie Mulinix and Jacquelyn Pritz

• CIRCUS, MUSIC and PERFORMANCE ART by Flight of Swallows, Ember Webb, Lucy Eden, Nicolette Emanuelle and The Valkyrie 

• ARTISTIC RESPONSES to Stephanie Burt’s Big Read selection Advice from the Lights 

• VITAL COMMUNITY CONVERSATIONS & CONNECTIONS through our Service Saturday and Art of Activism platforms. 

Audiences will also have another chance to revisit the provocative films produced by 7 Stages in the past year: 

• Bloodflow, written by Robert Earl Price,  film created by Ashley James 
• Then They’ll Tell You It’s All in Your Head by Theresa Davis 
• TIT by Elizabeth Dinkova, Barrett Doyle, and ensemble 
• True North by Lee Nowell and Heidi S. Howard
• What Are You?  By Nicolette Emanuelle.

The festival is curated by 7 Stages’ new leadership team, Associate Artistic Directors Ashley James, Elizabeth Dinkova, and Marium Khalid, Education Director Destiny Renee, and Artistic Director Heidi S Howard. 

*Complimentary copies of Advice From The Lights by Stephanie Burt are available at 7 Stages, 1105 Euclid Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30307. 

Virtual premieres and content will remain available until June 30, three days after the festival schedule.

In-person performances (both indoor and outdoor) take COVID safety seriously.

Indoor events will require masks and social distancing.

Art of Activism brings together community experts, artists and patrons for a virtual brunch and vital conversation centered on the themes within Charmed Ones as we examine our role beyond the art. While you do not have to have seen the show to attend the complimentary event, we welcome all voices to join the VIP’s in connecting across our differences, share in commonalities, and explore the curiosity that initiates the question: How do we celebrate queer charm through resillience, politics and performance?

Liliana Bakhtiari is a lifelong Atlantan, a committed community activist, and the daughter of immigrants. Her experiences as a queer Muslim woman the South fueled her path to becoming a community leader, social justice advocate, and activist fighting for women and children’s health issues, environmental justice, and our unsheltered populations. Liliana spent much of her youth traveling the globe, practicing social advocacy, participating in a wide variety of cultural projects, including aiding refugees in building new homes, working with sex trafficking victims and volunteering at orphanages in a total of 26 countries around the world.

In Atlanta, Liliana has tackled initiatives locally including engaging suburban and rural voters during especially critical elections, direct services with unsheltered populations, blood drives, senior partnerships, public art initiatives (like a mobile art installation in the form of a Georgia school bus), and more. Liliana currently serves as a curator of the Atlanta-based art organization Black Futures Matter, while also serving on the boards of PEDS, Georgia Equality, and gloATL. Liliana is currently running for Atlanta City Council, and if elected, Liliana will be the first queer Muslim person elected in Georgia, and the first gender non-conforming person to serve on the Atlanta City Council.

Paul Conroy, the Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Out Front Theatre Company, holds a BA in English/Writing with a Minor in Theatre from Long Island University, a MA in Directing from Roosevelt University, and is currently concluding a MFA in Directing from the University of Idaho. Originally from Boston, Paul has worked in artistic and management capacities for theatre companies around the greater Atlanta area such as the Alliance Theatre, Serenbe Playhouse and ART Station among others. Paul is also a playwright and his original musical, The Ethel Merman Disco Christmas Spectacular! premiered at Out Front Theatre Company in December of 2018. Paul also currently teaches courses in Theatre at Georgia State University.

Additionally, as a member of the City of Atlanta’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board, Paul co-chairs the Arts, Culture and Entertainment subcommittee, and works directly with artists, community organizations and politicians to make the city of Atlanta a more inclusive and supportive place for all people. He has spoken on panels across metro Atlanta about the LGBTQ+ community, its history, and the role the arts have played in it. Outside of Atlanta, Paul has been featured in The New York Times and The Times of London speaking about the issue of prejudice facing the LGBTQ+ community and the backlash by some against free speech in theatre that focuses on these issues and stories.

Sean Dorsey is a San Francisco-based choreographer, dancer, writer, teaching artist and cultural activist. Recognized as the U.S.’ first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer, Dorsey has toured his work to more than 30 cities across the US and abroad – and taught with his explicitly trans-positive pedagogy in more than 35 cities.

Dorsey is a 2020 Doris Duke Artist and an inaugural Dance/USA Artist Fellow. He has been awarded five Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and the Goldie Award for Performance. In 2019, he became the first openly transgender person on the cover of Dance Magazine. A longtime social practice artist, Dorsey creates his works over a period of several years in deep relationship with/in community. Dorsey is also the Founding Artistic Director of Fresh Meat Productions – now celebrating its 20th Anniversary Season! Fresh Meat Productions invests in the creative expression and cultural leadership of trans and gender-nonconforming communities.

Bentley Hudgins was given the Local Community Builder Award by Georgia Equality for their work in comprehensive civil rights in Macon-Bibb County, recognized by the Georgia Voice as the “Up & Coming LGBTQ+ Youth” at the 2018 Best of Atlanta Awards Ceremony and was a finalist for the 2019 awards for Best Activist.

Bentley serves as the Director of Macon Unity, a civic engagement coalition focused on intersectional advocacy, serves on the Advisory Council for the Georgia Chapter of the Campaign Workers Guild and is a former committee member of the Board of Directors for STAG VETS INC, the nation’s first Acute Veterans Crisis Agriculture center.

Live outdoor production at 7 Stages Theatre! April 29-May 2, 2021

 EXTENDED THOUGH SUNDAY BY POPULAR DEMAND!

^^^ 7 Stages takes the opportunity to sit with performers after rehearsal of Charmed Ones. ^^^

Online event –  April 26, 2021 @ 7 PM EDT

In celebration of national poetry month, join host Collin Kelley and all of us online for an evening of Poetry Pride and discussion with some of the south’s most beloved LGBTQ+ community members – sponsored by 7 Stages, Poetry Atlanta, The NEA Big Read and Decatur Center For The Book.  

Start the evening off with our sorbet poet: Nicholas Goodly previewing their poem specially created for Charmed Ones ~ premiering April 29 – May 1 live @ 7 Stages! Next, indulge in Kai Coggin’s fierce offering, followed by Jordyn King’s brave dive into self love. Our rockstar poet Theresa Davis gifts us with a decadent finale. We will end with a nightcap of your voices, inviting all to offer magic moments, lingering tastes, and opportunities for questions. 

In response to the book of poems, Advice From The Lights, by Stephanie Burt, all poets connect their lives to the freeing expression of poetry, pride, and possibility. Burt’s 4th full length collection of poems is filled with witty talking objects and animals grappling with their unique identities: a hermit crab trying to find the right shell, a blue betta fish named Scarlet, and a roly-poly bug that doesn’t like the way it looks. Some poems imagine what her life would have been like if she had been raised as a girl. They’re placed in stark contrast alongside other poems from her actual childhood raised as a boy. (NEA Big Read)

Jordyn King (They/She) is a performance and slam poet situated in Atlanta, GA whose work often deals with issues surrounding the intersection of black and queer identities. Jordyn’s work has been showcased in events throughout the United States, including at Atlanta Pride 2019, and the 2019 Feminine Empowerment Movement Slam, where Jordyn led their own novice team, Scattered Heart Slam, in Boston. Jordyn has published two collections, With Visionary Intent and Paris Resurrected, and is recognized as Femme Mafia’s first Poet Laureate. In June 2020, they released a chapbook, The 12 Apostles of the Queer Femme.

Nicholas Goodly is a writer and artist living in Atlanta. They are the writing editor of Wussy Magazine, a Cave Canem fellow, author of the Georgia Writer’s Association guest blog Free Verse,  and team member of the performing arts platform Fly on a Wall.  Nicholas is a finalist for the 2020 Jake Adam York Prize,  the runner-up for the 2019 Cave Canem Poetry Prize  and recipient  of the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship.

Kai Coggin is the author of  PERISCOPE HEART  (Swimming with Elephants 2014),  WINGSPAN  (Golden Dragonfly Press 2016), and  INCANDESCENT  (Sibling Rivalry Press 2019), as well as a spoken word album  SILHOUETTE  (2017). She is a queer woman of color who thinks Black Lives Matter, a teaching artist in poetry with the Arkansas Arts Council, and the host of the longest running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country—Wednesday Night Poetry. Recently awarded the 2021 Governor’s Arts Award and named “Best Poet in Arkansas” by the Arkansas Times, her fierce and powerful poetry has been nominated four times for The Pushcart Prize, as well as Bettering American Poetry 2015, and Best of the Net 2016 and 2018. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in  SOLSTICE, Cultural Weekly ,  Bellevue Literary Review ,  Entropy, SWWIM, Sinister Wisdom, Calamus Journal, Lavender Review, Luna Luna, Blue Heron Review, Yes, Poetry  and elsewhere. Coggin is Associate Editor at The Rise Up Review.

Theresa Davis is an educator, storyteller, poet, author, poetry slam champion and the host of the award winning open mic Java Speaks. She has performed on stages across the nation as a poet, storyteller, and keynote speaker. In May 2013, her first full collection of poems entitled “After This We Go Dark” was published by Sibling Rivalry Press. “After This We Go Dark” became an American Library Association Honoree, and the book can now be checked out in local and college libraries around the world. Her latest poetry collection “Drowned: A Mermaid’s Manifesto”, released with Sibling Rivalry Press, in fall of 2016 received the award“Ten Books All Georgians Should Read”. 

In addition to being a teaching artist and outreach poetry coordinator for Georgia Tech for 6 years, Theresa hosts and participates in many of the lit events around Atlanta. Her one-woman show “Then They’ll Tell You it’s all in Your Head” Made its debut as a part of 7 Stages Home Brew series in the fall of 2017 as live theater and in 2020 as a film in the same series.. Theresa’s new collection, “Dirt” is due to be released in the fall of 2021. Theresa is the Literary Events Coordinator and The Charles “Jikki” Riley Memorial Library, facilitator for The Arts Exchange.

Online April 18 1 – 3 PM EDT

Join 7 Stages for a special virtual conversation with Skye Passmore, Michelle Pokopac, Amee Vyas, Jack Ha and Associate Artistic Director Marium Khalid about the resilience and multifacetedness of the local AAPI artistic community, the reverberations of recent events, combatting Anti-Asian/American and xenophobic sentiment, and the Atlanta art scene’s relationship to social justice and politics. 

Amee Vyas has been a fixture of Atlanta theater for 18 years, and a mainstay of Atlanta’s only year-round Shakespeare repertory ensemble, the Atlanta Shakespeare Company (ASC), for 16 years. While at ASC, she earned her Actors Equity card playing Viola in Twelfth Night; becoming the area’s first, and for a time only, Asian-Indian actress to join the professional union. Recently, Ms. Vyas was the Seattle-based Fern Shakespeare Company’s first resident guest director, where she directed Othello. Continuing a list of firsts, she co-founded East by Southeast, the only arts festival in the southeast to feature work by and of American artists of Asian-descent. The festival, like Ms. Vyas’ work on-stage, exemplifies her personal mission to defy traditional casting and produce stories that transcend color and gender.

Skye Passmore is an Atlanta-based actor, playwright and activist of Filipino descent. As a theatre actor he has been seen on the stages of Actor’s Express, Atlanta Lyric Theatre, Shakespeare On Draught, Serenbe Playhouse, Georgia Ensemble Theatre, and Warehouse Theatre. On camera he has had roles on “Star” (FOX) and several web series including the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons comedy “The Campaign.” As a playwright his work has been presented at Actor’s Express, Horizon Theatre Company, East by Southeast, and the upcoming Alliance Theatre’s Reiser Artist Lab.

Michelle Pokopac (she/her/hers) is an actor in both theatre and film based in Atlanta. In 2017, Michelle and her partners founded East by Southeast, an organization dedicated to supporting and developing local Asian artists. She is also a member of the group IDEA ATL (Inclusion, diversity, and equity in the arts of Atlanta), in response to the social and racial injustices brought forth from the theatre community of Atlanta.

Jack Ha is a native to Atlanta and is a graduate from Georgia State University. He is one of the co-founding partners with East by Southeast working on graphic designs and community artist outreach. He freelance on film productions through various departments from production assistant, production coordinating, casting, and grip. When he is not working behind the scenes, he is also an on-camera actor and stage performer and is represented by Houghton Talent.

Marium Khalid is a Pakistani-Kashmiri American writer, director and creator leading her companies SAiAH Arts and Sky Creature Productions to receive over 25 major awards. She recently joined 7 Stages as an Associate Artistic Director. Her previous work includes TERMINUS, an award winning immersive multi-layered story, and an experiential retelling of Moby Dick, winning her Best Director and Best Show. She received the CREATIVITY AND ARTS IMPACT AWARD from Emory College Center for Creativity & Arts. Most recently her short film MAZLOOM, was awarded Best Director, Best Film, and Best Actress from major film festivals as well as receiving official selections from others including the Atlanta Women’s Film Festival and the Los Angeles Women’s International Film Festival.

April 11 @ Noon EDT {Via Zoom}

Art of Activism brings together community experts, artists and patrons for a virtual brunch and vital conversation centered on the themes of the film as we examine our role beyond the art. While you do not have to have seen the film to attend the complimentary event, we welcome all voices to join the VIP’s in connecting across our differences, share in commonalities, and explore the curiosity that initiates the question: What Are You?

April 10 from 1-4 PM at 7 Stages {In-person event}

April 9 at 5 PM EDT – Via Zoom

Join us for a 5 PM (EDT) virtual lobby conversation on April 9; a happy hour of sorts. In response to current events and our role in the community, our informal check-in is a safe space for healing and a brave space for fierce venting. In times of social discontent, the art we create and dialogue we share connects us, thus creating courage to forge forward in finding light in the darkness together!

APRIL 8 – 11, 2021

Live virtual film premiere with talkbacks and “watch on your own” option.

What are You? is an unflinching exploration of what it means to be mixed-race in America. The project’s lead creator and performer Nicolette Emanuelle, raised with roots in the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina, was often confronted with this relentless question. As she started to interview other mixed-race individuals, Nicolette discovered striking and moving commonalities. This original, perspective-shifting film combines movement, original music, and a multitude of personal testimonies to highlight the beauty and expose the struggles of multi-racial people while honoring their resilience.

CAST

&

CREW

Creator/Performer/Composer/Interviewer/Interviewee – Nicolette Emanuelle

Performer/Interviewee – Jaylynn Amya Haywood

Performer/Interviewee – Meredith Gordon

Performer/Interviewee – Arthur McDonald

Circus Performer – Lucy Eden

Circus Performer – Jackie Douglas

Circus Performer – AnnMarie Spexet

White By Proxy – Josh Coleman

Interviewee – Nicole Marie Spisak

Interviewee – Kai Addae

Interviewee – Vivian Selles

Stage Manager/Interviewee – Alexis “Lexi” McKay

Director of Photography/Camera A Op – Tia Davis

Camera B Op – Barrett Doyle 

Drone Camera Op – Charles Huggins

Interviewer – Jesse Smith

Production Assistant – Tyra Watkins

Production Assistant – Tessa Brooks

Production Assistant – Kayla Fallick