Beautiful Being
June 17, 2018
Beautiful Things Project Presents
BEAUTIFUL BEING
Humanist Hall, 1pm
Arisa White, Europa Grace & Eki Shola
Tickets: $15-$25, Sliding Scale, NOTA
Ticket Link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/beautiful-being-tickets-45225816635
arisawhite.com/projects/beautiful-things-project/
LIT/SPOKEN WORD/THEATER
Creating Queer Community Program
How can we decolonize the body with the inner beauty we’ve been seduced away from knowing? An audience-interactive choreopoem, Beautiful Being uses poetry, song, and healing movements to awaken ancestral wisdoms and evoke a future where our bodies are fully liberated.
Beauty is the result of our willingness to be here, to be present. We welcome you to join us on this poetic and musical journey, where beauty inspires alternative movements, songs, and narratives that help QTPOC resist, and therefore recover from, the ways our bodies are targets in society. As an interactive performance, Beautiful Being is a way to feel beauty in the geometry and grammar of one’s body. We are creating a brave space for you to (re)member your beautiful presence in the world and we are offering new somatic patterns that are invested in your healing and our collective care. As we build a liberated future together, let beauty be the new way we relate to our bodies and to the body politic.
Poetry, movement, and song brought to you by Arisa White, Europa Grace, and Eki Shola.
Arisa White is a Cave Canem graduate poet and the author of Black Pearl, Post Pardon, Hurrah’s Nest, A Penny Saved, and You’re the Most Beautiful Thing That Happened. Her poetry has been nominated for a 44th NAACP Image Award, the 82nd California Book Awards, the Wheatley Book Awards, and the 29th Lambda Literary Award. Her chapbook “Fish Walking” and Other Bedtime Stories for My Wife won Daniel Handler’s inaugural Per Diem Poetry Prize. She is a member of the board of directors for Nomadic Press and a recipient of grants and scholarships from the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program, the Center for Cultural Innovation, Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, Poets & Writers, the Fine Arts Work Center, and Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. She is the creator of the Beautiful Things Project, which is a series of poetic collaborations with QTPOC artists, community organizations, and businesses that spotlight the narratives and experiences of queer and trans people of color. arisawhite.com
Europa Grace is trained in trauma-informed yoga. Grace received their 500-hour Ayurvedic Yoga training and 200-hour teacher training from Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. Additional certifications in social and ecological permaculture, ICTC doula training, and the Lineage Project informs Grace’s intersectional approach to movement and wellness. As a holistic wellness coach at the Mental Health Empowerment Project, Grace combined alternative modalities such as yoga, bodywork, Reiki, creative writing, and advocacy to best support patients. Europa has been teaching in residence at the Omega Institute for the last three years.
Eki Shola is a musical healer, clinical physician, songwriter, and singer. She composes music that allows listeners to relax and ease the daily stressors of life. Eki shares her gifts with other because she believes connectedness can equate to fulfillment for all. Her debut album, Final Beginning, mixes ambient piano, syncopated beats, unexpected effects, and jazz organ riffs, compelling listeners to reconnect the essence of their being with purpose and inner passion. ekishola.com
Supported by the Akonadi Foundation’s So Love Can Win Grant.
