“When you play an instrument, your body almost becomes part of that instrument. You co-resonate with that instrument in a way where you’re working together in this very physical partnership, like a dance.”
“The funds from BRIDGE THE GAPS were truly a lifeline for me, following the Altadena fires. They helped me continue creating, telling stories, and moving forward as an artist.”
“Clown has taken a lot of pressure off my own work, and it made me less afraid of how I’ll be received and more willing to take risks without needing things to feel polished.”
“It can be isolating and disheartening to be the only person of color in a room, especially in spaces dominated by older white men who hold the keys to the city. What helps is knowing that many women of color are doing this work all over the world, even if we don’t always see each other.”
“We are living through a moment in which artists are expected to do more with less, to move between institutional logics and community urgencies, to survive precarity and still be visionary. Too often, artists are spoken about rather than spoken with. Too often, institutions prioritize metrics over lived realities. If we are to build a sustainable arts ecosystem in Los Angeles, institutions must realign, not with trends or mandates, but with artists.”
A free-swirling debrief of Los Angeles Performance Practice’s latest iteration of CASUAL–co-authored and co-curated by Marsian De Lellis, William Ruiz Morales, and gina young–is now published on Mid Theory Collective.