Paul Outlaw, Photo by Angel Origgi

Paul Outlaw, Welcome Back
Friday May 30, 2025 | 7PM-9:30PM

Sharing the stage with Lindsey Red-tail, Anuj Bhutani, Tsiambwom “T” Akuchu, DaEun Jung, and Nina Sarnelle

ABOUT WELCOME BACK

Returning from two months abroad on the first evening of the Micro Fest, Paul will head straight from the airport to Pieter—literally. Will Paul, a queer Black artist of unfiltered political views, make it to Pieter in time for the show, or will he face some form of time-consuming harassment from US Border and Customs Protection? The fate and ultimate form of Welcome Back will hinge on a tense, real-time exploration of the potential fragility of citizenship. 

ABOUT PAUL

Paul Outlaw is a Los Angeles and Berlin-based multidisciplinary performing artist. Spanning an array of mediums including text-based drama, physical theater, performance art, spoken word, and American popular music, his works confront the web of societal constructs around race and gender and excavate the enduring legacies of white supremacy and patriarchal violence—both physical and psychological—that mar the tapestry of Euro-American history. Paul’s award-winning solo projects (under the banner of OutlawPlay) and collaborations have been presented across the United States (including at LACMA, MOCA, REDCAT, the Getty, The Lab SF) and abroad (including at Maxim Gorki Theater/Berlin, Melkweg/Amsterdam, and GES-2/V-A-C Foundation/Moscow).

Paul played the title role in Pepe Danquart’s Schwarzfahrer, winner of the 1994 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Paul’s one-person play Berserker was published, along with an interview and critical essay, in the anthology Blacktino Queer Performance (2016). Paul appears on two albums by hip-hop/noise trio clipping.: Splendor & Misery (2016) and Dead Channel Sky (2025). His most recent theater project, BBC (Big Black Cockroach), premiered in June 2024 at Los Angeles’ REDCAT (Roy & Edna Disney CalArts Theater).

Paul is the recipient of various grants, fellowships and residencies, including a City of Los Angeles Master Artist Fellowship and a Los Angeles County Performing Arts Recovery Grant.

The LAX Micro Fest is made possible in part by a grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture. Los Angeles Performance Practice is also supported, in part, by The Mellon Foundation, The Perenchio Foundation, and the California Arts Council.