Creative & production team
Arisa White, Librettist
An acclaimed poet, Arisa White’s work is informed by queer Black women’s ways of knowing. Through the blending of literary genres and artistic collaborations, Arisa explores the possibilities of what a poem can be and do. In her practice, the poem becomes an opportunity to defamiliarize language, create new meanings, and use personal narratives as sites for somatic, cultural, and social inquiry. She is an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Colby College. Her poetry is widely published and her collections have been nominated for an NAACP Image Award, Lambda Literary Award, California Book Award, Wheatley Book Award, and have won the Per Diem Poetry Prize, Maine Literary Book Award, Nautilus Book Award, an Independent Publisher Book Award, and a Golden Crown Literary Award.
Laurel Jenkins, Choreographer
Laurel Jenkins is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and mother. Her choreography emerges from a desire to reimagine our collective human experience. Jenkins’ work has been presented by Lincoln Center, Disney Hall, REDCAT, Automata, the Getty Center, Show Box LA, Danspace, Berlin’s Performing Presence Festival, Tokyo’s Sezane Gallery, and Paris’ Cité Internationale des Arts. She choreographed Bernstein’s MASS with the LA Philharmonic and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. Laurel was a member of the Trisha Brown Dance Company from 2007-2012, and has danced in works by Vicky Shick and Sara Rudner. Jenkins performed in the opera Oedipus Rex/Symphony of Psalms by Peter Sellars and solos by Merce Cunningham in the Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event. Laurel is the recipient of a Vermont Arts Council Grant, an Asian Cultural Council Grant, and a French Institute Fellowship. She is an assistant professor of dance at Middlebury College.
Jessica Jones, Composer
A tenor saxophonist and composer, Jessica Jones writes for the strengths of individual ensembles, creating frameworks for freer improvisation. Inspired by the actual speaking voice, her compositions incorporate spoken or sung music or lines that are phrased based on speech patterns. She studies jazz traditions deeply, mining the great improvisers and composers to augment her skills as a musical artist. Jessica is a Jerome Foundation Fellow, a recipient of NEA and Jubilation Foundation grants, and she has played with Joseph Jarman, Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, and a variety of Caribbean and African bands. Jessica is an innovative jazz educator and consultant, working with Jazz at Lincoln Center, Stanford Jazz Workshop, and the Vision Festival. She is the artistic director for REVA, Inc., a creative arts non-profit.
Dianne Smith, Costume & Set Design
Dianne Smith's intriguing and compelling minimalist abstracts are haunting and beautiful. Her sculptures and installations are an extension of that beauty. Dianne's work represents her inner connection to self, which reflects the artistic and spiritual journey that has enabled her to find her voice as an artist. Her work incites our emotions with lush palettes, expressive brushstrokes, texture, and form. She creates provocative and meaningful imagery that challenges the viewer to see and consider pure color, movement, and organic shapes. While her work remains rooted in her African origins, its purpose is more universal. She puts it this way: ”Human civilizations and cultures all have Africa as their mother and are therefore more similar than we realize. I want my work to justly portray that connection, the essence of human existence, and thereby possibly affecting the whole of humankind for the better.”
Ellen Sebastian Chang, Director
Ellen Sebastian Chang’s creative practice spans 45 years. She is a storied figure in the performing arts as a multi-disciplinary director (theater, opera, dance, and installation arts), educator, and lighting designer. Ellen is a recipient of awards and grants from Creative Capital, The MAP Fund, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, NEA, Creative Work Fund, Mazza Foundation, and Zellerbach Family Community Arts Fund. Her current projects include the co-creation of fourteen episodes of House/Full of BlackWomen with Deep Waters Dance Theater; she was the consultant producer for the HBO special Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley; and in collaboration with Sunhui Chang, Ellen created How to Fall in Love in A Brothel, an interactive installation of performances and short film, commissioned by Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco. Since 2006, Ellen has been the creative director and teaching artist for The World As It Could Be Human Rights Education Program (TWAICB).
Charlotte Tiencken, General Manager
Charlotte Tiencken is an arts administrator, director, producer, and educator who has worked in performing arts for over 30 years. She is the president of Scarlet Productions, a consulting agency in non-profit management. Most recently, she was interim managing director for Freehold Theatre in Seattle. She was a visiting assistant professor in arts management at the College of Charleston in South Carolina from 2014-2016. From 2007-2014, she was managing director at Book-It Repertory Theatre in Seattle. Prior to that, she was general manager at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts and has worked at the Broadway Center for the Performing Arts in Tacoma, WA, Tacoma Little Theatre, The Evergreen State College, Spirit Square Center for the Arts in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.