Sage Ni’Ja Whitson: Revival_ _Revival: Black Trans Processional Performance

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson (they/them) recovers missing and marginalized narratives of Black queer and transgender peoples, and a history where queerness was (and, in many places, remains) violently silenced and policed.

Revival Revival begins at Santa Monica’s First African Methodist Episcopal Church by the Sea (FAME) and moves past Phillips Chapel, culminating at Crescent Bay Beach–a site historically populated by the Santa Monica Black community prior to redlining. The performance, propelled by a live DJ set with collaborator, A.J. McClenon, will blend gospel, house music, hip hop, and voice to bridge memory, land, water, in a collective act of sacred and sonic praise.

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson (they/them) is a multimedia artist and futurist whose work honors the Black TGNCI community and BIPOC Transcestors. The artist ignores disciplinarity, opting instead for a critical intersection of the sacred and conceptual across diverse practices, forms, and expansive studio practices that collectively celebrate Black, Queer, and Transembodiedness. Whitson is a United States Artist Fellow, Creative Capital Awardee, two-time Bessie Awardee, Hermitage Fellow, and New York Live Feed Artist in Residence, and is tenured faculty at UC Riverside, where they hold the position of Associate Professor, Black Studies.

Audience is encouraged to wear white and white masks.