Join us for a multi-genre, “for mature audiences only” performance featuring artists of all abilities as they share their work and dive into often hidden narratives of the disability experience, including relationships, romance, and sex.
In order to be as financially accessible as possible, this performance features Radical Hospitality, a concept pioneered by Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis. A small portion of event tickets may be purchased ahead of time for guaranteed admission, but the majority of the tickets will be available at the door. Patrons will be asked when they arrive “What do you want to pay today?” Answers can be as little as zero or as much as a million dollars (we wish!). We strive to be inclusive of all members of our community, welcome those who may never have attended a performance with us before, and encourage those who are financially able to help us support this vital concept of arts for all. The box office will open 1 hour prior to the performance.
Access accommodations, such as ASL interpretation, assistive listening devices, large print programs, and audio description, will be available for both ADA Retrospective performances. No reservations are necessary.
Artists include
Narrative storytelling, “An Open Letter to the Men of Craigslist,” by Alison Bergblom Johnson
Alison Bergblom Johnson writes true stories that focus on women’s lives, telling stories that buoy insiders and educate outsiders. She gives words and weight particularly to experiences of sexual violence and mental illness, aiming to replace myths with knowledge from lived experiences. Fiction Fix, Burly Bird, and Diverse Voices Quarterly, among others, have published her work. She’s read her writing at the Walker Art Center and 7th Street Entry. Bergblom Johnson writes creative nonfiction and narrative performance art. Fiction Fix, Burly Bird, and Diverse Voices Quarterly, among others, have published her nonfiction. She was a resident of the Arts Retreat at the New York Mills Regional Cultural Center and at the Vermont Studio Center. She has performed her work at the Walker Art Center and 7th Street Entry. Her one-woman show, Other Than Tragedy, and a group show in resistance to sexual violence premiered in the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Her work focuses on neglected personal stories about the past that intersect with the present.
Dance pieces by Michael Cohn, Brian J. Evans, and J-Sun
- Mike Cohn, dancer/choreographer, “My Life:” Watch as Mike moves and shows how life can be free as we move with music by Lisa Heffter.
- “The Show Must Go On” by Brian Evans, who will dance, sing and play guitar.
- J-sun and Crew will perform a Hip Hop dance.
- Mike, Brian, J-sun and Charley take you on action packed 5 minute drive. See how cold people can be during the action of taking a selfie. Music edited by J-sun. Story designed by Mike Cohn.
- Mike will perform 2 dances, “Uptown Funk” (music by Bruno Mars, et. al) and “I Can’t Dance” (music by Genesis). One dance shows a side of the dance world that may not be viewed in the eye of the disability community every day. The final dance will challenge movement in a new way for Mike.
Michael Cohn was born in Iowa and raised in the Twin cities. Originally he started dancing as a form of therapy and socialization in 2010 and found over time that he has learned techniques and skills that have broadened his scope of dance. He brings a slight twist with his dancing as he utilizes a walker and sometimes a dance wheelchair to help him move across the dance floor.Mike Cohn recently stared a dance company. I Can Dance You Can Dance.
Brian J. Evans is a Professional Performing Human. For the past eight years, Evans has had the privilege and pleasure of engaging in a vast array of fields. Teaching in public and private institutions, working with healthcare providers in the US and abroad, performing as singer, actor, dancer in churches, theaters, basements, outdoor stages, any space provided that encourages the arts to thrive. An artist striving for social justice, Evans places high value in process and product, having had most of his training out in the ‘Arts field’ of the Twin Cities, working with over 50 artistic directors on more than 200 projects from solo endeavors to collaborating as a self-employed professional performer & teaching artist. Primarily as a principle dancer and musical director for Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater, Evans has continued to investigate the idea that connections exist between us all and it’s the responsibility of the Arts to rediscover those connections, highlight them to allow us to feel holistically human.
J-Sun is a teacher and community leader in the Twin Cities; a competitor and an academic, recipient of the 2013 Sage Award for Outstanding Performance and consultant for The Annual Groundbreaker Battle. He instructs traditional movement with historical moments as a veteran practitioner of breaking and toprocking.
Narrative storytelling by Amy Salloway
Actor/writer/storyteller Amy Salloway has been called “kick-ass funny and achingly poignant,” “raw and fearless,” and “gifted at mining humor where others might see only darkness”. Her three autobiographical solo comedies (“Does This Monologue Make Me Look Fat?,” “So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!,” and “Circumference”) all began their lives at the Minnesota Fringe Festival and have gone on to tour to Fringes, theatres, colleges, communities and festivals across the US and Canada, winning some pretty nice awards along the way; her two-person play, “Entwined”, hopes to travel beyond Minnesota eventually as well. Amy has contributed stories to MPR’s “In the Loop” radio show, CBC’s “Definitely Not The Opera” (sort of the Canadian equivalent of “This American Life”) and the national podcast “Risk!”. She was a founding member of the popular narrative collective Rockstar Storytellers, a two-time recipient of the VSA Artist Initiative grant, and has won the St. Paul Moth and the SlamMN! story slam once each. Amy teaches classes in memoir, creative writing, storytelling and other more specific subtopics through Minneapolis Community Ed and sometimes Story Arts Minnesota, and performs regularly on just about every spoken-word-oriented stage in Minneapolis. For even more info, check out Amy’s embarrassingly stagnant website www.amysalloway.com, or the much more responsibly-managed www.facebook.com/awkwardmomentonstage.
