I am creature who is lost. I am the one who shows up and changes things. I am the one with a big secret.
HI! My work has ranged from indie short films to a national ad featured in Times Square. I like to be challenged! Explosive feelings! Intimate, messy, complex queer content! Lately, I've been especially interested in storytelling dealing with addiction, mental health, binaries, and navigating abusive histories and relationships. I am revisiting this work and finding my way again now that the SAG strike has come to a close (thank you everyone who joined the picket in all its forms!!)
Never in a million years did I think "public speaking" would be a thing for me! But here we are. A whole lil section on my website. My speaking work mostly revolves around themes of bodies, homes, queer and trans identity, and nuance and advocacy for survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse. Sometimes I use my past work in literature and film to highlight these themes! Other times, I rely on research and lived experience. I am additionally trained in facilitation by restrictive justice group, Hidden Water. Most recently, I've paired up with Johns Hopkins University and the Future Perfect Project.
I got my start on this when my Contact Improv professor wrote a book about dancer Isadora Duncan and asked me to read a piece by Gertrude Stein. When my first anthology came out in 2012, I began developing a storytelling workshop. This eventually became a tour of workshops to domestic violence shelters, transition homes, rehab centers, and universities through Canada and the USA's Midwest. That became another tour through the UK. Now it has been ten years~
I have spoken, generated panels, and facilitated creative care workshops for well over 120 partners. This includes universities, such as Johns Hopkins University, UCLA, Hampshire College, University of Pennsylvania, etc.; and primary schools, like George Peabody Elementary and Manhattan Farm School. I've also partnered with many non-profit organizations and activist groups dealing with queer community and transitioning out of violent places and systems, like Brave Trails, Black and Pink, One Love, Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, and Haven, etc.; arts groups, like Art Academy of Cincinnati, Bluestockings Cooperative, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators; and even conferences like The Midwest Bisexual Lesbian Gay Transgender Asexual College Conference (MBLGTACC), the oldest and largest LGBTQIA+ college conference in the United States, and Berlin's MitSprache, the world's largest conference of childhood sexual abuse survivors in all contexts.
Starting in 2022, I have also been occasionally hosting independent workshops at a sliding scale! For some of those specific offerings, you can see the links below! You can also check out this interview with RAINN that gives these a lil shout-out!
Storytelling for Survivors -tinyurl.com/storytelling4survivors
Beyond Self Care for Survivors -tinyurl.com/beyondselfcare4survivors
Beyond the Heroic Survivor for people who love and/or work with survivors - tinyurl.com/beyondtheheroicsurvivor
SPEAKING & WORKSHOPS
ROLLER SKATING + DANCE
lexie
Bean
ON FILM! ON STAGE! OH MY!
FUN FACT. I have 10 national and regional medals with USARS (USA Roller Sports) in Artistic Roller Skating. During this era, I was named Michigan Skater of the Year. For those of you who don't know, artistic roller skating is figure skating, can take the form of tracing figures, leaps, and ballroom dance.
Now! I'm retired from the competitive world! But have a hard time taking my skates off. I especially enjoy teaching beginners and roller skating for music videos and performance. If you ask me to do any project with my indoor roller skates, I will probably say YES. I have recently been collaborating with musician, John Tournas, on building a Quilt-inspired movement and music series.
And speaking of gliding, weight shifting, and balance, I also trained in Contact Improvisation at the very place it started in Oberlin, Ohio with Ann Cooper Albright. I have curated and co-directed several performances and an international tour centering domestic violence survivors using the form. I have since continued to play with it in Budapest and NYC. It's very dear to me!!! To my body, my healing, and the ways I store memory.