Hi-ARTS Selects Fall 2021 Artists-In- Residence

Hi-ARTS has announced their Fall 2021 CRITICAL BREAKS and SKY LAB Artists-in-residence.  Alexander Lambie, Tanika l. Williams, and collaborative duo Kirya Traber and Sissi Liu are part of CRITICAL BREAKS, a residency for artists creating new work who will undergo intensive development and end with a public performance.  The Sydnie L. Mosley Dances (SLMDances) dance collective and LINDALA will join SKY LAB, which focuses on socially aware artists who put community at the center of their work. All of the artists reflect Hi-ARTS mission to support artists who use hip-hop and urban aesthetics, particularly Black artists and artists of color who enhance their work in the organization’s home of East Harlem and beyond. 

Alexander Lambie is a member of Middle Voice Theater Company and an alumnus of the Atlantic Acting School. Lambie will continue to develop Wittiness! a one-person show commanded by his drag persona Gina Cakestand. 

Tanika I. Williams is an African-Jamaican writer, video and performance artist who holds M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary. She will continue her work on PRESSING, a performance centered around an archival recorded interview between a matriarch and her great-granddaughter to illustrate and disrupt the generational cycle of family separation and its residual trauma. 

Nationally awarded writer, performer and cultural worker Kirya Traber and musical theater specialist and multimedia artist Sissi Liu will present If This Be Sin, a musical about the queer Harlem Renaissance entertainer Gladys Bentley.

SLMDances is a New York-based dance-theater collective working in collaboration with music producer Ebonie Smith, visual artist Shani Peters and quilter Dr. Kim F. Hall to create an onsite multi-disciplinary exhibit entitled; What does PURPLE sound like? PURPLE’s partnership with Changing the Narrative engages the community to collect and amplify the oral histories of New York City public housing communities. 

LINDALA is a multidisplinary performer, writer, curator, educator, model, recording artist and host who started her journey as a member of the House Of Labaija. She will lead new members into weeks of discovery of the Ballroom movement, culture and legacy. There will be a special focus on Trans artists and femmes and she will begin a production that reflects the life issues of those who participate. 

Hi-ARTS will be moving to a larger space within their current home at El Barrio’s Artspace PS109 this summer. The relocation will allow for increased programming and an expanded staff. 

To find out more about Hi-ARTS check out www.hi-artsnyc.org.  Follow Hi-ARTS on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @hiartsnyc.