Lyle Kash

Lyle Kash is an American transgender filmmaker based in Los Angeles. In 2018 he formed T4T Productions, a collection of artists committed to putting trans people in front of and behind the camera lens. Under the auspices of T4T Productions (shorthand for Trans for Trans, an abbreviation which comes from bygone Craigslist personals ads), Kash wrote and directed his debut film, Death and Bowling, with an almost entirely transgender cast. Kash holds a BA from Oberlin College in Comparative American Studies and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Film/Video.

www.lylekash.com

LyleKash_DeathandBowling(Still)_Video_2020_SCOPE/SlamdanceLosAngeles

LyleKash_DeathandBowling(Still)_Video_2020_SCOPE/SlamdanceLosAngeles

Antonio Ramos

Antonio Ramos was born and raised in Puerto Rico where he trained in jazz, salsa and African dance. He later received a B.F.A. in Dance from Purchase College/SUNY. Antonio began his career performing with Ballet Theatre of Puerto Rico, Ballet Hispanico of New York, Ballet Concierto and Ballet Municipal (Puerto Rico). More recently, Antonio has performed with choreographers Mark Dendy, Neil Greenberg, Kari Hooas, Luis Lara Malvacias, Jeremy Nelson, Stephen Petronio, Merian Soto, Kevin Wynn, Ori Flomin and Donna Uchizono, among others. Antonio has taught at the University of Puerto Rico, Ballet de San Juan; Ballet Teatro de Puerto Rico; Ballet Municipal of Puerto Rico; Ballet Concierto; Danza Jazz of Puerto Rico; Dance Space Center; BAAD!/Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance; Latin Dance Festival in New York City; Princeton, Cornell, Wesleyan and Marymount Universities; Barnard College; SUNY/Purchase; The New School; NYU; The International School of Bangkok; Den Norsken Ballett Hoyskole in Oslo, Norway; and The Paluca Shule in Dresden, Germany.

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Amy Grappell

Amy Grappell’s documentary QUADRANGLE, about her experience growing up in a group marriage, premiered at Sundance, where it won a Jury Prize. It went on to win Best Short Film at SXSW, AFI, and Dallas International Film Festival, and had its New York premiere at New Directors / New Films before being broadcast on HBO. She was one of the select writer/directors of Richard Linklater’s SLACKER remake. Her documentary LIGHT FROM THE EAST, shot in Ukraine during the fall of Communism, premiered at SXSW, aired on PBS and is part of the collection at the Library of Congress. Grappell is currently adapting the QUADRANGLE story to a feature length screenplay. She holds a BA in film and literature from New York University, is a graduate of the MFA acting program at The North Carolina School of the Arts, and is the recipient of grants from Austin Film Society, National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Council for the Humanities, the Trull Foundation. She is a native New Yorker living in Austin, where she is an active member if the independent film community.

www.quadranglefilm.com

Amy Grappell_Quadrangle_documentary_2010/ Premiered at Sundance. Broadcast on HBO.

Amy Grappell_Quadrangle_documentary_2010/ Premiered at Sundance. Broadcast on HBO.

Livien Yin

Livien Yin is an artist working primarily in sculpture and photo-based practices. Yin examines artifacts that unsettle the distribution of power among humans and the natural resources we strive to control. Her recent projects center on the imperial legacies of botanical expeditions, guano harvesting and the Chinese coolie trade. Yin received her BA from Reed College and her MFA from Stanford University. She has been awarded a 2019-2020 Graduate Fellowship at Headlands Center for the Arts, the 2019 American Austrian Foundation/Seebacher Prize for Fine Arts and the 2019 Anita Squires Fowler Memorial Award in Photography. Yin lives and works in Berkeley, California.

www.livienyin.com

Reinterpretation of the Wardian case, a 19th century transport container used by botanist Robert Fortune to smuggle 20,000 tea plants from China to plantations in India.

Reinterpretation of the Wardian case, a 19th century transport container used by botanist Robert Fortune to smuggle 20,000 tea plants from China to plantations in India.

Laura Lappi

Laura Lappi is interested in observing and examining how architecture and spatial environments influence our perceptions and affect reality; in particular, her focus is on the experience and emotional charge of different places and the fluid boundaries between reality and fiction. Her sculptural practice explores the relationship between physical spaces, man-made structures, and the human mind - the psychogeography of places. Lappi has studied at the AKI Academy of Art & Design in the Netherlands and in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Her work has been exhibited widely in solo and group shows internationally, including at Riihimäki Art Museum, Galleria Uusi Kipinä, and Galleria Titanik in Finland; Galleri Vest and SÍM Gallery in Reykjavik, Iceland; Kunstpodium T, Twente Biennale, Re:Rotterdam International Art Fair in The Netherlands; Supermarket Art Fair in Stockholm, Sweden; Lorimoto Gallery, Trestle Gallery, AC Institute and Knockdown Center in New York, and The Yard exhibition space in Colorado Springs. Lappi has participated at numerous residencies, including Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, SÍM in Reykjavik and Vermont Studio Center in Johnson. She has been awarded grants from the Art in the Parks: Alliance for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Alfred Kordelin Foundation, The Queens Council on the Arts, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Frame Contemporary Art Finland and Arts Promotion Centre Finland. Her recent fellowships include the Bronx Museum of the Arts AIM fellowship program and New York Foundation for the Arts IAP Mentoring Program.

www.lauralappi.com

Laura Lappi Untitled (Study of Charring Wood and Burning Structures II) Site-specific installation, charred wood, smoke. 2018. 39 x 51 x 71 inch. Untitled (Study of Charring Wood and Burning Structures II) a site-specific installation standing in a suburban Colorado landscape at The Yard exhibition space. A large, carbonized wood column is enveloped by smoke emitted from inside the sculpture. Like floating out of a dream, the smoky scene has an eerie feeling

Laura Lappi Untitled (Study of Charring Wood and Burning Structures II) Site-specific installation, charred wood, smoke. 2018. 39 x 51 x 71 inch. Untitled (Study of Charring Wood and Burning Structures II) a site-specific installation standing in a suburban Colorado landscape at The Yard exhibition space. A large, carbonized wood column is enveloped by smoke emitted from inside the sculpture. Like floating out of a dream, the smoky scene has an eerie feeling

Sam Torres

Sam Torres is a Troy, NY based composer, multi-instrumentalist, and audio engineer. His ongoing collaborations with pianist Sophia Vastek include a duo called Tilted Arc, and Organ Colossal, a performing, concert presenting, and musical-community-building collective. Sam has written music for saxophone and live electronics, orchestra, solo piano, and various chamber ensembles. His composition, “Ritual: Breath of a Poem” for percussion quartet and interactive multichannel electronics won the first prize in the Peabody Institute Prix d’Eté in 2018. Sam has been commissioned by Sopriola, The Witches, the Peabody Community Chorus, the public school district of Bedford, NY, Music of Reality, bassist Sam Zagnit, choir director Sonya Sutton, and Sophia Vastek. Sam’s music has been heard in house concerts and coffee shops from Washington, DC to New York’s Hudson Valley, as well as at the Thalia Theater at Symphony Space, the National Cathedral, Spectrum NYC, Arts Center of the Capital Region, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Arts Letters & Numbers, Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Manhattan School of Music, and internationally in South Africa, Germany, the UK, and after June of 2020, Latvia and the Netherlands as well. Performing woodwinds, electronics, and working as an audio engineer has brought Sam to venues across the US, including EMPAC, Town Hall Seattle, University of Chicago, SMOKE, Spectrum NYC, MIT, and others. Sam holds a B.Mus from Manhattan School of Music, and a M.Mus in from the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

https://samtorresmusic.com/

https://samtorresmusic.com/

https://samtorresmusic.com/

Sophia Vastek

Pianist and keyboardist Sophia Subbayya Vastek, described as playing with "passion and profound tenderness” (Second Inversion) and with “serene strokes and lyrical beauty” (Brooklyn Rail), maintains a multifaceted life as a performer, educator, organizer, and event producer and curator. She dedicates her musical life to cultivating accessible spaces in which shared listening experiences can help build stronger communities. Sophia’s debut album “Histories” was released on innova Recordings with music by Michael Harrison, Donnacha Dennehy, and John Cage. It was produced by multiple Grammy-winning engineer Adam Abeshouse. In addition to her work as a solo pianist, collaborative projects include Organ Colossal, a nonprofit and musicians’ collective committed to producing accessible concerts that are safe and available to any musician who wishes to perform; Tilted Arc, a synth and piano-based electronic duo with Sam Torres; and The Lift Series, a series dedicated to bringing a diverse range of local and regional artists to the historic Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. Performing has taken Sophia across three continents, including tours to South Africa, Mexico, and France. In the United States, she has performed at diverse venues/series such as the Kennedy Center, the United States State Department, The Apollo Theatre, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, An Die Musik, The Linda (Albany), National Sawdust (Brooklyn), Evolution Series (Baltimore), The NoiseGate Festival (NYC), Queens New Music Festival, and Arts Letters & Numbers (NY). Sophia is based in Troy, NY, a community she loves dearly.

www.sophiavastek.com

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