Immigrant Artists To Unveil Months-Long Project In Prospect Park

PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN — A months-long art project aimed at elevating immigrant voices will come to a close Saturday in Prospect Park, when the seven artists involved unveil their final works.

The project, put on by THE CREATORS COLLECTIVE and Prospect Park Alliance, is the second wave of an initiative called "Artists Elevating Immigrant Narratives," which started this past spring.

Saturday's event will bring the public to experience the visual and performance art seven artists created for the project, starting at the Boathouse and ending at Lefferts Historic House, organizers said. It follows weeks of work on the art pieces throughout October and November.

THE CREATORS COLLECTIVE said that the spring and fall editions of the project are just the beginning of the initiative's aim of connecting art and activism, according to their website.

"Artists Elevating Immigrant Narratives is a series of projects and events that elevate the narrative of immigration in America and engage art and activism in an environment that nurtures collaboration and results in meaningful action," the website reads.

The first round of the project asked nine artists — who are all immigrants, children of immigrants or connected to the immigrant community — to create photos, video, dance, music and theater within the theme of the project. Their works were shown at an event in May.

The fall project similarly brought together seven immigrant or "immigrant-adjacent" artists to create the pieces. Their final event will run from 3 to 6 p.m. at the park on Saturday, with a rain date of Sunday.

Here's a look at the artists that will show at the exhibit, according to profiles on the THE CREATORS COLLECTIVE website:

Chanel Blancett: (she/her/hers) is a theatre artist and theatre outreach advocate. An alumna of Sarah Lawrence College, she has taught performing arts to children and teens of diverse ages and backgrounds in Charlotte, New York, and Philadelphia. Since graduating undergrad in 2013, she has been a Teaching Artist at The Children's Theatre of Charlotte and a freelance director and choreographer, working with a range of organizations to create community connections through theatre. She is currently an MFA Theatre candidate at Sarah Lawrence College.

Cynthia Chen: (she/her/hers) is an interdisciplinary artist, working primarily in theater and film. She was a Mabou Mines SUITE/Space artist, developing a ‘live cinema performance’, "Anna May Wong, the Actress Who Died a Thousand Deaths." She has had the fortune to be a Fresh Ground Pepper BRB Resident Artist, and a Theater Mitu director and research apprentice. She also has extensive prop design and video design work. In film, she has worked as a freelance editor for independent artists as well as production companies such as NextRound Productions, Five Sisters Productions, and ARRI China.

Chia-Ying Kao: (she/her/hers) is an independent dance artist based in New York City since 2004. She received her MFA degree in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College in 2012. Ms. Kao is the founder of Chia-Ying Kao dance. Her work has been presented at Triskelion Arts, Center for Performance Research, Dixon Place, Chen Dance Center, Queens Public Library Auditorium, Northport Library Auditorium, Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center, Page Auditorium at Duke University, Tribeca Film Festival, Manhattan's Union Square for a dance installation, Roulette NYC, Villa Victoria Center for the Arts in Boston and Hualien Cultural Arts in Taiwan.

Sifiso Mabena: (she/her/hers) is a multidisciplinary theatre maker from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, now based in New York. She is a proud member of AEA and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with an MFA in Theatre. As a playwright she has worked with the Royal Court Theatre (UK) and the British Council in the development of two new plays: The Comeback and Interrogations. Sifiso recently performed as the vocalist/mother in Red Hills with En Garde Arts in New York. Other credits include: All The Light In the World by Rebecca Rouse (La Mama, NY); Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble’s The Art of Luv (Part 6): Awesome Grotto! (Abrons Art Center,NY); Ocean Filibuster with Pearl Damour (Abrons Art Center, NY) and assistant directing Colette Robert for Behind the Sheet (EST, New York).

Myra M. McPhee: (she/her/hers) is a Bahamian playwright, director, performer, photographer and collaborator. Her work revolves around social justice with particular focus on the intersections of black, immigrant, and female experiences. She has performed in productions of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide and Vagina Monologues in The Bahamas and the social justice initiative Tunnel of Oppression in East Lansing, Michigan. In April 2017, she co-Directed Endless Long Hot Summer a production about the violence in the United States during the summer 2016 and created the SLC Hair Show: happy to be nappy, kinky, wavy, coiled or straight to explore the hair journeys of people of color. In May 2018, she performed her one woman show, Take me baby or leave me: An epistemological study of a black woman's 492 year transition to the United States in Manhattan, Queens and Westchester County. In October 2018, her original play, Lies We Tell Our Amygdala, was produced and published in Nassau, Bahamas.

Emily Wexler: (she/her/hers) is a Brooklyn-based musician/song-writer/teaching artist/activist. Emily has an alternative r&b/electronic music project called ES Wex in which she performs original music exploring personal and social transformation throughout NYC. Emily directs EarSay Youth Voices, a weekly performance workshop at The International High School at Laguardia Community College, a program for new immigrant teenagers to co-create short performance pieces that empower them to tell their stories and practice English. She is also a Teaching Artist for ENACT, a drama therapy organization serving NYC public schools that models alternative methods of navigating conflict through performance pedagogy.

Shannon Yu: (she/her, they/them) is Taipei Born, New York based choreographer/dancer/photographer. As a female body that contain mostly masculine styles, such as Break dance, martial arts, Shannon constantly seek the balance or controversy in herself and the outside world to convey through her work. Shannon holds a B. Eng. in Civil Engineering from National Taiwan University, and M. F. A. in Performance and Performance Studies from Pratt Institute. Shannon performed several works on venues in Taiwan such as National Intercollegiate Athletic Games opening and National Opera House “Window” project, and also showed her new works in La Mama, Movement Research in Judson Memorial Church, Triskelion Arts and New Step Series in Chen Dance Center in New York.