[Performance]
Ignition: July 20

About This Event

IGNITION: July 20
Sulu DC and the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance present
IGNITION: A Queer Asian American Performance Showcase
Friday, July 20, 2012 at 8:00 pm
Ballroom at Artisphere, 1101 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA
Buy your tickets now!

Sulu DC and the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance are joining forces to bring a one-night only queer Asian Pacific Islander arts explosion! Come see talent from all over the country as queer Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) activists convene for the 2012 NQAPIA Conference: Presence, Power, Progress to join the local DC arts scene.

Hosted by spoken word pioneer Regie Cabico, this showcase features Deen, K Ulanday Barrett, Suty Komsonkeo, DonMike Mendoza, Moana Love, Una Aya Osato aka exHOTic other and Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh.

A CAMPUS PRIDE 2009 Hot List artist, Kay Ulanday Barrett is a poet, performer, educator, and martial artist navigating life as a disabled pin@y transgender queer in the U.S. K has featured in classrooms, stages, and audiences internationally; from the Musee Pour Rire in Montreal, UCLA, and The Brooklyn Museum, K’s bold work continues to excite and challenge audiences. K’s published works include: make/shift, Kicked Out Anthology, and Filipino American Psychology.
recipesforthepeople.com | @kulandaybarrett

Deen is a queer desi playwright, performer and activist. His latest play, Draw the Circle, premiered in Philadelphia in April and will be seen in Chicago in December. He has been the Transgender Outreach Chair for SALGA NYC for the last 2 years. deentheplaywright.weebly.com

Suty Komsonkeo is a Freshman at The George Washington University studying Environmental Engineering. He has competed in the 2011 Brave New voices competition with the Lowell Youth Slam Team and performs frequently around the George Washington University Campus. Suty also practices with the GW Raas Team, an Indian-style dance team which recently won the national championship, organizes events as the Co-cultural Affairs Coordinator for the Philippine Cultural Society, and works at the campus’ LGBT Resource Center.

Born Vaimoana Litia Makakaufaki Niumeitolu, Moana Love is a Poet, Painter, and Actor. She was born in Nuku’alofa, Tonga; raised in Hawa’ii and Utah; and now lives, creates and loves in NYC. She is a founding member of Mahina Movement, the phenomenal all woman trio who have performed on over 400 stages including having performed with Angela Davis, Amiri and Amina Baraka, Tony Kushner, Noam Chomsky, Sonia Sanchez, Kool Herc, Suheir Hammad, Sarah Jones, Medusa, Dead Prez and countless others. Moana is the author of a poetry, performance text, and visual art chapbook, tonga provo harlem. Moana has traveled and shared her poetry & painting all over the US and in Fiji, Tonga, Ireland, Italy, and South Africa. She has been seen acting at the Metropolitan Opera and sharing her one woman show, Tongue-in Paint, which had it’s world premiere at soloNOVA’s 5th Annual Arts Festival at Performance Space 122 in NYC. Her other production, A Prayer for Tonga, premiered at Harvard University. She graduated from New York University in painting and performance, earned the Ellen Stoekel Fellowship/fulll scholarship in painting & drawing from Yale University and attended Columbia University’s Graduate Program in Acting.
moanalove.com

Although born in Washington, DC, Don Mike Mendoza grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and returned to DC in 2006 to study musical theatre and broadcast journalism at American University. Since graduating in 2010, by day he is a manager at Vida Fitness and a Theatre volunteer for BloomBars, and by night, you can find him acting, singing, dancing, and producing all around the DC/MD/VA region… and now for La-Ti-Do at the Black Fox Lounge! Mendoza has been featured in local newspapers such as The Washington Bladeand Manila Mail for his accomplishments as an Asian American actor.

Una Aya Osato aka exHOTic other was born and raised in NYC, where she works as a performer, writer, and educator, and is continually merging her art and politics. Since graduating Wesleyan University, where she received her BA in Ethnic Studies, she has created several award winning one-woman shows: JapJAP, Recess, Keep It Movin’, and now her newest collaborative show with her family, LOL: The End. She has performed her own work and the work of others nationally and internationally at various theaters, classrooms, community organizations, college campuses, and prisons. Her love for fully embodying her politics in her art, has also led Una to Brown Girls Burlesque, where she is company member and goes by exHOTic other.
facebook.com/una.aya.osato

Daniel Phoenix Singh is the Artistic Director and President of
Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company. Singh holds an MFA in Dance and a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland. He also holds a Laban Movement Analyst Certificate from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in New York City. Singh trained in Bharata Natyam with Guru Meena Telikicherla of Nrityanjali, MD for several years. Singh’s explorations in dance include Cuban/Colombian variations of Salsa and Merengue with Javier Varela and Shawn Malone.
www.dakshina.org

Jamal Ari Black is originally from Goldsboro, N.C. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography. He was a 2006 recipient of a Stagecraft Apprenticeship from the American Dance Festival. While in N.C. he danced with John Gamble Dance Theater, Cyrus Art Productions, and Jan Van Dyke Dance Group. He currently also dances with EDGEWORKS Dance Theater.

Regie Cabico is one of the country’s leading innovators and pioneers of the poetry slam, having won 3 top prizes in the 1993, 1994 & 1997 National Poetry Slams and winning The Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam. Bust Magazine ranked him in the 100 Men We Love & The Kenyon Review called him the Lady Gaga of Poetry. He received 3 NY Innovative Theater Award nominations and won a 2006 Best Performance Art Production award for his work on Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. He has appeared on two seasons of HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and NPR’s Snap Judgement. His work is published in over 40 anthologies including Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café, Spoken Word Revolution & The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. Mr. Cabico received the Writers for Writers Award for his work with at-risk youth from Poets and Writers. He is former NYU Artist in Residence for Asian Pacific American Studies. He performs throughout the UK and North America & resides in Washington, DC.