IHRAF Festival 2026
50+ different performances,
12 performance blocks,
One magical week
8th Edition
International Human Rights Art Festival
December 7th - 13th, 2026
wild project
195 E 3rd St, New York, NY 10009
Where live performance meets activism!
Mon December 7
7:00 pm
Tue December 8
7:00 pm
Wed December 9
7:00 pm
Wed December 9
8:30 pm
Thu December 10
7:00 pm
Thu December 10
8:30 pm
Fri December 11
7:00 pm
Fri December 11
8:30 pm
Sat December 12
3:00 pm
Sat December 12
7:00 pm
Sun December 13
3:00 pm
Sun December 13
7:00 pm
Monday December 7, 7:00 pm - Short Play Festival
Free the Bag, by Free the Bag Productions
A cashier is confronted by a frustrated customer and has to decide if the store’s policies are fair.
Leif Larson (he/him) is a queer playwright living in NYC. Matthew Pezzulich (he/him) is a director, designer, and producer who is very excited to be here and would like you to visit www.matthewpezzulich.com Zach Canter (he/him) is NY based actor and writer. Ema Zivkovic (they/them) is an NYC based actor, choreographer, and writer. Ema Zivkovic (they/them) is a Croatian actor/choreographer, based in NYC, and they've worked at theaters across the country. They are part of Mercury Store Acting Company. www.emazivkovic.com Carol Jacobanis (she/her) is a an actor and audiobook narrator based in New York.
They Seem Invincible, by Kate Gill
Before The Sun Goes Down, by Aidan King
Peace and loving in Las Vegas, a combination not commonly found nor seen here. Where a couple spends their last night together, til the pounding of a door brings not only noise, but a new deliberation. Trigger Warnings: The show includes a gunshot
Aidan King (Any)- Actor, Director, Producer and Playwright. Marcus Smith (He/Him)- Hunter College Theatre Alumni, with main focus in Acting. Amaliia Bagdasarova (She/Her)- Hunter College Theatre student, focusing on Acting and Dance.
Voices In The Trees, by Reginald T. Jackson
This play is based on the real case of Demartravion "Trey“ Reed and the ongoing investigation into his death. While certain elements have been dramatized for theatrical purposes, the core facts—a young Black man found hanging with suspicious injuries, questions about the official suicide ruling, and the involvement of civil rights attorneys—are drawn from actual events. As of the writing of this play, no arrests have been made, and the investigation continues. This work is dedicated to Trey’s memory and to all victims of racial violence whose stories demand to be heard.
Reginald T. Jackson is a activist playwright, actor, performance poet, director and producer who has been working in theatre for the past two years non-stop. This marks his 14th production since 2024!
Side Effects, by Charles Day
What if a single pill could protect you from ever being on the receiving end of racism? In Side Effects, a Black man frustrated by generations of discrimination is offered a revolutionary treatment that promises to change his life. If freedom from prejudice came in the form of a pill, would you risk the side effects?
Charles Day (he/him) is a Barrow Group–trained multidisciplinary writer whose work has appeared at festivals and in literary publications nationwide, including the Snap First Person Arts Festival, the Social Justice Shorts Festival, the CWP Evolution Festival Launchpad Reading Series, Tough Poets Review and The Soliloquist Journal. Ermias Genet (he/him) is an HB Studio and Brown University trained actor, director and comedian whose extensive credits include Heads Up, LIMBO, It Gets Better and The Worst Thing She Can Say is No. Bilgin Turker (she/her) is a theater and film actor and writer whose recent credits include The Boy Scouts of America Don’t Sell Cookies, Bitch!, The Box Office, 80 Minutes Around the World, F.A.B., and Restorative Stories.
What's Love Got To Do With It?, by Meghan Duffy
When a mother visits a fortune teller to get help solving a problem, she has to come to terms with her actions.
Meghan Duffy, PhD (Playwright/Director) is a theatre artist/scholar whose work primarily focuses on the challenges women of all ages encounter. (she/her). Helen Galek (Fortune Teller) is an actor/casting director/writer and is happy to collaborate with Meghan and Ben again!!!! (she/her). Toni Ryan (Mother) is a graduate of The City College theatre program and is excited to now be part of the International Human Rights Art Movement/Festival. (she/her). Ben Sevilla (Production Assistant) is an actor, musician, writer, and producer of theatre, based out of NYC. (he/him)
Tuesday December 8, 7:00 pm - Celebration of LGBTQIA+
Stand up, by Neil Scibelli
Sappho's Hum, by Sapphic Star Productions
It is the night of the Spring Formal, and something catastrophic happened to Erin. The only person they can think of to call is their ex-roommate Soph. Sappho’s Hum is a (at times absurdist) microscopic study on coming of age queer life. Grappling with acceptance, the complexity of sexual assault in the queer community, and the confusion of discovering identity, Erin and Soph move through mundane rituals in order to find out if they are right for eachother. Echoing the plight of our historic ancestors Sappho and Erinna, the pair finds connection in moments of peace in their relationship. Trigger warnings: homophobia, mention of sexual assault, mention of seizures
Rebakkah ‘Beck’ Ruffin is an NYC born sapphic actress with a passion for black queer stories. Hannah Coleman is an NYC based actor who recently graduated Mason Gross School of the Arts and they are thrilled to be a part of this production! Vaughn Broderick (she/her) is an actor and comedian based in NYC- you can find her more on IG (@famousvaughnbroderick) or Tiktok (@vaughnisaloser). Olivia Billings (they/them) is a Nonbinary playwright, director, and AEA actor based in NYC that prioritizes queer and trans-centered work. Tika Begleiter (they/she) is an NYC-based Theatre Artist specializing in Stage Management and interested in creating, maintaining, and supporting diverse artistic environments.
SAT, by Katie Corrao with KTCO The Company
SAT, produced in 2025 by Katie Corrao, highlights the nuances of the feminine perspective. Through rigorous physicality and vulnerability, the dancers invite the audience to witness them as their full selves. SAT dissects what it means to knowingly bare oneself to the gaze of another, juxtaposed against the intrinsic objectification queer women experience when their bodies and identities are made into spectacles.
Katie Corrao (she/her) is a New York native and Artistic Director of KTCO the company. Katie has had her choreographic work premiered in theaters across the United States and internationally in Edmonton CA and Lucca Italy, in her third year leading the company, Katie is most excited to join IHRAF! Drew Allen (Bowie, MD) is a contemporary movement artist and Boston Conservatory at Berklee alumna who has performed in works by acclaimed choreographers and is entering her third season with KTCO. Kayenne Charles-Pierre she/her, Born and raised in Brooklyn. Kayenne studied at various schools around the city and she is a recent graduate of The Boston Conservatory. Bella Donatelli (she/they) is a New York City–based freelance artist finding freedom in falling; performing with David Dorfman Dance, Chelsea Thedigna Kizuna Dance Company, they are in their first season with KTCO. Gianna moved to NYC in 2021 from Chicago, IL. She graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a BFA in dance. She is entering her third season with KTCO and looking forward to revisiting past work, such as SAT.
Horatio’s Silence, by Chima Chikazunga
Undercut, by Jo Ratnik
Claude, a southern dyke who lives as man, moves to New York in the 1930s. At a barbershop he meets Trusova, the charming dyke who runs the shop, and the two instantly connect.
Jo Ratnik (they/he/she) is an Australian theater maker based in Brooklyn. Isabelle Chirls (they/them). Isa Garcia (they/elle). Dayaun Dewitt (she/her) is an actress from Coconut Grove Miami, Florida who's recent credits include Law & Order: SVU, Ivy 1859 (Fault Line Theater), are you listening?, Hedda Gabler (NYU), and Bodies and Beds (Mabou Mines). Marshall Joun (they/she/he) is a New York City based theatre, film and television actor. @marshalljoun. Ed Jr. Cardenas (he/him).
Ashtanayikas- The Eight Female Experiencesm, by Aasish Cherukupalli
Wednesday December 9, 7:00 pm - Celebration of Women
I'm That Witch, by GPC Entertainment
I’m That Witch is a spooky, female-driven original musical featuring an original score, dynamic choreography, and theatrical costumes about a young woman who joins a coven of witches trapped in an evil circus, discovering the power of feminine autonomy, chosen family, and collective liberation.
GPC Entertainment (she/her/they/them) Founded in 2014, GPC Entertainment is an NYC-based production company led by a female creative team that blends dance, music, costumes, pop culture, and vintage cabaret into dynamic themed variety shows, original musicals, and event entertainment, with credits at venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York Fashion Week, Feinstein’s/54 Below, and The Wild Project, while championing women and femme-identifying artists and celebrating the femme experience. Sturkey and Studabaker (he/him/they/them), a New York City-based songwriting duo comprised of cabaret performer and Off-Broadway producer Jackson Sturkey (he/him) and rocker and music producer Will Studabaker (he/him), have been collaborating since 2020, with original works including I’m That Witch and XOXO featured at Chelsea Table & Stage, the 2026 New York Fringe Festival, Stamptown, FRIGID NYC, and SoHo Playhouse. Andrea Palesh (she/her) Andrea Palesh is a NYC-based dancer, choreographer, and producer with a BA in Dance and BS in Fashion Merchandising from Colorado State University, whose performance credits include Jacob’s Pillow, APAP, international tours with Mystic India: The World Tour, and Off-Broadway productions, and who is the founder and co-director of Guilty Pleasures Cabaret, performing at venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, NY Fashion Week, and Feinstein’s/54 Below. Melissa Buriak (she/her) Melissa Buriak is a NYC-based multi-hyphenate creator and magna cum laude graduate of Oklahoma City University whose work spans performance, producing, directing, choreography, casting, and event management, with credits in regional theater, major television productions, and original works with Guilty Pleasures Cabaret at venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, 54 Below, and the NYC Fringe Festival.
TRAD-itional, by Michole Biancosino, Dana Jacks & Jordan Henry
Gilded Grit: Women Up Against the Grain, by Erica Johnson | Majerly Creative Media
In "Gilded Grit: Women Up Against the Grain," comedian and multidisciplinary artist Erica Majer serves up a hilarious, unapologetic take on the absurdities of being a Black woman in America. From being “Blackety Black but slavery white” to navigating the double standards of race, gender, and respectability, Majer takes audiences on a rollercoaster ride through the contradictions women are expected to survive, smile through, and somehow make look effortless. Equal parts irreverent, provocative, and painfully relatable, this stand-up set turns uncomfortable truths into comedy gold—and challenges audiences to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Trigger warnings: The performance addresses racism, sexism, gender stereotypes, emotional labor, and the pressures associated with resilience and well-being.
Erica Johnson (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist, comedian, writer, producer, and photographer, and the founder of Majerly Creative Media, whose work blends storytelling, humor, and social commentary to explore culture, identity, and social justice.
Open Letter, by Melis Yesiller
Open Letter is a dance theater work for four women, built around one question: if your life as a woman became a letter, what would it say to the world? Voices shaped by different cultures, histories, and ways of being a woman. This work invites audiences to witness these testimonies transformed into movement, revealing both what makes each story singular and what threads them together.
Melis Yeşiller (she/her) is a New York-based dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist whose work explores mythology, human rights, and the human experience through movement and storytelling. Brandy Brown (she/her) is a trans NYC-based artist - she is an alumni of the Martha Graham School for Contemporary Dance and UNC Charlotte, a company member with The Isadora Duncan Dance Company, and focuses on capturing the queer experience through her own choreographic work. Barbara Sulvic (she/her) is a French freelance dancer and teaching artist based in NYC. Trained at the Martha Graham School and in jazz dance in Paris, she currently works across various projects. Madeleine Lee is a NYC- based dancer, formerly with the Nai Ni Chen Dance Company and Graham 2. Madeleine strives to incorporate her Chinese culture into her western training to create a unique movement language that honors both heritage and innovation.
Wednesday December 9, 8:30 pm - Celebration of Human Rights
Every Chance to Heal, by Rich AB/Every Day We Rich
“Carry On: Every Chance to Heal” — a 15-minute multidisciplinary live music + spoken-word performance built around redemption, rehabilitation, fatherhood, faith, accountability, healing, transformation, and rebuilding.
Rich AB - born Abdul Hameed Scott (he/him/his) makes his New York debut with a high-energy Ihsan Pop set — faith-rooted, excellence-driven, and built for the stage. The Every Day We Rich founder brings his breakout single "On It" (97K+ streams) and fan favorites to The Wild Project for his first paid performance, celebrating human rights through music. The Furthest Extent. My Dad Made This Beat — Patrick LaFreniere (he/him/his): Patrick LaFreniere (he/him/his), professionally known as My Dad Made This Beat, is a music producer and creative collaborator whose dynamic production brings emotion, texture, and contemporary energy to the music he helps shape.
For You My Profundo Amor, by Murilo Oliboni
Set in Rio de Janeiro in 1971 under the Brazilian military dictatorship, For You My Profundo Amor explores the power of love between a mother and her son, alongside the strength of the LGBTQ+ community. The story follows Diego, a 20-year-old aspiring artist, and his open-minded mother, Lívia. While Judy Angel— a colorful, and bright guardian angel—is watching over them escaping the fear and stress of daily life, the two share a joyful moment on their rooftop in Santa Teresa before heading out together to a club in Copacabana.
Xiomara Lynn (She/Her/Hers) is a Colombian/Puerto Rican multi-hyphenate artist who continues to be inspired by the power of live performance and ensemble-driven work, with a passion for creating bold, truthful art that centers underrepresented voices. Ian Cortez (He/Him) is a Brazilian director whose background in visual storytelling and documentation of live events informs a theatrical vision focused on amplifying underrepresented creative narratives. Murilo Oliboni (He/Him) is a 21-year-old Brazilian actor and playwright based in New York, pouring his heart into bringing authentic queer stories to life. Madelaine Guanga (she/her) is an Ecuadorian, New York–based multi‑faceted artist devoted to uplifting voices and building genuine bonds; she hopes to keep creating work that inspires and stays in people’s hearts. Onstage she loves singing and dancing; offstage she’s a fierce supporter, a gentle hype‑leader, and a chaotic cook. @madeguanga19 Pietra Parker (She/Her) is a Brazilian drag queen, performer, and producer based in New York City. Known for her charisma, fierce performances, and unapologetic personality, she has captivated audiences across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. As the co-creator and host of REINAS, one of NYC’s celebrated Latin drag shows, Pietra brings Brazilian flair, passion, and powerhouse energy to every stage she conquers. Telba Cavero (She/Her) is a New York City–based actor, director, and voiceover artist originally from Lima, Peru, where she began acting at age six. Her recent theatre credits include Buried in Buttercream at the Gene Frankel Theatre Festival, In Defense of Medea at The Vino Theater, Mi Abuela, Queen of Nightmares at The Tank, and a one-act adaptation of Medea that toured the Dominican Republic.
Cut from the Same, by Flow by Lian and Tina Bararian
Beginning as separate figures, the dancers move through distance, mirroring, separation, and reunion, gradually discovering a familiar face until trust, intimacy, and recognition draw them into an intertwined whole. This duet explores the ancient bond between Persians and Jews through two people who, despite being made to see each other as strangers, gradually recognize themselves in one another through collective memory, ancestral identity, and a deeply rooted cultural connection. Ultimately, the piece is an act of reclaiming identity and remembering that political forces may attempt to divide people and erase their histories, but the ancestral memory carried by the body can survive, reconnect, and restore what was never truly lost.
Lian Kizner (she/her) is a Queens-bred dancer, choreographer, and the director of Flow by Lian, a dance company focused on social and environmental justice through the mind-body connection. Tina Bararian (she/her) is an Iranian dancer, choreographer, and founder of Dancers of Iran, whose work explores the connection between movement, memory, identity, and displacement through the body as a living archive.
Play About Demons, by Mariposa Coalson
Play About Demons is a psychological drama about misplaced devotion and emotional fragmentation. Labia, in mourning with a fractured sense of motherhood, shares her home with Owen, a conman with untamed aggression and desperate need. The pot boils and spills. Grimly hilarious.
Mariposa Coalson (she/her) is a playwright and actor based in Brooklyn, NY. Her previous work includes her award-winning play King! and Fran: A Show for Queens in Brooklyn. Morgan Sullivan (he/him) is an actor, filmmaker and the founder of the Trans Film Collective whose work has spanned TV, theatre and starring in films screening at Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca Festival. Jael Hollywood Scott (she/her) is a director and actress of the stage and screen whose work has been shown in collaboration with South by Southwest, Prime Video, Lincoln Center, Chez Bushwick, Judson Church, Saint Bimbo Film Festival, Kitchen Sink Theatre Company, Sapphest NYC, and on stage across the nation.
Thursday December 10, 7:00 pm - Celebration of Immigration
Death by 9 to 5, by Something From Abroad
Death by 9 to 5 is a one-man musical about a Spanish cabaret artist who arrives in New York chasing a Broadway dream and accidentally spends the next eight years as an unpaid intern at the United Nations, serving an invisible tyrant known only as "The Ambassador." By day he forges signatures, explains the controversial history of red paper clips, and runs Zoom meetings with a mute turkey; by night he rehearses the one sentence he has always meant to say to his mother's idol, Cher. Blending original songs, farce, drag, and a healthy amount of audience participation (congratulations, you are the new interns), it is a revenge comedy about the identities we bury to become who our families expect us to be written by someone who absolutely, definitely did not spend a decade inside the United Nations. Trigger warnings: strong language, sexual references, simulated drug use, and comedic depictions of death. Contains audience participation
Pelayo AF (he/him) is a Spanish-born, Brooklyn-based cabaret artist and founder of The Spanglish Affair, whose one-man musical Death by 9 to 5 brings the immigrant experience to the stage through surrealist comedy. Federico Mallet (he/him) is a Mexico City-born actor, director, and producer based in Brooklyn, co-founder of Quemoción and Assistant Artistic Director at Village Playback Theater.
Polyharmony, by Jane Wong
Listen to Your Mother (excerpts), by Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama
Listen to Your Mother is a choreographic research project dedicated to the lives of women-identifying artists who are immigrant mothers living in New York City. The project seeks to capture these underrepresented women's stories to inspire dialogue, appreciation, and social support instead of the ongoing prejudice endured that is historically placed against mothers and women in the arts.
Originally from Argentina, Anabella Lenzu is a dancer, choreographer, scholar and educator with 35 years of experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy, and the USA. Lenzu directs her own company, Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama, which since 2006 has presented thought provoking and historically conscious dance-theater in NYC.
Maestrale, by Emanuele Fiore
“Maestrale” is a modern-contemporary dance choreography dedicated to the people we love and live far from us when we choose to pursue our dreams elsewhere, and explains what it means to build an entirely new life while keeping our roots strong and alive. It is a work about migration, but also about love, memory, separation, and the courage to pursue something beyond what is familiar.
Emanuele Fiore (He/Him) is a dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist from Bari, Italy, who graduated from the Certificate Program at The Ailey School. He is currently a company member of Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre and Matthew Westerby Company, and has choreographed works for various festivals and programs. Christian Ayala (He/Him) is a Senior student at Ailey/Fordham, who had the chance to dance with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and is a scholarship recipient for this year’s intensive at the Jacob’s Pillow. Alisha Khatwani (She/Her) is a New York City–based dancer, choreographer, and multidisciplinary artist who holds a BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and bridges movement, visual design, and community through performance, creative leadership, and arts education. Jose Martinez-Chavarría (He/Him/His) is a freelance dance artist based in NYC. He is passionate about merging community and dance together! Rebecca Pelleri (She/Her) is a NYC-based freelance dancer from Florence, Italy. She holds teaching certifications in both the Graham Technique and the Gyrotonic® Method.
Thursday December 10, 8:30 pm - Celebration of Becoming
Strange Home, by PitsiRa YaMabala
Soft in a Spicy World, by Lalit Sritara & Trevor Lanford
Songs for people who feel everything. Cry at car commercials? Need a nap after one group chat? Have feelings about overhead lighting? You might be one of the 15–30% of humans who feel everything, and New York City is very, very spicy. Join us for ten sizzling minutes: three songs about staying soft in a city that keeps cranking up the heat. Then comes the spiciest question of all: who gets the quiet? Because rest is a right, not a reward. Come as you are: soft, spicy, or somewhere in between. Currently in development, made in part through Lalit’s artist residency at Catwalk Institute. Book & Lyrics by Lalit Sritara · Music & Direction by Trevor Lanford/ Music Production by Steve Chauvette/ Performed by Lalit Sritara & Dashiell Gregory
Lalit Sritara (she/her) is a Bangkok-born, musical-raised songwriter who turns real life into giggly, sassy, whimsical songs, because honestly, it should be a musical. Trevor Lanford (he/him) is an award-winning composer and dramaturg based in New York City. Steve Chauvette (he/they) is a musician, composer, and educator whose work includes chamber music, game soundtracks, and music for theatre and dance. Dashiell Gregory (he/they) is a New York based actor and musician, recently seen in the new musical A Complicated Woman and Stranger Sings! A Parody Musical off-Broadway.
VAMP, by karley wasaff
Dummy, by Katelyn Seyl
DUMMY is a short play where two girls, Stevie and Dummy, lay in bed, eat gummy worms, and talk about their relationship with men and sex.
Katelyn Seyl (she/they) is a playwright currently studying Dramatic Writing at NYU who likes writing gross and intimate stories about queer women. Willow Funkhouser (she/her) a Brooklyn based director and intimacy choreographer whose work deals with women, flesh and messy relationships.
Your Queen Presents: PETRUS, by Edu Díaz
What is Catherine de' Medici doing at the International Human Rights Art Festival? Celebrating her greatest humanitarian achievement, of course: turning Petrus Gonsalvus, a hairy man from the Canary Islands, into a royal spectacle. Created and performed by award-winning creator Edu Díaz, YOUR QUEEN PRESENTS: PETRUS blends clown, drag, and outrageous theatricality to reveal what the Queen insists is the real story behind Beauty and the Beast. Trigger Warnings: Themes of objectification and dehumanization
Edu Díaz (he/him/él) is an award-winning actor, theatermaker, and Fulbright alumnus from the Canary Islands, who creates wildly theatrical worlds through physical theatre and magical realism, to discuss identity, displacement, and resilience.
Friday December 11, 7:00 pm - Civil Disobedience: Curated event by Dakota Silvey
Born Under Punches, by Dakota Silvey
A landlord catches a graffiti artist tagging his building with a protest piece. While he holds her paint hostage she calls him out for abandoning the very principles he stood for when he moved to the city as a teen to become an East Village Punk.
Dakota Silvey (He/Him) is a playwright, wildland firefighter and EMT. Laura Villa (She/Her) is an independent multidisciplinary artist from Colombia whose practice explores different ways of inhabiting the world, everyday life, and the human experience through her perspective as a migrant in New York City. Derrick Peterson (He/Him) is an actor in NYC.
Fascists's got no paint left, by Arseniy Fariatiev
"Fascists' got no paint left" is a title of an anonymous non-fiction book, published by "Freedom Letters," that catalogued the practice of grassroots anti-war initiatives after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This theatre piece considers how the Russian authoritarian regime creates a caste of terrorists, extremists and foreign agents out of people, whose vocation is art.
Arseniy Fariatiev is a Russian-born New-York-based theatre maker, who opposed the war in Ukraine vehemently enough to have to flee Moscow.
Friday December 11, 8:30 pm - EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL: Curated event by ArteEast
ArteEast's Hikayat 7, EVERYTHING’S UNDER CONTROL, brings together the work of artists Melika Abikenari, Atif Akin, Umber Majeed and E Rady. Through their performances, the artists explore systems of power, violence and indoctrination, through their psychological effects on the human spirit and body. In badan mī āshoobad (the body agitates), Abikenari investigates the body as a living archive of state and historical violence. Rooted in personal embodied memory and collective rituals of mourning and resistance, the work explores how the body carries and (re)collects knowledge, grief, and refusal. Movement and material become repositories of memory and testimony. Akin’s poetic audiovisual performance leads audiences across music informed by the atomic age while rotating analog slides and projections reflect nuclear energy heating and cooling processes. This work is informed by Akin’s research into art in the era of nuclear evangelism. In Atomi Daamaki Wali Mohabbat (The Atomically Explosive Love), Majeed chronicles the history of nuclear power in Pakistan, the first ‘Muslim nuclear state.’ Her multi-chapter animation speaks to questions of nationalism, state propaganda and aesthetics, community, and self through speculative fiction. Maintenance Methods is Rady’s participatory group experiment that probes collective power dynamics, compliance, action, inaction, and how a single act can initiate a sequence of others. Each performance is distinct and evolves with the audience who are presented with a space to intervene during the performance, though explicitly given instructions not to.
Melika Abikenari (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based artist, educator, and organizer. She holds an MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2021) and a BA from UCLA (2017). She is currently an AIM Fellow at The Bronx Museum. Atıf Akın (he/him) is an artist living in New York. His work is about technoscientific criticism in the context of contemporary art, science, and politics. Integrating technology as both subject and means of expression, Akın explores issues that are considered sensitive in the public discourse, unlocking them from the rigid political categories in which they reside. Umber Majeed is a multidisciplinary visual artist and educator. Her writing, performance, and animation work engage with familial archives to explore Pakistani state, urban, and digital infrastructure through a feminist lens. E Rady (they/them) is a Syrian-American transdisciplinary visual artist based in New York City who utilizes performance, video, and installation to critically examine the power dynamics surrounding Queer identity, ethnicity, and nationalism within the imperial landscape of the United States.
ArteEast Team: Lila Nazemian, Ginou Choueiri, Sylvia Feghali, Thalia Bassim
Saturday December 12, 3:00 pm - Curated event by MARE NOSTRUM ELEMENTS
already gone, by spacejunk dance
“already gone”(working title) is a performance of outrageous persona, “star-power”, personhood, and the extent to which we curated ourselves (or don’t) in performance to connect with our audience. Within the performed persona, the lines are quickly blurred between what is real, what is escapism, and what is survival.
Ashley Yehoda (she/ they) and Lillian Joergensen (she / her) are the creative brains and bodies behind spacejunk dance. Their performance presence is hyper-physical and honors their shared and unshared movement histories, creating an exquisite corpse of physicality.
NamaSteady, by Eddy D. Lathan IV
NamaSteady is a solo movement performance exploring identity, dignity, and the freedom to exist authentically. Through dance, yoga, and personal ritual, the performer transforms the yoga mat into a space for reflection, resistance, and release. Blending music, storytelling, and historical accounts, the piece explores how the challenges of the outside world, both past and present, shape our lives in solitude. The performance explores how embracing the balance between light and darkness, struggle and strength, movement and stillness can become pathways toward healing, self-acceptance, personal and collective liberation.
Eddy D. Lathan IV is a Brooklyn-based teaching artist, dancer, choreographer, writer, and yoga educator whose practices integrates movement, somatics, mindfulness, and spirituality to explore the intersections of embodied expression, self-awareness, personal empowerment, and collective healing through the arts.
Saturday December 12, 7:00 pm - And Scene : Curated event by Mick Szal
New York top improvisers and actors from Broadway, TV and beyond perform in scenes from Mammet to Moliere and everything in between. The actors can't deviate from their lines and the improvisers will improvise with no prior knowledge of the scenes.
Brian Furey is an actor and comedian known for his improvised voice overs of famous paintings and for his work in the GTA series. Alex Dickson is an actor and improviser known for her work on Stepfathers, Asscat, and Raatscraps. Connor Ratliff is an actor and comedian known for his hit podcast Dead Eyes as well as roles on Bob's Burgers, Mean Girls, and Widow's Bay.
Sunday December 13, 3:00 pm - Short Performance Festival
Between the Frame and The Body, by Stacey Larkins
Between the Frame and the Body is a multidisciplinary performance blending experimental film, dance and live performance to examine race, identity, systemic injustice, and the complexities of Black Life. Through Cinematic excerpts and embodied expression, Stacey Larkins confronts dominant narratives, interrogates structures of power, and explores the relationship between representation and lived experience. Trigger warnings: themes of racism, racial discrimination and references to police brutality
Stacey Larkins is an award winning filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist creating provocative works that explore the intersections of race, identity and social consciousness.
Rise For The Earth, by International American Ballet
Rise For The Earth — Earth in Our Hands, a neoclassical storytelling ballet by choreographer Analía Farfan (International American Ballet), is a call to protect the planet we share. In four chapters, it opens with "Arctic Love," a celebration of nature in its purest and most fragile form, before "Storm" — set to Vivaldi — unleashes chaos upon the sea, embodying pollution and the breaking point of marine ecosystems. In "Earth," the planet herself becomes a living character, crying out for help; the finale, "Protect The Earth," answers her call as a soprano soloist joins the dancers in a rising hymn, the five elements — earth, water, fire, air, and spirit — united with Indigenous dancers from the Amazon in original Shipibo costumes, honoring ancestral wisdom and our collective responsibility.
Analia Farfan: Director, Producer, Author, Choreographer, Dancer. Vita Koreneva: Composer, Singer: “Protect The Earth”. Misa Mochizuki: Rehearsal Coordinator
Unnamed, Untitled, Unidentified, by Steph Prizhitomsky
Borderland (Exhibit A), by Alessia Palanti
“Borderland (Exhibit A)” treats a family history as a crime scene, investigating it for what intergenerational trauma leaves behind. Drawn from the experience of being raised by a parent with borderline personality disorder, the piece takes the word “border” as a choreographic proposition: the clinical line between neurosis and psychosis, the borders that breed mutual suspicion, the ones we invent to protect ourselves. Unpredictability becomes physical material, as bodies learn to anticipate, negotiate, and brace. Can a border break inherited patterns? “Borderland (Exhibit A)” is a component of an evening-length work in development. Trigger warnings: loud sounds and flashes of light
Alessia Palanti (she/her) is both a choreographer and performer originally from Italy, who creates experimental dance-theatre pieces. She is also a professor of writing at NYU. Nicole Y. McClam (she/her) CMA, MFA, teaches at Queensborough Community College, and currently performs with Circle O and danceTactics. Sierra Moore (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York City, working across dance, music, and acting. Kayleigh Morrison (they/she) is a Brooklyn based artist who studied at University of the Arts and graduated with a BFA from SUNY Purchase after the closing of UArts. Sara Pizzi (she/her) is an Italian dancer, choreographer, educator, co-founder and co-artistic director of sarAika movement collective, creating intercultural contemporary dance across the United States, Europe, and Japan.
My Last #Adventure, by Katie Nisa and Judith Ruskay Rabinor
When an elderly mother faces a medical diagnosis, she and her influencer daughter must confront and negotiate end of life issues together. Written and Performed by Katie Nisa and Judith Ruskay Rabinor. Trigger warning: discussions of suicide
Judith Ruskay Rabinor PhD (she/her)is a clinical psychologist, author, workshop leader and playwright. Katie Nisa (she/her) is a writer and an actor who recently moved back to NY from LA and can be seen in many films and TV shows, including SVU, She Said, and The Artist. Jon Gellert (he/him) is a theater director and educator with over 30 years of experience and holds degrees from Syracuse University, Emerson College, and UCLA
Plastic Ocean, by LLMoves - Choreography by Lindsey L. Miller
PLASTIC OCEAN sheds light on the plastic epidemic happening in our ocean today. With a cast of dancers moving within a field of plastic trash, we hope to raise awareness through art that something must be done to stop and undo the damage we have caused by wastefulness.
Lindsey L. Miller (she/her) is a NYC-based dancer, choreographer, yoga/fitness/meditation teacher, and artistic director of LLMoves. Zachary Tracz (he/him) is a native New Yorker who works as dancer, in multiple facets, and as a fashion/costume designer based in Brooklyn. Adele Carlson (she/her) is a freelance dance artist and Pilates instructor in New York City. Caitie Smith (she/her) is a freelance dancer based out of Brooklyn, who also specializes in yoga and wellness outside of the dance studio. Mayu Yamashita (she/her) is a New York-based dancer/actor/movement artist from Tokyo, Japan, whose recent credits include Disney’s Frozen at Fireside Theatre (WI), the new musical The Phoenix: Part I (NY), and Laurey in the “Dream Ballet” from Oklahoma! in The Art of Becoming (NY). Bettina Sheppard (she/her) is a New York-based multi-genre composer and vocalist known for blending classical structure, choral texture, and world fusion into theatrical, atmospheric soundscapes that explore the profound relationship between humanity and the natural world.
Sunday December 13, 7:00 pm - Purposeful Bodies Together in Hope: Curated event by BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance
This curated evening of contemporary dance explores the connections between bodies, identities, communities, and environments, offering diverse perspectives on cultural heritage, intimacy, disability, personal freedom, and environmental change.
Mantises Are Flipping | W.3 Fault Line, by BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance
Mantises Are Flipping W.3 explores duality through movement. The work begins as an interactive journey through an imaginative world of movement and sound, where audience can cultivate new discoveries in the nature of opposites and intricately changing psychological states. This interaction leads into the dancers’ internal journeys amongst private moments of isolation, small group interactions, and envelopment into the whole. Euphoria, excitement, focus, frustration, and persistence are communicated through highly physical to vaguely indicated partnerships, and juxtaposition of rhythm, harmony, and dissonance. Fault Line, a quartet, reflects growth, repetition, contrast, intimacy, separation, and parallels of human relationships at varying levels of connection. Fault Line establishes complex roles of two co-existing relationships, both isolated and intertwined, and the dissolution of each. Complicated phrase work and partnering embodies how relationships and movement can ricochet, burst, support, harmonize, and suspend.
Sophia Diehl (she/her)holds degrees in Dance and Religion from St. Olaf College and has performed with several New York-based dance companies, choreographed site-specific dance films, and worked extensively in arts education and community-based healing initiatives. Ava Eriksen-Oertle (they/them) is a versatile dance artist originally from Salt Lake City who trained at the Ailey/Fordham University program and has performed contemporary and modern works throughout New York City. Robenson Mathurin (he/him) is a New York-based dance artist, choreographer, and educator specializing in Haitian folkloric, contemporary, and Afro-based dance, as well as the Artistic Director of NANM, a company celebrating Haitian culture through movement and storytelling. Jack Randel (he/they), originally from Farmington Hills, Michigan, holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Michigan and has collaborated with numerous choreographers, choreographed for dance and theater productions, and performs with Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre and MWC. Arianna Stendardo Gamble (she/her)is an Italian-born dancer, singer, and actress who trained at The Ailey School in New York City, made her Off-Broadway debut in Frankenstein the Musical, and currently performs with several dance companies, including Jazz Roots Dance Company, APDANCEINC, Clymove, and RITUALS.
Days of Awe excerpt, by Heidi Latsky Dance
This excerpt from Days of Awe is a duet for two people who have come together during upheaval to support and be supported by one another. The work features some MRI sounds. The evening length Days of Awe, commissioned by Pasculano Collaborative for Contemporary Dance at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, will premiere at Alice Tully Hall January 9th and 10th, 2027.
Heidi Latsky Dance was founded in 2001. Heidi Latsky has been a leader in the physically integrated dance field. Nico Gonzales has been with the company since 2015. Henry Holmes intially worked as a technical supervisor for HLD but has been dancing for the company since 2024.
how hard will you hold me?, by SAXYN Dance Works
“How Hard Will You Hold Me?” explores what happens between two people when love and good intentions tangle with miscommunication, missed opportunities, and quiet resentment. As two people struggle to understand one another, the work asks whether we can ever truly know another person—and whether the act of constantly trying can in fact pull us further apart. Perhaps deep love is accepting what we can never know.
Thryn Saxon (she/her) is the Artistic Director of SAXYN Dance Works, as well as a performer, educator, Pilates instructor, and co-director of Homeport Art House, a dance residency in rural Maine. Maggie Costales (she/her) is an NYC-based freelance dancer and artist, currently dancing for SAXYN Dance Works, and is a certified Countertechnique® Teacher.
Blk Vortex, by Renegade Performance Group
Blk Vortex - is a continuation of André Zachery's artistic research with dance and technology that sources Black Atlantic and African Diaspora practices of resistance and evolution as the basis for creative expression. This solo work uses dance and technology elements to extend the concept of resonance and memory beyond the corporeal body and through digital spheres.
André M. Zachery, artistic director of the Brooklyn-based Renegade Performance Group, is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, researcher, and technologist with a BFA from Ailey/Fordham University and an MFA in Performance & Interactive Media Arts from CUNY/Brooklyn College. His practice, research, and community engagement are artistically focused on merging choreography, technology, and Black/African Diaspora cultural practices through multimedia work. Since founding RPG in 2007, André has presented work both domestically and internationally, with acclaimed press from publications such as the Brooklyn Rail, The New Yorker, and The New York Times André is a 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts Gregory Millard Fellow in Choreography, a 2019 Jerome Hill Foundation Fellow in Choreography, and a 2025 Strokes of Genius Fellow from Black Genius Foundation. He is currently an Associate Arts Professor at the Tisch School of the Arts in the Dance Department at New York University.
The Soul Of Water, by Cypress and Comet
The Soul of Water explores the sacred essence of water through memory, movement, and ritual. Honoring it as a source of life, healing, and renewal, the work invites reflection on our spiritual connection to water and our shared responsibility to cherish and protect it.
(He/Him) Adesola Osakalumi is an award-winning Actor, Choreographer, Creative Director, Singer, and Dancer. (She/Her) Kimberly Mayhorn is an interdisciplinary artist and Emmy-nominated editor whose practice moves across moving image, installation, performance, and sound. (She/Her)Karma Mayet Johnson WRITER PERFORMER ACTIVIST HEALER SCHOLAR ROOT-WOMAN (She/Her)Jill M. Vallery is an award-winning American Broadway performer, choreographer, and movement director known for her dynamic fusion of theater, rhythm, and storytelling.
Rice + Peas, by Movement of the People Dance Company
Rice + Peas is a structured improvisation that uplifts the connection between cultures and a common dish: rice and peas/beans. Dancers weave in and out of shared memory and ancestral legacy. Through audience interaction the piece leans into joy through embodied ingredients for making this multicultural recipe.
Founded in 2005, Movement of the People Dance Company composes socially conscious choreography through multidisciplinary immersive contemporary dance.
Brooklyn native Camilla Maria Davis (she/her) graduated from Hunter College with a BA in Dance. Davis received her license of massage therapy at the Pacific College of Health and Science (PCHS). Now a mother of two, Davis continues to explore interweaving her experiences to benefit herself, her family and her community. Jocelyn Pleasant (she/her) is a percussionist, drummer, and educator, originally from Bloomfield, Connecticut. Jocelyn’s performance credits on drum set and percussion are extensive, for example, she has performed vibraphonist Jay Hoggard, Guinean guitarist Mamady Kouyate (Bembeya Jazz, Mandingo Ambassadors), and on multiple occasions in NYC’s Lady Got Chops Jazz Festival. In addition to leading The Lost Tribe, she is currently the percussionist for The Afro Semitic Experience and co-leader of tap-n-jazz ensemble Medusa, both based in Connecticut. A multiethnic Harlemite, Joya Powell (she/her) is a Bessie Award winning choreographer and educator passionate about community, activism, and dances of the African Diaspora. As founding Artistic Director of Movement of the People Dance Company, her work has appeared in venues such as: BAM, Lincoln Center, Harlem Stage, SummerStage, La Mama, The Bronx Museum, and BAAD!
IHRAF Festival 26 Production Team
Tom Block, Producer
Costanza Bugiani, Assistant Producer
Aika Takeshima, Production Assistant
Tess Restaino, Technical Director
Rachel Dennis, Stage Manager
Inna Ivanovskaya, Videographer
Robin Michals, Photographer
Lina Restrepo Cardona, IHRAM Social Media Manager
Malini Singh MCDonald, Public Relations
