Hope to see you there
Tara Homasi
It’s no surprise that the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, located near the beautiful Cascade Head Preserve, attracts a very high caliber of creative people to its annual residency program.
It’s also no surprise that Sitka wants to show off each year's crop of visual artists, scientists, writers and musicians.
On Thursday, March 17, enjoy brief, 10-minute presentations by Alice Turski, Michelle Ruiz Keil, Tara Homasi, Nia Witherspoon, Caine Casket and Sung Eun Park.
Turski received an MFA from Cornell University, where she also taught creative writing and literature. A finalist for the 2021 Gatewood Book Prize, her poems and scientific writing have been published in many journals and reviews. She is currently a PhD candidate in English Literature at the University of British Columbia.
Keil is a writer, public speaker and tarot reader. She has authored the critically acclaimed young adult novels, “Summer In The City of Roses” and “All of Us With Wings.” Her short fiction can be found in journals and anthologies including “Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guinn,” and she is a contributor to both volumes of the tarot manual, “A Collection of Specialized Spreads.” Currently based in Portland, she curates the fairytale reading series “All Kinds of Fur.”
Homasi is an Iranian interdisciplinary artist based in New York. For the past few years, she has been investigating the mainstream media and the internet, questioning the accuracy and authenticity of the sources we take for granted. In her art practice, she endeavors to depict our digital existence with artistic tools.
Witherspoon is a black queer theater maker, vocalist, composer and cultural worker investigating the metaphysics of black liberation, desire and diaspora. Described as “especially fascinating” by Backstage Magazine and featured by NPR for her curation of BlackARTSMatter, she is a Creative Capital awardee, a Jerome New Artist Fellow, and was a 2050 Playwriting/Directing Fellow at New York Theatre Workshop. She has a PhD from Stanford University in Theater and Performance Studies and is currently working on a manuscript tentatively titled “Nation in the dark: a black femme spell for justice.”
Casket is a recording artist from New Jersey with a background in poetry and fine art. A dedicated and meticulous person, he produces his own music, illustrates and animates his visuals and directs his music videos. His poetic observations are perceptive and pensive, expressed through melancholy verses and hooks that feel familiar yet unique.
Park is an Oregon-based artist who creates multidimensional works that incorporate drawing, sculpture and painting. Her current work involves creating a narrative in a theatrical setting to communicate with the audience. The narrative scenes allow the viewers to follow the journey, creating a surrealistic environment that drives the viewer to stay immersed in the present and free themselves from the past and future.
The talks begin at 4 pm via Zoom. For more information, go to sitkacenter.org.