6:30pm Doors + Free Food | 7:30pm Free Art

DEVOUR/BEAUTYTRICKS

by Soul Lee

curated by Malcolmx Betts & Arien Wilkerson

It is embarrassing to be a woman and not be beautiful

It is shameful for a woman to put effort into being beautiful

It is humiliating for a woman to try and fail to be beautiful.

Soul's work, DEVOUR embodies the complicated emotions tied to hooking. How can individuals within this community cope, and what role does the environment play in shaping the performance? Found family plays a significant role in fostering healthy relationships with the work, while also maintaining a safe emotional distance from it. How do we, talk about sex work in our daily lives, and how much do we share with those closest to us? Through this performance, we witness her process of preparing to attract clients, performing for them, and coping with the emotional aftereffects of being physically overpowered.

BEAUTYTRICKS work embodies transience-how identities shift and evolve within the context of a realm that often seeks to categorize and confine. Through movement and the experience of sweat, she aims to highlight the physicality of transformation, displaying the labor involved in the pursuit of desire, beauty and authenticity. Each gesture and breath serve as a testament to the resilience of those navigating the turbulent waters of identity and sexual desirability for a dollar.

The performance unfolds in two parts, with a pivotal duet in the middle where the two performers connect in a shared moment of vulnerability. challenging stigmas and creating a space for healing and exploring how moving together can foster a sense of belonging and empathy for one another. Can traumas be healed through the body on a dance floor, at the club, how is that specific to you? As a sex worker, as an artist, as a maker of culture, as an observer? How do all these worlds merge when sweating in a loud room filled with music?

Soul Lee - Facilitator, choreographer, and performer

Alejandra Del Carmen - Facilitator and performer

Kehari Hutchinson - Collaborator and performer