2023 Fall Residencies
Bethany welcomes artists working across a variety of disciplines. Fall 2023 Resident Artist EventsBethany welcomes our 2023 Fall Artists in Residence
We are thrilled to announce our 2023 Fall Multidisciplinary Residents and schedule of Community Programs. This residency season, we welcome writers and poets, filmmakers, musicians and composers, movement artists, theatre artists, dancers, fiber artists, painters and mixed media artists, educators, social activists, storytellers, and more to Bethany for the development of new works and works-in-progress. We welcome twenty-nine talented artists working across disciplines for our 6th annual Fall Multidisciplinary Residency.
As part of a residency at BAC, we ask each artist to build and facilitate a Community Program. Community Programs are a unique opportunity for both artists-in-residence and our local community to gather, engage, and be in conversation with one another through art. Community Programs are free engagements open to the public and/or in collaboration with a local community partner. We hope you’ll join these artists this residency season as they share their work!
Fall 2023 Multidisciplinary Residency Artists
Christopher Williams Dance
Rasha Abdulhadi
Nikomeh Anderson
Melissa Ferrer Civil
Jennella Young
Tessa Brinckman
Mariana Newhard
Dina Emerson
Mika Taylor
Margo Newman
Bernard Brown
Malachi Middleton
Du’Ron Fisher (DeFacto X)
Siena Rafter
SRĐA
Ana Sofia Reynoso
Sylvia Schieber
Perry Easton
Anndee Hochman
Susan Lenz
Christopher Williams Dance
Choreographer & Movement Artists
About Residency
Christopher Williams Dance
Dates of Residency: September 16-30
Residency Plan:
While at Bethany, Christopher is continuing his ongoing current project ‘Queering’ the Canon: Reimagining the Ballets Russes. Christopher Williams will create, rehearse and present a work in process of choreographic material for two new original ballets in preparation for their world premières at Baryshnikov Arts Center in October 2023 featuring costume and lighting designs by longtime collaborators Andrew Jordan and Joe Levasseur.
About Christopher Williams
Christopher Williams, dubbed “one of the most exciting choreographic voices out there” (The New York Times) and “the downtown prodigy” (The New Yorker) is a choreographer, dancer, and puppet artist ho has created over forty original and collaborative works in Lenapehoking (the unceded lands of the Lenape people, now designated New York City) and abroad since 1999. His work has toured in France, Italy, Spain, England, Holland, Colombia, Malawi, and Russia, and has been presented nationally in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Kalamazoo, Walla Walla, Princeton, Bainbridge Island, Lewiston, Carlisle, Interlochen, Kaatsbaan Culture Park, and Jacob’s Pillow, as well as local venues including Baryshnikov Arts Center, The Joyce, New York Live Arts, Lincoln Center, City Center, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, and P.S. 122. His commissioners include The Joyce Theater, NYLA, Opéra National de Bordeaux, English National Opera, Perm Opera & Ballet Theater, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Princeton University, Philadelphia Dance Projects, and HERE Arts Center’s Dream Music Puppetry Program. Named a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow in choreography, his awards include a 2005 New York Dance & Performance “Bessie” Award and fellowships from The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Center for Ballet & the Arts. He has also been awarded residencies via the Robert Hermitage Artist Retreat, Rauschenberg Foundation, the Watermill Center, the Bogliasco Foundation, Movement Research, Djerassi, Yaddo, and The Yard. He holds degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, and has performed for Tere O’Connor, Douglas Dunn, Rebecca Lazier, Yoshiko Chuma, John Kelly, and Basil Twist, among others.
Artist’s Social Media:
instagram.com/faycavalier
https://www.christopherwilliamsdance.org
Rasha Abdulhadi (they/them)
Poet, Essayist, Fiber Artist, Speculative Fiction Writer & Editor
About Residency
Rasha Abdulhadi (they/them)
Dates of Residency: September 25-October 9
Residency Plan:
As a poet, essayist, fiber artist, speculative fiction writer, and editor, I am committed to bridging communities through the ways we remember, tell stories about, and remake our daily lives. My multidisciplinary approach includes connecting to and queering craft, lineage, and communal forms as resources for decolonization and liberation. During my residency, I’ll be revising my first full-length poetry manuscript, reflecting and writing about two decades of community and cultural organizing (including the last four years of pandemic response), as well as continuing my research and practice of traditional Palestinian embroidery (tatreez).
About Rasha
Rasha Abdulhadi is a queer Palestinian Southerner disabled by Long Covid. Rasha’s writing has appeared in Kweli, Poem-a-Day, Electric Lit, carte blanche, Shade Journal, Mizna, Room, Strange Horizons, and Lambda Literary and is anthologized in Essential Voices: A COVID-19 Anthology, Snaring New Suns, Unfettered Hexes, Halal if You Hear Me, and Luminescent Threads: Connections to Octavia Butler. Their Elgin award-nominated chapbook is who is owed springtime.
Artist’s Social Media:
Instagram: @eclipseandbodhi
Nikomeh Anderson (they/he)
Multi-disciplinary Artist
About Residency
Nikomeh Anderson (they/he)
Dates of Residency: September 27 – October 9
Residency Plan:
During the course of the residency Nik and Melissa will be artistically focusing on the rhythms and drums for Nik’s piece “The Dystopia of Normalcy”. In addition to collaborating with Nik, Melissa will be working on her manuscript INTIMATIONS and a critical research paper in conjunction with her manuscript. Rest, connection to our self and community care, Nature, and personally and artistically collaborating with other participants in the residency is our intentions. artists on the retreat, as well as collaboration with each other and the other artists is the heart of our intentions as artists on residency. For Dystopia, we’ll Primarily focusing on Round 1: which focus on Race (titled RACE / MIND / GENDER). Dystopia is a sprial breakdown break though into these aspects of self and community, using poetry, music and ultimately movement. While we are focusing primarily on music, we are also open to movement collaborations and music jams and sharing space with other processes and projects.
About Nikomeh
Nikomeh Anderson, also known as Nik, (They/he) is a BK/Lenape land based Multidisciplinary Performer + Content Creator, Teaching Artist + Holistic Facilitator, and Erotic Creative + Intimacy Captain. They are an Event + Creative Project Producer with their intentional healing justice Black, Trans+Queer, Neurodiverse+Disabled Artist Collective house: Community Oasis Igniting Liberation or COIL. Their primary artistic mediums are movement, poetry, acting, music/singing (folk/rock bari-tenor), and energy work.
Recent credits: Bethany Arts Community Poetry Residency-The Dystopia of Normalcy; Shared Sentences, Houses on the Moon; Galatea, MJ Kaufman; The Civility of Albert Cashiers, Trans Entertainment Guild. https://linktr.ee/wickedsirnik
Artist’s Social Media:
Melissa Ferrer Civil (she/they)
Poet, Organizer & Educator
About Residency
Melissa Ferrer Civil
Dates of Residency: September 25 – October 9
Residency Plan:
During the course of the residency Nik and Melissa will be artistically focusing on the rhythms and drums for Nik’s piece “The Dystopia of Normalcy”. In addition to collaborating with Nik, Melissa will be working on her manuscript INTIMATIONS and a critical research paper in conjunction with her manuscript. Rest, connection to our self and community care, Nature, and personally and artistically collaborating with other participants in the residency is our intentions. artists on the retreat, as well as collaboration with each other and the other artists is the heart of our intentions as artists on residency. For Dystopia, we’ll Primarily focusing on Round 1: which focus on Race (titled RACE / MIND / GENDER). Dystopia is a sprial breakdown break though into these aspects of self and community, using poetry, music and ultimately movement. While we are focusing primarily on music, we are also open to movement collaborations and music jams and sharing space with other processes and projects.
About Melissa
Melissa Ferrer Civil (she/they) is a poet, organizer and educator living on Kaw, Kickapoo and Oceti Sakowin lands (Kansas City, MO). A lot of their work deals with the impact of oppressive institutions upon the mind, heart, body and soul of marginalized individuals as well as the reclamation and redefining of community. You can find out more about them and their work at their website: www.melissaferrerand.com
Artist’s Social Media:
Jennella Young (she/her)
Painter, Photographer, Mixed Media & Book Artist
About Residency
Jennella Young
Dates of Residency: September 25-October 9
Residency Plan:
I want to use this residency to begin a body of work that highlights the faces, bodily experiences, objects, lessons, and stories women bring and have brought with them when they have to leave their homeland and migrate to other lands and spaces. Through an emphasis on portraiture, I hope to help excavate and reclaim the lost, untold, and dismissed stories of immigrant women and their descendants, emphasizing voluntary, indentured, and forced migration to the United States. During this residency, I will paint a series of portraits sourced from archival and personal photographs. Each portrait will be accompanied by a written narrative that attempts to reclaims the woman or femme’s story of courage, resilience and search for sovereignty over their bodies and lives. The resulting collection of portraits, narratives, and ephemera will be used to create handmade books, providing a powerful medium to convey the depth and significance of their stories.
About Jennella
Jennella Young is a painter, photographer, mixed media and book artist who lives and works in Brooklyn. She is deeply committed to educational equity and embedding arts, cultural, and community knowledge into the everyday experiences of the young people she works with.
The main subject of Young’s current work is portraiture – primarily of Black and Brown women from archival photos. Painting images of women found throughout time allows her to create a meditative space and portal to bring these women’s forgotten or dismissed stories back into our plane of existence. Young’s art-making process consists of watercolor, acrylic, ink, pastel, bookmaking, and journaling.
Artist’s Social Media:
Bernard Brown (he/they)
Performer & Choreographer
About Residency
Bernard Brown (he/they)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
For this residency, members of Bernard Brown/bbmoves will collaborate on two aspects of a new international project. The work seeks to intervene on multiple registers, in the form of live performance and a filmic document. The residency at BAC will provide dedicated time and space for development and devotion to rhythm, contemporary forms, and Africanist movement practices that are central to the new work. This will prioritize communal effort and the collaborative nature of the work that is in development. We will integrate composer, DeFacto X, into the process while at BAC, as they will be mixing music live during the performances. We will also be able to capture content regarding our questions, process, and attitudes for the documentary-style film, directed and captured by performer Malachi Middleton.
About Bernard
Bernard Brown is a performer, choreographer, arts activist, and educator who situates their work at the intersection of Blackness, belonging, and memory. With an extensive performing career, Bernard now serves as Director of Bernard Brown/bbmoves, choreographing for stage, specific sites, film, and opera presented globally. Brown has received residencies and commissions from the Centre de Développement Chorégraphique la Termitière (Burkina Faso), Dance Italia (Italy), The Music Center (Los Angeles), among others. Bernard conducts workshops and master classes internationally, namely in Israel, Burkina Faso, and Brazil, and in diverse communities across the US. Brown is a core member of Street Dance Activism and a collaborator with the prison abolition project, Undanced Dances Through Prison Walls. A first-generation college graduate, Brown earned his MFA from UCLA and BFA from Purchase College. He is an Assistant Professor at Loyola Marymount University and a Certified Katherine Dunham Technique Instructor candidate. The Los Angeles Times has called him “…the incomparable Bernard Brown…”
Photo Credit: David B. Arenas (IG: @david_b_arenas)
Artist’s Social Media:
bbmoves.org / Instagram @bb.moves, @renaissancebrown / Facebook – BBMoves
Malachi Middleton (he/him)
Visual & Performance Artist
About Residency
Malachi Middleton (he/him)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
For this residency, members of Bernard Brown/bbmoves will collaborate on two aspects of a new international project. The work seeks to intervene on multiple registers, in the form of live performance and a filmic document. The residency at BAC will provide dedicated time and space for development and devotion to rhythm, contemporary forms, and Africanist movement practices that are central to the new work. This will prioritize communal effort and the collaborative nature of the work that is in development. We will integrate composer, DeFacto X, into the process while at BAC, as they will be mixing music live during the performances. We will also be able to capture content regarding our questions, process, and attitudes for the documentary-style film, directed and captured by performer Malachi Middleton.
About Malachi
Second generation Los Angeles native, Malachi Middleton, is a Highly developed artist with extensive training in visual and performing arts. Malachi first began his artistry as a musician where he studied the violin, piano, and percussions before later transitioning to the world of movement at the age of 16. Dance, is where he discovered his love and admiration for telling stories. Training intimately and immensely with dance legends Debbie Allen, Lula Washington, Karen McDonald, and Terry Beeman, Malachi acquired the importance and impact of visual storytelling, It is here where he found his voice. It is here, where he discovered his ability communicate and tell stories through emotion, movement, and silence. His unique and refined approach has allowed him to work alongside Christina Aguilara, Sabrina Claudio, Jamie Foxx, Chris Brown, Rufus Wainwright, Aluna, Moses Sumney, Vitamin String Quartet, David Guetta , Justin Simeon (Dear White People) as well as Creative and movement direct for Tequila 1800, Kali Uchis, Chloe Bailey as a creative consultant, Andrew James, and Los Angeles Contemporary Dance Company.
Malachi simultaneously studied Storytelling through Imagery specializing in Dance, Portrait, and Editorial photography. His work has been featured in Variety, and People Magazine and commissioned work for MoFA (Tallahassee FL), SOLA Contemporary (Los Angeles), Junebug Productions (New Orleans), and Outfest (Los Angeles). With his deep understanding of lighting, composition, and movement, film making came naturally. Malachi’s work is described as simplictic, sultry, refined, and mysterious. His use of silence, breath, movement, shadow, and light are dynamic and intensional creating worlds where verbal dialog is secondary to language of the body.
Du’Ron Fisher (DeFacto X) (he/they)
Composer, Music Producer & DJ
About Residency
Du’Ron Fisher (DeFacto X) (he/they)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
For this residency, members of Bernard Brown/bbmoves will collaborate on two aspects of a new international project. The work seeks to intervene on multiple registers, in the form of live performance and a filmic document. The residency at BAC will provide dedicated time and space for development and devotion to rhythm, contemporary forms, and Africanist movement practices that are central to the new work. This will prioritize communal effort and the collaborative nature of the work that is in development. We will integrate composer, DeFacto X, into the process while at BAC, as they will be mixing music live during the performances. We will also be able to capture content regarding our questions, process, and attitudes for the documentary-style film, directed and captured by performer Malachi Middleton.
About DeFacto X
Du’Ron Fisher (DeFacto X) is a Texas born Music Producer and DJ. He started writing and composing songs at an early age in his hometown of Ft. Worth. He began to take his music career seriously once he moved to Los Angeles. Once arriving to Los Angeles he began his study of music theory at West Los Angeles College, he eventually graduated from Los Angeles Film School, Summa Cum Laude with an Associates of Science in Music Production. Dance was also another passion for him, while studying music, he started his movement journey; eventually becoming an apprentice for The Lula Washington Dance Theatre and has studied dance at The Dance Theater of Harlem and has performed with numerous Los Angeles based dance companies. Since, he has released various music projects including his debut, The Darkest Hour in 2016. He has worked independently producing and engineering for local independent artist and respected Choreographer Bernard Brown for numerous projects including 2019’s Processing Sugar for Queer | Sweat at the Highways Performing Arts Center. In late 2022, DeFacto X co-founded Black Bass Collective, a Black, queer artist collective that promotes independent Dj’s, recording artist, and nightlife talent through various parties and community outreach initiatives to give voices to those that underrepresented in media. DeFacto X is continuing to work closely with Bernard Browns Dance Company (BB Moves) as he continues to create spaces for the queer poc community, Dj at various clubs/warehouses and release music independently.
Photo Credit: Lalo Bersa (IG: @pastelightbulb)
Siena Rafter (they/them)
Theater Artist
About Residency
Siena Rafter (they/them)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
We are developing a new immersive theater piece entitled “Room to Cry.” It explores the business of “crying rooms,” an offering most popular in Japan where people pay to gather and weep together in order to release what they are otherwise not permitted to show or express in society. We’ll be using this residency to conduct more research about the form, as well as map out how to bring this play to life and provide, to those who need it, room to cry.
About Siena
Siena (they/them) is a nonbinary theater artist born and raised in New York City. They’re a proud graduate of LaGuardia High School’s Drama program and Brown University’s Theater Arts class of 2020. Broadway: Sam Gold’s King Lear starring Glenda Jackson (ASL team), Children of a Lesser God (Assistant Director to Kenny Leon).
As an actor: Off-Broadway/ Lincoln Center: Liz Swados’ Runaways (directed by Sam Pinkleton), Deep Blue Sea (directed by Bill T Jones at the Park Avenue Armory), The Division (directed by SRDA), Thank you Ryan… (Ars Nova), T (The Tank), American SongBook Series. The Public Theater/Delacorte: Twelfth Night (written by Shaina Taub), Runaways, For the Love of Vinyl (Joe’s Pub), From Hair to Hamilton…Gala ’17. TV: HBO’s Crashing.
Artist’s Social Media:
bho5.org/siena-rafter
SRĐA (name/none/any)
Creative & Director
About Residency
SRĐA (name/none/any)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
We are developing a new immersive theater piece entitled “Room to Cry.” It explores the business of “crying rooms,” an offering most popular in Japan where people pay to gather and weep together in order to release what they are otherwise not permitted to show or express in society. We’ll be using this residency to conduct more research about the form, as well as map out how to bring this play to life and provide, to those who need it, room to cry.
About SRĐA
SRĐA (name/none/any) is a Yugoslavian-American creative/director. Centering queer + third-culture themes, SRĐA’s work includes television, film, live experiences and has been seen on-and-off Broadway, around the country and the globe. SRĐA has developed new and revived works with Joe’s Pub, Ford’s Theater, The Civilians and serves as the Associate Artistic Director of the internationally-acclaimed Theatre for One. Most recently, SRĐA directed the all-Black Drag Spectacular, NUBIA and Andrew Kushnir’s THE DIVISION at Lincoln Center. SRĐA shadowed on the Emmy-Nominated second season of What We Do In The Shadows (FX Networks) and is a co-creator and executive producer of THE JUNIOR MINTT SHOW, a new live late-night show and the director and co-curator of the HalfPint at Night Series with Denise Manning. SRĐA is currently in development for multiple television projects and writing a first screenplay based on the life + death of Gavrilo Princip. www.sr-da.com @srda
Artist’s Social Media:
www.sr-da.com / Instagram – @srda
Ana Sofia Reynoso (she/her)
Dancer, Movement Director, Writer & Composer
About Residency
Ana Sofia Reynoso (she/her)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
Ana Sofia plans to take this time to continue developing two works in process 2 works I have in process: One is “Una Memoria” a WIP reflecting on how one moment can be processed differently by each person who experiences it. The second piece is about her Paternal grandfather Juan Reynoso Portillo who was a a traditional Mexican Musician from Tierracaliente. He never learned to read or write but became very celebrated internationally and awarded cultural awards for his compositions in Mexico!
About Ana Sofia
Ana Sofia Reynoso is a dancer, movement director, writer and composer. Raised in various parts of both rural and urban Mexico by a visual artist and musician filled family; Ana Sofia aspires to merge those early childhood influences to create work that help the viewer see the beauty in the mundane, the natural and deliver her personal belief that the dancer defines the space. Currently Ana Sofia is working on exploring site specific work and the concept of what fearless devotion truly means. She hopes that simultaneously she can convey that she is pursuing an intentional, conscious cultivation of her art.
Artist’s Social Media:
Sylvia Schieber (she/her)
Multimedia Artist
About Residency
Sylvia Schieber (she/her)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
During my time at BAC, I’ll be focusing on works in progress and exploring new techniques and ways of making. I’m really excited to meet fellow artists as I think it will be a great way to observe other methods of making and inspire me to create in new ways. For my community engagement activity, I plan to lead a workshop that focuses on fashion sustainability. The workshop will give people the tools and skills needed to mend their own clothes. This simple yet radical act can help reduce landfills, and hopefully create a mindset that encourages creative solutions to practical problems. I will also be hosting open studios where the public can step in and view my process.
About Sylvia
Sylvia (aka Maske Maiden) is a multimedia artist with a focus in mask-making. Informed by her years as a freelance fashion designer and seamstress, Sylvia’s aesthetic incorporates materials found in dressmaking and a tailor’s approach to construction.
With a degree in fashion design and textiles she has worked in different fashion-related jobs. In 2014, she founded an alterations business with a focus on custom designed clothing and accessories. During the shutdown in 2020, she found her way to mask-making as a creative outlet and a practical way to maintain her sewing and technical skills.
As an emerging artist, Sylvia has found many opportunities to showcase her masks through collaborative efforts with fellow artists, workshops, social media, and commissions. She dreams of making site-specific work, environmentally focused making, and further artistic collaborations.
Artist’s Social Media:
www.maskemaiden.com / Instagram – @maskemaiden/ Youtube – youtube.com/@maskemaiden
Mariana Newhard (she/her)
Writer & Performer
About Residency
Mariana Newhard (she/her)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
I’ll be working with composer Dina Emerson, on our hybrid opera, Queen of the Nile, to prepare for our performance residency at the North American Cultural Laboratory immediately following our time at BAC. We are in the process of finalizing the libretto and musical score and would use this time to close the loop on a final draft. Dina and I work in highly collaborative fashion, improvising and bouncing ideas off one another- we alternate between working independently and jointly. We envision our time would be scheduled with individual writing and composing hours as well as joint rehearsals where we share our investigations as well as plan improvised time together to generate in devised fashion the songs, scenes and soundscapes that make up this multidisciplinary piece. This is all in preparation for our full production next year.
About Mariana
Mariana Newhard is a Filipina-American writer/performer. She is member of the Dorset Theater Festival’s Women Artists Writing Group (DTF WAW). This past November she developed the latest draft for her hybrid opera, Queen of the Nile, at HERE Arts Center. She was a writer in residence in June 2022 at the North American Cultural Laboratory (NACL) In September 2021 she was an artist in residence at Rogers Art Loft in Las Vegas, with Queen of the Nile, culminating in a workshop performance . The opera also received two earlier workshops with HERE: in July 2021 and 2020 as part of the livestream series #STILLHERE. It was first presented in 2019 with DTF WAW. Her first production, Assembled Identity (a co-creation with Kristin Marting and Purva Bedi) premiered at HERE Arts Center in Spring 2018. Mariana premiered her shorts BIg Leap, Alone and Perfect in 50 Ways at the Capital Fringe in D.C. in July 2019.
Mariana has been an invited artist to Drop Forge & Tool’s Z Forge workshops in the summer and winter of 2018.
Artist’s Social Media:
https://www.mariananewhard.com/
Dina Emerson (she/her)
Composer & "Vocal Chameleon"
About Residency
Dina Emerson (she/her)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
I’ll be working with composer Dina Emerson, on our hybrid opera, Queen of the Nile, to prepare for our performance residency at the North American Cultural Laboratory immediately following our time at BAC. We are in the process of finalizing the libretto and musical score and would use this time to close the loop on a final draft. Dina and I work in highly collaborative fashion, improvising and bouncing ideas off one another- we alternate between working independently and jointly. We envision our time would be scheduled with individual writing and composing hours as well as joint rehearsals where we share our investigations as well as plan improvised time together to generate in devised fashion the songs, scenes and soundscapes that make up this multidisciplinary piece. This is all in preparation for our full production next year.
About Dina
Dina Emerson was dubbed a “Vocal Chameleon” working in NYC from 1988-2000, specializing in new opera and 20th century music. A member of Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble, touring the world and making several albums, Dina also worked with John Kelly & Co, David Soldier, and The Talking Band, among others. In 2000 she moved to Las Vegas for a lead singer contract with Cirque du Soleil on O and Mystere. Dina moved to the Bay area in 2002 and became a well-known vocalist in new music.
In 2007 she resumed her lead singer contract with Mystère in Las Vegas. In 2017 she left her full-time singer position to perform in operas, plays, and concerts around the Las Vegas Valley with Vegas City Opera, A Public Fit Theatre Company, Majestic Repertory Theatre, Vegas Theatre Company and The LAB LV. Dina currently sings at O by Cirque du Soleil as the on-call singer.
Tessa Brinckman (she/her)
Interdisciplinary Flutist & Composer
About Residency
Tessa Brinckman (she/her)
Dates of Residency: September 25 – October 9
Residency Plan:
I’m simmering the ingredients of two new compositions, gathering materials, ideas, forms, and making drafts. “The Heart Has Four Chambers” is a commission for two bass flutes and fixed media to be performed in Spring 2024. I’m hearing it as an expression of our bodies’ engines of love and suffering, exploring our acute dependencies and courage. “Red Giant” will explore worlds within worlds for piano, fixed media and video with text, to be premiered in 2025 in NYC. It would explore both dystopic and utopic dreamworlds, inspired by my up-close experiences (over a decade) of multiple fires in Southern Oregon, where Manifest Destiny casts its long shadow over socio- economic realities, with profound generational neglect of rural communities, and violent, political disrespect for the most vulnerable places and people. I’m honored and excited to be a part of this residency, working alongside other artists, where we can provide each other mutual inspiration and support.
About Tessa
Interdisciplinary flutist/composer Tessa Brinckman has been praised as a “flutist of chameleon-like gifts” and “virtuoso elegance” (Gramophone). As a performer she has premiered and commissioned numerous new works, within significant ensembles, concert series, residencies and festivals in the United States, South Africa, France and her native New Zealand. Now living in NYC, she enjoys creating and playing work that honors synesthesia, dialect, innate meter and collaboration. Her compositions are evolving to include experimental video and text.
Tessa co-directs the bi-coastal flute/percussion duo, Caballito Negro. Her co-composition for Mary Zimmerman’s “White Snake” was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award in 2014. Her collaborative films – experimental video “Women in Parallel Empires” (2021), and animation “The Gorgon Cycles” (2023) – have won 13 film festival awards for scoring, experimental film and animation. Tessa’s album, “Take Wing, Roll Back” releases in early 2024 (New Focus Recordings), featuring unique international artists.
Artist’s Social Media:
Website: www.tessabrinckman.com / Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TessaBrinckman / Instagram = @tessabrinckman
Perry Easton (he/him)
Visual Artist
About Residency
Perry Easton (he/him)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
My intent is to host The ATTIE Project workshop as a public event while creating a new series of timeless art for a showcase titled, ‘Tek Time’. The project will be open to the public to add their creative input on a timeless timepiece through using mixed media art, I plan on telling my story while explaining the basis of the ATTIE Project. Introducing on-goers to my “Alignment Theory” and Timeless theory” I plan on engaging with the Westchester community on topics of mental well-being, realigning mental focus through. difficult times, and topping the two week residency off with documentation of the ‘Tek Time’ showcase.
About Perry
Through his artwork, Perry Easton is spreading a positive message of hope and empowerment. His art is a reflection of his personal philosophy that life is precious and every moment counts. By creating works that speak to the universal themes of time, tradition, and mental health, Perry is making a powerful statement about the importance of taking care of ourselves and each other. His art is a reminder to slow down, take a deep breath, and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us all.
What sets Perry apart from other artists is his use of time as a medium in his artwork. Through his “Timeless Theory” and “Alignment Theory,” Perry creates abstract faces that are bursting with color and emotion. Each of his pieces is a message of mental wealth, encouraging viewers to take time and make time for the things that truly matter in life. His art is a celebration of the human spirit and an invitation to slow down and savor life’s precious moments.
Artist’s Social Media:
www.theattieproject.com
Anndee Hochman (she/her)
Journalist, Essayist, Storyteller & Teaching Artist
About Residency
Anndee Hochman (she/her)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
After years as a journalist and storyteller, I took the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge in 2019 and slapped out the rough-cut of My Plural Is People, a YA novel. It’s a sprawl of a manuscript, with three POV characters (two teens, one grandmother), an unconventional form (the teens’ story moves forward while the grandmother narrates her life in reverse chronology) and themes that include gender, queerness, race, epigenetics, family and the ecology of trees. I’m now on draft #6: revisions based on feedback from a whip-smart manuscript editor, a handful of insightful readers and a group of colleagues (the Revisionistas!) who gather twice a month. I know what this book needs in its next re-boot–a deepening of character, a slowing of key moments, richer narrative to scaffold the dialogue. I will use my time at Bethany for the focused immersion that I find nearly impossible in my day-to-day work life. I’m excited and curious to experiment, read aloud, take walks with my characters and to share struggles and breakthroughs with other artists.
About Anndee
Anndee Hochman is a journalist, essayist, storyteller and teaching artist. In her work, she cherishes small details and chases big questions; she asks bravely and listens deeply. She seeks surprise. She relishes contradiction. Her books include Anatomies: A Novella and Stories (Picador USA) and Everyday Acts & Small Subversions: Women Reinventing Family, Community and Home (The Eighth Mountain Press). Her column chronicling the exuberant diversity of family life, “The Parent Trip,” appears weekly in The Philadelphia Inquirer; her articles, commentaries and short fiction have also been published in O, the Oprah Magazine, Poets & Writers, WebMD, Broad Street Review and other journals and anthologies, including the recent Stained: An Anthology of Writing About Menstruation (Querencia Press) and The Best Short Stories of Philadelphia (Toho Publishing). Anndee is a seven-time winner of Moth Story Slams and tied for first place in the 2022 Philadelphia GrandSlam. For more than 30 years, in a range of settings, she has guided writers of all ages to raise their voices in memoir, poetry, storytelling and creative non-fiction.
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Susan Lenz (she/her)
Installation Artist & Storyteller
About Residency
Susan Lenz (she/her)
Dates of Residency: October 2 – 16
Residency Plan:
During this residency, Susan will sort through a giant stash of vintage household linens, adding bits to on-going fiber installations and finding direction for new, immersive textile work. Local traditional and art quilters as well as the general public will have the opportunity to participate in a community crazy quilt.
About Susan
Generally using needle and thread for self-expression, I work to address social, environmental, and cultural issues. I am also a storyteller whose work evokes past narratives with open-ended possibilities. I regard art-making as a conversation with viewers and catalyst for diverse dialogue. My immersive installations include a socioeconomic subtext, cleverly embedded in the space but related to waning memories and personal mortality. Through found objects, especially vintage garments, comes a powerful human presence full of silent longing and disappointment but also hope for humanity. I regularly indulge my passion for book arts and altering anonymous photographs. My artwork has appeared in national publications, juried exhibitions, and at fine craft shows including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Craft Shows. I have been featured on art quilting television programs and on South Carolina ETV’s Palmetto Scene. My work is in the permanent collection of the Textile Museum in Washington, DC and the McKissick Museum.
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Margo Newman (she/her)
Writer, Producer & Director
About Residency
Margo Newman (she/her)
Dates of Residency: September 25 – October 9
Residency Plan:
I use my writing for film, tv and print to find resonance in my experience of both joy and grief–and to try to translate those into something of use for others. I write to help reconcile the past and our complicated present. I have two writing projects to work on during my time at Bethany: I’m currently in development on an original limited series for television that tells the true story of Juan de Pareja, an enslaved man who overcame incredible odds to become a master painter during the Spanish Inquisition. His is a story of incredible perseverance despite racial and religious persecution—issues we still battle today. The other script I’m writing is a dark comedy about a contemporary news producer who teams up with a group of psychic mediums to channel our country’s founding fathers. The early patriots discuss their original intentions around gun control, sparking new heated, and hilarious debates.
About Margo
Ms. Newman is an Emmy-winning Writer, Producer & Director with more than 25 years of experience in narratives, docs, film, tv, PSAs, and web. She grew up near Washington DC, steeped in museums and the arts. After college, she worked as a US Park Ranger and as a theater critic before moving to LA to study film. She received her MFA in directing and producing from The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television where she studied with some of the best, including directing with Stanley Kramer, editing with Richard Marks and producing with Peter Guber.
Since then, Ms. Newman has worked in many genres and on a range of budgets. She’s worn a lot of hats and gone a lot of places and enjoys teaching and guest lecturing whenever possible. Her work always comes down to one thing: telling the best story possible.
She counts among her greatest accomplishments, producing a live interview with an astronaut in The International Space Station, rescuing dogs, and being the mother of two kind, contributing members of society.
Artist’s Social Media:
margofnewman.com
Mika Taylor (she/her)
Writer
About Residency
Mika Taylor (she/her)
Dates of Residency: September 25 – October 9
Residency Plan:
Taylor will use her residency at BAC to edit, refine, and polish her novel “Quintland” for submission. “Quintland” is work of historical fiction following the lives of the Dionne Quintuplets—five girls born to farmers in northern Ontario during the Great Depression. The fact of their birth was a medical miracle that became a media sensation. Under the government’s protection, the girls were made into an exhibit and revenue stream for the province. They were raised in a hospital where the only people they knew were doctors, nurses, and each other. Structured as a collective memoir, five women retell the highs and lows of their shared childhood, and how they grew into the resilient women they’d become.
About Mika
Mika Taylor was a Carol Houck Smith Fiction Fellow at the University of Wisconsin and holds an MFA from the University of Arizona. Her work has been supported by numerous grants and residency awards including the Ucross Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Ragdale, I Park, and the State of Connecticut Commission for the Arts. She’s received scholarships to the Sewanee Writers Conference, Wesleyan Writers Conference, and Vermont Studio Center. Her stories and essays have appeared in Granta, Tin House, Ninth Letter, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, Guernica, Diagram, and others. “Quintland” is her first novel.
Artist’s Social Media:
Bethany Arts Community’s signature residency attracts artists at different stages of their careers from around the world for the development of both new works and works in progress. The spirit of the program is to provide a collective environment for artists of all disciplines where they can engage in meaningful interaction and stimulating discussions with their peers, while pursuing individual or group projects. It is an ideal setting for the exchange of ideas, the inspiration for new work, and the harmonious cross-fertilization of disciplines.
Residencies and programs at Bethany Arts Community are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor’s office and the New York State Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Westchester, Humanities NY and numerous individual donors.