Hi-ARTS CRITICAL BREAKS Artist Luz Lorenzana Twigg is a playwright, dramaturg, doula, and folk herbalist. Her practice explores diasporic identity, ritual, theatre as a living archive, as well as ancestral healing as the gateway for reimagined theatrical pedagogy and praxis.

Maleek Rae is a multi-disciplinary artist from Detroit’s Eastside.
As a Hi-ARTS CRITICAL BREAKS Artist, Maleek will develop GUTTAH PART II: ecdysis, the second installment of the trilogy series set in Detroit that reframes life in the hood as one of royalty, spirit, and ceremony. The work employs music and movement to explore Black bloodlines, family, transness, and transformation. During their Hi-ARTS residency, Maleek will focus on developing Part II, deepening music as a foundational ceremonial practice.

As a Hi-ARTS Space Grant Recipient, Nathan Yungerberg will have access to Hi-ARTS rehearsal spaces, and conference rooms for the ongoing development of the Untitled Afro-Surreal Project. Situated outside of Hi-ARTS traditional residency format, grantees receive the use of space for creative and administrative development of a body of work at no cost. 

The Untitled Afro-Surreal Project is grounded in Afro-surrealism, and draws on narrative, sound, movement, and visual symbolism to explore memory, interiority, and the porous boundary between the real and the imagined.

Hi-ARTS CRITICAL BREAKS Artist Nikhil Mahapatra is a multi-disciplinary writer based in Brooklyn. They write about queerness/race/power/family/non-family/existence/politics, but most of all, where grief and joy meet together, which, as one audience member once said, had “mixed results, but I guess I liked it”.

Hi-ARTS SKY LAB Company in Residence, MODArts Dance Collective (MADC) is a Harlem-based, nonprofit multicultural professional dance company founded in 2011 by Founding Artistic Director Leah Tubbs and Executive Director Shaun Tubbs. The company centers Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists, while creating space for them to show up as their authentic selves both in and beyond the studio. 

While in residence, MADC will continue the growth and development of the Collective Thread Residency, an extension of its annual Collective Thread Dance Festival.

SKY LAB Artist Yang Sun (she/her) is an award-winning dancer, choreographer, and director, working in the intersection of movement, color, and poetry. Her strong bond with movements started with improvisation practices in the field, cafeteria, corridor, riverbank, and other non-traditional spaces.

Sitting at the intersection of dance and installation, The Stranger spans generations of immigrants and resident aliens in the United States. Capturing their stories and those of the lead artist, the work employs the use of dozens of common polyester woven storage bags as a metaphor for the immigrant experience. Alongside her company collaborators, she will engage with five non-dance immigrant community members to join her in the development and presentation of the work.

Reynaldo Piniella (he/him) is an actor, writer, activist and educator from East New York, Brooklyn. As a CRITICAL BREAKS Resident, Reynaldo is continuing the development of his WORK IN PROCESS Afroborinqueño.

CRITICAL BREAKS Artist Andrea Ambam (she/her) is a storyteller and truthteller whose roots sprout from Cameroon. As a politically-engaged performance artist and writer who believes in the art’s potential for movement-building and transformative justice, Andrea puts narrative to use – creating theatrical experiences that world bend and record truth.

During her time in residence she will continue the development of TWELVE ANGRY BLACK WOMEN, a Black feminist re-interpretation of Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men wherein the United States of America is on trial and its fate lies in the hands of an all Black, all femme 

Evelyn Tejeda (she/her), originally from the Dominican Republic, is a Dominicana's Got Talent Semifinalist and a Founding Member of the Contemporary Dance National Company of the Dominican Republic, directed by Marianela Boan. During her time in residence as a CRITICAL BREAKS Artist, she will continue the development of Temporary Flesh.

As a CRITICAL BREAKS Artist in Residence, Jay’s will continue the development of Spirit in the Vine: A Sankopera.  Spirit in the Vine: A Sankopera takes place in the mythic realm of Zaradús, drawing direct inspiration from the African-American folktale High John and Devil’s Daughter while expanding its lore. The story begins when a wise woman creates a baby of extraordinary magical ability for the childless rulers. Their joy, however, is darkened when the High Queen is suddenly murdered.

Alle Mims (they/them) is a Black, biracial genderfluid artist living in NYC. They are a cultural archeologist and political satirist who writes about Black, Queer, and Radical History.

As a CRITICAL BREAKS Artist, Alle will continue the development of A Soviet Film on Negro Life in America. A Soviet Film on Negro Life in America ​​is a satirical history play that uses masks and puppets to tell the unbelievable true story of the Soviet Film that almost changed the world.

Jeffrey Rashad (he/him) is an actor, writer, and poet from Milwaukee, WI. He is a proud Alum of Howard University and has recently completed a Master's in Classical Acting from The Old Globe and the University of San Diego Graduate Acting Program.

Supported by Hi-ARTS through our Artist Intensive Program, Jeffrey will concentrate on the development of The District.

Eto Otitigbe is interested in recovering buried narratives and giving form to the unseen. He is a polymedia artist whose interdisciplinary practice includes sculpture, performance, installation, and public art. His public art intersects history, community, and biophilic design by using parametric modeling and generative design to transform historical and cultural references into biomorphic forms and patterns that reference nature.

Najee Omar (he/him) is an award-winning writer, performance artist, and organizer whose multi-disciplinary practice is rooted in cultivating spaces of healing and community building. Named a New York Times Visionary, Najee’s work invokes themes of home and love, specifically at the intersections of blackness and queerness.

While in residence, Cheri will work on the development of Around the Way Gurl, a movement investigation that highlights and celebrates the cultural significance and the contributions of women in Bed-Stuy have made to Brooklyn and HipHop culture during the 1980s and 90s.

While in residence at Hi-ARTS, Curtis will continue the development of and addition of choreography to Homenaje a los Rumberos. Homenaje a los Rumberos is an original music composition that pays homage to the rich legacy of traditional Afro-Cuban Rumberos and serves as a heartfelt tribute to Rumbero's living and past.

Jourdan Ash (she/her) is a New York creative who works via her online platform True To Us, to center Black and Brown womxn as the foundation of the streetwear and sneaker industry. Jourdan uses her creative practice to bridge the gap between consumers and brands while opening the doors for those seeking a variety of opportunities within the streetwear and sneaker industry.

Claudia Luna Fuentes and Pepx Romero join Hi-ARTS in a first of its kind engagement as resident artists of theurbanX.org, an international Artist Residency Program, currently being supported through our SKY LAB Residency program. Think of it as a residency within a residency!

theurbanX.org is an international arts residency program that connects Black and Brown creatives across the diaspora through the lens of urban culture. theubanX harnesses the power of urban culture and the arts to build bridges across borders, share knowledge and resources in community, and empower creators of the global majority.

Sadah Espii Proctor (she/her/Espii) is an award-winning multimedia director and composer/sound artist working in theatre, dance, opera, installations, and extended reality. Her work centers around themes of memory and diaspora, social issues, and presence within physical/digital/virtual spaces