EastSide Arts Alliance and NAKA Dance Theater present:
Power + Imagination
LIVE ARTS IN RESISTANCE (LAIR)
Back and FORTH
Featuring:
Cultural architect and sh8peshifter
Zakiya Harris
It is a cypher. It is how our bodies, words, music and art manifest our experiences inside and outside of oppressive systems. It is how we transcend, heal, and continue to vision forward our reality/existence on earth.
Join us for a series of experimental performances and conversations with Oakland-based Black artists riffing on subjects such as: making art in a pandemic, Oakland life and dreaming forward in the age of Aquarius. Instigated by Amara Tabor-Smith, these embodied conversations will flirt with magic, failure, rage, and freedom -- all while surrendering to the unexpected creative spirit of the moment.
Zakiya Harris, affectionately known as Sh8peshifter, is a woman charting her own path in life. A Cultural Architect, she has over 2 decades of experience working at the intersections of Art, Education and Spiritual Entrepreneurship. Zakiya is the co-founder of nationally recognized projects Impact Hub Oakland, The Black Permaculture Network, Hack the Hood and a Culture Bank West Oakland Fellow. Currently, she serves as the Business Navigator for ArtsWeb, a decentralized community that connects community-based artists with business service providers. Zakiya is a published author and intuitive life coach on a mission to midwife purpose driven women from stagnation to activation through creativity and wellness. As a successful performance artist, she has released two EP’s and is also the company member of Ase Dance Theater Collective and House Full of Black Women. Awards and recognitions include the Ella Baker Center Future Leaders Award and YBCA 100. In 2019, she traveled to Osogbo, Nigeria where she became initiated as a priest of Oya in the West African Spiritual tradition of Isese. In her spare time, you can find her near a body of water, reading Octavia Butler, cooking with her 15 year old daughter.
Diego Ortiz / Creative Designs @juanfelipedetodoslossantos