Performer Bios "We Love Like Barnacles: Crip Lives in Climate Chaos"

“We Love Like Barnacles: Crip Lives in Climate Chaos” will focus on how climate change is disproportionately affecting disabled people and other marginalized communities. It will feature performances by queer/POC disabled artists: Alex Cafarelli, Antoine Hunter, Nomy Lamm, Bianca I Laureano, Lateef McLeod, and  Maria R Palacios. Through dance, singing, storytelling, and acting, our performers will show how the disabled (“crip”) community is surviving, thriving, and resisting injustice.

Showtimes will be Fri. October 23: 7:30pm PST, Sat., Oct 24: 7:30pm PST, Sun., Oct 23: 3:30pm and 6:30pm PST. Virtual doors will open 30 minutes before showtime, and lobby experience includes a pre-performance lounge and online auction to benefit Sins Invalid. All performance screenings followed by a live Q & A. All performances will be ASL interpreted and Audio Described.

Image Description: Alex Cafarelli, a white disabled Jewish genderqueer femme, stands in a field of wildflowers with their right foot on the spade of a shovel as they smile at the camera. Beside them is a red wheelbarrow full of freshly cut wildflowers. They have long chestnut hair pulled back into a ponytail and are wearing a burgundy plaid shirt and blue jeans beneath a black leg brace. Photo by Mée Rose.

ALEX CAFARELLI

Alex is a genderqueer femme Jewish Witch gardener based in Toronto. Her writing and performance has been featured at theatres, conferences and universities across North America on themes of sexuality, chronic illness, survivorship, ancestor work and queer femme identity. Alex facilitates creative writing workshops for queer and trans folks and trauma survivors, which are now available online. alexcafarelli.com

Image Description: Antoine Hunter, a Black Indigenous Deaf and disabled two-spirit individual, gazes into the camera. His arms are posed artistically beside his face. He is bare chested and his hair is dreadlocked. Photo by RJ Muna.

ANTOINE HUNTER

Antoine is an award-winning internationally known African-American Deaf choreographer, dancer, instructor and Deaf advocate who presents Deaf-centered works. Awards include Dance/USA Fellowship (2019), the inaugural Jeanette Lomujo Bremond Humanity Award (2018), the Isadora Duncan Award(2018), King of Carnaval SF(2017.) He is the founder/artistic director of Urban Jazz Dance Company and Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival. Image: RJ Hunter.

Image Description: Nomy Lamm, a fat white disabled Jewish femme, sits on a dark stage. Her left hand is smearing honey across her face while her right hand lays by her side. Beneath the honey, her dark lashes and bright red lipstick are visible. She is wearing a golden silk halter top dress with ruffles and gauze, and a ruffled small headpiece. Photo by Megan Xeal.

NOMY LAMM

Nomy is Sins Invalid’s Creative Director as well as a voice teacher, creative coach, and ordained Kohenet/Hebrew Priestess. They have been performing with Sins Invalid since 2008, and sing in a band called The Beauty. You can access more of their work at nomyteaches.com.

Image Description: Bianca I. Laureano, a light-skinned Afro-Latina, smiles as she gazes away from the camera. Her hands are pressed together in front of her, and she is wearing big reflective golden earrings, heart-shaped eyeglasses, a black-off-the shoulder top, and bright red lipstick.

BIANCA I LAUREANO

Bianca is an award-winning educator and sexologist. In May 2020 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the California Institute for Integral Studies for her work in expanding the equity and justice frameworks for the US sexuality field. Find out more about Bianca at her website BiancaLaureano.com and about ANTE UP! at www.AnteUpPD.com

Image Description: Lateef McLeod, a disabled Black man, performs on a stage wearing a bright white suit. A Black man stands behind him, supporting him as he dances. In the background, another Black man plays traditional drums. Photo ©Richard Downing.

LATEEF MCLEOD

Lateef earned a BA in English from UC Berkeley, an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College, and is currently in his fourth year of study at the Anthropology and Social Change Doctoral program at California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco. He published his first poetry book entitled A Declaration of A Body Of Love in 2010 and published his second poetry book entitled Whispers of Krip Love, Shouts of Krip Revolution this year in 2020. He was in the 2007 and 2016 annual theater performances of Sins Invalid and also their artist-in-residence performance in 2011 entitled Resident Alien.

Image Description: Maria Palacios, a brown Latino woman with dark hair, sits in her wheelchair onstage. Her head is turned to the side, and she holds an open handheld fan in front of her. On her lap is a pink silk shawl embroidered with flowers. She is wearing a black flowered top with a bright red flowing skirt. Photo by Nine Lam.

MARIA PALACIOS

Known as the Goddess on Wheels, Maria has been a force on the Sins stage since 2007. Through the power of her words, Maria captures the love, pain and survival of disabled people. Maria is a poet, author, and performer whose story as a brown, immigrant, disabled woman echoes the resilience of crip survival.

Sins Invaliddisability justice, climate justice, performances, show