“ReShape” Uses Art To Shed the Secrecy Around Mental Health

Coming Up This Weekend, ReShape Uses Art to Shed the Secrecy and Reshape Our Conversations Around Mental Health

Producer Eddie DeHais is a disabled trans artist who uses radical empathy and collaboration to investigate erasure and stigma around mental health.

It’s not a big secret: mental health in America is not going so well, and studies often show queer/trans folks and creative folks to be some of the hardest hit.  

The six artists behind ReShape — D.R. Amromin, Nicholas Japaul Bernard, Zane Exactly, Eddie DeHais, Michael B. Maine, and Nick Spencer (find bios here) — have taken a unique and welcoming approach to discussing mental health issues.  They’ve unveiled a many-artist, interactive installation, billed as a two-day “art extravaganza,” and which “emerges from a curiosity and dissatisfaction with how mental health is portrayed in American culture, especially for underrepresented voices.”  

The scheduled performances feature loads of local artists and will run for two nights, in four-hour chunks, each containing eight artist sets.  ReShape organizers stress that attendees can come and go as they can, and need not commit to the whole four-hour segment in order to attend. In addition, there will be opportunities for attendees to create throughout the evenings, plus four scheduled artist-led workshops during the daytime on Saturday (see below for details).  

Tickets are available here — and in order to be accessible financially to all, they start at a low price of free, and go up to sponsor levels, which help pay the artists.    

Friday night’s artist lineup

(Get tickets here.  If going for pieces of the evening, the organizers recommend arriving 15 minutes before scheduled slot for artist(s) you wish to see.)

8-8:30pm – Angel Alviar-Langley AKA Moonyeka is a sick and disabled queer Filipinx femme street-styles dancer who utilizes art creation and organizing to realize a more inclusive and intersectional world for the communities she comes from.   

8:30-9pm – Casey Middaugh makes interactive art about challenging things.

9-9:30pm – Jéhan Òsanyìn is a gender vacillating facilitator and educator who creates and performs art that explores identity and decolonization.

9:30-10pm – Kellie Martin is an non-binary androgynous queer visual artist, graduate from Gallaudet University Alumnae in Studio Arts and Theatre Productions. Ze is a Co-lead for PNW Deaf Artists Exhibition, is heavily involved with Deaf Spotlight, a non-profit organization in Seattle, Washington, and an active participant of the #Deaftalent movement.   

10-10:30pm – Open Audience Space. The audience is invited to take over the space in any way they see fit.

10:30-11pm – Aviona Rodriguez-Brown enjoys the expansion of the mind and pushing personal limitations- she believes healing comes through art and communication.

11-11:30pm – Butch Alice is a theater maker/ crossing over between the Drag and Theater communities and leading artists between the two. Butch Alice doesn’t put together pretty little cookie cutter shows. She distorts reality while you are at a show not knowing exactly what is or isn’t planned and what is or isnt real.

11:30pm-12am – Mai Li Pittard is a queer musician and wizard.

Michael B. Maine known for his social justice work and daring portrait project Homogeneity is a Myth.

Saturday night’s artist lineup

(Get tickets here, and scroll to Saturday.  If going for pieces of the evening, the organizers recommend arriving 15 minutes before scheduled slot for artist(s) you wish to see.)

8-8:30pm – Cassie Bray is a cherubic she-demon with a predilection for blending lighting design, poetry and absurdism to examine the space between: growth and decay; trauma and healing; identity and divergence.

8:30-9pm – Pilar O’Connell is a latinx performer and director. She is interested in cultivating conversations around the art she creates.

9-9:30pm – Quinn Brenfleck is a queer poet and ne’er-do-well overly preoccupied with word choice and the weather. They are currently trying to renavigate a relationship with joy – it’s not quite Facebook official yet.

9:30-10pm – Matt Aguayo. A queer caramel-colored imp, Matt’s unique physical performance work explores the intersections between the grotesque and divine.

10-10:30pm – Open Audience Space. The audience is invited to take over the space in any way they see fit.

10:30-11pm – Cessa Betancourt is an actor, choreographer, and teaching artist. Her work is focused on physical storytelling, cultural competency, and human connection.   

11-11:30pm – Sameer Arshad is a Seattle-based playwright and actor. Check out his play Crewmates at Annex Theatre.

11:30pm-12am – Jenny May Peterson is a dance and visual artist who has called Seattle home for the past 11 years. Her work is usually in service to beauty and survival. She is fascinated with alternative biological realities and true crime.

Saturday afternoon workshops

In addition to scheduled artists and interactive installations, ReShape will hold free workshops for all artistic levels all afternoon on Saturday.  RSVP by emailing reshapeartproject@gmail.com; space is limited.

Saturday workshop lineup:

12-1pm – Mantras, Pranayama, and Meditation
Taught by Nancy Hwang

Workshop description here.  

1:30-2:30pm – Restorative Writing
Taught by Erin Fried

Workshop description here.  

3-4pm – Humor in Healing
Taught by Megan Gott

Workshop description here.   

4:30-5:30pm – The Art of Listening: Storytelling and Empathy
Taught by Siobhan O’Loughlin (creator/performer of Broken Bone Bathtub; read my review of that show here).  

Workshop description here.  

Happy creating!