Photo by Maria Baranova.

The Unarrival Experiments by Ni’Ja Whitson

The Unarrival Experiments by Ni’Ja Whitson

A Black Technologic Talk at EMPAC. Photo by Alvis Mosley.

Transtraterrestrial poster courtesy EMPAC.

The Unarrival Experiments

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson is a gender-nonconforming/transmogrifying artist, performer, and writer intersects experimental and African Diasporic practices to highlight themes of gender, sexuality, race, and spirit.

Artist Bio

Dark matter and dark energy serve as portals to interrogating spaces of the unknown, yet they have an unequivocal impact on the composition of the universe. The Unarrival Experiments is an interdisciplinary performance project exploring relationships between astrophysics, cosmology, Blackness, Trans embodiedness and premature death via a notion of the vaporous body.

Transtraterrestrial, a prequel and a premiere of Whitson’s Creative Capital Project, was presented at EMPAC in Troy, NY on April 6 and 7, 2023.

Discipline
Dance
Award Year
2019
Status

Completed

Themes

From the Journal

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson’s (2019 Grantee) Transtraterrestrial is a new live performance installation designed to amplify the dark. In dialogue with Yorùbá Cosmology, Astrophysics, and research on the “blackest black,” the work centers the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy through a Black, Queer, and Transembodied lens. 

March 30, 2023
Events
A figure stoops onstage, looking at brightly colored shapes.

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson: Transtraterrestrial

Thursday, April 6, 2023 at 2, 5, and 8PM
Friday, April 7, 2023 at 5 and 8PM

EMPAC
Troy, NY

Whitson-Ni'Ja-01

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson

Riverside, CA

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson is a gender-nonconforming/transmogrifying artist, performer, and writer who brings together experimental and African Diasporic practices to highlight themes of gender, sexuality, race, and spirit. As a performer and interdisciplinary artist collaboration is key for Whitson—they have worked with artists notable in experimental form such as Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Daniel Alexander Jones, Baba Israel, and Dianne McIntyre.

Whitson is a 2018 Camargo Fellow, a Bessie Award winner, a Jerome Foundation Artist in Residence at Abrons Art Center, a Dance in Process Artist in Residence with Gibney Dance, and a Hedgebrook Fellow. The artist is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of California at Riverside and is the founder and artistic director of The NWA Project.

From the Journal