Arewá Basit

Arewá Basit (they/she) is a non-binary, trans-femme, Brooklyn-based performance artist, singer/songwriter, and storyteller. They made their television debut in MTV’s first queer dating show Are You The One. Arewà’s creative practices are rooted in cultivating radical empathy, embracing vulnerability and unique expression, and finding power and strength in existence.  She cofounded Legacy, a production company focused on providing resources to artists systematically excluded from—and exploited by—media and the arts. In 2023, Arewà Basit performed at Copenhagen Winter Pride, Trans Legal Defense & Education Fund 20th Anniversary Celebration, The LGBTQ Center’s Juneteenth Block Party, Bob The Drag Queen’s “GAY BARZ” EP release (and was also featured on their  song “BLACK” alongside Ocean Kelly), and headlined TRANSMISSION  NYC’s first all trans music festival. Instagram: @basit_

lys scott

lys scott is a first-generation Thai American with big dreams and an even bigger personality. lys scott coped with the isolation of COVID-19 by writing their explosive debut album, “squashed dreams & broken wings.” Described by WYEP as “what would happen if No Doubt and TLC had a baby with Missy Elliott,” it’s no surprise that Lys stepped into Pittsburgh’s music scene with a bang. Energizing crowds all over the city with in-your-face bangers like “big shot” and cozy crowd favorites like “flowerchild,” lys scott quickly earned a name for themself, eventually signing with Pittsburgh label Crafted Sounds.

Jiggy Draco

Jiggy Draco is an emerging artist hailing from Pittsburgh. With footprints in Los Angeles and Atlanta, and counting The Doors, Sade,  Kanye West, and The Fugees as influences, their unique sonic aesthetic, characterized by velvety vocals over hard hip-hop beats, is distinct, multifaceted, and boundless. Highlighted best in their newest singles, “Just Like Me” and “Talk,” Jiggy’s ability to combine genres and effortlessly slip from one melodic pocket to another distinguishes them from the pack and poses them for a huge future career.  Get familiar with Jiggy Draco’s versatile musical perspective and follow their journey on Instagram, Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and more.

Simon Phillips x AJ Libert

Simon Phillips is inspired by the nature of sensation, biomechanics, and the psychology of choice within artistic expression. Originally from Macon, Georgia, Simon transitioned to Pittsburgh to join Attack Theatre as a company dancer and teaching artist from 2017–2021. He has also performed with other local arts organizations including Staycee Pearl Dance Project, slowdanger, the Legacy Arts Project, D.A.N.A. Movement Ensemble, and Pittsburgh Samba Group. Simultaneously, Simon has reveled in arts education through teaching in numerous public, private, and charter schools around the Southwestern Pennsylvania school district along with hosting guest residencies at local universities including University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, Point Park, and Slippery Rock. Simon currently serves as the Education Coordinator at Kelly Strayhorn Theater and PearlArts | Movement & Sound. All folks are welcome to join Simon in inclusive community arts and fitness offerings at The Alloy School, Art in Motion, and Lua Dance Club.

AJ Libert, from Pittsburgh, PA, started his dance training at the age of three. He graduated from Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre’s full-time program, and then attended Point Park University where he received a BFA in modern dance. AJ enjoys the complexities that movement exploration has to offer. Combining his love for the natural world with his love for movement drives AJ to continue to find deeper connections between the two, in hopes to merge both worlds seamlessly. AJ would like to thank his two beautiful mothers, without them he would not be where he is today.

Agni Paradise

Agni Paradise is a drag king who grew up being inspired by the melodrama of the heroes and villains of Indian films of multiple languages. He was a part of multiple Bollywood Fusion dance teams while in college. Now he hopes to bring the passion, energy, and star quality of those characters to the drag stage, and introduce audiences to the music he grew up listening to and singing. As a member of Rangoli Pittsburgh, he also hopes to bring visibility to queer and trans South Asians, and to inspire them to express their queerness within their culture without fear.

Dynasty

Dynasty (she/her) is a quintessential Transsexual showgirl. Her debut came fresh out of quarantine storming the Pittsburgh drag and nightlife scene. Her performances are sexy, provocative, and high energy. Outside of nightlife, Dynasty (Ameris) is a trained performer and has been a part of theater since she was a young child in children shows at church. Dynasty has studied musical theater, acting, and even spent some time in college conservatory. She has graced the stage of many of the theaters in Pittsburgh with Pittsburgh Musical Theater, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater Summer Shows in The Park, Dreams Of Hope, and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company. Dynasty continues to build her performance and looks forward to taking her performance and statement into a higher place that centers joy and challenges the ideas of what Black Trans Performers can do.

Jasmine Hearn x Bekezela Mguni

Jasmine Hearn is an internationally-touring interdisciplinary artist, director, performer, choreographer, organizer, doula, and teacher. They are committed to performance as an expansive practice that includes a spectrum of dance and somatic traditions and techniques, sound design, garment design, and the archiving of matrilineal memories. They give gratitude to Spirit, their mothers and aunties, and all the mothering Black people who have supported their moving, remembering body. Hearn has performed their work at venues such as the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Pittsburgh, PA (2021); New York Live Arts, New York, NY (2021); Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Houston, TX (2021); Danspace Project, New York, NY (2019, 2017); and BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Bronx, NY (2016). They have also performed with the companies Helen Simoneau Danse, Urban Bush Women, and David Dorfman Dance, among others, and collaborated with many artists, including Holly Bass, Maria Bauman, Marjani Forté-Saunders, Gerard & Kelly, Vanessa German, Li Harris, Bill T. Jones, Solange Knowles, Ayanah Moor, Lovie Olivia, Staycee Pearl, Alesandra Seutin, and Alisha B. Wormsley. Hearn is the recipient of a Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon Polsky Rome Prize in Design with collaborator Athena Kokoronis of Domestic Performance Agency (2023), a Creative Capital Award (2022), New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Awards for Outstanding Performer (2021, 2017), a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (2019), and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grants (2022, 2017). They have been awarded residencies through Movement Research, New York, NY; Pittsburgh Foundation, Pittsburgh, PA; and the Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France.

Scott Andrew

Scott Andrew is a multimedia queer-oriented video, installation, and performance artist. He creates speculative fantasies that peer into otherworldly portals and voids. He has exhibited at MoMA’s PopRally Performance Series (NYC), Ballroom Marfa (Marfa, TX), the Hammer Museum (LA), and the J. Paul Getty Museum (LA), among others. Recently, Andrew has worked as a media designer and producer for collaborative stage performances with dance artist Jesse Factor, and dragademic Veronica Bleaus. Scott is a visiting lecturer in the Studio Arts department at the University of Pittsburgh and is an adjunct professor in the School of Art at CMU.

Joseph Hall

Joseph Hall is a black, queer, transracial adoptee, podcast lover, creator, critic, and youngest of five. He is the Executive Director of the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, and was previously Deputy Director at BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance as well as a producer, curator, and performer working in NYC and Pittsburgh. As a performer, Joseph has worked with choreographers Staycee Pearl, Maree ReMalia, Lida Winfield, and Jasmine Hearn, and video artist Suzie Silver.

Suzie Silver

Suzie Silver creates art that alludes to the capacity for desire to disrupt social boundaries and imagine new futures. Her well-known early videos, Freebird and A Spy are canonical works of queer video art. Her videos have been screened at over one hundred festivals on five continents. Her ongoing collaboration, “Fairy Fantastic!” a fairy and folk tale video series for gender non-conforming kids of all ages, has screened at film festivals nationally and internationally.

sarah huny young

sarah huny young (she/they) is a DJ, photographer, event producer, and king of all trades soundtracking and producing events via the Mostbeautifullest collective. Bred in New York, NY, and currently residing in Pittsburgh (named Person of the Year in Music 2021 by Pittsburgh City Paper), huny’s work in music and the visual arts is rooted in exalting Black women & QTBIPOC communities. As a co-founder and the Experience Lead of Honcho’s Queer Fam Fund, as well as consulting on diversity outreach and curating lineups for both national and international festivals and events, her mission to expand visibility and access in nightlife culture is a through-line in everything she touches. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Washington Post, New York magazine, and more.