Lightning Rod

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A nonprofit fundraiser supporting

Springboard for the Arts
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Lightning Rod is a collective of queer/trans performance artists creating new works for us and by us

$6,883

raised by 81 people

$5,700 goal

second.. third.. fourth wind!

Update posted 3 years ago

We made over $500 in the last hour! It ain't over til it's over <3

Change is constant, occurring now with increasing velocity. 



Your contribution will go directly to paying queer and trans artists, in pursuit of collaborative growth and the creation of new works. 

This year we are seeking funds to support our programming, including but not limited to:

- Free outdoor public performances

- The Access Avengers: a cohort of disability justice activists/artists

- The development of radical, queer arts leadership models (we're becoming a real organization!)

- Fall and Winter workshops in collaborative art-making


ABOUT LIGHTNING ROD


Lighting Rod began, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, as a way for artists and audiences to process the 24-hour news cycle in community. For the past four years, we have held an annual event of “flash theater” (quickly generated theater). Teams of artists make and then perform devised (collaboratively created) short plays that respond to the immediacy of that week, starting with the prompt: “What needs to be said this week?” 


Lightning Rod’s community is the 2SLGBTQIA+, queer artists of the Twin Cities metro area. These are artists who are seeking ways that art can be utilized as a community response to an uncertain and often hostile world. The mission of Lightning Rod is to show our community how we already possess the skills and knowledge to create meaningful, timely, quality performance art relevant to ourselves. We have identified six key elements as foundational to our work: Queer (all of the kinds), Emergence (a discipline), Possibility (say yes to the dress!), Collaboration, Access, Professional Development.




The leadership of Lighting Rod is Yoni Tamang, Marcela Michelle and Kat Purcell. We are three emerging transgender performing artists, dedicated to supporting and uplifting interdisciplinary queer arts in the Twin Cities.With the support of state funding and individual donors, we have built an arts collective which this year will be presenting expanded programming, including studio practice, new original works, and professional development for artists of queer & trans experience. Our Advisory Committee includes artists Ricardo Beaird, Lisa Marie Brimmer, Lelis Brito, Chava Kokhleffel, and Keila Anali Saucedo. Our Access Committee includes artists D. Allen, Teighlor McGhee and Chava Kokhleffel.


TESTIMONIALS:





“The audience staying still and crying and empathizing my truth is what changed me the most. They were brought into a world they had no idea of and gave me hope to keep building up through struggles, as well as finding resiliency. Through Lightning Rod I was given Resiliency, and I hope they find the same resiliency through this pandemic.”

“As an audience member, Lightning Rod is something I look forward to every year, because it is the one time it feels like my whole community is together in one place.” 

“I knew there was a place for me to go where POC, queer and disabled folks could be fostered, celebrated, given space to create and try to heal together. By the time Lightning Rod was over, I still had more healing to do but I knew that I had HEALED, even a little bit.”

“I can say the collective energy between the performers, as well as between the performers and the audience was truly transformative: I have been out and proudly queer ever since.”


For more images of past performances: https://www.facebook.com/Lightning-Rod-459249428174030


To sign up for our mailing list, go here: http://eepurl.com/gyTmSn


photo credits: Jenny Zander & Nathan Dale Studios

***This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.


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Springboard for the Arts

Organized By Lightning Rod

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