MY NAME'SOUND

My name’sound is an original work merging performance and media inspired by James Baldwin's The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity and the writings of Audre Lorde. A meditation on creative agency and Queer Black identity, the work supports and amplifies contemporary stories of resilience and otherness amidst censorship, and investigates the nexus of Queer intimacy, physical embodiment, and media to reflect on the legacy of LGBTQ icons.

The Collective

syd island (musician/composer); Joey Kipp (dancer/writer); Darrin Wright (dancer); Daniel Diaz (performance artist); Vanessa Rappa (musician/vocal composer); Lynn Ligammari (instrumentalist/composer); Jessica Lurie (instrumentalist/composer)

Creative team: Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte (creative director & filmmaker); Symara Johnson (choreographer); Philip Treviño (production designer); Mark Tambella (installation);Jesse Timm (sound engineer); Jo Wiegandt (producer/ stage manager); Adele Overbey, joy burklund, Azmi Mert Erdem (cinematographers)

Developed in 2022/23 with a residency at BAM, BRIC MEDIA ARTS and Center for Performance Research (AiR residency).

Electric Blue

Electric Blue is a performance installation inspired by queer thought-provoking literary icon Allen Ginsberg. A meditation on creative agency and pacifism, Electric Blue celebrates past and present LGBTQ+ resilience in pursuit of artistic and personal freedom. Taking Ginsberg's writing – some of which was censored when first published - Pioneers examines the author's controversial poetry reflecting same-sex love, male bonding, pacifism, and the antiwar activism movement. The work deploys personal reflections to underscore how individual artist and community experiences are inevitably bound together, hinting at the potential for collective action. Electric Blue is created with archival research by creative director Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, choreographer Joey Kipp, and composer ALEXA Grae, collaborating with designers Philip Treviño, Mark Tambella, and Bryan BAIRA.

Collective: Concept, archival research, and director Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte; Choreographer & performer – Joey Kipp; Composer & performer – ALEXA GRÆ; Performer – Daniel Diaz; Installation design Mark Tambella; Production designer Philip Treviño; Video design Bryan BAIRA. Choreography consultants – Symara Sarai and Hollis Bartlett. Producer: Jo Wiegandt

Presented at La MaMa Moves 2024 (May 23-25, 2024). Developed at The LGBT Center and Collar Works (Troy, NY) in 2023.

Lucky Star

LUCKY STAR: superstar is a dance-theater performance and film installation inspired by the famed nightlife of NYC’s Club 57. Borrowing superstardom fabulousness to celebrate the pursuit of artistic fame amongst the objectification of queer bodies and creativity, the work presents alternate universe personas of the real-life cast of performers.

The Collective

Bree Breeden, Joey Kipp, Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Agosto Machado, Daniel Diaz, Bryan Baira, Mark Tambella, and Philip Treviño.

Developed in 2021 at Judson Church, La MaMa and The LGBT Center

ALL! (ART LIKE LOVE!) - Film

ALL! (Art Like Love!) is a video-art film created by Pioneers Go East Collective. ALL! is a meditation on age, queerness, and the struggle of making art. This investigation triggers the questions: Where is the ‘us’ inside our art? When and how do we make work that is honest about us? Are we presenting ourselves or being represented in our work?

Filmed at La MaMa and The Exponential Festival (2021). Credits: Kathleen Kelley (co-director & filmmaker), Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte (writer & co-director), Agosto Machado (writer and performance artist), Philip Treviño (production designer), Janerssa Clark (production associate), Daniel Diaz (performance artist), Beth Graczyk (performance artist), Bree Breeden (performance artist).

LUCKY STAR (0.3)

Lucky Star (0.3) is a new dance-theatre performance and video installation presented by Judson Memorial Church (July 13-30, 2021). More: details in upcoming events.

RSVP: Eventbrite link

LUCKY STAR (0.3) by Pioneers Go East Collective is a queer dance performance, part underground club inspired by the famed Club 57, part video art installation. Looking back at the landscape of the downtown DIY art-making starting from Stonewall up until the 90s and locating it at such venues as Judson Church, La MaMa, Pyramid Club - we explore the intersectionality of Queer artists and their creative legacy. Borrowing superstardom fabulousness to celebrate queer bodies, the objectification, creative endurance, and pursuit of artistic fame, LUCKY STAR is trippy and irreverent, with performers cast as supernatural and alternate-universe superstar versions of themselves. A transmedia and creative wonderland, we create a fluid and interconnected queer space for supernatural experiences. In 5 episodes, performance artists Bree Breeden, Daniel Diaz, Joey Kipp, Shaina and Bryan Baira, and Agosto Machado bring their unique combination of cosmic-queer storytelling to the live space.

The Collective

Choreographers and performers on stage and on video: Daniel Diaz (writer), Bree Breeden, Joey Kipp. Video performances: Shaina and Bryan Baira (film-makers & choreographers), Beth Graczyk, with a cameo appearance by downtown icon and Stonewall witness Agosto Machado (voice-over & narrator). Writer & creative director Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte. Production designer & writer Philip Treviño. Choreographer (ensemble) Ori Flomin. Film-makers: Jon Burklund and Kathleen Kelley. Video designer Kathleen Kelley. Set designer and fabricator Mark Tambella. Sound designers Ryan William Downey and Marielle Iljazoski.

LUCKY STAR: superstar presented at Chez Bushwick (January 17-19, 2020). Fall 2020/ Spring 2021: Judson Church/ The LGBT Center/ New Masculinities Festival, The Exponential Festival 2021, La MaMa residency.

VIRGO STAR

You’ve never seen the West this Wild! Queering the cinematic tropes of the American Western, this kinetic ride through the Cowboy myth combines choreography and live video into one fluid, hilarious and heartfelt evening. Writer & Direction Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte / Writer & Design Philip Treviño/ Choreography Beth Graczyk / Sound Design Gavin Price / Assistant Sound Design/ SM Dmitri Barcomi/ Video design Hao Bai / Cinematography Jon Burklund. Artist & Activist Agosto Machado (writer & performer). Featuring Daniel Diaz,  Anabella Lenzu, Gerard Minaya, Bree Breeden, Alessandro Magania, Chris Riffle (original songs), Niko Tsocanos.

VIRGO Star premiered at La MaMa Nov 14 - Dec 1, 2019. Work-in-progress at Ars Nova, Judson Church, and through a residency at Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (2019).

GEMINI STARS / SCORPIO

Inspired by LGBTQ stories of exclusion. During a Xmas party celebration, artists share self-defense techniques, stories of violence IRL, and emotional and intimate experiences. Written & directed by Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte. Original music and additional text by Ombro de Oro. Choreographed & performed by Daniel Diaz, Jess Barbagallo, Michaela Reggio, Niko Tsocanos, Fleur Voorn. Philip Treviño (lighting/set design), Jon Burklund (video), Hao Bai (audio design). Premiered at La MaMa in November-December, 2017. 

COWBOYSCOWGIRLS

An interactive performance that explores and explodes the myth of the American Cowboy, looking with humor at how chauvinism and bravado transpose into Gay subculture. Featuring performance artists & choreographers Daniel Diaz and Beth Graczyk. Music by Marisa Tornello. cowboy/cowgirls Fleur Voorn, Mike Cotayo & Mac Smith! Guest appearance by artist and activist Agosto Machado who shares experiences about Stonewall, Sylvia Rivera, and The Gay Liberation Movement. Hao Bai (sound/ video). Dmitri Barcomi (SM). Jon Burklund (cinematographer). Natalie Marissa Johnson (AD). Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte (writer/ director). Laura-Marie Marciano (poetry). Zoie Omega (cinematographer). Brendan Reilly (sound). Mark Tambella (tent design). Philip Treviño (lighting /environment designer).

COWBOYSCOWGIRLS premiere at JACK in 2018. Works-in-progress at Time Space Limited (Hudson NY); BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance; The LGBT Center (NY); The Wild Project; The Tank (2018-19). Toured to Buddies in Bad Time (Toronto) in 2019.

American Mill No.2

A docudrama with music about the textile industry focused on the 1929 strike at the Loray mill in Gastonia in NC. It is centered on Ella May Wiggins, a textile worker, union organizer, and folk singer who found herself at the forefront of the protest movement during the strike. American Mill No. 2 features musicians Kamala Sankaram (Composer, Ella May Wiggings, Accordion) Catrin Lloyd-Bollard (Guitar), Brittane Rowe, Anthony Napoletano, and Jason Stanley (Mandolin).  Direction by Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte.

Premiered at A.R.T/ New York Theatre 2017. Work-in-progress at La MaMa 2015.

Cloisters

A short film in five episodes inspired by Medieval spiritual leaders. The project is designed for video installation and is intended to be viewed during a time-based / durational gallery exhibition. The film includes durational performances and performance art videos. Direction and cinematography by Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte; Stop animation by Abby Felder; additional cinematography by Silvia Forni and Meg Retinker; music by John Sully, Hao Bai, Adam Cuthbert. The project features dancers Maura Nguyen Donohue, Brian Walters, Gina De May, and Marina Celander. 

Presented at La MaMa & Chashama (2013/15). 

Gemini 

A devised work featuring queer artists of color inspired by LGBTQ vloggers coming out (and talking) on youtube juxtaposed to gay-bashing on the internet. Written and directed by Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte  & writer Julia Dobner-Pereira. Stories created, performed, and choreographed by Daniel Diaz, John Gutierrez, Jose Rivera Jr., Julia Dobner-Pereira, Chloe Piazza, Paris Alexander, Rebecca Marie Hidalgo, Ryan Leach. Guest artists: Anna/Kate Band. Premiered at The Exponential Festival 2017 at Triskelion.

Hildegard (vision)

Hildegard (vision) is a video opera installation with found-object puppetry & animations. The work is inspired by Hildegard Von Bingen, a medieval nun, and writer, composer, Christian mystic, and polymath. The piece is structured around distinct phases of a migraine attack to examine the ways in which context combined with physiological processes shape how we perceive and affect change within the world around us. Conceived by Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte and Abby Felder. Music by John Sully. Cast: Marina Celander, Seth Gilman, Nehprii Amenii, Daniel Diaz, Tali Custer.

Premiere at La MaMa Dec 3-20, 2015. Work-in-progress at Governors Island as part of Process Space Residency LMCC; and St Ann’s Warehouse (2013/14).

7AM

A performance installation with arias juxtaposed with an electro-acoustic soundscape. Based on Francis of Assisi’s visions and allegories, it presents a message of hope and equality. Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte (direction), Maura Nguyen Donohue (choreographer), Adam Cuthbert (composer), Kathryn Lieber (video), Jiyoun Chang (lighting),  Mark Tambella (paintings & projected drawings), Abby Felder (dramaturge/ mask design). Performers: Brian Walters, Dorothy James Loechel, Emily Asaro, Giacomo Rocchini, Daniel Nelson, Michael Lapinsky; Sopranos: Ashely Winland and Elise Brancheau, Musician: Becky Hudelson.

Premiered at Incubator Arts Project/ Ontological-Hysterical on Feb 28 - March 2, 2013. Presented at Chashama Gallery - Harlem (NYC); and Goethe Institut (NYC) in 2012-13.