BOOM's Menagerie presents snippets of performance art videos created by the BOOM Concepts team. The three selections are abstract explorations of black excellence, farce, magic, erasure, community development, and survival. The works include video collage, skits, ensemble work, and found footage created between 2017-2019. The artists and creators will be live in conversation throughout the program providing commentary and answering audience questions.

BOOM Concepts is a community organization created for the expansion of activity for artists, musicians, and entrepreneurs who have common interest. BOOM Concepts is a creative hub dedicated to the advancement of black and brown artists representing marginalized communities. BOOM Concepts is located in Pittsburgh and over the course of time has curated 50 exhibitions on-site, paid out over $45k in artists and contract fees and produced 200+ events across the country. BOOM serves as a space for field building, knowledge sharing, mentorship, and storytelling.

D.S. Kinsel is an award winning creative entrepreneur and cultural agitator. He expresses his creativity through the mediums of painting, window display, installation, curating, action-painting, non-traditional performance and #HASHTAGS. Kinsel’s work puts focus on themes of space keeping, urban tradition, hip-hop, informalism and Cultural Re-Appropriation. D.S. is the co-founder of BOOM Concepts, founded in 2014.

Pittsburgh native, ANQWENIQUE is a versatile vocalist and educator specializing in opera, classical music, jazz and soul. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Voice Performance from Indiana University of PA. Anqwenique is the founder and director of Groove Aesthetic, a Pittsburgh based multidisciplinary artist collective experimenting with contemporary performance and collaborative processes. Currently she serves as Education Director of Pittsburgh Festival Opera. She is also the Studio Manager of BOOM Concepts.

Shad Ali is a verbose, yet thoughtful wordsmith who hails from Wilkinsburg, PA. Since arriving on the local scene in 2011 with his first mixtape the Appetizer’s EP, Shad’s creative work has been met with critical acclaim, features, award nominations, and several performance opportunities throughout the city of Pittsburgh and beyond.

Mario Quinn Lyles is a dancer, educator, Hip Hop recording Artist, and visual/ media artist. As a dancer he has taught at various dance studios. He is the co-founder/ executive director Level Up Studios, a creative arts studio in Penn Ave.'s arts district, focusing on mentoring through dance, visual arts and creative writing. He has spoke at SXSW EDU 2018 on Panel 'Dance in Urban Education' where he discussed the impact of dance and creative arts in urban classrooms.

Julie Mallis is a multimedia artist, VJ and educator working with digital media, paint, installation, performance, sound and audience interaction. Their work focuses on building community, audio-visual experiences, speaking truth to power, and imagining new landscapes. Mallis has exhibited, performed and curated work across the United States including at The Andy Warhol Museum, The Carnegie Museum of Art, The Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and many more. Mallis has a joint degree in Studio Art with a concentration in Electronic Time-Based Media and in Cultural Anthropology from CMU.

Grits Capone/ Corey Carrington is an accomplished poet, collagist, and curator. Carrington’s work in performance and visual art have been seen at the August Wilson Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, Kelly Strayhorn Theater, Wood Street Galleries, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, BOOM Concepts, and The University Gallery/Frick Fine Arts Building. Carrington curated his first exhibition, Electric Kool-Aid, in 2017 for the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh. In 2019 he curated BREATHE, an exclusively Black show, at Iamb Gallery. He received his B.S. in Communication and Creative Writing from Slippery Rock University in 2011.

The Show Must Go On(line) is made possible thanks to generous support from the Benter Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, the Juliet Lea Hillman Simonds Foundation, the Opportunity Fund, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and an Anonymous Foundation.

BOOM's Menagerie Presented by BOOM Concepts