We’re super stoked about the opening for skinnyblk (Skinny Black) this Saturday. Sean Avery, writer, and performer describes it as a hip-hop album/staged play, about the journey as a black masculine individual figuring out what is authentic in a society prone to impositions.

The show exposes excerpts of Sean’s catalog of experiences accumulated over the years. It’s about a nonbinary person of color (POC) navigating through systems that dictate how to dress, think, act and what to like. It is about roles associated with genitals and skin color.

“My work has always has been about blackness, now with with skinnyblk I deal with masculinity, gender, sexuality, and it’s always interesting to see how people react to it,” says Sean.

We can’t wait to see all the performers on stage! Photo: Quincy Reams.

skinnyblk started as a thesis for an undergraduate program about two years ago. Sean Avery’s plan was to write something that could be read, performed, and also experienced as an album.

“I wanted to do that for school. It was ok, it was whatever and I kept working on the same idea once I finished that program. I did a few versions of skinnyblk and it was a hardcore process of journaling, I basically wrote an autobiography,” Sean recalls.

When everything was sorted out, the album was conceived with the possibility of becoming a stage play. However, it was a music project before it was anything else.

Once the lyrics and poems were selected, Sean and producer Mic Maven got together to create something. Sean would snap a tempo for Mic, then both would discuss the soundscape based on the content of the song, experimenting with the beatbox and keyboards.

Sean Avery performing a scene from skinnyblk during a preview at South Mountain Community College. Photo: Zakiya Rose Johnson.

Chicago and beyond

Over a period of time, the album turned into an ensemble piece and a more condensed production was performed at a hip-hop theatre festival in June of this year in Chicago. Sean Avery, Dr. Tamika Sanders, director of the play, a dancer, and the DJ received positive feedback. This experience propelled Sean to develop a bigger production concept.

Movement plays a crucial role in skinnyblk and for the piece to be what it is today, it went through a rich collaborative creative process. First Sean reached out to dancers and discussed some ideas around pantomime.

Then local choreographers got involved and helped develop Sean’s vision for how to effectively incorporate movement in the play. Together they decided which parts would be a theatrical performance, which ones would be movement, hip-hop and dance.

“The piece is structured like a play in three acts. There is a difference though, between the staged version and the album version. There are things in the play that are not in the album. Those were added to further dramatize or create an arch,” explains Sean.

From a theatrical perspective, Sean thought a lot about whether the production should be an ensemble show or a solo show.

“Because it’s about me, about my experiences and the characters are characters in my life, it’s very much about my narrative being told in a way that I feel most comfortable,” says Sean. “Letting people into that was shocking because there are songs that have to do with my sexuality and I need you to dance to it. This was a process that It made me very vulnerable, which I eventually became ok with.”

You’ll have to go see skinnyblk to see where Sean Avery landed with this decision.

skinnyblk at a hip hop theatre festival in Chicago in June, 2018. Photo: Connor Larsen.

Sean Avery on gender and sexuality 

“I always knew I was bisexual. I said it to my parents and that didn’t go very well. You know initial trauma, you live the rest of your life not sure of yourself when really I always was.

When I was an undergrad I was frustrated with myself because I felt I still had many questions about my identity and I wanted to be more confident. I started going to the LGBTQ center, and just hanging out, talking to people and there I learned that gender and sexuality are not the same thing, I legit did not know that until I was 22 and I’m 25.

Once I started to examine both, I realized that a lot of my frustrations were with gender, more so than sexuality. A lot that I felt unhappy and uncomfortable with, and shame was about gender, so I started to read more about that and also writing about it. Eventually, I got to a place where I felt like I was gender non-binary, I’m not comfortable with having to choose either one of these boxes.”

Raji Ganesan dancer/choreographer and Sean Avery. Photo: @skinnyblksean.

Sean Avery on masculinity

“I believe we should use the same words to describe women and men that we use to describe human. I mean it’s pretty fucked on both sides, all these descriptors that are about power and control and women get all that’s about sensitivity and emotion and it’s like neither side is allowed to be full people. My definition of a man was given to me by society and it’s pretty toxic.

I’m allowing myself certain emotional indulgences that I’ve never had beforen, and I’m trying not to think of sexuality as A or B. Thinking that way hasn’t gotten us very far and it definitely hasn’t gotten me very far. I mean, I’ve been pretty unhappy with my life.”

skinnyblk

Play by Sean Avery, directed by Dr. Tamika Sanders, choreography by  Shelley Jackson, Justin Lovers and Raji Ganesan. Other local performers will share the stage during the performances of skinnyblk starting Saturday, October 20 at The Empty Space ASU 970 E. University DR. Tempe, AZ. The album will also be available for download on that day. For more info click HERE. skinnyblk will run the following dates:

Saturday, October 20th, at 7 pm

Sunday, October 21st, at 2 pm

Saturday, October 27th, at 7 pm

Sunday, October 28th, at 2 pm

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