#BTS: NUPITA OBAMA CREATES VOGUA
Nupita Obama Creates Vogua is the first episode debuting under #OpenTVPresents, an anthology web series about artists exploring alternative relationships. Each 5-15 minute narrative dramatizes connections among lovers, friends, families and communities underrepresented by ad-supported television and web networks. Each installment of #OpenTVPresents will showcase community-based art practices, from voguing and yoga to burlesque and stand-up comedy.
#OpenTVPresents aims to empower a diverse set of creative artists to tell original stories as part of an art-driven online anthology series. Blending elements of scripted entertainment, performing arts, and other creative practices, It is focused on under-represented artists and audiences (i.e. queer, black, Latino, trans, and others), and seeks to evolve from an online anthology series into a fully-resourced multimedia platform, providing under-served communities with a viable alternative to mainstream entertainment.
Thoughts from Aymar Jean Christian, Creator of Open TV
"I found interesting connections between my daytime experiences taking yoga at a friend’s apartment in the south side with dancing among queer people of color – voguing, especially – on the north side in the evening. Both experiences brought social and physical benefits crucial to my surviving the harsh Chicago winter. I began to imagine a scenario where voguing and yoga instructors created a new art form – vogua – inspired by the stress of a third person entering their relationship.
Vogua breathes life into their relationship and helps them reach out to communities in Chicago through live performance, catapulting them across the country through online networks. By participating in queer art and nightlife communities I met two artists – Kiam Junio and Erik Wallace – who could perform in instructional videos live in local venues and in a short episode. We shot two vogua videos in fall of 2014 and the first episode in December: Nupita Obama Creates Vogua. The episode is produced by Myra Boone (Board Member, Black Alphabet Film Festival), starring dancer and hip-hop artist Erik Wallace, yoga and performance artist Kiam Junio and drag queen Saya Naomi. We are currently in post production, aiming to release this episode publicly in the Spring of 2015."
Take at peek at some of moments captured on our three-day production in Pilsen, Chicago that took place in late December 2014. and keep a look out for the premiere of Nupita Obama Crate Vogua in the Spring of 2015.
