Posted on May 14, 2021 in: |Comments Off on Episode 14: Tess Raunig: I Am More Than The Shape Of My Body
Community Profile: Voices From The Real World
Episode 14: Tess Raunig: I Am More Than The Shape Of My Body
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“To some, Tess Raunig may live at the intersection of many identities but to their mind, there’s only one: Tess Raunig. Tess is on a mission to break down every myth, every misconception, every lie and every injustice that is an obstacle to any body being their best self. This fire is red hot and a dominant aspect of their words, writing and music.” -Bobby Bermea
ARTIST BIO Tess Raunig (they/them/theirs) is a disabled, trans multidisciplinary creative and performer based in Portland, OR. They wish to thank Profile Theatre for both featuring them on Voices from The Real World, and for sponsoring and organizing the LGBTIQ+ writing cohort. As an actor, have worked with companies such as Artists Repertory Theatre (Teenage Dick, Mercury Company II and III), Oregon Children’s Theatre (Dragons Love Tacos), Bag & Baggage Productions (Sequestered Soliloquies), Couch Film Collective (Again and Again), Adventuress Films, Oyster Shell Productions, the Disability Art and Culture Project, and Impetus Arts. They are also a junior associate artist with Original Practice Shakespeare Festival. In August 2019, they starred in the world premier of The Poet’s Shadow, a rock opera written by students at PHAME Academy, in partnership with Portland, OR. Tess serves as a teaching artist, and choral assistant at PHAME.
They sing and play keyboard/synth in the Portland based theatrical folk pop band, Sasha and The Children. Tess is also a member of Acchord, an a’capella group comprised of trans and non-binary singers. When they aren’t acting, writing, playing music, or teaching, Tess enjoys drinking tea, social justice activism, and hanging out with their cat child, Sasha. And yes, the band is named after Sasha kitty. linktr.ee/tessraunig
Posted on March 26, 2021 in: |Comments Off on Episode 11: Roberta Hunte: I Feel Rage
Community Profile: Voices From The Real World
Episode 11: Roberta Hunte: I Feel Rage
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“Roberta Hunte is an educator and a difference maker. Everybody who meets her, remembers her and she just might be the smartest person to ever be on Voices from the Real World. In this podcast she writes about a harrowing, heartbreaking moment from her own life — and you get to meet her son, Paris!” -Bobby Bermea
ARTIST BIO Roberta Hunte, Ph.D., MS is a Black Feminist scholar, mother, facilitator, and cultural worker. She is an Assistant Professor at Portland State’s School of Social Work and is an affiliate faculty in Black Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. With playwright Bonnie Ratner she co-wrote and produced the theatre piece My Walk Has Never Been Average based on her dissertation research on narratives of Black tradeswomen. She was the Executive Producer for the narrative short film “Sista in the Brotherhood” written and directed by Dawn Jones Redstone. She and Dr. Catherine Duffly devised and produced the theatre piece We are Brave about people of color and reproductive justice. Her research areas of focus include reproductive justice, women of color feminisms, and cultural work for social change. She is particularly interested in how people of color talk about their lived experiences with systems of oppression coupled with their survival strategies and their recommendations for equity; areas of focus include Black perinatal health and racism related stress, higher education access for adult learners, and Black tradeswomen in construction.
Posted on March 12, 2021 in: |Comments Off on Episode 10: Ernie Lijoi: When I Gave Into My Demon Desire
Community Profile: Voices From The Real World
Episode 10: Ernie Lijoi: When I Gave Into My Demon Desire
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“Ernie Lijoi looks like a tough guy and sings like an angel. He’s also a multifaceted font of creativity; playwright, songwriter, singer, actor, musician, comedian, storyteller and he puts on a bunch of those hats right in this podcast.” -Bobby Bermea
ARTIST BIO Ernie produced three albums as a young recording artist in the early 2000’s. His last CD Better Days was awarded “Best Unsigned Artist – Album of the Year” by Billboard magazine. He was also a member of the prestigious BMI Lehman Engel Musical theater workshop, where he took his songwriting to a more theatrical level. His songs have been recorded and performed by cabaret, choruses and jazz artists internationally and in 2015, he had two songs in the Broadway musical It Shoulda Been You. His own musical Under the Influence for which he wrote book music and lyrics was produced in Portland that same year and won a local Drammy award for “Best Original Score”. His newest musical The Pursuit of Happiness had its first workshop at the 2019 OUTwright Theater Festival and is slated for a 2020 production.
Ernie came to Portland from New York City, where along with his music and theater creations, he worked as a digital technologist for a multitude of advertisement firms. On relocating to Portland, he decided to go back to school to fulfill a lifelong desire to work in health care. He has recently graduated from Concorde as a Respiratory Therapist.
Ernie is now a board member for Fuse Theatre Ensemble which produces the Outwrite theater festival, an annual to showcase new works from the LGBT community.
Posted on February 16, 2021 in: |Comments Off on Episode 9: W. Noel Robbins: I Write to You from Exile
Community Profile: Voices From The Real World
Episode 9: W. Noel Robbins: I Write to You from Exile
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“W. Noel Robbins is a warm and generous — yet incisive and driven spirit. And her writing reflects those qualities and much, much more.” -Bobby Bermea
ARTIST BIO W. Noel Robbins is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma but came of age in Detroit, Michigan. She has written poetry since an early age and published throughout her academic life. She is working on her first novel. W. Noel is also trained in a wide range of dance traditions, including social dance traditional dance forms including Native American tribal dance (Five Civilized Tribes of the Mid-Continental United States) and folkloric dances of the African and Afro-Cuban diaspora. She is currently an advanced social Latin ballroom dancer who began training for performance in 1990. W. Noel is a lover of human culture and a student of nature. When she’s neither on the clock nor the dance floor, she can often be found studying cosmology and metaphysics, drinking coffee, doing yoga, or re-organizing her desk shelves for improved chi flow.
Posted on February 5, 2021 in: |Comments Off on Episode 8: Matthew Miller: Alms for the Poor/Fertile Ground
Community Profile: Voices From The Real World
Episode 8: Matthew Miller: Alms for the Poor/Fertile Ground
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“Matthew Miller is a recently transplanted North Dakotan who has hit the ground running as a local playwright. He’s funny, irreverent and passionate about the medium.” -Bobby Bermea
ARTIST BIO Matthew Miller’s works for the stage include Martyr, I Love You/Who Are You (Portland Civic Theatre Guild New Play Award, 2018) and the children’s musical, One Pig, Two Pig, Three Pig, Blue Pig. A vocal advocate for local dramatists, he is a proud member of LineStorm Playwrights, PDX Playwrights, the Dramatists Guild, and the Portland Civic Theatre Guild, and currently serves as vice president of the Portland Area Theatre Alliance. Miller has written and produced several pieces in the annual Fertile Ground Festival of New Works and recently partnered with Bag&Baggage Productions to produce and write for Sequestered Soliloquies. He currently lives in Portland with his husband, their dog, Paca, and their cat, Mashed Potatoes.
Posted on January 22, 2021 in: |Comments Off on Episode 7: Sankofa Backwards-Looking Prophetess: Dear Truth Guardian
Community Profile: Voices From The Real World
Episode 7: Sankofa Backwards-Looking Prophetess: Dear Truth Guardian
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“Sankofa Backwards-Looking Prophetess is a seer, attuned to a different, sometimes pained, sometimes glorious wavelength. Sankofa’s work and Sankofa’s story display a tremendous amount of courage and clarity in the face of adversity. -Bobby Bermea
ARTIST BIO Sankofa Backwards-Looking Prophetess is a Black and mixed poly, queer, trans and gender-transcending possessed and shapeshifting survivor and prophet who writes from traditional, ancestral and unceded ʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō, Stz’uminus and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) territories, where Sankofa resides. Sankofa knows that art is key to decolonization and a better world. Sankofa’s pronoun is Sankofa’s name.
Posted on December 17, 2020 in: |Comments Off on Episode 5: Rusty Tennant: Look Under My Face
Community Profile: Voices From The Real World
Episode 5: Rusty Tennant: Look Under My Face
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“As a person and as an artist, Rusty Tennant is a guy who makes his living wearing his heart on his sleeve and fighting for what is right and he’s got the battle scars to prove it.” -Bobby Bermea
ARTIST BIO Rusty Tennant is the Artistic Director of Fuse Theatre Ensemble. They have an MFA in Directing and Performance from the University of New Orleans. Rusty serves as the Technical Director at Reed College and is also the Producing Artistic Director of The OUTwright Theatre Festival, a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ contribution to theatre that is held annually in Portland, OR.
Founded on the concepts of inclusion and sustainability, Tennant’s work focuses on the Queer canon, original solo-work, and investigating classics through a contemporary lens. From the onset, their work has centered people who traditionally find themselves on the periphery of theatre. Rooted in the movement techniques of Viewpoints, Suzuki, Laban, contemporary and classical dance, their work aims to evoke a musical and visceral experience for audience and performer alike. Their years of experience in technical theatre have made clear the massive amount of waste in contemporary professional theatre, so their aesthetic has developed to provide audiences with visually and aurally appealing and inventive productions while maintaining strict sustainability measures. Their artistry has garnered prestigious local and national awards.
