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NICHOLLES KLEVISH

He/They

Hiya! My name is Nick Klevisha but plan to change my name to Wednesday at some point. Y'all seem cool though. I'm a queer half filipino artist based in Lowell working at Lowell Telemedia Center. My goals are to facilitate strong community journalism and art through providing media training and creative prompts, investigating the various issues specific to Lowell and my main priority is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.

Website: martianradiotheatre.space

Artist Statement:

Listen to Nicholles’s artistic take on a vocal response below:

Martian Radio is an image I have in my mind of individuals sending signals into space hoping to find aliens so that they themselves might feel less alienated. This image informs all of my work. For me, the process of collaboration is the product. I'm less concerned with marketing, commercialism or personal gain than I am with facilitating and elevating artists. Most of my expressions of creation are to model to others that anyone can create anything with the resources they are given. I'm personally drawn to Fringe Theatre the Theatre of the Absurd and the values of Public Access. I believe that assuming and relinquishing power is an important exercise and some of the most influential minds on me are Mary Wollstonecraft, Michel Foucaut, bell hooks, Audre Lorde and James Baldwin. My work is rooted primarily in queer theory.

Project Description:

I am currently testing a collaborative process that I have conducted twice before. It is a kind of creative prompt. This year I am bringing together various artists from within my social circle, in the periphery and beyond to produce recordings of Edgar Allan Poe poems and stories. I pitch the project to individuals that they can choose a variety of methods to produce their project from recording it on their phone and sending it to utilizing the group, public access stations and other resources to increase the scope of production. Next quarter I plan to do Shakespeare monologues and as we build a culture transitioning into original works that feature local artists.

It is incredibly flexible, non judgemental and meant to create community. Several members are already based in Boston and the work can be done remotely and while based in Lowell is not Lowell centric. It will also create a bridge of interest between the two cities that doesn't always share an obvious relationship. I strongly feel that the fates of Lowell and Boston are the same, indeed many historical and contemporary figures often using rhetoric seeing Boston as Lowell's future. Some voices making a favorable comparison while others a negative. There is also a focus on intersecting different populations to facilitate conversation in a responsible way, creating safe and constructive places for all folks. Lowell's queer scenes are not as fully fledged as Boston's but I think that will change over time and Lowell has a lot of culture to offer Boston, one being are very large Asian population as well as various refugee populations.