Bridge Live Arts will host a daytime virtual panel with UNDOXX, an NYC-based collective that convenes artists, activists, and advocates to foster dialogue, share resources, build collective power, and equip artists to navigate the evolving impacts of censorship.

In addition to UNDOXX organizers zavé martohardjono and Maya Simone Z., the conversation will feature representatives Patrick Bond from Artists at Risk Connection, Adam Odsess-Rubin and Achiro P. Olwoch from National Queer Theater, and the Minneapolis-based artist Leila Awadallah.

Registered attendees will receive the Zoom link by email 24 hours in advance.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS + ORGANIZATIONS

Maya Simone Z. (Co-founder of UNDOXX) is a New York City-based interdisciplinary producer, artist, performer and educator from the South. They create performance-based work centering queer, Black kinships, ancestral/emotional memory, and connections between the heart, body and spirit. Maya Simone has developed and performed in works presented at Green Space, Queens Dance Festival, Corkscrew Theater Festival, Theater Mitu, BAAD!, and more. Their work interweaves movement, writing, sound, installation, and performance. They are a constant dreamer. 

zavé martohardjono (Co-founder of UNDOXX) is an artist and community organizer. Dance, ritual, ecological liberation, and political education are primary languages across their interdisciplinary performance works which have been presented most notably at the 92Y, the Kennedy Center, Storm King Art Center, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, El Museo del Barrio, and Issue Project Room. Since 2010, zavé has led social justice strategy for arts and liberation movements including creating artists of color networks, fighting censorship in the arts, and advising arts organizations on equity and economic justice models for arts workers. Born in Tiohtià:ke territory (Montréal, CA) in 1984, zavé primarily grew up in and now lives in Lenapehoking (NYC). 

Censorship of artists in the U.S. is currently a powerful force, yet it is not unprecedented. UNDOXX is an artist of color collective that organizes festivals, conversations, and interventions to build power among BIPOC artists, global majority artists, queer and trans artists, and marginalized artists experiencing censorship. UNDOXX is committed to facilitating knowledge exchange among artists, activists, and advocates; generating community resources; and fostering creative exchange to support artists to keep making their work and dismantle censorship. Instagram: @_undoxx_ 

Patrick Bond leads the U.S. Programs for the Artists at Risk Connection, including the recent National Artist Safety Survey, and the development of new safety services that are being shaped by this initiative. He has built a career in social and cultural non-profits, focusing on cultural rights, equity, and democracy. At Open Society Foundations, he managed major grantmaking initiatives on the Narrative and Culture Change team and led the Soros Equality Fellowship, supporting leaders advancing racial justice and democratic renewal. At New York University, he developed approaches to qualitative research, digital security, and data-driven collaboration. Earlier, he worked with cultural institutions to create public programs engaging diverse communities in dialogue on history and justice. He holds a Master’s in Experimental Humanities and Social Engagement from New York University and a Bachelor’s in History and Russian & Eastern European Studies from the University of Virginia.

Adam Odsess-Rubin (He/Him) is the Founding Artistic Director of the Obie Award Winning National Queer Theater (NQT) in Brooklyn, New York. At NQT, Odsess-Rubin has presented work with Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, MCC Theater, and PAC NYC. His work has been featured by NBC News, The New York Times, American Theater, and Time Out New York. He has published writing in Yale’s Theater Magazine and The Gay & Lesbian Review, and was a 2022 PoliticsNY LGBTQ+ Power Player. BA: UC Santa Cruz MA: New York University. NQT is currently a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU against the National Endowment for the Arts to protect government funding for LGBTQ+ artists.

Achiro P. Olwoch is a playwright, scholar, and cultural worker whose work centers African and diasporic women’s voices. Her creative and critical practice explores themes of memory, migration, language, embodiment, and resistance, often weaving personal narrative with political inquiry. Through theatre, essays, and pedagogy, she examines how gender, race, and history shape lived experience across local and global contexts. Achiro is committed to building spaces where storytelling becomes a site of healing, complexity, and transformation.

National Queer Theater harnesses the power of live performance to imagine a more just and joyful future. Working alongside social justice movements, we uplift queer community through visionary theater productions and education programs that celebrate free expression in the U.S. and around the world. www.nationalqueertheater.org

Leila Awadallah is a dancer, choreographer, and community collaborator in Minneapolis and sometimes Beirut. She is the Artistic Director of Body Watani Dance project alongside her sister Noelle Awadallah. Her artistry holds Palestine at the center —rooting her embodiment in practices of resisting settler colonial occupation while invoking / conjuring / demanding Right of Return and cultural INTIFADA. Leila has received multiple fellowships: DanceUSA, McKnight, Jerome Hill, and Daring Dances. Her artistry is meaningfully impacted by her years working with Ananya Dance Theatre, Theater of Women of the Camp (Lebanon) and El-Funoun (Palestine). She is a recurring artist-in-residence at the Arab American National Museum (MI), Red Eye Theater (MN), and holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Minnesota.