SUGA

In Conversation with James Baldwin

Part of the Surrealist Cycle (2017 – present). Premiered November 2019 at Double Edge’s Farm Center.

From the Artist

Welcome to SUGA, a ritual performance/life ritual which began with research into my ancestry spanning Puerto Rico, Belize, Nicaragua and beyond. A path that would lead me to discover my ancestors through many different forms — such as stories, history, movement, dance, rituals and song.

In the development, I found myself on a path of re-membering them which is my process of acquiring ancestral research and discovering in the moment self-made rituals, bringing them into the studio and letting them out into the universe.

What soon became most essential to SUGA was a deep process of rediscovering the vibrant kaleidoscope of myself and identity. What I work to garner is a true sense of daily freedoms and love which is essential to this ritual. The performance begins and ends with the sharing of a dream. I dream that I can be any color flower I want to be. I dream of being everything.

As a queer, colored man born and raised in America that dream at times feels distant. This complex conversation I am eternally grateful to have with my spiritual father James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987). I look to him for wisdom and inspiration and he is a huge part of this performance.

— Travis Coe, November 2019

Director’s Note

“A solo performance, and particularly Travis Coe’s process, reaches into the depths of himself and his acting exploration — to celebrate and sometimes to cry, as he undertakes to break down the personal (and socio-political) walls that inhibit the imagery of his imagination and to allow the full breadth of his body, mind, soul.” — Stacy Klein