Come Hell or High Femmes: The Dolls Rise (performance)

Thomas’ world is lush and verdant; the artist, bathed in a sky blue dress of tulle, wanders across babbling brooks, oceans, and atop hills of fertile land. Thomas imagines a time where the dolls – a word that,  loosely, means a trans femme so flawless and unbound they are no longer considered real – have survived a mass extinction. Why are dolls the only ones left? Perhaps, it is because trans  femmes (often, but not always) are forged in nocturnality, where beauty and intelligence must  learn to supersede time and space. 

Thomas reclaims what it means to be black in nature,  forging new ways to exist in peace, joy, and healing in relation to the landscape. The work moves through sound, light, poetry, dance, and music as forms of resistance and healing. The choreography is based on queering landscapes, camouflage, and metamorphosis as modes of survival and transcendence for queer and trans people.

The work also includes a three part film. Read more about the film.