We are Nia & Ness, a Black, out-lesbian couple and performance art duo, whose work serves as a visual-auditory diary of our daily lives. We believe that it’s necessary for our specific stories, as Black Lesbian Women, to be shared, and it is our responsibility to share them.
Since officially starting our company in 2016, our work and love have transformed into something greater than the art and lives we initially dreamed of. We'd like to welcome you into our journey, invite you to sit or stand with us as we live, love, heal and grow.
We are currently based in Rosendale, New York.
Our Love
The first time our eyes met in person on March 29th, 2013, we knew. We knew that this love would change our lives forever. We say love because that's what it was. It was love at first sight. It wasn't the storybook love; as Black Lesbians, it could never be. That kind of love wasn't made for us and we had never seen a true model for Black Lesbian love, in the media or in person. It felt like two parts of the same soul were finally reconnecting.
With this initial love, we grew a beautiful connection that not only impacted us as a couple, but also as individuals.
While we've been together, Nia has come out as a Lesbian, begun her journey of self-love, and has become a self-harm survivor. Ness has found her voice as a poet and as a masculine Black Woman, begun her journey of self-love and finally started to feel that she isn't alone. Finding each other has helped us find ourselves.
Our Art
Our work is about our love as a Black, out-Lesbian couple, and our work reinforces our bond. The traumas we experience daily are experienced together, interrogated together, healed together. Our work is the product and proof of our love. Our work shows that our healing is possible. It is necessary. And we're doing it.
We embody our stories with words and movement, intentional silence and stillness, displaying a variety of emotional states we experience throughout the day while in these bodies. Through the combination of our separate artforms of dance and poetry, movement and speech, we have learned how to listen to and understand each other's stories, and better tell our own.
Our Spirituality
As our love has grown, so has our art, leading us to discover and develop a spiritual aspect that connects them -- connects us. We've transformed from seeing our craft as dance and poetry into experiencing our work as living words and movement -- bringing forth something universal out of our unique pairing.
While moving, Nia enters a trance-like state where she steps into her highest self, making visible the impacts of our daily experiences. Ness's words act as an anchor, giving voice to the feelings those experiences form.
Our Achievements
We premiered our first evening length work, run., in 2017, and our second evening length work titled, home., in 2019. Both works have been toured nationwide since their creation.
We have been keynote speakers at the 2018 FLAME Conference at Brown University, and have performed our work at schools such as the University of California Riverside, UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, NYU, Pace University, Sarah Lawrence College, Temple University, Bard College, Harvard College and more.
We have worked with the Sadie Nash Leadership Project Summer Institute; and been featured in a 2017 BRIC TV segment, a documentary for The Advocate, Windy City Times, Dance Writer Australia, BRN GRL WIN, the Daily Voice, Autostraddle and on Radio Free Brooklyn.
We've also performed at Brooklyn Pride 2017 and Harlem Pride 2018; the 2018 and 2019 Ohio Lesbian Festival, The Michigan Framily Reunion, and SisterSpace Festival; were recipients of the BAX Summer 2017 Space Grant and inaugural recipients of the 2018 Virginia Giordano Memorial Fund; and were the winners of the 2017 National Women's Music Festival Emerging Artist Contest and performers in 2018.
To follow us on our journey, check us out on social media @niaandness .
To help us continue our journey, click the donate button below!
Photo credits:
1st photo: Nia & Ness
Our Love: Friendly Passerby
Our Art: Jo Chiang
Our Spirituality: Paula Berkenstadt
Our Achievements: featuring Emily Kimmel-Kurtz, ASL Interpreter; NWMF