DW McCraven

ARTIST INTENSIVE

DW McCraven (DW, beloved, they/them) is an Interdisciplinary Artist, with works experienced in forms such as theater, drag, installation, movement, film, and music. They are joining Hi-ARTS this May for an Intensive in which they will work closely with Curator in Residence Kirya Traber. They will work on the development of Fb: Buoyancy ( A Hip Hop Theater Works), where DW uses movement, drag, and storytelling, to confront their indoctrination into whiteness and escape replicating destructive generational patterns, on a course correction toward healing.

McCraven's art unapologetically engages with Blackness and queerness and holds reverence for their Hip Hop theater roots and practice.

Their work is focused on collaboration and intersectionality, building relationships, and having conversations in spaces that solidify and amplify the experiences inherent in brownness and queerness, and humanness. The tradition of relational aesthetics; the relationships themselves; the establishment of commonality; these are the purpose of the work, rather than the notion of product. This process serves to perform the action of overcoming difference as a matter of course, rather than as a side benefit to creation.

McCraven believes “It's human nature to take on many physical forms and behaviors throughout our journey in life. I am a living representation of the many personalities that I have created to sustain me. I find joy in discovering identity, challenging gender norms, and creating relationships that encourage positive non-conforming behaviors. Being confined to binary standards has limited my imagination, and I have decided to no longer wonder what I could be without those limitations, but rather to discover who I am as I refused to be boxed."

DW McCraven currently lives and works in Western Massachusetts. Where they are the co-founder of Counter Culture Educator LLC.,  a Black queer femme organization using artistry and tenderness to guide changemakers in disrupting harmful patterns within their communities.

Being reckless @dwwalks  | Changing the world @countercultureeducator

Image Credit: Liz Lavorgna