MORPHOLOGIES: D’FUNQT

D’FUNQT

Created/Performed by D’Lo

Wednesday and Thursday, November 14 and 15 at 7:30pm

Location:
Intermedia Arts
2822 Lyndale Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55408

Both performances will be followed by a post-show discussion with the artist

MORPHOLOGIES: Queer Performance Festival will present performance and collaborative arts that expose, highlight and expand the spectrum of queer expression and culture, and the transformative social impact it has on the world. MORPHOLOGIES promotes the lives, politics, and experiences of the queer community, both locally and nationally. 

No matter how free we think we are, fierce queers and folks of color are being challenged daily in merely surviving; fighting against being defunct.

Defunct (dih-fuhngkt): no longer operative or valid no longer in effect or use; not operating or functioning having ceased to exist or live; dead

D’FunQT (pronounced defunct) is filled with D’Lo’s humorous musings, rants and stories of being a queer boy/stud/transgendered person who grew up in a strict immigrant family, trying to make it all work peacefully while radically and bizarrely challenging mindframes in choosing to exist unapologetically. This show is D’Lo’s gift to the communities D’Lo identifies with: Fierce Folks of Color, Queers, QT’s and yes, Islanders. “I want to give my people a break. A moment to exhale in peace, To celebrate in laughter, To feel accepted in all your glory amongst other good people.”

D’Lo is a queer Tamil Sri L.A.nkan-American, political theatre artist/writer, director, comedian and music producer who has performed and/or facilitated performance and writing workshops extensively (US, Canada, UK, Germany, Sri Lanka and India). D’Lo is also the creator of the “Coming Out, Coming Home” writing workshop series which have taken place with South Asian and/or Immigrant Queer Organizations nationally (LA, NY and SF).

D’Lo’s work has been published in various anthologies and academic journals, most recently: Desi Rap: Hip Hop and South Asia America and Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic (co-edited by Sharon Bridgforth). D’Lo holds a BA from UCLA in Ethnomusicology and is a graduate of New York’s School of Audio Engineering (SAE).

Aside from touring the university/college circuit with D’FaQTo Life (pr. defacto), D’Lo tours Ramble-Ations: A One D’Lo Show (dir. Adelina Anthony) which received the NPN Creation Fund Grant inclusive of residencies in 8 US cities and additional support from the Durfee Foundation Grant. Ramble-Ations has now had runs at New World Theater (Amherst), Pangea World Theater (Minneapolis), The Flea Theater as part of the National Asian American Theater Festival (New York) and Painted Bride (Philadelphia), Highways Performance Space (Los Angeles), Ashe Cultural Center (New Orleans), Brava Theater (San Francisco), Miles Playhouse (Teada/Santa Monica) and at MACLA (San Jose).

In 2010, D’Lo participated in the Asia Pacific Performance Exchange (APPEX) – an international three‐week intensive residency in Bali with a particular focus on American and Asian artists through UCLA’s Center for Intercultural Performance. D’Lo also acted in Cherrie Moraga’s new play Digging Up the Dirt, premiered his full-length stand-up storytelling show D’FunQT (pronounced defunct) New York’s Dixon Place Theater. Currently, D’Lo is working as the sound designer for Cherrie Moraga’s new play New Fire which premiered at Brava Theater early 2012. He is also touring as a collaborator with Adelina Anthony on her 2-person show Jotalogues: Talking Taboo in the LGBTQAI-U! which received a Creation Fund Grant from NPN in 2011.

Please click here for more information on the rest of the MORPHOLOGIES: Queer Performance Festival!

Pangea World Theater is a NPN Partner of the National Performance Network (NPN). This project is made possible in part from support from the NPN Performance Residency and Community Fund Programs.  Major contributors of NPN include the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency), the MetLife Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation.