Choose 30: Hiring Local, Building Legacy

On June 25th, CA for the Arts hosted the culminating event of our inaugural Grassroots Artist Advocacy Program in San Francisco. ⁠ ⁠ Over the past nine months, five inspiring artist-advocates from Oakland and San Francisco have been developing Artist Advocacy Plans rooted in their creative practice, community knowledge, and visions for systemic change.⁠⁠ Each fellow presented their plans to implement real change benefiting artists and culture bearers across the Bay Area’s cultural landscape.⁠

GAAP is a first-of-its-kind fellowship program designed to equip artists with the tools to advocate for just and equitable policies in their communities. This pilot cohort was made possible through generous support from the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.⁠

AeJay Antonis Marquis (They/Them) is a multi-hyphenate performance artist, scholar, educator, and activist whose work centers the decolonization of the theatrical canon, the black avant-garde, and queer political performance practice.

Their current research seeks to explore Queer, Transgender and Non-Binary remixing, reclamation and reconciliation of varied Christian dogmas through performative explorations in theatre, dance, film, and music videos, and how this practice intersects with racial identity and contribute to Queer Futurist Liberation models. 

Alongside their practice as a theatre and dance educator for a little over a decade, their work has been seen across the Bay Area performance landscape as a director, choreographer, actor, producer, and dramaturg and will continue to marry scholarship with practice in their doctoral journey and advocacy work.