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Work Samples

Still from Unboxing

Performing "Unboxing #1" as part of Queer.Futures.Past at Current Gallery, November 2023
Performing "Unboxing #1" as part of Queer.Futures.Past at Current Gallery, November 2023 Performance opportunities continued to be limited in 2022, but working with Queer.Futures.Past to present a new original performance, "Unboxing #1" to a full house at Current Gallery was invigorating, and helped set the stage for a whole new series of performance pieces in 2023.

Cast Recast Poster

"I Am the End of the Patriarachy and So Can You" showed at Cast/Recast in Arlington
"I Am the End of the Patriarchy and So Can You" showed at Cast/Recast at Mason Exhibitions in Arlington, one of a handful of exhibitions my artwork was displayed in during 2022.

Curtain call for the cast of Doin' It Doin' It Duets

Doin' It Doin' It Duets at Metro Gallery
Doin' It Doin' It Duets at Metro Gallery featured the talents of 16 musicians performing a set of vocal duets in October 2022. This project was supported by an MSAC Creativity Grant.

Ad for Lost Weekend conversation with Grace Lavery

In conversation with author Grace Lavery as part of Greedy Reads' Lost Weekend
My series of public conversations continued in 2022 with conversation with author Grace Lavery as part of Greedy Reads' Lost Weekend literary festival. Other public conversations included interviewing Mark Alice Durant about his new book about Maya Deren, and an online event with RB Mertz about their memoir Burning Butch, hosted by the Ivy Bookshop.

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About Rahne

Baltimore City

Rahne Alexander's picture
Rahne Alexander is an intermedia artist and writer from Baltimore, Maryland. She is a 2021 graduate of the Intermedia+Digital Arts MFA at UMBC, and a 2021 Baker Artist Prize Awardee. Her works in video, performance, music, and painting have been exhibited across the U.S. and around the world, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art, and MIX NYC. She performs music as 50’♀ and as the front woman of the rock band Santa Librada. She is a contributor to... more

"Unboxing #1" at Queer.Futures.Past

I was invited to develop a performance for Rae Red's Queer.Futures.Past in November 2022. 

I developed a piece about my own perspectives of queer ancestry, focusing on Candy Darling and Valerie Solanas, which I entitled "Unboxing #1." The performance played to a full house at Current Gallery, and served as an overdue return to performance art, after a long fallow period during the pandemic. "Unboxing" will be returning as a recurring performance in 2023. 

Doin' It Doin' It Duets

Originally slated for July 2 and then postponed until October 22, Doin' It Doin' It Duets was a celebration of my 20th year of making art in Baltimore. Featuring the talents of 16 Baltimore musicians, presenting a slate of 10 vocal duets from across the musical spectrum, Doin' It Doin' It Duets was intended to be a celebration of the communities, particularly the queer and trans communities, that have made Baltimore such a perfect place for artmaking. 

Musicians participating included (in no particular order): Skizz Cyzyk, Jack Pinder, Melody Easton, Joseph Mulhollen, Jacob Budenz, Sandy Asirvatham, Sarah Pinsker, Dominique Diglio, Sarah Michaels, Misty Letts, Christina Reitemeyer, and Jamie Grace Alexander.  

Vocal duo Outcalls supported the show as an opening act and returned to the stage at the end of the night for a rousing set closer of "Islands in the Stream." 

Doin' It Doin' It Duets was supported by a Creativity Grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. 

2022 Exhibitions

I had artwork on display throughout 2022, including my painting "I Am The End Of The Patriarchy And So Can You" at Cast/Recast at Mason Exhibitions in Arlington, VA. Cast/Recast will re-open again in 2023 for a second run at Gillespie Gallery of Art at GMU Fairfax. 

I also had work included in Forecast at Tephra ICA in Reston and as part of Sue Wrbican's Buoyant Oracle project. 

Public Conversations & Readings

My public conversations continued in 2022, including an anchor event as part of Greedy Reads' new Lost Weekend literary festival. In May 2022 I interviewed renowned scholar and memoirist Grace Lavery at Greedy Reads. 

I returned to Greedy Reads for two more events in 2022, including author interviews with Patrick King about his collection King Acid and Other Essays, and Mark Alice Durant about his acclaimed biography Maya Deren: Choreographed For Camera. 

I also interviewed memoirist RB Mertz about their new book Burning Butch in an online event hosted by Ivy Bookshop, and participated in in-person readings at the Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference (where I was also on faculty) in Tulsa, OK and with Eight-Stone Press for their Beach Badge publication party in Asbury Park, NJ. 

Writing

2023 
Publications in 2023 included: 
* "VFW Hall" in Flux (forthcoming in print in 2023)
* "Making Fajitas in Manasquan" in Beach Badge #1 
* "You're Never Too Old To Throw Up In A Neptune Bathroom" in Beach Badge #2
* "Twilight For Us All" in Light Ekphrastic, Feb 2022
Ongoing articles in BmoreArt, Jennifer Magazine, and UMBC Magazine

2022 
My chapbook, Heretic to Housewife, continued to sell its second pressing and provided opportunities for online literary events throughout 2021. 
 
I was invited to be on faculty at the inaugural Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference in 2021, where I presented a writing workshop entitled "Voice Exercises: Finding, Strengthening, and Refining the Writer's Voice." I also offered a reading from a cross section of my published works during the conference run. 
 
This kicked off a number of literary events throughout 2021, including a reading and artist talk as part of Urban Ivy's anniversary celebration and a panel at OutWrite entitled "LGBQT+ Writers Reading the Apocalyptic News." I was also a guest panelist at the virtual version of Barrelhouse's annual Writers Connect conference, as part of the "Cross-Genre: Stay in Your Lane(s): Writing and Publishing in Multiple Genres" panel.
 
In October I joined Eleanor Whitney and Liz Flyntz at Red Emma's for a talk about issues summoned by Whitney's new book, Riot Woman: Using Feminist Values to Destroy the Patriarchy.
 
In November, the Enoch Pratt Free Library invited me to participate in their Book Chat with Pratt online interview series. I chatted with Lo Smith, with a focus on November as Trans Awareness Month, and the conversation was broadcast and archived on YouTube and Facebook Live. 

  • Heretic to Housewife

    Heretic to Housewife
    My chapbook, Heretic to Housewife, continued to sell its second pressing and provided opportunities for online literary events throughout 2021.
  • Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference digital ad

    Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference digital ad
    I was invited to be on faculty at the inaugural Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference in 2021, where I presented a writing workshop entitled "Voice Exercises: Finding, Strengthening, and Refining the Writer's Voice." I also offered a reading from a cross section of my published works during the conference run.
  • Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference digital ad

    Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference digital ad
    I was invited to be on faculty at the inaugural Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference in 2021, where I presented a writing workshop entitled "Voice Exercises: Finding, Strengthening, and Refining the Writer's Voice." I also offered a reading from a cross section of my published works during the conference run.
  • Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference digital ad

    Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference digital ad
    I was invited to be on faculty at the inaugural Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference in 2021, where I presented a writing workshop entitled "Voice Exercises: Finding, Strengthening, and Refining the Writer's Voice." I also offered a reading from a cross section of my published works during the conference run.
  • OutWrite panel: LGBQT+ Writers Reading the Apocalyptic News

    OutWrite panel: LGBQT+ Writers Reading the Apocalyptic News
    Literary events throuh 2021 included a reading and artist talk as part of Urban Ivy's anniversary celebration and a panel at OutWrite entitled "LGBQT+ Writers Reading the Apocalyptic News."
  • Barrelhouse's Writers Connect conference artwork

    Barrelhouse's Writers Connect conference artwork
    I was also a guest panelist at the virtual version of Barrelhouse's annual Writers Connect conference, as part of the "Cross-Genre: Stay in Your Lane(s): Writing and Publishing in Multiple Genres" panel.
  • Digital Ad for Riot Women event at Red Emma's

    Digital Ad for Riot Women event at Red Emma's
    In October I joined Eleanor Whitney and Liz Flyntz at Red Emma's for a talk about issues summoned by Whitney's new book, Riot Woman: Using Feminist Values to Destroy the Patriarchy.
  • Rahne & Liz Flyntz discuss Riot Women at Red Emma's

    Rahne & Liz Flyntz discuss Riot Women at Red Emma's
    In October I joined Eleanor Whitney and Liz Flyntz at Red Emma's for a talk about issues summoned by Whitney's new book, Riot Woman: Using Feminist Values to Destroy the Patriarchy. Instagram story screengrab from Michael Farley.
  • Book Chat with Pratt digital ad

    Book Chat with Pratt digital ad
    In November, the Enoch Pratt Free Library invited me to participate in their Book Chat with Pratt online interview series. I chatted with Lo Smith, with a focus on November as Trans Awareness Month, and the conversation was broadcast and archived on YouTube and Facebook Live.

BALTIMORATORY: Hollywood, the Land I Won't Return To

BALTIMORATORY is a performance series featuring historic speeches delivered by Baltimore performers. Curated by Lucia A. Treasure (Pigeonaire), BALTIMORATORY debuted in October 2021. 

In November 2021, I performed at the second BALTIMORATORY, delivering Dorothy Parker's 1953 speech "Hollywood, the Land I Won't Return To," a witty and candid commentary which followed from her inclusion in the "Hollywood 10" during McCarthy's House Un-American Activity Committee trials.

Because the series permits interpretation, I chose to deliver the speech in the style of a standup comedy act. The performance -- my first non-musical live performance in nearly 2 years -- was well-received by a full house at Peabody Heights Brewery; a healing return to the stage. 

Sick Transit

I completed my MFA in Intermedia + Digital Arts at UMBC in 2021. My thesis project, Sick Transit, a tripartite intermedia piece about medicine, mobility, and art-making within a mother/daughter relationship defined by multiple sclerosis and transsexuality.

Sick Transit is an exemplativist femmage, comprising a series of autobiographical monologic performances meditating on mobility, maternity, gender, feminism, and systems of healthcare in the relationship between two artists: the transsexual daughter of a devout Mormon who lived with multiple sclerosis for more than 30 years. 

The titular video performance is featured in Let’s Exchange, a streaming telethonic variety/talk show hosted by the artist  interviewing more than two dozen Baltimore artists, and framed by Control Room, an installation replicating the artist’s pandemic studio. A supplementary internet radio show, featuring a playlist of related music, was featured on Carrie Fucile's Owls At Noon internet radio channel. 

For the hardy, my MFA thesis defense was broadcast (and archived!) on Facebook Live. 

  • Sick Transit: Control Room detail

    Sick Transit: Control Room detail
    A detail from Sick Transit: Control Room, the installation component of my MFA Thesis show, Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at UMBC, Spring 2021.
  • Sick Transit monologue still

    Sick Transit: monologue still
    A still from Sick Transit: monologue, the performance component of my MFA Thesis show, UMBC, Spring 2021.
  • Sick Transit: Control Room detail

    Sick Transit: Control Room detail
    A detail from Sick Transit: Control Room, the installation component of my MFA Thesis show, Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at UMBC, Spring 2021.
  • Sick Transit: Control Room detail

    Sick Transit: Control Room detail
    A detail from Sick Transit: Control Room, the installation component of my MFA Thesis show, Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at UMBC, Spring 2021.
  • Sick Transit: Let's Exchange still

    Sick Transit: Let's Exchange still
    A still from Sick Transit: Let's Exchange, the talk show component of my MFA Thesis show, Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at UMBC, Spring 2021.
  • Sick Transit: Let's Exchange still

    Sick Transit: Let's Exchange still
    A still from Sick Transit: Let's Exchange, the talk show component of my MFA Thesis show, Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at UMBC, Spring 2021.
  • Sick Transit (detail)

    Sick Transit (detail)
    A collaged image of my mother's artwork, used as a detail image in Sick Transit and as the cover image for the Owls At Noon playlist. This image is a "live collage," captured from a video still in which I filmed myself holding my mother's high school literary magazine to a light source and allowing her self-portrait to be seen through the page bearing her inspirational quote.
  • Sick Transit: Control Room detail

    Sick Transit: Control Room detail
    A detail from Sick Transit: Control Room, the installation component of my MFA Thesis show, Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at UMBC, Spring 2021.
  • Sick Transit: Control Room detail

    Sick Transit: Control Room detail
    A detail from Sick Transit: Control Room, the installation component of my MFA Thesis show, Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at UMBC, Spring 2021.
  • Sick Transit: Control Room detail

    Sick Transit: Control Room detail
    A detail from Sick Transit: Control Room, the installation component of my MFA Thesis show, Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at UMBC, Spring 2021.

Video

Passed a nice milestone in 2021 in which my supercut video work was cited in Max Tohline's A Supercut of Supercuts: Aesthetics, Histories, Databases. Subsquently, Tohline published a list of the 20 Most Underrated Supercuts of All Time, and included my 2008 piece Equal+Opposite at number 11.
 
I also guest-hosted on several episodes of the Projection Booth podcast, including discussions of WitchhammerThe Mephisto Waltz, and Just One of the Guys. The Witchhammer episode was released as a bonus feature of the 2021 DVD release of the film, as a component of Severin Film's comprehensive box set All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror.
 
And, of course, two of my supercut video collages continued to be available via the BMA Screening Room. 
 
2020
Two of my video collages, "Dude Descending a Staircase #1" (2019) and "Simoom" (2009) were invited for inclusion in the BMA Screening Room, the online video platform launched by the BMA to support the work of Baltimore artists in the wake of the pandemic. 
 
"Dude Descending A Staircase #1" premiered in an exhibit during the  International Conference of Chinese Computer Human Interaction, Xiamen, China in June 2019, and was created in direct response to the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Bret Kavanaugh in 2018. "Simoom, "which premiered at the BMA in 2009, is an interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's first story, "MS. Found In A Bottle," and was commissioned by the 48 Hour Film Festival for their celebration of Poe's anniversary in 2009. 
 
In the days immediately prior to the quarantine shutdown, I was honored to show work in a two-person retrospective (along with Kristen Anchor) in the Microcinema series curated by Stephanie Barber at Rhizome DC
 

I Am the End of the Patriarchy and So Can You

"I Am the End of the Patriarchy and So Can You" opened the year continuing as part of the Mary B. Howard Invitational: An Excellent Thought About A Quality Idea exhibit at the Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art in Reston, VA. This piece was exhibited twice more in 2021 -- in a solo exhibition at The Shed, and as part of Spark IV: A New World? at Maryland Art Place. 
 
"I Am the End of the Patriarchy and So Can You" was developed for the Mary B. Howard Invitational: An Excellent Thought About A Quality Idea, curated by ‘sindikit and the Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art as a reanimation of some of my oldest practices — stream-of-consciousness writing on “scrolls” (in actuality, commercial paper towels) and little mementos mori written for the artists and historical figures who had significantly moved me — with my newest: writing and painting on silk, a fabric of natural strength and transparency.
 
My first painted artwork, "I Am the End of the Patriarchy and So Can You" is a manifesto of sorts, comprising catalyzing concepts and conclusions that have driven me as an artist, citizen, and woman. Presented across three 4’x’6’ silk scrolls, the text echoes aspects of drop cloths, battle flags, and notebooks and is intended to evoke self-doubt, erasure, reiteration, and the editorial hand. 

Santa Librada

After 17 months of pandemic hiatus, Santa Librada returned to the stage for two shows in 2021 -- a headline slot at Ottobar in August with BLK Vapor and Manners Manners and an outdoor show at the Y Not Lot with F City and $100 Girlfriend in September.