I am excited to announce that I was recently named the Inaugural Scholar-in-Residence with the Atlanta Beltline. I will be doing qualitative research, and looking at the relationship between ethics and public art.

This project is a unique opportunity to explore the value of public art in Atlanta, and to work on a project and subject matter about which I’m very passionate. To learn more about this inaugural residency program and Arts on the Atlanta Beltline click here.

The 2019 Hudgens Prize Finalist Exhibition is coming up! The exhibition opens next weekend August 10, 2019.

I will be premiering several works that experiment more with visual art, and I look forward to performing September 14, 2019 as part of my artist talk at the same venue.

To see more information about the exhibition and the unique opportunity that the Hudgens Prize has created check out the article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution linked here.

I am happy to announce that I have been named as a 2019 finalist for the Hudgens Prize. I am honored to be in the company of such great Atlanta artists, and I will have work included in an exhibition along with the other finalists  August 10 – October 25th, 2019 at Hudgens Center for Art and Learning.

I’m looking forward to creating some work for this exhibition and beyond delighted to have been chosen as a finalist for this prestigious award!

For more information about the Hudgens Prize and the Hudgens Center click here.

For more information about my work and the other artists, you can find a link to a great article in ArtsATL linked here.

Benae created a GoFundMe page to raise some necessary funds to make this piece really come to life. Please help me reach my goal by clicking here and donating!

Also, thanks to an incredibly talented, Boston-based artist, Aaren Johnson, Humbled has a promotional image.

Benae has also partnered with an incredible Atlanta based musician, Ray Bethune, who will be acting as Musical Director and working with other musicians to create brand new music for this work.

Benae was announced as one of three artists that will participate in Round 4 of Air Residency. This residency focuses on artists creating work on airplanes and in airports. Benae is excited to take on this incredible, challenge and to create a body percussive piece at the Art Party at the culmination of the experience.

Benae will be creating a piece about black women and rest. This piece explores the body attempting to take up as little space as possible and later expanding into as much space, physically, rhythmically, and vocally as possible in an effort to explode and exhaust the niceties enough to get to a place of rest. This piece begs the question, is it even possible for black women/black queer women to get to a space of rest, to find solace, comfort, and quiet, in a world that is built over and against us while alive, and if so, what does it require?

Click here to find out more about Air Residency

 

Benae just finished a Guest Artist Residency at Bucknell University. Benae is currently working on her dissertation entitled “Black Trans Women’s bodies and Black (Christian) Religious Ethics” as part of the completion of her PhD, which she is earning at Boston University. Benae is also working on two new pieces, which she is excited to premiere in the coming year!