Transtraterrestrial: Dark Matter and Black Divinities — Sage Ni’Ja Whitson in conversation with Daniel Coleman

This event takes place on Crowdcast, Charis’ virtual event platform. This event is free, but registration is required. Register here: https://www.crowdcast.io/c/transtraterrestrial

Charis welcomes Sage Ni’Ja Whitson in conversation with Daniel Coleman for a celebration of Transtraterrestrial: Dark Matter and Black Divinities, a two part book reimagining dark matter and the dark.

Transtraterrestrial is an experimental book that documents Sage Ni’Ja Whitson’s groundbreaking performance pieces, blending African Diasporic practices with innovative methodologies to explore themes of gender, sexuality, race, and spirit. Divided into two parts–The Unarrival Experiments and Counterproposals–the work delves into the mysteries of dark matter, dark energy, and Blackness through a Black, Queer, and Transembodied lens.

In the performances of The Unarrival Experiments, the audience is led on a cosmic journey guided by the space conductor, Trans Trappist the Extraterrestrial. This section of the book traverses the dark as both an ancestor and embodied transgender technology, asking profound questions: How do you perceive what cannot be seen? What if Blackness refuses to arrive, existing in the realm of the unarrival? Counterproposals delves into Yoruba Cosmology, astrophysics, and the concept of the “blackest black,” to explore a Black Futurity where queerness and transness are celebrated and centered. The book includes a fusion of letters, poems, photographs, and speculative writings. Color images throughout the book invite readers into the immersive worlds of performance and installation, offering a rich, layered experience of Whitson’s unique artistic vision.

About the Author

Sage Ni’Ja Whitson is a Queer & Transgender artist who works across media. Whitson’s anti-disciplinary constellation of art has received international awards and recognition, including a DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Visual Arts Award, Creative Capital Award, two “Bessie” Awards, Dance USA Fellowship Award, and a United States Artist Fellowship Award. Via The Unarrival Experiments, Whitson’s multi-form epic on dark matter and dark energy, they exemplify a critical intersection of the sacred and conceptual in science, technology, art, and text. Whitson’s writing has been supported by the Camargo Foundation, Bogliasco Study Center, and Hedgebrook, and has been featured in their award-winning performances (such as Oba Qween Baba King Baba) and festival commissions (BAM Next Wave Art, Tanzkongress). They are currently a professor of Black Study at the University of California, Riverside, recently serving as the department’s inaugural chair (2023-2025). Whitson is the great-grandchild of a root worker and a proud legacy bearer, ritual leader, and practitioner of familial and ancestral Spiritual traditions.

About the Conversation Partner

Daniel Coleman, PhD (he/they) is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Georgia State University. Daniel is a performance artist, dancer/choreographer, poet, and transdisciplinary artist-scholar who prioritizes both performance mediums and written scholarship. They are the author of Refusals and Reinventions: Engendering New Black and Indigenous Life Across the Americas (Ohio State University Press, 2024).

The event is free and open to all people, but we encourage and appreciate a donation of $5-20 in support of the work of Charis Circle, our programming non-profit. Donate on Crowdcast or via our website: www.chariscircle.org/donate.

Please contact us at info@chariscircle.org or 404-524-0304 if you would like ASL interpretation at this event. If you would like to watch the event with live AI captions, you may do so by watching it in Google Chrome and enabling captions: Instructions here. If you have other accessibility needs or if you are someone who has skills in making digital events more accessible please don’t hesitate to reach out to info@chariscircle.org.

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