Last weekend Intiman Theatre hosted its Homecoming Performing Arts Festival in Capitol Hill, during which the credit union company BECU and Intiman teamed up for the "Angels in Seattle: Arts Advocates Awards," which highlighted five Seattle-based artists for their extraordinary community-based work during the pandemic.
The recipients were picked by Intiman Theatre, Velocity Dance Center, BeautyBoiz, Red Eagle Soaring, and Langston. They were also given $1,000 checks each for their work.
The Angels in Seattle Awards were distributed on the first day of the festival, September 18. According to Intiman, their focus was to "honor the unsung heroes of the industry: arts administrators, arts educators, and artists working behind the scenes."
The following are the recipients:
Alyza DelPan-Monley
Alyza DelPan-Monley (she/they) is a Seattle-based dancer and choreographer who believes that dance can transform "awkwardness into awesomeness." Velocity Dance Center chose DelPan-Monley for making dance more acceptable, innovative, and equitable.
"Alyza is super active in the Seattle dance community, and they show up in a lot of ways — teacher, collaborator, director, choreographer, dancer, volunteer, sounding board, to name a few," said Velocity Dance Center in a statement. "In all of these roles, they are a caring, curious, and imaginative being who is also a fierce advocate for open and equitable frameworks of art-making. We see them shaping processes that are making the Seattle dance community more innovative, more accessible, more fun (!!), and more loving. Thanks for your work Alyza — we love you."
DelPan-Monley teaches movement workshops for all experience levels and age groups and choreographs musicals and flash mobs. DelPan-Monley focuses on forming processes that allow every individual to become their fullest selves through expression.
She has choreographed the musical The Last World Octopus Wrestling Champion and co-directed a theatre ensemble production called Into the Deeps, which investigated socioeconomic and political constructs to create a funny yet riveting performance.
Ana María Campoy
Ana María Campoy (she) is a Mexican American educator, theatre artist, and advocate. Campoy currently works at the Arts Impacts' Voices from the Field program as a theatre mentor. She also collaborates with public school teachers in migrant school districts across the state to highlight Latinx artists and cultural ways of learning and teaching.
She also serves on the board for Sound Theatre and has developed numerous bilingual scripts for the Seattle Shakespeare Company, for which she has recently become an associate artist; her adaptation of Romeo and Juliet (Romeo y Julieta) premiered in the spring of 2021.
A major community-based project that Campoy founded during the coronavirus pandemic is the volunteer-run group called "WashMasks," which provides personal protection equipment, support, and advocacy for seasonal and migrant farm workers and their families, who are consistently exposed to high-risk situations due to the lack of safety gear.
As WashMasks puts it: "Every meal we eat is made possible by farm workers who work regardless of heat, cold, rain, snow, and now a pandemic." The website provides sample patterns for those interested in volunteering and creating face masks.
Intiman Theatre picked Campoy as its "Angels in Seattle" recipient because "Ana María used her art-making space to create mutual-aid community hubs during the pandemic. Because of her dexterous thinking and bold heart, many mothers were able to celebrate Mother's Day in abundance, and her mask distribution kept hundreds of WA farm workers safe. Thank you for all you do to keep our community safe!"
Jess Chrivoli
Jess Chrivoli is a visual performing artist, community organizer, activist, and advocate who recently received her master's of social work from the University of Washington. Chrivoli is passionate about working with the Indigenous, 2SLGBTQ+, and disabled communities, and utilizes art to engage with and support healing, social and racial change, and community and cultural connections.
"Red Eagle Soaring is pleased to honor Jess Chrivoli for her volunteer work at our Seattle Indigenous Youth Art & Performance Summer Workshop 2021! Jess helped with several things over the two weeks, including photography, set-up and cleanup, and more! She is a talented, reliable asset to us and our youth!" said a statement from Red Eagle Soaring, a Seattle nonprofit serving at-risk Native youth through traditional and contemporary performance art.
Michael B. Maine
Michael B. Maine (he) is a Seattle-based artist who is troubled by how the media is assisting with the development of perceptions and behaviors of certain individuals. Maine uses photography, audio, and videography to address social injustice issues, with the hopes of creating media that's better representative of human expressions and identities.
Maine invests much of his time into the community by mentoring and volunteering — he even served as president on both the board of Reel Grrls, a youth media organization; and Business Ending Slavery and Trafficking, an organization dedicated to reducing sex trafficking. His current project is titled "We [Are] Out Here: Blacks Making History," a photo series that celebrates Black people who are actively involved in their communities.
Langston, a nonprofit organization for Black arts/artists and culture in Seattle, chose Maine as their awards recipient because "Michael is an artist, curator, photographer, web designer, videographer, advocate, and all-around good person. His work to uplift underrepresented voices and equip local artists — especially Black and QTPOC artists — has made a huge impact on our communities. He's the last person to highlight the many good works he does, so we'd like to show him some love."
Sefina Vailoa Aulei
Sefina Vailoa Aulei is a 27-year-old Polynesian Transgender woman who grew up in the foster care system, and whose natural instinct is to nurture and support others. Aulei works for the grassroots nonprofit organization UTOPIA Washington as the program coordinator for the Sex Worker Empowerment Initiative (SWEI). UTOPIA Washington is a safe and supportive space for members of the Pacific Islander and LGBTQIA+ communities. The SWEI department is pro—sex work, offering PREP and HIV/STI testing in addition to case managers to assist with legal documentation.
"Vai works tirelessly to support the LGBTQIA+ community by being a mentor to young queer people, with priority to young trans women of color, all over Seattle," said a statement by BeautyBoiz, a project of Forward Flux Productions, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit live-arts production company. "Vai opens her heart and her home to our most vulnerable community members and shows up constantly, providing guidance and resources to people who need it. We want to say THANK YOU to Mother Essence for everything she does for BeautyBoiz and for the community at large."