KELCEY ANYA’
Working Without a Net

In this episode, I talk with multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and professional disruptor, Kelcey Anyá about what it means to be a catalyst for change within dominant cultural structures. We also discuss how our capacity for creative risk seems to grow in equal measure to our self-knowledge. Listen in as Kelcey shares her thoughts on representation in arts-education, womanism, the power of telling your own story, and why it’s a revolutionary act to show up, get loud, and sing your own praises in a society that has historically rendered you silent.  

“I stand at a lot of intersections. And so by default my presence in certain spaces is radical. And I had to realize that me, walking into certain rooms, is an act of rebellion. So for better or for worse, here I am! I’m here so I might as well shake some shit up.” — Kelcey Anyá

Our conversation happened in April 2022.

LISTEN HERE

GUEST INFO

Kelcey Anyá is a multi-disciplinary performing artist originally from the bayous of South Louisiana. She began her performance career at the age of two as a dancer, fell in love with all things performance, and her motto became “as long as I can touch the stage, I’m happy.” Kelcey Anyá received her Master's of Arts in Theatre, Performance and Practice with certificates in both Teaching and Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. In 2019 she merged her love for education and the arts when she began her career as a teaching artist in New York City. Since then, she has juggled serving as the director of Colt Coeur Theatre Company’s annual education initiative (New York City), as a teaching artist and dance instructor with The Joffrey Ballet, and as a teaching artist with Pegasus Theatre. Now in Chicago, she is the managing director of Artemisia Theatre and is the also Founder and Director of the Kelcey Anyá Performing Arts Academy, LLC (KAPAA), an organization geared towards amplifying the voices of young Black and Brown storytellers through the arts.

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