Live Art Magazine

Poet Alisina Saee-Nazari and vocalist Laura Sui are creating an original song together for this year’s performance at Live Art Magazine on October 21st. It’s their first time collaborating in this way and combines their distinct skills - Laura started singing when she was in kindergarten. She’s now the music director of Vocal Suspects, the longest running co-ed a cappella group at UMass. Alisina studies journalism and just published his first book of poems, Butterfly Crossing. Alisina is an Iranian American and Laura is Chinese-American. In their performance for Live Art, Laura says Alisina and herself are "…recounting the feelings and experiences of being the children of immigrants. Through poetry, rhyme, and soul [they] want to convey the pain and beauty of belonging and not belonging to two countries and how it affects the way [they] love, resist, and exist."

NEPR is excited to be part of Live Art Magazine’s Issue 4 – and as part of our collaboration we’re launching another edition of our podcast series taking a look at the creative process of some of the artists you’ll see this year on the Academy Stage. Peter Reynolds, AKA P-Boogie – is our second featured artist for this season of the Live Art Magazine Podcast from NEPR. He’s one of the co-founders of Studio 860, a dance studio in Hartford that focuses on hip-hop and street dance. Hartford’s main area code – 860 - links the studio to its roots and pride in Connecticut’s capitol city. Peter started the studio along with fellow dancer and educator Jolet Creary in 2012. Youth and teens ages 4 and up can take classes like intermediate street jazz, intro to popping, beginners b-boy, and contemporary techniques. They have an elite team who’ve competed all over the country, taking first in their division at the Prelude Urban Dance competition in New York, and 4th overall at the World of Dance in Atlanta.

Jo Dery is an artist who experiments with visual storytelling, making animation, books & comics, and multimedia installation projects. Currently based in Brattleboro, Vermont, her stories are inspired by autobiographical experience and a deep love of the natural world. For Live Art, she’ll be presenting the first chapter of a long term project inspired by the history of the women in her family. On October 21st, she’ll present a multi-media, poetic essay drawn from the life of her great-grandmother, who read tea leaves.