Travis Alabanza
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Travis Alabanza | |
|---|---|
 Alabanza in 2023 | |
| Born | 15 November 1995[1][2] |
| Known for | BURGERZ |
| Notable work | BURGERZ, Before I Step Outside [You Love Me] |
| Awards | Jhalak Prize, 2023 |
| Website | travisalabanza |
Travis Alabanza (born 15 November 1995[1][2]) is a British performance artist, writer and theatre maker.
Alabanza started their career in the London spoken word scene, with their poems were first published in 2015, in the Black and Gay in the UK Anthology and becoming a Barbican Young Poet.[3] Later that year, Alabanza went on tour for their theatre show Stories of a Queer Brown Muddy Kid, performing at clubs, bookstores, and performance venues across the United Kingdom and abroad.[4]
They have an honorary fellowship from Rose Bruford College and have been featured as a guest lecturer and panelist at over forty universities in the United Kingdom during LGBTQ and Black History month to discuss issues related to race, sexual orientation, and gender. Their work has been featured at Duckie, Bar Wotever, And What! Festival, Hamburg International Feminist Festival, Late at Tate, the V&A, and Transmission Gallery.[5][6] They are currently the youngest person to be awarded a residency at The Tate in 2017/2018.[1]
In 2016, Alabanza starred in the five star roundhouse production of Putting Words in Your Mouth by Scottee. In 2017, they began working on a solo exhibition, The Other'd Artist for Transmission Gallery in Glasgow.[5] Alabanza released their first chapbook titled Before I Step Outside. (You Love Me); a compilation of visual art, poetry, diary entries, and essays.[7][8] They also performed the leading role in the stage adaptation of Derek Jarman's punk film Jubilee.[9]
Alabanza has critiqued mainstream feminism for having been rooted in transphobia and mainstream feminists for often neglecting trans and gender non-conforming people in their discussions of progress.[10]
In 2018, Alabanza created Burgerz.[11] This show focuses on audience participation regarding an incident in 2016 where a person threw a burger at them while walking across a bridge in London.[12][1] The show ran its first UK Tour from October 19 to November 17, 2018.[13] It has toured globally since, with Alabanza or other performers in the lead role, closing to a sold-out run at Southbank Centre in 2023.[14]
In 2019, Alabanza and Kaulbach, childhood friends, collaborated on an immersive installation titled All the Ways We Could Grow for the Free Word Centre, London.[15][16] The installation explores the question: "What's it like to be trans?".[17]
In 2020, during the first COVID lockdown in England, Alabanza and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley gave a live-streamed performance for the Free Word Centre of If I Feel Lonely Maybe U Do 2?.[18]
Overflow, written by Alabanza, directed by Debbie Hannan, and starring Reece Lyons, was produced by the Bush Theatre in London in 2020 and 2021. It later had an Australian version starring Janet Anderson, which opened in Darlinghurst Theatre.[19][20][21][22] The play "explores trans safety and is set in a public toilet".[19]
In 2022, Alabanza released their debut full-length semi-autobiographical non-fiction book None of the Above: My Life Beyond the Binary. The book was listed as one of Waterstones Best Book of 2022: Politics and won the 2023 Jhalak Prize.[23]
In 2023, Alabanza and Hannan co-created Sound of the Underground at the Royal Court Theatre. The play featured drag performers from London's nightlife scene including Midgitte Bardot (Tammy Reynolds), Ms Sharon Le Grand, Rhys’ Pieces (Rhys Hollis), Chiyo, Lilly SnatchDragon, Sue Gives a F*ck, Sadie Sinner (Mwice Kavindele, founder of the Cocoa Butter Club), and Wet Mess.