Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Kazen-Maddox.
I am a Grandchild of Deaf Adults or GODA, and my first language is American Sign Language. Because of ASL and Deaf culture, my life has been rooted in art, language, dance and creativity. I started my performance career as a gymnast from age four, a dancer since age six, a cheerleader in both high school and college and after attending circus school in San Francisco, I dove into life as a circus artist for seven years. During my time in San Francisco, I began blending ASL, dance, acrobatics, theatre and video art and also began my 10-year career as a professional ASL interpreter. I have interpreted for Broadway productions, worked as a dancer in off-Broadway musicals, done tours of large-scale circus and theatre shows and enjoyed working with some of the most renowned people in the fields of entertainment, politics, activism, law and medicine.
In 2021, I became a recipient of the Creative Capital Award and the New England Foundation for the Arts National Dance Project grant, which has allowed me to start the long process of self-producing my American Sign Language Dance Theatre Re-Imagining of Andrew Lippa’s WILD PARTY, which is a production focused on showcasing the diversity of the Deaf community; from Deaf folks who come from many generations of Deaf family members to hard-of-hearing people, to CODAs and GODAs like myself! The WILD PARTY also focuses on the multifaceted nature of the LGBTQAI+ community and the contribution that queer folx bring to our global culture. The work that I create as an artist is produced through Up Until Now Collective, an arts organization that my life partner Kevin Newbury and my colleagues Jecca Barry and Marcus Shields co-founded in the summer of 2020. Up Until Now Collective is focused on building new structures for artistic creation and collaboration across the cultures and communities of dance, theatre, opera, film, television, disability and access artistry.
As a BIPOC, LGBTQAI+, nonbinary, third-generation native signer, my life in this American society has been both beautifully fulfilling and utterly depleting all at once. When analyzing our country’s fraught history of segregation, racial oppression, white supremacy, top-down, bottom-up and horizontal violence, hatred, and disrespect, I will say that much of my experience has included each of these aspects from a very young age. Having Deaf grandparents, a CODA mother, aunts and uncles, very young parents, and a multilingual, multicultural identity, this world has always looked at me as someone who belongs everywhere and absolutely nowhere at the same time. I have been called not Black enough, not LGBTQAI+ enough, not CODA enough, and been denied access to rooms that my multiple birthrights should have been lovingly embraced by long ago. The hatred of the world is strong, the racism replete, the hypocrisy rampant… but the fire that these injustices have put into my heart have been the fuel that my soul has used to create my unique brand of art.
Without these struggles, I believe my artistry would not be so potent, my identity as defined, and my passion to create what I have to bring to this world would not be as burning hot as it is today. I am also fortunate to have a loving partner who continues to teach me more about myself, more about the world and more about how to live as an intersectional artist in these troublesome times of the present. I have lifelong friends who function as sounding boards, teachers, boundary-establishers and cheerleaders, and for them I am eternally grateful. I cannot recommend having a professional therapist enough, as mental health is more important today than ever before. Diving deeper into self-work than into social media is paramount in the life of an artist, and self-care, active investigation in the world that surrounds us, and seeking all the joy possible are all things that have helped me to combat the struggles along my path thus far.
I am first and foremost an Artist who uses the mediums of dance, music, acrobatics, film, theatre, spoken and sung language, including English, Spanish and French, a poet, a writer and a native signer of American Sign Language. I grew up both talking and signing with my family, which we call sim-com in the Deaf community, and I create art that blends all of these mediums together because it is what brings me the most joy in my life. I have been a professional ASL interpreter for the past 10 years and though I love serving the Deaf community as an ASL interpreter, I know that my calling here on this earth is to create art, to have my own voice and to work with many members of many communities to make our world a more equitable, joyful and peaceful place to live. I am proud of how innately I have been able to follow my own instincts, regardless of the opinions of others; it is a delicate business to choose who we allow to influence our lives and I am fortunate to have some of the best people in the world at my side to help act as guide rails and archangels in each of the decisions I make in my daily life. Knowing that my presence on this earth is to affect as many people as I can in the most positive way possible leads me to discover projects and possibilities within myself that are much larger than myself and more grand than the sum of their parts.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Mr. André de Shields was quoted in his Tony Award acceptance speech in saying the following: “Surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when you enter the room. Slowly is the fastest way to get to where you’re going in life. The top of one mountain is the bottom of the next, so never stop climbing.”:
The serenity prayer is also wisdom that I repeat to myself on a daily basis: To be granted the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I can’t and the wisdom to know the difference.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.upuntilnowcollective.com // www.brandonkazen-maddox.com
- Instagram: @bkazenmaddox
- Youtube: https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCSS8DcHaFJelWOGe2nGB8bQ/videos/upload?filter=%5B%5D&sort=%7B%22columnType%22%3A%22date%22%2C%22sortOrder%22%3A%22DESCENDING%22%7D
- Reel: https://vimeo.com/746991376
Image Credits
Marcus Shields and Jill Steinberg
Popular
-
What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
-
Local Highlighter Series
-
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
-
What are you most proud of building — that nobody sees?
-
Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
-
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
