
At 14, I began my professional musical theater career under the direction of Debbie Allen whom I spent summers training with in LA. I attended Point Park Conservatory for the Arts, majoring in Jazz dance and then at 22 I moved to Istanbul Turkey. Between 2012-2016 was asked continually to return as the artist in residence at many venues, but namely at SuperJazz at Mandarin Oriental Bodrum Turkey, Supperclub Istanbul, W Hotel Istanbul and NOPA indoor garden in Istanbul. I reached a level of celebrity in Turkey as a finalist on The Voice and as a featured judge on two seasons of FOX primetime singing competition and British concept show Benimle Soyle (Sing With Me). In 2016, I was featured in ALL Magazine in an interview spread about my work as an artist entrepreneur in Istanbul, where I persisted in art and business endeavors despite being in opposition to the dominantly male paradigm. I spent these formative years of my adult career based in Istanbul and performed my original and commissioned work in the commercial and industrial creative industries. Beyond the borders of Istanbul, I've cultivated and performed my creative processes in Paris, London, Prague, Shanghai, Rome and now I am making my mark in the New York City performing arts industry as an artist, a cultural worker and arts administrator.
The generative stages of my creative works are born from a restful place in silence and darkness. When I sit in the generous womb of creative potential, an evolution develops in an organic state of allowing. I look to nature to inform my approach, timing and aesthetics. I am informed by the oral and written history of my ancestry and especially look to all of the mothers in my life to inspire my legacy work. In order to transcend their limitations, my people have alchemized their pain to create rhythm and blues, the dozens, stand up comedy, Turkish folk music, and vaudeville performance. I set my intentions as a performing artist to be a walking liberation of the women of my past, utilizing my living, transforming history as kindle to ignite my work and inspire a galvanized mission to perform in as many countries as possible. This alchemy is my spiritual endeavor to further progress these art forms with the mediums of my voice, movement, digital design, comedic storytelling and costume design. I approach performance as a reverence to these women who came before me. My performances always offer a sense of warmth and are an invitation into grace, transformation, and an ever evolving body of work.
I am currently deeply engaged with a vibrant community of BIPOC performing artists who are navigating the complex intersection of artistry and motherhood. Together, we have embarked on a transformative project known as MUVA, which serves as a platform for sharing conversations, stories, and process-oriented performance art. Through our initiatives, including the MUVA Says... Podcast and the recent MUVA Showcase premiering at the esteemed Bowery Poetry Club on April 12, 2023, we have been able to amplify the voices and experiences of performing artists who are also mothers.
I am grateful to be recognized as one of the recipients of the 2023 Brooklyn Arts Exchange Parent Artist grant, a generous opportunity that will enable me to further advance the next phases of the MUVA project. With this support, I will collaborate closely with the talented filmmaker and photographer, Maria J Hackett, and together, we will embark on the creation of a new work that delves into the rich tapestry of performing artist mothers.
This grant allows us to explore new artistic avenues, experiment with innovative storytelling with technology, and push the boundaries of our collective creativity. We are committed to nurturing and elevating the voices of BIPOC performing artists who are mothers, ensuring that their narratives are represented authentically and powerfully.
