KEIJAUN THOMAS (USA)

I LOOKED UP AT THE SKY AND I, IMAGINED ALL OF THE STARS WERE MY SISTERS

SHORT FILM
Thu 27 - Sat 29 May 2021

ACCESS: This film will be captioned.

Every movement and breath we take is radical and a divine energy worth honouring. We are powerful, together, no matter where we are in the world — may we look up to the heavens and know that all of the stars, planets and moons smile upon us. This is for us.

In Keijaun Thomas’ new video performance, filmed during the global pandemic with her and one friend, she wanted to reimagine how we hold each other, how we care for each other, how we honour our time and energy. In her new video poem, Thomas sends a love letter and a gentle reminder, a kiss up into the sky as a guiding light for black and brown femmes to know that we are here.

Keijaun Thomas is a New York based artist. Her work in performance, multimedia installation, and poetry explores the labour of black femmes in situations ranging from housework and hairdressing to athletic training and exotic dancing. Her performances combine rhapsodic layers of live and recorded voice, and her poems slip between various modes of address, exploring the pleasures and pressures of dependency, care, and support. Thomas underscores the endurance and intimacy care work demands of those expected to perform it—predominantly black women, black femmes, and people of colour. She aims to build bridges of understanding, community and care through her pieces. Her work centres and focuses on self/communal care in real time and creating safer spaces for black and people of colour. Thomas was a Franklin Furnace Fund Recipient for 2018 and is the inaugural winner of theQueer|Art 2020 Illuminations Grant for Black Trans Women Visual Artists.

Creative Director, Performance and Text by Keijaun Thomas
Director of Photography,  Editing and Sound design by Charles Rice
Filmed on location in Chicago.