Rise is a queer ritual of remembrance and a spell that asks:

What if you were glorious, but you forgot?

Rise is conducted by Rawiyah Tariq. Meet our artists below.

Rise is a queer ritual of remembrance that asks: What if you were glorious, but you forgot?

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Rise is both a live ritual performance and a film. Rise Live was held at Shorebird Park in Berkeley in October 2022. Rise Film is touring festivals and will be screening in 2023.

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Rise was conducted by Rawiyah Tariq, and features Jasmine Robinson, Raven Malouf-Renning, Christina Michelle, and Mojo DeVille. Read more about our cast and crew below.

Rawiyah Tariq, conductor of Rise, appears on screen as Aether in a silver dress while ASL interpreter Lisa Washington embodies their words, "the first time I saw God." Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured

Rawiyah Tariq, conductor of Rise, appears on screen as Aether in a silver dress while ASL interpreter Lisa Washington embodies their words, "the first time I saw God." Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured

Raven Malouf-Renning as air dances on stage, golden wings outstretched. Photo by Emily Ophidian @Kleos Captured.

Raven Malouf-Renning as air dances on stage, golden wings outstretched. Photo by Emily Ophidian @Kleos Captured.

Raven Malouf-Renning as Air in a yellow caftan raises their sculpture of a shining star. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured

Raven Malouf-Renning as Air in a yellow caftan raises their sculpture of a shining star. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured

Raven Malouf-Renning, as air, in a yellow-orange caftan, invokes the winds outdoors, arms out. Photo by Emily Ophidian @Kleos Captured.

Raven Malouf-Renning, as air, in a yellow-orange caftan, invokes the winds outdoors, arms out. Photo by Emily Ophidian @Kleos Captured.

Photo of the living altar created by audience members, with objects representing Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Aether. Photo by Emily Ophidian (Kleos Captured).

Photo of the living altar created by audience members, with objects representing Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Aether. Photo by Emily Ophidian (Kleos Captured).

Jasmine Robinson as Earth dances outdoors at Shorebird Park, arms crossed in a powerful, grounding pose. Photo by Emily Ophidian, @Kleos Captured.

Jasmine Robinson as Earth dances outdoors at Shorebird Park, arms crossed in a powerful, grounding pose. Photo by Emily Ophidian, @Kleos Captured.

Christina Michelle, as Fire, in a red caftan casts her arms down, outdoors, in a powerful pose, photo by Emily Ophidian @Kleos Captured.

Christina Michelle, as Fire, in a red caftan casts her arms down, outdoors, in a powerful pose, photo by Emily Ophidian @Kleos Captured.

Mojo DeVille as Water dances outdoors in daylight, their blue caftan rippling like a waterfall. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Mojo DeVille as Water dances outdoors in daylight, their blue caftan rippling like a waterfall. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Raven Malouf-Renning as air in a yellow caftan spreads their wings outdoors before the show. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Raven Malouf-Renning as air in a yellow caftan spreads their wings outdoors before the show. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

The elements cast the circle, opening the ritual at Shorebird Park. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

The elements cast the circle, opening the ritual at Shorebird Park. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Jasmine Robinson as Earth poses in front of a tree, holding a branch, in a powerful pose. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Jasmine Robinson as Earth poses in front of a tree, holding a branch, in a powerful pose. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Christina Michelle as Fire on stage, casts explosive energy. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Christina Michelle as Fire on stage, casts explosive energy. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Christina Michelle as fire in a red caftan raises her arms out, the setting sun behind her lights her red caftan on fire. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Christina Michelle as fire in a red caftan raises her arms out, the setting sun behind her lights her red caftan on fire. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Christina Michelle as fire before the sunset, the setting sun lights her red caftan on fire. Photo by Emily Ophidian @Kleos Captured.

Christina Michelle as fire before the sunset, the setting sun lights her red caftan on fire. Photo by Emily Ophidian @Kleos Captured.

ASL Interpreter Jennie O'Shaughnessy enacts the opening circle ritual. Photo by Emiliy Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

ASL Interpreter Jennie O'Shaughnessy enacts the opening circle ritual. Photo by Emiliy Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

ASL interpreter Lisa Washington performs at Shorebird Park, embodying the ritual of Rise. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

ASL interpreter Lisa Washington performs at Shorebird Park, embodying the ritual of Rise. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

ASL Interpreter Lisa Washington acts out the closing of the ritual as the elements close the circle on stage. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

ASL Interpreter Lisa Washington acts out the closing of the ritual as the elements close the circle on stage. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Procession of the Elements: Jasmine Robinson as Earth, Raven Malouf-Renning as Air, Christina Michelle as Fire, Mojo DeVille as Water process towards the ritual space. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Procession of the Elements: Jasmine Robinson as Earth, Raven Malouf-Renning as Air, Christina Michelle as Fire, Mojo DeVille as Water process towards the ritual space. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Producers Nicole Jost and Syr Beker toast the production, doubled over with laughter. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Producers Nicole Jost and Syr Beker toast the production, doubled over with laughter. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

The stage and audience of Rise watching a projector full of nebulae as the sun sets over Shorebird Park. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosMade.

The stage and audience of Rise watching a projector full of nebulae as the sun sets over Shorebird Park. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosMade.

Lola/Little Glitter Bomb, resplendent in leathers and rainbow hair, toasts the production. He is smiling wide. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Lola/Little Glitter Bomb, resplendent in leathers and rainbow hair, toasts the production. He is smiling wide. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

The artists of Rise invoke the elements before a projector full of nebulae. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

The artists of Rise invoke the elements before a projector full of nebulae. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Mojo DeVille as Water dances, their caftan rippling out like a river. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Mojo DeVille as Water dances, their caftan rippling out like a river. Photo by Emily Ophidian @KleosCaptured.

Rawiyah Tariq, Conductor of Rise, as Aether, looking majestic in a silver dress, staring straight at the camera.
Rise performers embodying the elements in caftans designed by Bertha Pearl, holding candles before a screen projecting a nebula.
Performers of Rise, embracing in their elemental caftans, creating a waterfall of drapery.

Rise performers invoking their elements, embracing at Shorebird Park (photo credit Emily Ophidian)

Left, Rawiyah Tariq (they/them) creator of Rise, in a still from Rise Film (directed by Michelle Segura)

Above, Mojo DeVille embodying Water, Raven Malouf-Renning as Air, Jasmine Robinson as Earth, Christina Michelle embodying Fire, at Shorebird Park.

MEET THE ARTISTS of Rise!
RISE Performers & ELEMENTS

RAWIYAH TARIQ
THEY/THEM
LEAD ARTIST & CREATOR OF RISE
✨✨✨ AETHER ✨✨✨

  • Rawiyah Tariq is a gender non-binary artist and kink aware professional with roots in queer, poly-amorous, fat community. Their tone is reflective of these roots and their work is informed by how these intersect with their Blackness. Magic, massage, storytelling and performance art are tools they use to liberate, heal and reclaim space for marginalized communities. They believe in cohesive and somatic practices that align body, mind and spirit.

    Rawiyah Tariq has danced on stages throughout the country with the award winning and internationally traveled troupe Rubenesque Burlesque as Magnoliah Black from 2009 to 2015. As a solo performer their work (often preformed on mainstream stages) continues to reflect body liberation, visibility and self possession beyond the static sizest and often racist Eurocentric beauty myth. Rawiyah was celebrity model for the first annual Queer Fashion Week in 2015 & 2016, Curvy Girl Lingerie and has been photo’d for Curve magazine in Bertha Pearl’s Size Queen Fashions.

    A former member of Santa Clara County Leather Association since and former Associate Producer of Red Hots Burlesque the country’s longest running queer burlesque & cabaret show Rawiyah has worked to create and maintain space for artists and players of diverse backgrounds and talents.

    Rawiyah is a past Board Member of good standing and FeMCee of The Body Political and has continued with the organization in creating programming for queer youth.

    Rawiyah is the co-founder of A Sovereign Embodiment Healing Collective. As ASE Collective’s Certified Massage Therapist and spirit worker they focus on QTPOC, Disabled, Elderly, Fat and Other’ed bodied folk. Their prices are set to support low income communities. They offer barter and trade options as well as free monthly massages to community members in need. For more see A Sovereign Embodiment

    They have facilitated and spoken at events such as Baycon, NOLOSE, Fat Activist Conference: Tools for the Revolution , Fatty Affair, Pantheacon, Mystic South, The Northwest Pagan Conference and the Modern Witches Confluence. They have spoken at several universities including UC Berkeley, Stanford, Stanulious and San Jose State regarding intersectionality, sex, fat, feminism and health.

    As a producer and presenter they consciously centers marginalized groups for spotlight appearances at events such as BayCon, Folsom Fringe and the Hubba Hubba Review.

    Rawiyah’s most recent published work can be found in “The Politics of Size” co-authored with Juana Tango and edited by Ragen Chastian and their journey documented in interviews in Nia King’s “Queer and Trans Artist of Color”. Connect to them on social media via facebook, twitter and instagram or follow them at their blog mammyisdead.com. You can also catch them as a feature in the film Fattitude and Heavenly Brown Body

    Currently, Rawiyah is living in the Bay Area while continuing work on their book and A Sovereign Embodiment as well as providing care to Black Queer & Trans therapists via Project Ete Sen with Ella Ofori LMFT.

    You can find out more and support their work at mammyisdead.com.

    About Rise, they wrote: “WHAT IS RISE?

    “A RITUAL. AN INITIATION. A MIRROR.

    A REVIVAL, A CREATIVE CATHARSIS"

    I WANT THE AUDIENCE TO FEEL LIKE THEY’RE IN SPACE”

    - RAWIYAH TARIQ.

JASMINE ROBINSON
SHE/THEY
🏔🏔🏔 EARTH 🏔🏔🏔

  • Jasmine has been performing since they were a teen when they found a home being a dancer and performer.

    There was always an interest in creating healing art through music, movement and acting. It first started with booking acting roles throughout the Bay Area and in 2016 they completed a rigorous Meisner technique course in 1 year in Berkeley at WPC. They were chosen as one of Killing My Lobster fellows for their Sketch comedy acting courses in 2019. In 2022 Jasmine was chosen as Seed Commissions recipient through Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

    Jasmine has been in many films that have been in films festivals including Kiana in which they were the lead. Jasmine wants to continue to make impactful art and have a great time doing so.

RAVEN MALOUF-RENNING
THEY/THEM
🌪🌪🌪 AIR 🌪🌪🌪

  • Raven Malouf-Renning received their BA from UC Santa Cruz in 1997, where they studied extensively with Mel Wong and Silvia Martins. Raven is the Assistant Director of the Walks Between Wandering Ensemble, a fusion of Eric Kupers' Bandelion and the CSUEB Inclusive Interdisciplinary Ensemble.

    In addition, Raven is also a vocalist and harmonium player in the band Ultrasonic Current. Raven is a Resident Artist at SAFEHouse for the Performing Arts, where they created five solo dance films for the organization’s Online Digital Showcase series, which they also co-hosted. This past summer, Raven premiered their piece on their metagender identity, They, Not She, for the West Wave Dance Festival, and acted as Dramaturg for Gina Stella Dell’Assunta’s piece How To Have A Body.

    Most recently, they performed with Joe Landini And Dancers in More Is More!, a site specific dance piece honoring local drag legend Juanita More, and co-produced 13 Threads as part of the international collaboration, Event Horizons.

    This spring, they performed in Joe Landini’s City of Ghosts and also premiered their piece The Next Mountain To Climb at ODC. Creating radically inclusive, raw, honest art and empowering others to do the same is at the heart of their artistic and spiritual practice.

CHRISTINA MICHELLE
SHE/HER
🔥🔥🔥 FIRE 🔥🔥🔥

  • Black. Queer. Mystic. Neurodivergent. Femme. Writer. Creator. Healer.

    Chris Watkins (she/her) started life in the South, bounced to the Midwest for young adulthood, sat for a quick second in the Northeast, and then finally started to root and bloom in what she now knows are the lands of The Confederated Villages of Lisjan/Ohlone people (she previously thought it was Oakland, California.) Stories— listening to them, creating them, reconstructing them, connecting them— are a consistent thread in her life and work whether she’s creating art, providing therapy, or reading Tarot.

    You can trust that whatever she’s doing, she weaves Womanist, relational, and somatic perspectives with knowledge gained from her lived experiences, identities, ancestral knowledge, and personal healing journey to bring into being new realities. She shapes change. Thunderstorms and dancing bring her joy.

MOJO DEVILLE
THEY/THEM
🌊🌊🌊 WATER 🌊🌊🌊

  • Jes DeVille (they/them) is an Afro-Latiné choreographer, director, and visual artist working across mediums to explore the intersections of physical fluency and environmental literacy.

    Based in the SF Bay Area, DeVille founded fringe entertainment troupe Haus Serpens in 2011 – later rebranding as Openhaus Athletics in 2017 to pursue this work. Awarded the inaugural Updraft artist residency by vertical dance company Bandaloop in 2021, their history includes operating as Managing Director of site-specific performance nonprofit Epiphany Dance Theater and co-curator of the acclaimed San Francisco Trolley Dances; Also fulfilling positions as a co-curator of ODC's inaugural Queer & BIPOC Space Residency and adjudicator for San Francisco Arts Commission's Cultural Equity Initiative grant in 2022.

    Having completed EcoTherapy coursework through The Earthbody Institute, DeVille is grateful to be uplifted as a regenerative design fellow with Design Science Studio as well as a presenter for University of California, Irvine’s Emergent Media Research Group.

ELLA OFORI
THEY/THEM
THE VOICE OF RISE

  • Ella Ofori (they/them) is a Black/African, non-binary, queer, (small) fat mental health therapist, and co-founder of Project Ete Sen. Their private practice primarily serves Black and Brown trans, queer, and non-binary individuals and families. Most of their clients are providers, activists, organizers, teachers, artists that either do or are working towards understanding and embracing their roots. They work from a collectivist, Womanist/Black feminist influenced framework and hold the impact of intergenerational trauma and white supremacy in relationship to the challenges my clients face. they practice non-hierarchical support and center healing in community/relationship. They also provide a heart, value, and culture-centered framework for program evaluation, consultation, and storytelling/public speaking for colleagues, grassroots orgs and academic institutions.

    They pull from my life experiences and in combination with my growing spiritual knowing, and use aspects of herbalism, divining, crystals, ritual, ancestor relationship and connection, storytelling, and spiritual relationship building to support themself, their family, friends, family, clients, and larger community in healing and movement towards freedom. Their voice leads the ritual of Rise.

THE ARTISTS OF Rise!
RISE DESIGNERS, ASST. DIRECTORS, BEHIND-THE-SCENES CREATORS

Bertha “the bawse” pearl
she/her
costume designer & creator

  • Bertha Pearl has been crafting bespoke fashions for decades. Her first sewing class was in Junior High in Brooklyn, NY. She continued her education at FIT before relocating to San Francisco.

    She landed in a Fat positive dyke household and it was a huge influence in her life and art. Bertha was a part of the Fat Girl Zine, Fat Pride and Fat Activism. She combined her fat activism work with fashion and Big Daddy Boxers was born to be sold at conferences and street fairs across the country including SF's own Folsom Street Fair. A few years later Big Daddy Boxers became Size Queen.

    Bertha has sold her bold fashions for every body at the NY Fat Flea. She was also a part of one of the first Fat Fashion shows during NY Fashion Week with Full Figure Fashion.

    Bertha went on to create an art exhibit at the Queer Center with Stefanie Snyder and Paul Fukui titled BIGGER. This show focused on fat folks taking up space.

    Bertha Pearl and the Size Queen brand has been in fashion shows from coast to coast; Nolose to NAAFA LA, Fat Fancy, Fat-a-licious and Queer Fashion Week in Oakland and even film! Her most recent work was showcased at Big Babes Bazaar in SF.

    During the onset of the COVID global pandemic Bertha made masks by the 1000’s to support local organizations, frontline workers, the general public in fundraising efforts.

    Bertha's work and mission is intentionally uplifting and spotlighting fatties because "fat people are invisibilized, because people do not want to see us, so they walk into us, ignore us and hate us… the world wants us to wear clothes that make us smaller, and to do everything for us to become smaller." Bertha wants better for those of us living and loving in larger bodies.

    For more information about Bertha Pearl and their defiantly joyous couture follow them on facebook and instagram. She is excited and grateful for the opportunity to design and create the costumes for RISE and hope you love it!

MICHELLE SEGURA
RISE FILM CO-DIRECTOR, Videographer

  • Michelle Segura is a filmmaker, director, and photographer based in the Bay Area. We are so proud to welcome Michelle to Rise!

Lola/little glitter bomb
they/he
Asst. director/stage manager

  • Little Glitter Bomb (they/he) is a multifaceted performer who can be found both onstage and behind the scenes of many Bay Area shows. They stage manage a wide variety of shows, including Om Nom Nom Non-Binary Burlesque, Mental Health Comedy Hour, and the Ruckus and Rumpus Revival, among many others. Little Glitter Bomb is the Bay Area's sassy sovereign of sparkle and he can't wait to make your life a little more glittery!

BRITTANY MELLERSON
SHE/HER
LIGHTING DESIGNER

  • She might be best known as a lighting designer but Mellerson’s theatrical resume is far more complex. Mellerson’s busy schedule includes regular gigs and residencies on both coasts in lighting, sound, and as a master electrician. We are so proud to have Brittany with Rise!

THE ARTISTS OF Rise!
QUEER CAT PRODUCTIONS’ TEAM

SYR BEKER
they/them
CO-PRODUCER

  • Carson Beker (Ash) (they/them) is a white, half-Turkish, queer/nonbinary writer, hybrid storyteller, witch, and Person-In-Horror. They co-founded the Pirate Art School The Escapery, where they helped hundreds of writers reconnect to their art. Their own words have appeared in Foglifter's Home is Where You Queer Your Heart anthology, The Fairy Tale Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Spunk, Foglifter, Cutthroat, Gigantic Sequins, and on stages and on ships and in cemeteries, and somtimes right behind you. They are a Lambda Fellow in Fiction, a Tin House Scholar, a graduate of Clarion West 2018, and an associate editor of Pseudopod. They were a pro dom/me, now they're an art top and developmental editor. Sometimes they dangle from ropes like a spider. They can be found at CarsonBeker.com, which is most definitely not haunted. At Queer Cat Productions, their favorite thing to do is help fire the rocket engines and send the occasional message to Ground Control.

NICOLE JOST
SHE/HER
Co-PRODUCER

  • Nicole Jost (she/her) is white, queer playwright and educator. Her first play, The Terror Fantastic, was produced by 20% Theatre Company Twin Cities. Other plays have been read at SF Playhouse, Z Space, and The Custom Made Theatre Co. Nicole’s short plays have been presented by Best of PlayGround, B8 Theatre Company, Gadfly Theatre Productions, Rorschach Theatre, and the SF Olympians Festival. Nicole is a two-time winner of the James Milton Highsmith Playwriting Award for queer theater. Her play Sucia was awarded the Honorable Mention for the Jane Chambers Student Playwriting Award, and third place for the National Partners of the American Theatre Playwriting Award. Nicole holds an M.F.A. in Playwriting and an M.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University.

SIMOME PERson
They/them
Co-PRODUCER & COmmunications leadeR

  • Simone Person is a Black queer femme, two-time Pink Door Writing Retreat fellow, and the managing editor for just femme & dandy. They are the author of two award-winning chapbooks, Dislocate (Honeysuckle Press, 2018) and Smoke Girl (Diode Editions, 2019), and they were selected as a first-place winner of Boston Review’s 2021 Annual Poetry Contest by Sonia Sanchez. Simone grew up in small Michigan towns and Toledo, Ohio. They can be found at simoneperson.com and on Instagram and Twitter at @princxporkchop.

SPECIAL THANKS:
The team of Rise would like to extend special thanks to:

✨ Shafer mazow & z space ✨ shallon allen & berkeley parks ✨ lily rea ✨ kadet kuhne ✨ the california arts council ✨ liz michaud ✨ the california school for the deaf ✨ the sisters of perpetual indulgence ✨ the zellerbach family foundation ✨ and you, our community. thank you!

A HOME RITUAL FOR RISE!


WHAT ELEMENT (Air, fire, wind, water, aether) are you embodying today?

What does earth 🏔 mean to you?
What does air 🌪 mean to you?
what does fire 🔥 mean to you?
what does Water 🌊 mean to you?

  1. Find a place to sit comfortably, in a way that works best for your body.

  2. Breathe fully and mindfully, ten times.

  3. Ask: Which element do I relate to today? Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Aether?

  4. Close your eyes. Visualize your element in a way that is most beautiful, or powerful, to you.

  5. Channel your element. Allow in a quality of the element that will help you through your day: eg, flexibility for water, or desire for fire.

  6. Breathe fully and mindfully, ten times.

  7. Carry on with your day, holding onto that quality of your element.

 

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