Science Fiction: Creating Worlds, Manifesting Liberation with Davia Spain

This workshop will lead you through the process of creating new paradigms that challenge and update the ones handed to us by the white-cis-heteropatriarchy. By harnessing the endless possibilities of science fiction, you will learn how to create new visions for our future that center the liberation of those most marginalized. We will talk about how to incorporate themes of time travel, circular time theories, and multi-dimensionality into the worlds that you are creating. We will focus on scripts and creative fiction.

Davia Spain is a performance artist, musician, and filmmaker born and raised in California. She harnesses afro-future themes of time travel, multi-dimensionality, and circular time theory to imagine new possibilities for this physical plane. Her education in music, dance, acting, and filmmaking started in high school and continued through college until her career as a performing artist was sparked. In 2017, Spain received her Bachelor's Degree in Experimental Documentary Making (Visual Anthropology) from San Francisco State University. During her time at SFSU she started working as a performer and writer within the local art community. It was during this time period that her practice of creating multi-disciplinary works began. She creates works that incorporate film, music, and performance art together seamlessly. In the past 5 years she has written several films, most notably Transfinite (2018), and has had her writing published in various publications such as The Brooklyn Rail and most recently Cult Classic Magazine. She has performed at A.C.T. The Strand, REDCAT, The Broad Museum, CounterPulse and more. She has shown work across the US and internationally performing in Montreal, Canada and Mexico City, Mexico. In 2020, she released her debut solo music project titled “Dawning”. In 2021 her writing “The Type of Power This World Needs” was featured in the May issue of The Brooklyn Rail. Thus far in 2022, she has completed the Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s Artivism Fellowship, during which time she wrote her new staged play “The Alternate”, a science fiction retelling of her personal experiences navigating the American criminal “justice” system. This new work is slated to be presented at REDCAT in 2023.