Blood in the Soil: Performance & Discussion

Born and raised in San Diego, California, McQueen is a graduate of The Ailey School/ Fordham University, B.F.A. in dance program and has performed in Broadway’s Wicked, The Color Purple, Radio City Christmas Spectacular, and numerous Metropolitan Opera productions. McQueen is a 2020 recipient of the Soros Justice Fellowship from Open Society Foundations, 2019 recipient of the Bronx Council of the Arts’ BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) Award, 2013 recipient of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago’s Choreographers of Color Award [Winning Works], and a two-time finalist of the Capezio Award for Choreographic Excellence.

Nabors’ music has been performed by the Boston, Atlanta, Nashville, Cincinnati, Detroit, Fort Worth, and Munich Symphonies. His music has been performed at many events across the US, including National Orchestral Institute (NOI), and the Tanglewood Music Festival. He was named a 2019 composer fellow in the American Composer’s Orchestra Earshot program with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; a 2019 composer fellow with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s Composer Lab; and 2019 cycle five grand prize winner of the Rapido! National Composition Contest. Nabors is also a 2020 Fulbright scholarship recipient to Sydney, Australia, studying with composer Carl Vine at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

In 2015, LaParis started Brooklyn Blooms in her Bed-Stuy apartment wanting to fill the void in the events industry with her funky and bold style. Since then she has created on Caribbean beaches, landed national campaigns, designed for countless weddings and events, and fulfilled thousands of daily orders. She now has two locations in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood: the beloved retail flagship shop and her HQ studio where her team produces for large-scale events.

Karen’s journey in urban agriculture began in the 1980s—while helping to turn an empty Bronx lot into a community garden, she met with NYBG Bronx Green-Up staff and worked alongside them, cofounding the Garden of Happiness. Later she launched City Farms Market with other Bronx gardens, and as an activist, helped form the New York City Community Garden Coalition to stop Mayor Giuliani from auctioning gardens off to developers. For Karen, gardens are safe, beautiful spaces that bridge races, demographics, and wealth, and show how people can come together and feed their communities, making them stronger and more resilient. That’s why it’s so important that the history of how these gardens started is not erased. Today Karen serves on the NYBG board and is a co-owner at Rise & Root Farm in Chester, New York.

Since moving to New York, Courtney’s work has been featured in programs such as Brooklyn Ballet’s First Look, Norte Maar’s Counter Pointe, Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Sunday Matinee, Thelma Hill’s Dance Festival, and Works & Process’ Artists Virtual Commission Series. Her piece entitled, From cage of teeth and jaw, was awarded “Best Solo Performance” in Earl Mosley’s Dance is Activism Film Festival. In 2019 she was nominated for Dance Lab New York’s first Female Choreographers of Color residency in collaboration with The Joyce Theatre where the culmination of her work was presented at Works & Process at the Guggenheim. Courtney has 10+ years of freelance experience dancing with companies including Eglevsky Ballet, Brooklyn Ballet, The Black Iris Project, Collage Dance Collective, Columbia City Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem; and has performed in ballets such as Swan Lake, La Bayadere, Les Sylphides, The Nutcracker, and starred as Puck in Sierra Nevada Ballet’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Courtney has taught at Brooklyn Ballet, The Billie Holiday Theatre, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Límon Dance, Harlem School of the Arts, and after completing her ABT NTC certification, joined the JKO School in the fall of 2021.

Sebastian has performed at the famed Apollo Theater, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Carnegie Hall, and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Currently Sebastian is an artist with the Collage Dance Collective in Memphis, TN. His repertory includes works by Nacho Duato, Christopher Huggins, Durante Verzola, Kevin Thomas, Amy Hall Garner and Wayne McGregor.

Veiga spent six years (2017–2023) with Ballet Hispanico, earning acclaim for her role as Eva Peron in Dona Peron by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa in 2022, praised by major publications like The New York Times. In 2023, she was featured on Dance Magazine’s January issue as one of “25 to Watch.” Currently, she performs with the Metropolitan Opera, Site Specific Dances, and other freelancing projects in New York City.

Cliff also holds a Master of Hospitality Management from Tulane. He continues experimenting with his entrepreneurial interests by hosting pop-ups and cooking for clients through his side business, Culinary Cliff. His intersection of business, food, and global affairs shows in his flavorful cooking style and cultural conversations.