Kris Grey is a New York City-based gender-queer artist whose cultural work includes curatorial projects, performance, writing and studio production. Grey earned a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a Masters Degree in Fine Art from Ohio University. They perform, teach and exhibit work internationally. Grey was a Fire Island Artist Residency recipient, a resident artist for the ANTI Festival for Contemporary Art in Kupoio, Finland and a teaching artist at The International Centre for Training in the Performing Arts in Brussels, Belgium. In addition to their individual practice, Grey collaborates with Maya Ciarrocchi under the moniker Gender/Power. Gender/Power has been awarded a Baryshnikov Art Center residency, a Lower Manhattan Cultural Council residency, a Franklin Furnace grant and a MAP Fund Grant. Recent curatorial projects include Queer Objectivity at the University of Maryland, MIX NYC Experimental Film and Performance Festival, and the Queer Culture Performance and Lecture Series at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Grey’s writing has been published in print and on the web for Huffington Post and Original Plumbing. Their latest writing, Trans*feminism: fragmenting and re-reading the history of art through a trans* perspective, written in collaboration with Jennie Klein, was published in Otherwise: Imagining Queer Feminist Art Histories.

Project Description: Kris Grey and Maya Ciarrocchi will refine their workshop module using their existing performance model for Gender/Power, which features shared storytelling, extreme vulnerability and exchanges with a live audience around issues of gender perception. Gender/Power workshops vary in length from two hours to two weeks, with longer workshops culminating in performances and facilitated breakout discussions. Grey and Ciarrocchi will develop an empowerment toolkit complementing Gender/Power to create a sustainable impact with groups of all ages that have completed the workshop.