Alicia is a queer boricua dancer & multi genre artist who makes work in order to incite joy, remember forward & get free.

Lead Artist | Common Knowledge Dance

Born and raised in Oakland and South Berkeley, they live now between Brooklyn/Lenapehoking & Borinken.

Alicia’s creativity is steeped in street dance, ritual work, & the wild, shapeshifting magical realism of Caribbean diaspora. Their work has been described as “existing at the intersection of deep land/ancestor based medicine and urban wisdom.”

Alicia is a former Dancing Futures, JACK, and Hi-ARTS Artist in Residence, a CulturePush Utopian Practice Fellow, & a BAAD! Muse.

  • They have performed with visionary artists Johnnie Cruise Mercer/The Red Project, Arthur Aviles, PISO Fénix, Emily Johnson, André Zachary/Renegade Performance Group, Maria Bauman/MBDance, Kayla Hamilton Productions & Ni’Ja Whitson/NWA Project. They have served as a movement director or consultant for Azure Osborne Lee/Roots & River Productions, Kayla Hamilton Productions & Sharon Bridgforth in her production of bull-jean/we wake, and choreographed for Coco Peila, Ando Astro & The Brooklyn Follies. Alicia has presented original works across 3 boroughs of NYC, indoors & out, as well as in Boriken.

    Alicia has a long track record of dancing with kids, and is pretty convinced that 4th graders are the best freestylers. Her life and creativity are wholly indebted to the teachers, elders, peers and students who she makes, lives and learns alongside.

friends & collaborators

Cleopatra Jach Acquaye is a Black Gender Non-Conforming* Filmmaker, born and raised in The Bronx, New York.

Video Designer | where the echoes pool

A first-generation-born child of Ghanaian immigrants, her values deeply center instinctual storytelling; Cleopatra defines this through transparency, centering lived experiences, and capacity-building. She has over a decade of experience in community organizing, organizational development, and team management, which informed her leadership as the Co-Executive Director of The Audre Lorde Project and the Interim Co-Executive Director of Lambda Literary. Jach’s teachers have come from Generative Somatics, Black Organizers for Leadership and Dignity, and Communities for Police Reform.

  • To maintain Cleopatra’s imagination levels, she incorporates screenwriting, cosplaying, and joke-telling in her spiritual practices. When Sir is not working, you can find her in her apartment, trying to read unread books while researching new snacks to eat. She is currently the Director of Programs at Funders for LGBTQ Issues.

Carissa Matsushima, aka Kikashima, is a Californian Japanese-Mexican singer-songwriter, composer and bandleader.

Sound Designer & Core Collaborator | CROWNING

Based in Philadelphia, Kikashima’s original music and her eponymous art rock trio have been featured on WXPN's Key Studio Sessions and NPR's Tiny Desk Contest On The Road. They have played beloved stages such as Johnny Brenda’s, World Cafe Live, Milkboy, C’mon Everybody, and Rockwood Music Hall. With a background in experimental dance theatre she has collaborated with companies and choreographers such as The NWA Project, The Dance Cartel, Leah Moriarty and Alicia Raquel Morales.