Join us at Slowdown on Thursday, February 20th from 7PM - 9PM for the launch of Fairplay, our next Alternate Currents reader!
We're celebrating this publication that includes contributions from our 2024-25 Alternate Currents cohort with live readings, performances by Sener and Twin Pages, and art making activities throughout the night. People of all ages, including kids, are welcome!
Online ticket sales close at 10am on February 20th!
Advance tickets that include a preorder copy of Fairplay entrnace to the event are $35.
Entrance to the event without a preorder copy of the book is $20.
The day of the launch, tickets will be availble at the door for $25 and books will retail for $20.
Performance Schedule:
7:00PM - 7:30PM - Sener
8:00PM - 8:30PM - Live Readings
8:30PM - 9:00PM - Twin Pages
Slowdown is ADA compliant and wheelchair accessible. Free parking is available in the venue’s east parking lot which faces Charles Schwab Field. Metered street parking on the west and south sides of the venue is also available.
About Fairplay:
Fairplay is an anthology of essays, manifestos, poetry, and fiction by ten artists, organizers, and culture workers, all members of Amplify’s Alternate Currents cohort. Collectively, their contributions reveal a shared set of ethical concerns that attend to friendship, solidarity, care, and discovering joy in uncertainty. This volume playfully gestures toward finding assurance in the in-between and welcoming life’s ambiguities, while celebrating creative work’s capacity to investigate our present and inspire a fair future.
Image artwork by Carlie Waganer
About Alternate Currents:
Alternate Currents (AC) is a two-year program designed to support artists and organizers working to thoughtfully challenge dominant systems, forge collaborations, and engage with their communities. An alternative to a conventional MFA, AC cohort members work together to understand how justice in the arts is interpreted, documented, and enacted.
2024-25 Alternate Currents Cohort:
Justin Alexander is a multidisciplinary artist, living in Omaha, NE. He is a citizen of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska. As an avid cyclist, he is a supporter of transportation equity efforts in Nebraska. Justin is a past recipient of a Micro Grant from Amplify Arts. Currently, he works in operations at the Kiewit Luminarium as an exhibit technician. Justin’s creativity and interest in S.T.E.A.M, make him an excellent collaborator, on projects of all types.
Yuanjun Chen (Jun) is a Cantonese interdisciplinary artist, born and raised in Guangzhou, China, in 1996 to artist parents Yi Chen and Yulan Zhou. In 2019, he moved to Omaha to study at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and graduated in 2023 with a concentration in printmaking. Jun’s collaborative work often integrates writing and photography to explore themes of mobility justice, systemic inequities, and the experiences of marginalized and underrepresented communities. His projects aim to offer fresh perspectives, encourage dialogue, and bridge cultural understanding.
Keegan Dunn is a field researcher and photographer currently residing in Omaha, Nebraska. Keegan has spent 2023 performing a comprehensive independent study on the ecology and history of the Missouri watershed within the state. Their current body of work “Cottonwood Study” has received funding from Amplify Arts which allows them to continue learning building dialogue within the region.
Jessie Fisher makes art in multiple mediums, but for the last 5 years has primarily been a printmaker. He works in letterpress, woodcut/linocut, monotype, and cyanotype. Whether it’s experiments with processes, or more direct socio-political propaganda, the work encourages questioning what's possible. Jessie grew up on a farm in rural Nebraska, but has called Omaha home for the past 20 years. In that time he's worked in construction, art education and for the past 6 years has been a home inspector. Jessie helped create, an art/community space called “Media Corp.” It provided meeting space for a variety of advocacy groups and also functioned as a food pantry for a time.
Natalie Hanson/Facade Queen is a multidisciplinary music, theater and movement artist from Tacoma, Washington residing in Omaha. She came to Omaha in 2014 to study Musical Theatre and Dance and is also a self taught musician and producer. In Omaha, Natalie has performed with the Bluebarn Theatre and The Rose Children’s Theatre, where she recently served as a full time company member and Associate Director of Early Childhood Education. Her solo project “Facade Queen” was nominated for Outstanding New Artist and Outstanding Pop from the OEAA awards and her duo project “Twin Pages” was recently nominated for Outstanding Alt/Indie. Natalie has performed professionally in Chicago, Illinois with Comedy Dance Chicago and Teatro Vista Theatre. Natalie has also collaborated with her sister, Emilie and local artists on their experimental music duo “Court The Muse” and has been a past recipient of Amplify Arts Generator Grant Series. Natalie is interested in exploring many topics in her work including mixed race identity, art for the very young, food, dance accessibility and connecting the community.
Cassy Jensen, a writer hailing from Omaha, NE, employs a creative process that commences with attentive listening, keen observation, and a deep connection to emotions. Articulating her responses through various mediums, including poetry, fiction, stand-up, screenwriting, public speaking, and performance, she showcases a diverse range of expressive talents. Bridging the realms of humor and poignancy, her poems evoke laughter, while her comedy explores themes of sadness. As a conscientious storyteller, Cassy recognizes the profound influence that medium and context wield over the reception and real-world consequences of a message for its audience. Pursuing truth and delving into the complexities of ethics, morality, power dynamics, epistemology, oppression, and trauma, she navigates the ambiguities and paradoxes of these subjects. Her ultimate goal is to emerge from each endeavor with newfound wisdom and a touch more confusion, to walk away with something new to chew on.
John Paul is a “mark-maker” whose art blurs the line between printmaking, drawing, and painting. He is also a community-arts organizer who works with neighbors, creatives, and cultural institutions to plan and implement events that shine a spotlight on arts, community-building and creative place-making.
Sener, originally from Mexico and based in Omaha, NE, is founder of soundarte.net and the label EAC Records Mx. Since 2013 he has produced contemporary art events in the United States and Mexico, highlighting Noisefest 2023 and Festival ExNihilo 2023. His approach encompasses sound, the exploration of consciousness through art and musical immersion, investigating post-digital art, and the intersection of ancient traditions with the use of audiovisual technology. As a creator and curator, his mission is to promote cultural exchange and foster artistic innovation through unique sound and visual experiences.
Viy, pronounced /v/, is a non-binary, multi-media artist. Their practice focuses on the materiality and history of objects, breaking them down to better understand them so they can be reconfigured and re-contextualized as art objects. Interested in refuse and refusal, their work comes from their own trash and items discarded by others, refusing the notion that these objects are worthless and instead seeing them as full of artistic potential. Most recently their practice has been focused in handmade papermaking, fiber based media, and relational aesthetics.
Carlie Waganer is a collector, weaver, and perpetual novice. She received her BFA in Fiber arts from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and her work has been shown at Distillery Gallery, Gallery@ArtBlock, Women’s Studio Workshop, Store_Space Gallery, and the Nichols House Museum. Waganer has worked as an administrator at residency centers in Tennessee, New York, and now Nebraska. In her professional life, she considers herself an “artistic administrator,” where the support of artists and the realization of their goals are integral to her own artistic fulfillment. Her material practice includes categorizing, collage, coding, baking, drawing, fabric manipulation, journaling, list-making, marbling, and weaving. She is mostly interested in interconnectedness and impermanence.