A Deity of Nothing, Holland Andrews and yuniya edi kwon Debut at BAM
The married composer-performers bring their new opera to BAM Fisher for five nights in the Next Wave Festival, starting October 21
The title is a question, and the answer is not on the poster. How does it feel to look at nothing?
Starting Wednesday, October 21, two composers take that question into the Fishman Space at BAM Fisher on Ashland Place. It is the New York premiere of an opera its makers describe as an embodied origin story centered on a Deity of Nothingness.
Two Debuts, One Household
The artists are Holland Andrews and yuniya edi kwon. BAM's listing says both are making their BAM debuts and that both are 2025 Guggenheim Fellows. It describes them as married trans artists of color.
The run is five performances, October 21 to 25, as part of the Next Wave Festival. Tickets start at $45. BAM's page does not list showtimes, so confirm them before you go.
The work is already on the road. According to kwon's own site, it had its world premieres this fall, first at PICA in Portland on September 11 to 13 and then at FringeArts in Philadelphia on September 25 to 27. A stop at On the Boards in Seattle runs October 15 to 17, then Brooklyn.
What Is Actually on Stage
BAM describes an immersive meditation on nothingness and becoming. It fuses sound, movement and ritual.
The artists' own description is more specific. Their site says the opera looks at the forces that drive life to emerge, and it names "the spiritual act of meaning-making during epochs of decay" as a subject. The influences it lists are Korean shamanic ritual, channeled singing, American experimentalism, contemporary opera, punk and hardcore, and Japanese butoh.
Both creators perform. The site says they embody an elemental force, an angel witness, a sounding body, a deity, a child, a parent and a memory.
The spiritual act of meaning-making during epochs of decay.
The Life Behind It
The opera is personal. Kwon's site says it draws on queer parenthood, trans pregnancy and building a queer and trans family as artists of color, set against what the site calls rising authoritarianism and political upheaval in the United States. Those are the artists' words about their own piece, and the site is the place to read them in full.
BAM lists a long support chain. Creative Capital backs the work, with John C. Robinson as lead commissioner. A Guggenheim Fellowship, the Watermill Center's Nina von Maltzahn Fellowship and Sweat Variant's Artists Supporting Artists program are also credited. Developmental partners include BAM itself, Performance Space New York and National Sawdust.
The production team, per the artists' site, includes Roya Amirsoleymani as creative producer, Lester St. Louis on sound and Maggie Heath on lighting and production. KC Englander designed the scenery, Bonan Li the costumes, and Marie Lloyd Paspe is the movement coach.
What to Know Before You Go
BAM Fisher is part of the BAM campus in Fort Greene. Tickets start at $45, with a $3 facility fee and an $8 handling fee per ticket for online and phone orders. Members and patrons get 20 percent off, and a bundle of three or more performances is 30 percent off, per BAM.
A few days later comes BAM's poetry week, which includes a free all-night reading. Our look at that is Until Sunrise. For En Garde Arts' free outdoor nights on the plaza outside BAM Fisher, there is Prelude.
Most operas begin with a hero. This one begins with a void, and two artists willing to sit inside it.
