Our Collaborators
Artist in Residence 2023
COMPOSER HANNAH CAI SOBEL
Hannah Cai Sobel is a NYC based vocalist and composer. Inspired by the human experience, Hannah's music tells stories about being a person in a world full of other people. They draw on the modes and textures of early chant and polyphony in their own writing, forcing age-old techniques to “crash headfirst” into contemporary practices and harmonies. They often collaborate with friend and poet, Reuben Gelley Newman, on art songs and choral works with themes of music, obsession, and queerness. They are also an alum of Wildflower Composer's Festival, Composers in the Wilderness, and Eastern Chamber Music’s Art Song Lab. Their work has been performed by the Swarthmore College Garnet Singers, the College of St. Mary’s Women’s Choir, Manhattan Choral Ensemble, Corvus, Quartet Iris, and Relache Ensemble. They were one of three winners of Manhattan Choral Ensemble’s 2023 Composition Competition, and the winner of their Audience Choice Award. They love community organizing and they co-host monthly rounds parties with Lili Tobias (if you’re reading this, you’re invited!) They will write about anything and everything as long as it’s a good story. Hannah is a lover of all cats and most hyperbolic triangle groups.
Follow Hannah on Instagram at @hannah_thesopranah.
Artist in Residence 2022
COMPOSER: DYLAN TRẤN
Dylan Trần (he/they) (1994—) is a multi-media artist based out of New Orleans, LA. Praised for “an entirely refreshing and distinct compositional voice” (CAI), Dylan views music as a form of world-building, poignantly evoking nuanced atmospheres within an intimately expressive writing style. Unrestrained by genre, Dylan’s work explores many themes: mental health, generational trauma, inner child work, diasporas, identity, class, gender, family dynamics, redefining home, fostering joy, and more. Outside of concert music, Dylan is passionate about building community, film scoring, eating, languages, film and TV, DEI, education, travel, skateboarding, frisbee, photography, videography, new experiences, nature, and spending time with family and friends. He was a finalist in the 2023 NATS Art Song Competition and is a ‘22-’23 Bouman Composer Fellow with Kinds of Kings and the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (Cleveland, OH).
Follow Dylan on Instagram at @dylantranmusic.
Shon Keane
DIRECTOR: Finding Bernie
Shon Keane (they/them) is a non-binary New Yorker whose films have screened at festivals worldwide, including Hamptons, Palm Springs and Telluride where their teen-misfit dramedy THE PROM QUEEN was selected for the “Filmmakers of Tomorrow” section.
A graduate of the Columbia Film Division with an MFA in Directing, Shon has written several award-winning screenplays including PANSY, a queer forbidden love story, which won the IFP Emerging Narrative Screenplay Award and the Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition.
Shon is currently directing the feature documentary FINDING BERNIE about their search for their gender nonconforming childhood role model Bernie, who cleaned houses in the suburbs of Boston in the 1970s. Shon is also in development on SHE’S ALL RIGHT, which they co-wrote with collaborator Melanie Oram. Adapted from the memoir “Not Until You Have Walked in My Shoes” by Reverend Debra Hopkins, the dramatic biopic follows the true life story of a Black Baptist minister in Alabama who comes out as a trans woman and battles for acceptance from her family while pursuing justice after her wrongful arrest for a crime she did not commit.
Shon is an Assistant Professor of Media Arts at the City University of New York (BMCC) and a yoga and mindfulness instructor who in their spare time can be found in Central Park staring at trees or spinning like a whirling dervish.
FINDING BERNIE
A non-binary film professor goes on a road trip with an intergenerational, multicultural group of trans people in search of transgender historical figures, including the director’s gender non-conforming role model Bernie, who cleaned houses in the suburbs of Boston in the 1970s. As they discover their history from trans elders and a veteran of the Stonewall riots, the participants deepen their bonds and find lessons from the past to help in the fight for freedom today.
Director’s Statement
Shon Keane’s love for trans people anchors FINDING BERNIE, a film that approaches its subject matter from the inside out. Shon first encountered a trans person at the age of 5, experiencing an immediate affinity and identification. Back then, Shon’s young mind was still in a state of discovery, yet to be conditioned by the world’s transphobia. That liminal period is ground zero for this documentary - a nurturing space that holds trans people not as exotic objects of fascination or scary oddities but esteemed subjects.
This project shines a light on the joy and beauty of trans life and shows how interpersonal bonds can become vehicles for healing. This documentary will serve as an invitation to viewers like Shon’s mother who doesn’t even know why she has such strong negative reactions to her child’s gender nonconformity. FINDING BERNIE will directly address the fear and ignorance that fuel transphobia and engage a wide audience in what trans activist and actress Laverne Cox has called a revolutionary act: loving transgender people.
Randy Polumbo
VISUAL ARTIST: STATIONS OF THE LOST
Randy Polumbo is an installation-based artist who lives and works between Joshua Tree, California and New York City. His artwork has been shown nationally and internationally across metropoles and natural landscapes such as deserts, ruins, and caves.
Major exhibitions include Museum of Old and New Art (Hobart, Tasmania), Ohr-O’Keefe Museum (Biloxi, MS), Prospect 3 (New Orleans, LA), Kasmin Gallery (Miami/NYC), Bass Museum (Miami, FL), Bombay Beach Biennale (CA), Norton Museum (Palm Beach, FL), and The Bunker Artspace (West Palm Beach, FL). Press and interviews include New York Times, Paper Magazine, The Cut, Vice, The Art Newspaper, Artdaily, the Golden Handcuffs Review, and New York Magazine. Residencies include Yaddo (Saratoga Springs, NY) and Park Stewardship Through the Arts (Joshua Tree, CA).
Polumbo’s work is in the private collections of Lorinda Ash, Beth DeWoody, Tim & Stephanie Ingrassia, Ann Magnuson, Rick Moody, John & Amy Phelan, Kenny Scharf, Jon Stryker & Slobodan Randjelovic, Uma Thurman, David Walsh & Kirsha Kaechele; as well as the public collections of the Museum of Old & New Art (Hobart, Tasmania), Crocker Museum of Art (Sacramento, CA), and The Museum of Sex (NYC).
He is a graduate of The Cooper Union School of Art, as well as a LEED accredited master builder and serves on the Board of Directors of New York Live Arts.
