Rave Into the Future Opening Celebration

Dance fills the galleries as Rave into the Future kicks off with performances and activations by Bay Area-based dancers and DJs. Don’t miss this opportunity to celebrate with the artists themselves as Morehshin Allahyari, Yasmine Nasser Diaz, Sahar Khoury, Joe Namy, and Maryam Yousif join the night’s festivities. 

Music and movement ignite the galleries all night: see Joe Namy and dancer Shireen Rahimi perform on Namy’s copper dance floor to a live soundtrack by B Dukes and watch TCS (Téa Devereaux, Chryssa Hadjis, and Simrin Player) bring Yasmine Nasser Diaz’s For Your Eyes Only to life. Then it’s your turn to hit the dance floor with DJ sets by 8ULENTINA and Lara Sarkissian spinning on Sahar Khoury’s Umm Kulthum’s Turntable. 

About the Performers

• 
  Yasmine Nasser Diaz

  The work of Los Angeles-based Yemeni American artist Yasmine Nasser Diaz (b. Chicago) is often set within a domestic sphere. Diaz creates narratives that center acts of resistance and bodily autonomy, convey individual histories, and celebrate global feminist protest movements.

• 
  Téa Devereaux

  Originally from Dallas, Texas, Téa Devereaux studied dance and choreography at the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance. Since signing with Bloc Talent Agency, she has had the privilege of working with Will B. Bell, Tessandra Chavez, Cedric Dodd, Dominique Kelley, Brian and Scott Nicholson, Jamal Sims, and more. Devereaux has a love for live performance and is passionate about sharing her gift with audiences around the world.

• 
  Chryssa Hadjis

  Chryssa Hadjis received formative dance training at Kaufman School of Dance, where she performed an array of works by esteemed choreographers such as William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Jodie Gates, Barak Marshall, Alejandro Cerrudo, Dwight Rhoden, Andrew Winghart, Matthew Neenan and YNOT. Her recent professional opportunities include dancing in the music video for “Baby Mama” by Brandy ft. Chance the Rapper; appearing on the television show “Good Morning America”; performing and being featured at the Laguna Dance Festival; and choreographing and starring in a commercial pitch for Coke and Beats by Dre. Hadjis has trained and performed works by well-known artists in the commercial industry including Travis Wall, Mandy Moore, Kirsten Russell, and Teddy Forance. 

• 
  Simrin Player

  At the age of nine, Simrin Player landed her first commercial job on the 2007 VH1 Hip Hop Honors Award Show, honoring Missy Elliott. This afforded Player the opportunity to work with top industry artists including Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Will Smith, Christina Aguilera, Pitbull and Shakira. Simrin is currently continuing her studies at the USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance, where she has had the honor of performing works by Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, Jiří Kylián, Dwight Rhoden, Alejandro Cerrudo, Barak Marshall, and more. While completing her BFA in Dance, Simrin is simultaneously pursuing a minor in Communications with a concentration on Culture, Media, & Entertainment.   

• 
  Joe Namy

  Joe Namy is an artist and musician from Lebanon living in London whose practice encompasses sound and its history and impact on the built environment. Working collaboratively through public sculptures and performances, Joe’s work critically engages with the gender dynamics of sound, the migration patterns of instruments, and translation between languages, between score and sound, and between drum and dance. Selected commissions include Art on the Underground Waterloo Station; the Brooklyn Public Library Central Branch; the Busan Biennale; Darat Al Fanun; and the Sharjah Art Foundation.

• 
  B Dukes

  B Dukes moves between turntables, instruments, and voice, crafting intuitive, spirit-led soundscapes that are both ritual and revelation. Part of label and ritual art house 7000COILS, their creative identity flows through the vessel and moniker Blu Moon — a name born from uncovering the story of their paternal great-great-grandmother. Whether in the gallery, behind the decks, or in immersive performance, B Dukes / Blu Moon creates spaces vibrating with reverence, liberation, and unity. House, jazz, gospel, R&B, and world rhythms converge in sonic journeys rooted in trance states, Black worship traditions, and the ecstatic freedom of Afro-diasporic dance floors.

• 
  Shireen Rahimi

  Shireen Rahimi is an Iranian American dancer, event producer, and mental health advocate based in Oakland, CA. Rahimi began her ballroom journey in Brooklyn in 2011 and soon joined the Iconic House of Mizrahi, where she walked Women’s Performance for seven years. A founding member of Open To All NYC, Rahimi later launched Oakland To All, the Bay Area’s first ballroom entertainment company, bringing greater access to ballroom culture on the West Coast.

• 
  Sahar Khoury

  Oakland-based Arab Persian American artist Sahar Khoury lives and works in Oakland. Her art is informed by her background in anthropology and a deep interest in structural vulnerability within communities.

• 
  8ULENTINA

  Esra Canoğulları, also known as 8ULENTINA, is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist, electronic composer, and DJ. 8ULENTINA is known for dynamic DJ sets and compositions characterized by his use of sound design, percussive intensity, storytelling, and theatricality. With Lara Sarkissian, 8ULENTINA co-founded CLUB CHAI (2016–2021), an Oakland, CA-based record label and curatorial platform; he currently facilitates SILLAGE, a collaborative platform for contemporary sonic artifacts. 

• 
  Lara Sarkissian

  San Francisco-born, Los Angeles-based Lara Sarkissian is an electronic musician, sound artist, founder of record label btwn Earth+Sky, and broadcaster on NTS Radio. Sarkissian formerly ran CLUB CHAI with 8ULENTINA and has released music on labels including Tresor, Knekelhuis, and All Centre. She has DJ’d nights for venues and platforms such as Tresor, Public Records, Hyperdub, Unsound Festival, MoMA PS1, and the Roskilde Festival. Projects she has produced and scored have been exhibited in the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Centre Pompidou, Montréal’s Musée d’art contemporain, the Music Center Los Angeles, and Berlin’s Gropius Bau. Sarkissian has taught sound design for film courses at Stepanakert and Yerevan’s TUMO Center for Creative Technologies; she currently guest lectures Ethnomusicology courses at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.