Baltimore Butterfly Sessions – Archiving Action
Baltimore Center Stage
Center Stage
May 6 - 7:00pm

Throughout history, humans have used art to reflect their environment and document change for future generations. The Baltimore Butterfly Session: Archiving Action will delve into how local artists capture Baltimore’s political dynamics. Join us for an exciting evening featuring Kotic Couture, who blends hip-hop with messages of equality through electrifying lyrics. We’ll also showcase Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, a renowned trans performance artist and advocate known for her work on resilience and collective liberation. The session includes a keynote conversation with Devin Allen, a self-taught photographer who gained national acclaim for documenting the Freddie Gray and the Black Lives Matter Actions in Baltimore, facilitated by Ti Malik Coleman from the Rooted Collective and Affirming Black Families.

Come for the community, stay for the art, and leave with a deeper understanding of Baltimore City.

 

Keynote Conversationalists

Devin Allen

Baltimore native Devin Allen is an international, award-winning self-taught photographer and
artist who gained national attention when his photograph of the Baltimore Uprising was
published on the cover of Time magazine in May 2015, making him only the third amateur
photographer to have his work featured in the publication. Following the untimely deaths of
George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor, his photograph from a Black Trans Lives
Matter protest was published on the cover of Time magazine in June 2020.
In 2017, he was named the first fellow of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship and was
nominated for an NAACP Image Award as a debut author for his book, A Beautiful Ghetto
(Haymarket Books, September 2017). In 2023, he was awarded the 2023 Gordon Parks
Foundation / Steidl Book Prize.
In 2020, he was named an ambassador for Leica Camera AG—an international, premium
manufacturer of cameras and sports optics.
His photographs have been published in New York Magazine, The New York Times, The
Washington Post, and Aperture; and are also in the permanent collections of the National
Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C., the Reginald F. Lewis
Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art.
He is the founder of Through Their Eyes, a youth photography educational program, and
recipient of an award from The Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture
for dynamic leadership in the Arts and Activism.
His latest book, No Justice, No Peace: From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter,
was released in 2022 under the Legacy Lit imprint of Hachette Book Group.
Most recently, he captured the main imagery for the sixth and final season of the hit SHOWTIME
series, The Chi.

Ti Malik Coleman

Ti Malik Coleman is a celebrated storyteller, improv comedian, and facilitator. He tells stories to heal, gather and entertain. A Black trans performer, he is dedicated to building spaces for black queer and trans folks to come together and share stories as a mechanism of healing and celebration. Ti Malik is an experienced and sought-after improv comedian.He has been a featured performer and teacher at theaters and festivals in Toronto, Calgary, Chicago, New York, DC, Portland and Philadelphia. A professional storyteller with over ten years experience, Ti Malik has performed on stages around the East Coast, including the Kennedy Center stage. His first one man show, The 40 Year Old Puberty, premiered at Montréal Fringe in June 2023. He is a writer and director for Rooted Collective’s ‘Damn Y’all Fine’, a documentary celebrating Black Queer and Trans aesthetics in Baltimore, set to release in Winter 2024.

Artistic feature

Lady Dane Figureoa Edidi

Dane Figueroa Edidi Dubbed the Ancient Jazz Priestess of Mother Africa, Lady Dane is a Black Nigerian, Cuban, Indigenous, American Performance Artist, Author, Educator, Advocate, producer, Film Maker, Dramaturg, a Helen Hayes Award winning Playwright (Klytmnestra: An Epic Slam Poem), a 2021 Helen Merrill Award Winner, a 2x Helen Hayes Award nominated choreographer (2016, 2018), and a Princess Grace Honoria Award winner. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Black Trans Prayer Book. 
 
She is the curator and associate producer of Long Wharf Theatre’s Black Trans Women At The Center: An Evening of Short Plays, as well as an artistic ensemble member of the theater. 
 
She was featured in King Ester as Patra and acted as a story consultant for the series. She wrote episode 1 of Untitled Mockumentary Project and acted on the series as well, and wrote episode 9 (Refuge) of Round House Theater’s web series Homebound. She also wrote a monologue featured in the film The 51st State. She was featured as Dr. Grace Grace in the web series I need Space.
 
She also narrated The Netflix Docu-series Visions of Us. 

Musical Guest 

Kotic Couture

If your brain mixed elements of Club Music, Hip Hop, Techno, Ballroom culture and House into a blender you’d be given a unique sound that can only be described as Kotic Couture. As The Queen of the Underground and the “Most lit on the mic” Couture has become a staple in the Baltimore Underground scene for years. As a DJ, Event host and Musician, Couture expands the culture of  hip hop and defies boundaries while doing so. Opening for artists such as Rina Sawayama, Azealia Banks, Cupcakke and BBYMutha, Couture has straddled the blurred lines of genre and eluded the linear path to success. Kotic has performed at Kennedy Center, featured at Baltimore, Charlotte, Sacramento and Capitol Pride as well as being the 2022 Main Stage DJ for Baltimore Pride’s Finale in the park. Kotic has been featured in the Washington Post, Baltimore Beat and Netflix. Most recently Kotic was named the Best Local Artist in 2023 by Baltimore Magazine 
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