Embodying the experimental nature of the Workshop, Halftone draws inspiration from our collaborations with artists and brings you stories from this place we so often inhabit in the creative process: the space between the known and the unknown. Halftone is now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and RadioPublic.
In season 3, we’re bringing you conversations between trans and genderqueer artists whose work holds space at the intersection of performance and identity. At the invitation from the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, each of these artists took the stage as part of the exhibition, John Jarboe: The Rose Garden, where they captivated live audiences with experimental theater, music, and poetry.
Join our host, cabaret artist Messapotamia “Messy” Lefae, as we dive into the inclusive, collaborative process that brings their performances to life.
Premiere: June 16, 2025
In our second episode of Halftone, theater artists and playwrights MK Tuonamen and Harmon dot aut ruminate on the collapsed-time magic of trans experiences. From embroidered relics of a housebound life to leading bovine war cries, slip into the feedback loop of love that forms when you risk it all with an audience.
Harmon dot aut (they/she) is a non-binary, autistic playwright, filmmaker, singer/songwriter, actor, and visual artist based in Hudson Valley, New York. Their performative work explores trauma, sexual violence, mental illness, alter personalities and humor as a way to open space for truth-telling and to build resilience. Harmon is the recipient of the 2023 Venturous Playwright Fellowship (PWC) for Tornado Tastes Like Aluminum Sting and 2019 Visionary Playwright Award, Theater Masters, New York.
MK Tuomanen (they/them) is a writer, director, and solo performer who takes the imagination on a fast drive through time and space. MK is an Associated Artist with the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, a member of Applied Mechanics Theater Company, a Jerome Fellow, a Haas Award Recipient, an amateur witch and a sometime punk drummer for The Bandits. They are also the director of Rose: You Are Who You Eat, John Jarboe’s twin work to The Rose Garden that was created for the stage and performed as part of the Under the Radar festival in New York, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and Woolly Mammoth in Washington D.C.
All excerpts of performances written by Harmon dot aut and MK Tuomanen. “I Am Not Afraid” is written by Owen Pallet (performed here by MK Tuomanen).
Premiere: June 9, 2025
From songwriting workshops for young artists to live concerts for kids at libraries, theater artist/musicians Anthony Martinez-Briggs and Jordan McCree—aka US and Just Jordan from Philadelphia-based hip hop outfit ILL DOOTS—build community through collaboration. But what does it mean to embrace your whole self? It’s time to get corporeal.
Anthony Martinez-Briggs (they/he) is a multi-talented theater artist based in Philadelphia with a love for fashionable sneakers, well cultivated herbs and black femme science fiction. A Wilma Hothouse company member and Bearded Ladies Associate Artist, Anthony was awarded the 2023 F. Otto Haas Award for Emerging Artist. Their diverse artistic work spans writing, teaching, music, making, and performing.
Jordan McCree (they/he) is an artist and musician whose most recent collaborations include The Comeuppance performed at Woolley Mammoth and at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. Jordan also contributed to the 2021 world premier of Fat Ham at the Wilma. Jordan was one of the 2022 grant recipients to the 1/52nd project.
Season 3 of Halftone was produced in conjunction with the exhibition, John Jarboe: The Rose Garden. Major support for John Jarboe: The Rose Garden and this season of Halftone has been generously provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
This season is hosted by Messapotamia Lefae, and produced by Justin Rubich with sound engineering by Yōsuke Araki. The Halftone theme was created by Char McCutcheon. This season’s graphics were created by Rachel Rosenfeld. Thanks to John Jarboe for lending additional music to this season, and to all of our guests: Anthony Briggs-Martinez, Jordan McCree, MK Tuomanen, Harmon dot aut, Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, and J Mase III. Special thanks also goes to The Bearded Ladies Cabaret, which curated live programming in the Green Room, including the guests of this podcast season.
We’re back for season 2—this time exploring ideas of belonging and estrangement, and the ways we navigate a complex world. Inspired by our current exhibition, Ahmed Alsoudani: Bitter Fruit, we walk from the museum through the streets of Philadelphia with Palestinian Poet Ahmad Allmallah as he searches for home and Venezuelan artist Ana Mosquera as she weaves together a cyber territory.
Premiere Date: April 26, 2022
Can the elements of a city that remind a person of home or their estrangement be too personal for others to understand?
In this episode, we accompany Palestinian poet Ahmad Almallah as he walks home from The Fabric Workshop and Museum through the streets of Philadelphia, contemplating ideas of family, language, home, estrangement, and the magic of a big white dog.
Ahmad Almallah is a poet from Palestine. His first book of poems Bitter English is now available in the Phoenix Poets Series from the University of Chicago Press. He received the Edith Goldberg Paulson Memorial Prize for Creative Writing, and his set of poems “Recourse,” won the Blanche Colton Williams Fellowship. Some of his poems appeared in Jacket2, Track//Four, All Roads Will Lead You Home, Apiary, Supplement, SAND, Michigan Quarterly Review, Making Mirrors: Righting/Writing by Refugees, Cordite Poetry Review, Birmingham Poetry Review, and Great River Review. He holds a PhD in Arabic Literature from Indiana University Bloomington and an MFA in poetry from Hunter College. He currently lives in Philadelphia and teaches creative writing at the University of Pennsylvania.
Premiere Date: May 10, 2022
Episode 2: Ana Mosquera
How does the virtual impact our relationship to home, travel, and belonging? In Episode 2, artist Ana Mosquera travels through Philadelphia using Samsung intelligence assistant Bixby, confronting the boundaries of language in pursuit of a definition of home.
About Ana Mosquera
Ana Mosquera is an artist from Caracas, Venezuela, currently based in Philadelphia. She obtained her MFA in Sculpture at Tyler School of Art and Architecture in 2020. She holds the 2016 National Prize for young artists awarded by the Museum of Contemporary Art Zulia and was awarded in 2021 with the Honorable Mention Carmen Cordovez Crespo by HFFA at the16th Mendoza Awards, Venezuela. Her most recent exhibitions include the 20/92 Video Festival. Icebox Projects Crane Arts Building, Philadelphia (2022). Familiar Distances – Edge Zones, Miami (2021); Serendipia / Instalar – Espacio Monitor, Los Galpones Caracas (2021). ¿Por qué Islas? Solo Licencia de Reconocimiento, Tenerife (2021).
Season 2 of Halftone comes to you from The Fabric Workshop and Museum and is presented in connection with Bitter Fruit, an exhibition by artist Ahmed Alsoudani. This season of Halftone and Bitter Fruit are supported by Maja Paumgarten Parker and John Parker.
Season 2 is produced by Katie Parry and Alec Unkovic, engineered by Joel Metzler at MilkBoy the Studio. Our music was contributed by Char McCutcheon. Special thanks to our collaborators Ahmad Almallah and Ana Mosquera, as well as members of our visitor services team, Kristina Centore, Olivia Dwyer, and George MacLeod, who contributed reflections about the exhibition to this episode.
This pilot season, presented in partnership with Pig Iron Theatre Company, takes inspiration from Blood Moon, The Fabric Workshop and Museum exhibition featuring a recent collaboration with artists Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley. Over the course of three episodes, artists Francesca Montanile Lyons, Jeanne Lyons, and Tony Moaton present three experimental audio works exploring the question: whose voices have stories to tell that have not been fully heard?
Premiere Date: November 12, 2021
Francesca Montanile Lyons (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator living in Philadelphia. Her work seeks to disempower shame through playful honesty and voyeuristic delight. She’s a member of the pussy pop rock band Girl Poop and co-artistic director of Antigravity Performance Project. MFA in Devised Performance from UArts/Pig Iron School (2016). BA in Theatre Arts & Performance Studies from Brown U (2011). francescamontanilelyons.com. Instagram: @fmldrawsbutts
Premiere Date: November 26, 2021
Jeanne Lyons (she/they) is a music producer, photographer, and performing artist based in Philadelphia. Lyons is process oriented as a protest to perfectionism and has a strong commitment to experimentation. Her work explores themes of identity, shame, grief, death, nature, and technology. Check out her latest release, Another Place [EP], an ethereal sonic journey with haunting vocal layers + deep electronic pulses on Spotify or Apple Music. iamjeannelyons.com
Premiere Date: December 10, 2021
Tony Moaton (they/he) is an artist and inclusive designer from Oak Park, Illinois. Tony’s passionate about creating intimate and accessible spaces and places. Their work spans a variety of mediums and collaborators, but the root of all of it is drawing from their non-traditional background to create work in a way that radically centers the user. Check out Tony’s range of work at tonymoaton.com
Premiere Date: December 24, 2021
As the culmination of Halftone’s pilot season, dive into the making of the podcast. You’ll learn about some of the inspirations for Blood Moon, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley’s exhibition that inspired this season, and the collaborative process between The Fabric Workshop and Museum and Pig Iron Theatre Company.
Season 1 of Halftone was created in partnership with Pig Iron Theatre Company and presented in connection with Blood Moon, an exhibition by artists Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, which is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
Season 1 was produced by Katie Parry, Erin Sweeny, and Alec Unkovic, engineered by Joel Metzler at MilkBoy the Studio. Our music was contributed by Char McCutcheon. Special thanks to our collaborators at Pig Iron Theatre Company, including Quinn Bauriedel, Francesca Montanile, Jeanne Lyons, and Tony Moaton.
Seasons 1 and 3 of Halftone have been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
