Keijaun Thomas is a New York based artist and current Franklin Furnace Fun Recipient. Thomas creates live performances and multimedia installations— her work investigates the histories, symbols, and images that construct notions of Black identity within Black personhood. Thomas earned their Masters degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Thomas has presented work nationally and internationally in Los Angeles and Palo, Alto, CA; Portland, OR; Portland, ME; Chicago, IL; Saugatuck, MI; Boston and Cambridge, MA; New York, NY; Miami, FL; and Taipei, Taiwan; Paris, France; Mexico City, Mexico; Santiago, Chile; Istanbul, Turkey; Beirut, Lebanon; Saskatchewan and Vancouver, Canada; and the United Kingdom.
In my project “My Last American Dollar” I am thinking about resistance. How do we resist temptation, how do we slow down, how do we play, how do we survive? I have been thinking about 5 spaces/ environments that frame my research: Locker Rooms, Strip Clubs, Waiting Rooms, Church pews and Field Days. In “ My last American Dollar” I build a “waiting room” inside of a room. Church pews and benches become spaces for audience members to watch me and themselves. Sometimes I am her, I am your dancer. My back sweat is your holy water in our locker room. My speech becomes locker room talk, the “boys” playing in the field. The project investigates forms in which black and brown people hold space for each other, how do you carry the multiplicities of being young, gifted and black.