Out-FRONT! Fest. 2026 Presenting: Alexa Grae; Sugar Vendil

Out-FRONT! Fest. A Festival curated by Pioneers Go East Collective and presented in partnership with Judson Memorial Church.

The Out-FRONT! Festival is curated by Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Remi Harris Philip Treviño, and Joyce Isabelle. The Festival features award-winning artists who enlighten, entertain and promote conversations around aesthetic diversity and personal journeys on the intersection of mutual ideas, cultures, and meanings.

This performance will take place at Judson Memorial Church. General Admission and Free tickets available. All are welcome!

Sugar Vendil presents: Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia (World Premiere)

Antonym: the opposite of nostalgia is a memoir of a Filipinx American childhood that interweaves chamber music, dance, and nonlinear theater in an interdisciplinary performance. Excavating seemingly insignificant but deeply ingrained memories, Antonym envisions the future as an escape from pain and ponders how we can possess painful memories without being beholden to them. Using field recordings of New York City to create a rich sonic landscape, the four seasons serve as a cyclical frame and context for memory. "Antonym" invites audiences to reflect on their own relationships with memory, identity, and imagining their own futures.

Choreography and Music Composition: Sugar Vendil

Performance: Cindy Lan, Annie Nikunen, Marie Lloyd Paspe, Sugar Vendil, and Annie Wang

Costume and Set Design: Harriet Jung

Direction: Mei Ann Teo, Pink Fang

Lighting Design: Hao Bai

Alexa Grae presents: Tone Pillar (World Premiere)

Tone Pillar is assembled from research and snapshots of a quarantine and uprisings, rooted in blackness, in trans-queer identity, in neurodiversity, and with magic. The veil has only continued to weaken, truths submerged rise to the surface. Tone Pillar accumulates through bent genres, arias of longing serve as musical anchors, movement that conjures meditative states open portals, protagonists building worlds and revolutions, this live work builds an absurd Atlantis and invites the audience in. Grae engages in the thrills of virtuosity through systems of alignment that focus on stories and vehicles of transformation that happen in the steps of a protest and the thump of the dancefloor.

Composer + Libretto: Alexa Grae

Direction + Video Projection Design: Stephanie Acosta

Choreography: Angie Pittman

Costume Design + Construction: Isaac Pool

Performance: Alexa Grae, Angie Pittman, and Nina Guevara

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to Pioneers Go East Collective, which directly supports artists and programs like this one!

DIRECTIONS:

Judson Church

243 Thompson Street

New York, NY 10012

Subway:

A, C, E, B, D, F, M to West 4th Street

R to NYU 8th Street.

Accessibility: Our accessible entrance is by way of 243 Thompson St. Use the lift to get to the Meeting Room on Level 3 or our accessible bathrooms on Level B (basement). Return to Level 1 for street access back to the corner of West 4th & Thompson St.

Photo Credit: Alexa Grae and Jill Steinberg