Intimate Conversations with Dani Tirrell & guest Sadiqua Iman
Saturday, August 1, 2020

Sadiqua Iman performs as the character Namii and uses burlesque, storytelling, and dance to deconstruct issues of gender fluidity, relationships, and what it means to “strip down”outside of sexual connotations. She is Founder/ Artistic Director of Earth Pearl Collective, a queer black womyns social justice non profit organization dedicated to healing communities through artistic collaborations. Sadiqua works as a freelance director, costume designer, teaching artist, and project manager in the Seattle area and around the country. She has directed an all woman of color cast of “A Streetcar Named Desire” to raise awareness of same sex domestic violence and created an interactive performances based on the dissappearance of queer black leadership in social justice movemets called “ We Be Dat.” In 2018 she premiered an original boi-lesque ballet called “Tail Feather” that explored female bodied masculinity at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. Her most recent project was directing August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean at Chattanooga Theatre Centre in Tennessee January 2020. Sadiqua Iman is just finished her Masters of Fine Arts in Arts Leadership at Seattle University and was awarded the 2019 Arc Fellowship award by 4Culture and used the funds to open the new Afro-centered healing arts center Nile’s Edge.
Black love means a deep understanding of my ancestral lineage expressed through a glorified respect for Black people who share it with me. Black love is a remembering of ancient wisdom and celebration of its reflection through my family, partners, friends, and community. Black love is a depth of joy.