New Ohio Theatre's 'Todays on Ice' Series to Present The Ashe Collective's DECOLONIZING MY VAGINA

Fridays on Ice at New Ohio Theatre presents The Ashe Collective's Decolonizing My Vagina on Friday, August 4, 2017 at 10pm at the New Ohio Theatre, 154 Christopher St., #1E, NYC 10014. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/10181052.

Decolonizing My Vagina is an evening of ritual, ridiculous storytelling and magic inspired by the many encounters experienced by Cristina Pitter and features the music of Experimental Avante Garde Soul Singer, Starr Busby. The production is directed by Jordana De La Cruz.

The Ashe Collective is a multidisciplinary art collective that strives to hold a creative space to research identity, foster healing, and community outreach rooted in the diasporas and storytelling. It's inaugural benefit held on July 22, 2017 raised funds to support the production of Decolonizing My Vagina and give back to the Taino community with Maisiti Yukayeke Taino. To donate or volunteer, email theashecollective@gmail.com.

Cristina Pitter is a queer fat babe multidisciplinary artist and sex educator. She also has the best laugh ever. Seriously. You might have seen her work at Ars Nova, Joe's Pub, The PIT, The Tank, The Flea Theater, JACK, Dixon Place, or three separate but specific bathtubs. Feel free to follow her antics on Twitter @isisgypsy and Instagram @lavidagypsy.

Starr Busby is an international performing, recording, and teaching artist. She began her career at The Grammy Award-Winning High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, TX and then went on to earn a bachelor of music and certificate in music theatre from Northwestern University. Recent credits include: Moby Dick (workshop, Berkeley Repertory Theatre) Esperanza Spalding's Emily's D+Evolution; Mikrokosmos (Steirischer Herbst, Graz); The Girl with the Incredible Feeling (Spoleto Festival di Mondi); The Offending Gesture (The Tank, Flint and Tender Series); La Mama Cantata (La Mama E.T.C., international tour) as well as various concerts and solo shows. She often performs with experimental soul band People's Champs. Recently she released the song and video "Ms Bland," a tribute to Sandra Bland and all other lives lost to police brutality. Her music is available via Soundcloud and Bandcamp. "Starr Busby has this beautiful voice which brings a distinctive new vocal quality to the sort of layering techniques made popular by tUnE-yArDs and Kimbra." - Soundfly. starrmuzik.bandcamp.com | soundcloud.com/starr-busby.

Jordana De La Cruz is a Brooklyn-based director and producer. She creates events, performances, and public programs that spark cross-cultural dialogue and challenge the traditional notions of identity. She has had the privilege of working with The Flea Theater, IATI Theater, INTAR Theatre, LAByrinth Theater Company, The Story Pirates, Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, and the Drilling Company Theatre. Jordana can currently be found curating public programs at the Park Avenue Armory, a cultural arts institution dedicated to producing unconventional work.

Fridays on Ice is Ice Factory's late night performance salon. Featuring artists creating work not usually seen in downtown theatre spaces, but more typically found in nightclubs, bars, and private apartments, each evening is individually hosted by an impresario of this alternative storytelling community, and features cutting-edge micro-works by some of NYC's cagiest short-form theater-makers.

New Ohio Theatre is a two-time OBIE Award-winning performance venue that serves the vast independent theatre community of New York and the adventurous audiences who love them. As a small, downtown, artist-run organization with a twenty-plus year history as a beacon for bold and inventive work, we know the challenges and rewards of producing and presenting alternative, groundbreaking theatre. In any given year, there are over 500 independent theatre companies working for opportunities to develop and present new work. We believe the best of this community operates at the core of the contemporary theatre conversation (about both content and form) and acts collectively to expand the boundaries of the public imagination. With our move to Christopher Street, we aim to establish a professional, high-profile platform for the independent theatre community, reestablishing the West Village as a destination for mature, ridiculous, engaged, irreverent, gut-wrenching, frivolous, sophisticated, foolish, and profound theatrical endeavors. The New Ohio was founded as Soho Think Tank, Inc., in 1994 by playwright/director Robert Lyons. www.newohiotheatre.org