SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2025
VEGI BBQ/PICNIC 2pm
PERFORMANCES START 3pm
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Beast Nest
Christopher Robin Duncan
Ava Koohbor
(Event Brite link)
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Sharmi Basu (they/them) is a highly acclaimed Bengali-American multimedia performance artist, curator, composer, arts advocate, and organizer, born and based on the occupied lands of the Ohlone people in Oakland, CA.
They create expansive textural sound and performance pieces investigating resistance and organizing strategies through decolonial world-building and interactive sculpture. Sharmi’s performance project, Beast Nest, transmutes experiences of trauma through complex sonic textural layering. They host international workshops centered on sound, somatics, decolonization, liberation strategies, and accountability. Their research often focuses on transformative justice and care work themes, ultimately creating projects that generate emotional skill-building through interaction, improvisation, and deep listening.
Sharmi received their MFA from Mills College, and currently serves as Executive Director of Vital Arts. They are a founder of the first-ever Bay Area Black and Brown Punk Fest, and are a core collective member of Ratskin Records. They serve on the board of Bay Area Girls Rock Camp, Safer DIY Spaces, and California FM. They are a founder of the Mara Performance Collective, an all BIPOC improvisation and performance group. They have performed or exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Coaxial, The Kitchen NY, Gray Area, the Smithsonian among many more.
For more on Sharmi Basu’s work, visit sharmi.info.
Christopher Robin Duncan (he/him) is a multi-faceted artist based in Oakland, California. Duncan utilizes the Sun and the Moon, the Ocean, as well as Time and Tide as conceptual and compositional prompts for experiments in sonic and visual endeavors. As well as performing solo, Duncan organizes group percussion performances called 12 SYMBOLS and a rotating ensemble project called SEASONS.
In addition to his studio practice, Duncan runs LAND AND SEA- a small press and project space in Oakland California(now in its 14th year), with his wife- Maria Otero.
Duncan earned his BFA from the California College of Arts and Crafts and his MFA from Stanford University. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and is represented by:Halsey Mckay(NY), and Rebecca Camacho Presents(SF). Duncan has performed throughout the states from living rooms to institutions such as Bemis Center,The Lab(SF), Zebulon(LA), Coaxial(LA), 2220 (LA), Southern Exposure, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Berkeley Art Museum, Gray Area(SF), Home Sweet Home/Nothing Changes(NYC), Headlands Center for the Arts, Human Resources(LA), ACRE, Center for New Music(SF). He has released music with Aventures ltd, Daft Alliance Media, Universal Freeing Object, Cone Shape Top Imprint, O S Press and LAND AND SEA.
For more on Christopher Robin Duncan’s sounds, visit his Bandcamp.
Ava Koohbor (she/her) is an experimental sound artist and instrument builder. Through an undetermined process she transforms the acoustical properties of everyday’s objects to create an immersive experience of sound in space. Her works have been exhibited and performed in various galleries, and venues.
For more on Ava Koohbor’s artwork, visit avakoohborarts.com.