Katie Kay Chelena
M.A. Arts Politics Class of 2022
B.A. Dramatic Art, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Katie Kay Chelena is a theater artist, writer, and educator from the mountains of North Carolina (now based in Brooklyn). She is a member of the New York Neo-Futurists (The Infinite Wrench, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind). As a Neo-Futurist, she led the pivot from in-person to digital shows during the pandemic, developing and hosting the interactive livestream show CYBERWRENCH. Her performance and theater work explore themes of riot grrrl feminism, the intersection of trauma, queerness, and sexuality, and examining and reckoning with the American South and Appalachia. In her work as an educator, she guides people of all ages and abilities to experiment with performance and poetry as a means of amplifying their voice, telling their stories, and building joyful community. Katie is the theater instructor at North Carolina Governor’s School West.