About | MattyBalkum

M A T T Y B A L K U M

ALSO KNOWN AS

Moved to engage in cultural work by a deep sense of urgency, Matty has been shaping energies and matter about them from childhood. Believing in the intrinsic political nature of all things, they seek to move, agitate, and inspire with their work.

Born in the fever dream that is Tampa, Florida, Matty has always been an eccentric. A practitioner of epic theatre from early adolescence, directing the neighborhood youngins in what can only be described as "Proto-queer Youth Guerrilla Performance Art" they have always found a way to push the envelope.

Matty holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from The Boston Conservatory at Berklee with Emphases in Directing, Devising & Solo Performance, and a Minor in Gender Studies. At the Conservatory, they undertook applied study in Dramaturgy.

As a student of Queer culture and history, poetics, and camp, Matty offers zaniness and intrigue in all that they do.

When not pouring over the Quotations of Mao Tse-Tung or scrawling a poem, they’re eagerly developing new drag content, relearning the accordion, dancing with reckless abandon, or haunting a garden.

"My aim in all things is to harness the power of radical empathy and fluidity to move and connect with those I am in dialogue with: through my work and through my experiences.

"SOPHIE XEON tells us,

'There's a world inside you'

and this reality of
constant, dialectical multiplicity of identity within each of us informs not only my daily life but my cultural work as well."

"My experiences, imagined or corporeal, inevitably become my work."

"In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics."
- Mao Tse-Tung

"My aim in all things is to harness the power of radical empathy and fluidity to move and connect with those I am in dialogue with: through my work and through my experiences.

"SOPHIE XEON tells us, 'There's a world inside you' and this reality of constant, dialectical multiplicity of identity within each of us informs not only my daily life but my cultural work as well."

"My experiences, imagined or corporeal, inevitably become my work."

"In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics." - Mao Tse-Tung

"SOPHIE XEON tells us,

'There's a world inside you'

and this reality of
constant, dialectical multiplicity of identity within each of us informs not only my daily life but my cultural work as well."

"In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics."
- Mao Tse-Tung