Friday, September 19, 2025 at 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM
Human Resources, Los Angeles
[Tickets](https://withfriends.events/event/9T52jfz7/breath-work/) ($5-15, no one turned away for lack of funds) Nina Sarnelle's **Breath Work** is an experimental opera exploring breath as a medium for resistance. Part documentary, part ritual, it was made collaboratively by community members in Long Beach, California, next to one of the largest ports in the world. Shipping infrastructure, railyards, freeways and oil refineries provide a backdrop for scenes of solidarity and grief staged by this cast and crew of 13 community members aged 11-65. This project was created in collaboration with Long Beach Forward, and funded by the California Arts Council. This screening, the Los Angeles premier for **Breath Work** is part of **HOWL**. **HOWL** brings together more than a dozen artists and collectives working collaboratively to resist the forces of anti-trans silencing, intimidation, and erasure for a 7-day exhibition, a series of workshops, discussions, a howling experimental film premiere, and a night of defiant performances to help us remember - and amplify - our power. [See HOWL's press release for more information](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lUSvo9TbzoVad6vNnrnbiK8TM0yYv80qCMdd6J78zl4/edit?tab=t.0). [Nina Sarnelle](http://www.ninasarnelle.com) (they/them) makes research projects, participatory performances, music composition, video, and many experiments in pedagogy and collectivity. They facilitate somatic, improvisational & vocal workshops, including many with Selwa Sweidan under the collaborative project [Touch Praxis](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nMNEbnkLbj9uOo5RDGeukAEkhIeezJ2D/view?usp=sharing). Their work explores conditions of neocolonialism, environmental injustice and labor exploitation in strange and intimate ways, often rooted in specific sites like the [Port of LA,](https://vimeo.com/1008856753) a former [Nike Missile silo turned into a basketball court](https://vimeo.com/672139825), or the [shifting sands of “Silicon Beach.”](https://erosion.fulcrumarts.org/) Sarnelle was recently awarded a fellowship from the California Arts Council, a fellowship at [Metabolic Studio](https://www.metabolicstudio.org/about), and a [NYFA Environmental Arts Grant](https://www.nyfa.org/news/anonymous-was-a-woman-awaw-and-new-york-foundation-for-the-arts-nyfa-announce-2025-environmental-art-grants-recipients/?utm_source=NYFA.org&utm_campaign=9b15961700-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_06_21_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_59a564163f-9b15961700-519308888&mc_cid=9b15961700&mc_eid=bcf688b406). In 2020, they had a solo video exhibition at the [New Museum](https://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/screens-series-nina-sarnelle/). They hold a BA from Oberlin College and an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University. Their work has been shown at Whitechapel Gallery (London), Hammer Museum (LA), Getty Center (LA), Ballroom Marfa (TX), MoMA (NY), Istanbul Modern (Turkey), Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (Berlin), Museum of Art, Architecture & Technology (Lisbon), Fundacion PROA (Buenos Aires), Black Cube (Denver), Southern Exposure (San Francisco), Recess (NY), UNSW Galleries (Sydney), Project 88 (Mumbai), Kevin Space (Vienna), Villa Croce Contemporary Art Museum (Genova), Mwoods (Beijing), Human Resources (LA) and others; and featured in Art Forum, Frieze, Art in America, Huffington Post, SFMoMA, Creators Project, FlashArt and others. Add to calendar Google Calendar iCalendar Outlook 365 Outlook Live