Tuesday, November 18, 2025 at 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM
California African American Museum (CAAM), Los Angeles
**Please be advised: The performance has a 60-minute runtime. Participants will be asked to remove their shoes and store their mobile devices. Floor seating with limited chair availability upon request. Wheelchair accessible. ** **We ask that you arrive 10 minutes prior to the performance. Please advise gallery staff of any necessary accommodations.** Presented in conjunction with their exhibition *Sage Ni’Ja Whitson: These Walking Glories*, *Transtraterrestrial* is a live performance work by multidisciplinary artist Sage Ni’Ja Whitson. The performance takes the audience through an otherworldly exploration of the dark. In dialogue with Yorùbá cosmology, astrophysics, and research on the “blackest black,” the work centers the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy through a Black, queer, transembodied lens. Led by space conductor Trans Trappist the Extraterrestrial (Whitson), this work imagines the dark as a portal to interrogate the unknown while honoring it as an ancestor and transgender technology. *Transtraterrestrial* happens inside and outside of a custom-built dark room, which is designed as a futuristic space vessel. Whitson worked with architect Valery Augustin of DNA Architecture to realize a site-specific design for the exhibition to aid in experiencing darkness while integrating immersive VR projection and spatial audio. The space|ship cradles performers and witnesses in the possibilities of collectivity, medicine, and invisibility. Conceived, directed, created, and performed by Sage Ni’Ja Whitson Text and VR: Sage Ni’Ja Whitson Dark room design: Valery Augustin, DNA Architecture Original composition and music performance: Douglas R. Ewart Sound engineer: Davu Seru VR software engineer: Joshue Ott