About

THE VORTEX PRESENTS

I SEE YOU. YOU'RE SEEN.

February 25 - March 11 | The Vortex

“Hey little black girl, feeling invisible and all so visceral. Staring up at the heavens, as vast as your potential. i see you. you’re seen.” 

Told through the lens of a former little black girl, i see you. you’re seen. is a solo work composed of a collection of poetry and vignettes that investigates what it means to “see and be seen, to see and be forgotten” through the lens of healing, Blackness, and self-reflection, while also challenging others who “look the other way”. What does it mean to be hyper-visible AND also invisible?

                         "Don’t you see us?"

A fusion of art, poetry, music, and movement, this choreopoem explores the interlocking oppressions of Black women, while also illuminating love and relationships, family and ritual. Oktavea LaToi brings on the Revolution, inviting us to bask in beauty and acknowledge our own sacredness. There’s a galaxy inside of you, too. This memoir is in equal parts a love story, war cry, conjuring, and family photo album.

                       "Can you see us now?"                                      

                       "How ‘bout now?"

This 2023 premiere is the culmination of several years of development. Created over the pandemic and workshopped in August 2021 through April 2022 at The VORTEX Oktavea LaToi and Simone Raquel Alexander shaped the bones of the show and explored design elements.

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Event Details

• Date: Saturday, February 25, 2023 - Saturday, March 11, 2023
• Time: Thursday - Saturday: 8:00 P.M. | Sunday: 6:00 P.M.
• Venue: The Eloise Brooks Cullum Stage @ The VORTEX
• Website: https://vortexrep.org/35_i-see-you/

Ticket Information

• Cost: $15.00 - $37.00

Presenter Details

• Name: The Vortex

We conjure urgent, unashamed art to create action in a shifting age. We embrace diverse communities, break down barriers, and elevate inclusive discourse from our home in Austin, Texas. We enliven humanity with a magical green new theatre at our Butterfly Bar and Sanctuary. 

The VORTEX creates and presents new, innovative performances—world premiere plays, operas, musicals, ritual theatre, and devised collaborations. The VORTEX transgresses conventional theatrical forms with multidisciplinary performances from diverse traditions. Music, film, dance, opera, aerial arts, puppetry, and performance art contribute to our vibrant theatre. We are an artist-owned and operated theater and have produced over 350 productions. We are proud to have always engaged in non-traditional casting. The VORTEX has presented work by dozens of famous cutting-edge artists and is internationally renowned as a haven for alternative performance. Our work has received more than 100 major awards and hundreds of nominations for artistic excellence in production, design, acting, performance, directing, playwriting, choreography, and musical composition.

The VORTEX fosters educational programming, including our award-winning Summer Youth Theatre. For almost three decades, The VORTEX’s Summer Youth has teamed teenagers with adult professionals in a fully produced play from a diverse cannon of exceptional dramatic literature. This free program has impacted the lives of students and artistic mentors for more than a generation. Internships and work-study jobs integrate university students into The VORTEX, providing them with valuable theatre experience outside of academia.

The VORTEX anchors a dynamic and cherished home for the arts of the 21st century, located in East Austin and open year round. Co-productions and rentals support many theatre companies, artists, musicians, and service organizations. The Butterfly Bar @The VORTEX is open seven nights a week and provides a cultural harbor and distinct destination for community events including arts markets, librarian happy hour, TGQ meet-ups, trivia, dance and fitness classes, fundraisers, local music showcases, and gallery art openings as well as some of Austin’s best handcrafted cocktails.

The VORTEX contributes to the vitality of Austin’s economy, creating dozens of full-time jobs and paying artists. We are a leader in the Austin New Works Community and the Austin theatre community and have been recognized as a Platinum Level Green Business leader—we have always recycled are now composting.

Venue Details