DiverseWorks Presents 12 Minutes Max: ESP
DiverseWorks Presents
12 Minutes Max: ESP
a short-form performance festival
May 15 & 16, 2025
AT THE DELUXE THEATER
(Houston, TX, April 29, 2025) – DiverseWorks is pleased to announce 12 Minutes Max: ESP, a short-form performance festival featuring twelve local artists on May 15 & 16 at 7 PM at the historic DeLUXE Theater, 3303 Lyons Ave., Houston, TX 77020.
12 Minutes Max: ESP is a short-form performance showcase for new and in-progress works up to twelve minutes long featuring artists selected by the Diverseworks Artist Advisory Committee. The participating lead artists are Aveda Adara, Mashal Awais, Emilio Carrera, Shelby Craze, Eli Greene, Loren Holmes, Koomah, Alexandra Lechin, Adele Nickel, Corey De’Juan Sherrard Jr., Jadd Tank, and Isabella Mireles Vik. Each evening has a unique line-up (see the full schedule below). Innovative sound, dance, music, and movement works reflect upon our current times and explore aspects of endurance, geopolitics, language, belonging, dreaming, and, of course, the number twelve!
The theme of this festival revolves around the initials ESP. Whether you interpret it as experimental short performances, extrasensory perception, extra saucy pasta, every sexy person, or simply enjoy something performative—it’s up to you. We are not defining ‘experimental’ in any particular way. Let the experiment be whatever you believe it means today. There are no parameters for artists in this one-of-a-kind program.
12 Minutes Max: ESP
PERFORMANCES
Thursday, May 15 at 7 PM, doors 6:30 PM
Featuring:
Aveda Adara
Mashal Awais
Shelby Craze
Alexandra Lechin
Adele Nickel
Jadd Tank
Friday, May 16, 7 PM, doors 6:30 PM
Featuring:
Emilio Carrera
Eli Greene
Loren Holmes
Koomah
Corey De’Juan Sherrard Jr.
Isabella Mireles Vik
Approximate run time: 72 minutes, no intermission
ADMISSION
Pay-what-you-wish. Suggested $25. Get Tickets
LOCATION
The DeLUXE Theater
3303 Lyons Ave, Houston, TX 77020
PARKING AND TRANSPORTATION
The DeLUXE Theater is located at 3303 Lyons Avenue in the heart of Houston’s historic 5th Ward. If driving, you can exit at I-59 & Lyons Ave. or I-10 at Gregg St. or Waco St. The main parking lot is located behind the theater at the corner of Gregg Street and New Orleans Street. Parking is free, with additional street parking available in the surrounding neighborhood.
The theater is accessible by METRO (click HERE for a map) and by bicycle (the theater houses a 20-bicycle storage rack near the parking lot).
ACCESSIBILITY
The DeLUXE Theater is fully ADA compliant and wheelchair accessible. If you require wheelchair-accessible seating, please indicate this when ordering your tickets so we can best accommodate your needs. Wheelchair-accessible parking is available to the left of the building.
Visit the DiverseWorks website for more information about 12 Minutes Max: ESP.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Aveda Adara is a hardware electronic musician residing in Houston, Texas. She is originally from the Diné Reservation, where she left to pursue her desire to create art in the underground scene. Aveda is the current co-curator of “Cindy” a monthly party for queer people, which provides an open spot for queer POC who are looking into becoming DJs to open for her DJ duo, #SISSY. Instagram: @postmodernsleazeofficial
Mashal Awais is from Lahore, Pakistan, and immigrated to Houston in 2008. She is a student of the bansuri, a traditional bamboo folk instrument from South Asia. Her work explores her experience seeking sparks of joy in the mundane of diaspora.
Emilio Carrera was born in Mexico City and is an artist and poet. He walks on the shore of the Brays Bayou and likes to cook at home. His artistic practice relates writing and site-specific experiences with other bodies like grasshoppers, sycamores, water, among others. These processes have resulted in sculptures, installations, books, dishes, conversations, and other residues. Instagram: @emiliocarreraquiroga
Shelby Craze is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the intersection of fiber and the body. Through movement, she explores how we respond to the accumulation of experiences and incidents – physical, emotional, and psychological. Instagram: @shelby.craze.art
Eli Greene lives and works in Galveston. Her works are often filtered through photography, saturated with the medium and everything it sticks to—history, memory, and loss. Her recent work has been exhibited and performed at F, Houston, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the South Side Community Art Center, and Regards, Chicago. Instagram: @_blueingreen
Loren Holmes is a dance artist from Beaumont with over 20 years of performance and training experience. The founder of Hearts in Motion HOU, Holmes, is also a teaching artist at the Ensemble Theatre and a partner with Arts Connect Houston, and has choreographed for HCC, Sonkiss’d Dance Concepts, and Barnstorm Dance Fest. Instagram: @renmarie_
Koomah is an interdisciplinary artist, community organizer, Executive Director of the Houston Intersex Society, advisor to the Transgender Foundation of America, and member of the DiverseWorks artist board. Koomah has performed, showcased artwork, and screened films across the US & internationally. Instagram: @_koomah_
Alexandra Lechin is a Venezuelan-American interdisciplinary artist working in sculpture, performance, and emerging media. Her work examines identity, materiality, and cultural memory, often through movement and spatial intervention. She studied at Beaux-Arts Nantes in France and holds a BFA in Sculpture. Lechin will receive an MFA in Interdisciplinary Practices and Emerging Forms from the University of Houston in Spring 2025. Instagram: @alexandralechin
Adele Nickel is a movement artist, educator, scholar, and currently an Assistant Professor at Sam Houston State University. She is a longtime company member of the “Bessie” nominated Liz Gerring Dance Company and danced with Annie-B Parson, Sarah Michelson, and Patrick Corbin, among others. Adele is currently a 2024-25 Artist-in-Residence with Dance Source Houston. Instagram @kingdellers
Corey De’Juan Sherrard Jr. is a Houston-based artist who engineers a developing system for composing songs and generating objects that respond to the deficit of black post-capitalist propaganda within a world culture. He consults at the HSPVA, DJs monthly with internet radio station Ice House Radio, spins jazz at KTRU-LP 96.1 FM, and is a member of the experimental music group Essex Moor. Instagram: @cds__j
Jadd Tank is a choreographer, performer, creative producer, and movement consultant exploring the limitless connections between objects, bodies, and events, shaping spaces and the identities they forge. Nurtured by the cultural intersection of Lebanese and Midwestern traditions, Jadd approaches contemporary performance art and creation with an aesthetic that reflects a versatile mélange. He has collaborated and performed with artists such as Michelle Ellsworth and Maqamat Dance Theater, and on music videos and digital projects. Instagram: @ibnviamed2025
Isabella Mireles Vik is an interdisciplinary movement, body, and performance artist focusing on contemporary dance, ritualized body modification, and performance research. Vik’s work explores themes focused on societal struggles, the human condition, and spiritual practices. Currently residing in Houston, Texas, Vik is Mexican-Norwegian and travels extensively for their artistic practice and social/cultural research. Vik performs solo work, directs Aufheben Ensemble, and focuses on video documentation of their research. Instagram: @isabella.v___
SUPPORT
12 Minutes Max: ESP is supported in part by an Arts Respond Grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
DiverseWorks 2024-25 general operating and program support is from the National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Commission on the Arts, the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, The Brown Foundation, Inc., Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts, the George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation, Houston Endowment, National Arts Strategies, National Performance Network, The Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Teiger Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Wortham Foundation, and DiverseWorks Art & Climate Partners, patrons and members.
ABOUT DIVERSEWORKS
DiverseWorks produces and presents new multidisciplinary art through innovative collaborations with artists and communities. We honor each artist’s vision without limits to generate expansive art and learning experiences for all. Founded by artists in 1982, DiverseWorks is nationally known for its ground-breaking programming as a resource for the innovative and meaningful engagement of communities and as a force that has shaped contemporary thought and practice in Houston and the nation. DiverseWorks has a long history of supporting the creation of new work, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and as a bridge between diverse sectors of the art community.
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