Ariel Luckey is a hip hop theater artist whose community and performance work dances in the crossroads of education, art and activism. Ariel’s lyrical language and political vision have inspired and transformed audiences from the streets of Seattle's WTO demonstration to Café Cantante in Havana, Cuba to the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City. He has been a featured artist at the North Bay Hip Hop Theater Festival, the White Privilege Conference, the Felonious Theater Series, and the Intersection for the Arts’ Hybrid Project and has performed locally at La Peña Cultural Center, Project Theatre Artaud, UC Berkeley, and the Palace of Fine Arts.Ariel is the Artistic Director of the Free Land Project, a member of Intersection for the Arts’ Intersection Incubator program. The Free Land Project produces dynamic hip hop theater performance art, educational materials and cultural events throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Ariel also organizes and emcees the annual cultural arts event Thangs Taken rethinking thanksgiving at La Peña Cultural Center. He is a graduate of Teatro Visión’s Instituto de Teatro, June Jordan’s Poetry for the People at U.C. Berkeley and the East Bay Institute for Urban Arts. Ariel has also trained extensively with Wavy Gravy and Patch Adams at Camp Winnarainbow and Augusto Boal at Theatre of the Oppressed workshops.
Free Land is a dynamic hip hop theater solo show written and performed by Ariel Luckey, directed by Margo Hall and scored by Ryan Luckey. The show follows a young white man’s search for his roots as it takes him from the streets of Oakland to the prairies of Wyoming on an unforgettable journey that will change him forever. During an interview with his grandfather he learns that their beloved family ranch was actually a Homestead, a free land grant from the government. Haunted by the past, he’s compelled to dig deeper into the history of the land, only to come face to face with the legacy of theft and genocide in the Wild Wild West. Caught between the romantic cowboy tales of his childhood and the devastating reality of what he learns, he grapples with the contradictions in his own life and the possibility for justice and reconciliation. Free Land challenges us to take an unflinching look at the truth buried in the land beneath our feet. Check out this 5 min clip of Free Land...
