Barak adé Soleil

In a YouTube video of his performance duo ShepparddeS, Barak adé Soleil enters the dance floor in a wheelchair, then, using a pair of forearm crutches, lifts himself out of his seat and begins to move. An artist, curator and consultant, Soleil says that while audience members may approach dancers with disabilities “with their perceptions of what a particular body may do,” he hopes they’ll come away with a new perspective. As a performer of color, his work also aims to spark conversations at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and disability. Soleil is a featured performer and speaker at the Clifford Symposium themed “The ‘good’ Body.”