Leading with Artivism

“Leading with Artivism” is a live quarterly interview series, created and curated by Poet Gold in collaboration with Arts Mid-Hudson, featuring a diverse mix of Artivists (Artist Activists) who have taken up the charge through their art to highlight social issues. We invite you to ask questions and get an inside look at the hearts and minds of these courageous creatives.

Poet Gold is a rare talent who grabs you by the heart and says “Recognize” – Poet, author, performer, songwriter, community “Artivist” and speaker, Bettina “Poet Gold” Wilkerson is pushing the boundaries of poetry and the spoken word. Living with a chronic illness since childhood, Poet Gold, or as she is affectionately known as “Gold”, brings a soul-searching insight about the human existence, love, dreams, challenges, and triumph.

Q&A with Zelda aka Judith Z. Miller

Wednesday, August 27 at 7:00 p.m. 

(Live Stream and In-Person Event at our AMH Gallery)

696 Dutchess Turnpike, Suite F, Poughkeepsie

FREE BUT MUST RSVP!

About the guest

  • Zelda aka Judith Z. Miller is a multifaceted Queer elder: visual artist, storyteller, writer, producer, budding percussionist, workshop leader, and healer. A feminist Jew who studies shamanism, she draws inspiration from nature and intuition, exploring spirituality, sexuality, gender, and Earth connection through her art.

    In 2019, her solo multimedia show Que Será, Será: A Life’s Journey of Sexual Orientation & Gender Expression was developed with support from an Arts Mid-Hudson Individual Artist Commission. In 2022 Zelda received a Jumpstart grant from Arts Mid-Hudson for continued performances. Documented by Radio Kingston, the show video was seen at Fringe festivals nationally and internationally, is archived by the Lesbian Herstory Archives, and can be streamed on HUDSY TV. She has also been awarded an NEA Arts Management Fellowship and a Fractured Atlas grant to study with master Tlingit carver Tommy Joseph in Alaska.

    Zelda co-founded the Fine Line Actors Theatre in Washington, DC, producing social justice–focused projects, including the groundbreaking Women’s Prison Project, with support from the Maryland State Department of Mental Health, the DC Commission on the Arts, and the Mayor’s Discretionary Fund. She produced the Celebration of Life Be-In in Brooklyn after 9/11 and co-produced showcases at the APAP conference in NYC, and APAP’s Presenting Latin Music at Broadway’s New Victory Theatre. In the Hudson Valley, she produced Zelda’s Happenings—black light, bodypainting, percussion dance parties.

    Zelda has led many workshops at venues such as Voices Unveiled (for women in Afghanistan), the JCC, The World Game Institute, The Field, and the Brooklyn Arts Council.

    Zelda was profiled in publications such as The Daily News; the subject of feature articles in Mann About Town magazine, Home News Tribune, In Brooklyn, the Kingston Wire, and featured on NY-1 Television and Spectrum TV. Zelda is published in Inside Arts magazine, The Washington Post, American Theatre magazine, Ecosexuality: When Nature Inspires the Arts of Love, and she was a contributor to Queeries Blog and Zine.  

    Zelda lives at the Lace Mill artist residence in Kingston, NY with her Great Dane, Mademoiselle ZaZelle.