Event
Information
"Makin' Cake" is more than a performance-- it's an experience! Through powerful storytelling, Dasha Kelly Hamilton takes the stage to slice into history, unpacking race, class, and culture in a way that's as thought-provoking as it is engaging.
"America tried to come for me! She started shaping her identity around the same time she intensified her relationship with cake. She tried to come for us all.”
Dasha Kelly Hamilton tells the American story of exceptionalism, class and race by slicing into the history of cake. From its inception, Makin’ Cake was originally commissioned by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center as a strategy to engage a community-wide conversation about race. The histories and basic ingredients of cake tell us a lot about access and privilege. Common folks sweetened their cakes with honey, applesauce and boiled raisins, for instance. The wealthy had pastry teams of slaves to spend days sweetening their cakes with real sugar.
In fifty minutes Dasha explores the impact of access, consumerism and race-based policies, the shifting roles of women and institutional design for sustaining income inequality and white male supremacist theory.
And cake.
Dasha Kelly is a writer, performance artist, curator, and facilitator. Ultimately, she's a creative change agent, leveraging the creative process toward human and social wellness.
Her nonprofit, Still Waters Collective, initiated literary arts programming for 20 years, creating platforms for thousands of voices to be honored and heard. The organization continues to partner on impact projects, including a creative leadership fellowship. Dasha has written for national, regional and local magazines; produced three collections of poetry; recorded four spoken word CDs; published two novels and one collection of personal vignettes; has work included in several anthologies; and performed in the last season of HBO's Def Poetry Jam. Her stage production, Makin' Cake, is touring nationally.
Dasha served as an Arts Envoy for the U.S. Embassy to teach, perform and facilitate community building initiatives in Botswana and the island of Mauritius. She was also an artist in residence in Beirut and Toronto. Dasha has been an adjunct professor at Mount Mary University, Alverno College, Bryant & Stratton, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a recruiter and mentor with University of Wisconsin’s First Wave Scholars Program. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University, an MA in Marketing Communications from Roosevelt University and a BS in Public Relations from Illinois State University.
Dasha is former Artist of the Year for the City of Milwaukee and the city’s 11th Poet Laureate. She has been named a 2020 national Rubinger Fellow and 2021-22 Poet Laureate for the State of Wisconsin. In 2021 she earned a National Laureate Fellowship award with the Academy of American Poets. This year she will serve as the endowed Social Justice Chair for Milwaukee Area Technical College.
In Banning Hall
More Ways to
Support Our
Mission
In addition to attending one of our wonderful events, there are many ways you can help support our mission.
Donate
Become a benefactor in our mission to deliver exceptional cultural programming in The Hudson Valley.
Volunteer
Join us in providing a memorable, welcoming, and entertaining experience to our wonderful guests.
Book Our Space
Create an unforgettable experience hosting your next event at this historic Dutchess County landmark.