NOAH MICKENS
PERFORMING AT SOMEDAY
Noah can be seen in the scene as well as behind the scenes in performances including Gekikai, Societas Insomnia, CACOPHONY, Batty’s Hippodrome, and Nequaquam Vacuum.
About the artist
Noah Mickens is an underground arts maven and organizer, having presented hundreds of music and performance events since 2000. His current position as creative director of Portland’s Someday Lounge continues his Work to build and participate in an International network of like-minded organizers who support one another’s work via an economy of goodwill.
His 36 Invisibles concert series at Portland’s Jasmine Tree Tiki Lounge, and other more prestigious venues, was a formative element in the experimental music revolution which arose around the turn of the millennium in that city. Through those efforts, he became associated with the arts nonprofit 2Gyrlz Performative Arts, elected to the board of directors in 2003. With 2Gyrlz, Mickens has played an instrumental role in organizing the annual EnterActive Language Festival during its initial four-year run. It was also through 36 Invisibles that he first made the acquaintance of the international Radon collective, of which he is now a member; and many equivalent groups in other cities who have intertwined to form a global network of like-minded artists at the fringes of culture who support one another’s work through an economy of goodwill.
This aspect of his work has come back to the fore in 2006. Mr. Mickens has accepted a position as Creative Director of a new nightclub and performance venue in Portland known as Someday Lounge. From now on, all his ongoing projects will be focused in this space; along with the performances of as many brilliant performers from his global spirit family as can be enticed to visit.
Noah Mickens is a musician who makes sounds with found objects and his voice, both alone and in collaboration with others. Of these collaborative efforts, the most significant by far has been the free post-asiatic ensemble Nequaquam Vacuum. During his time with Nequaquam Vacuum, he has also served as a member in full standing of The Steve MacKay Ensemble, ritual throat-singing project Soriah, cathartic neo-classical quartet Autism with Guy Tyler, Nolon Ashley, and Andrew Hansen; the afro-noise-dance band Clouds of Blood with Sam Mickens, Jherek Bischoff, Pol Rosenthal, Paul Kikuchi, and Gregory Reynolds; and The Carnival of the Damned Band with Dylan McPuke, Zombie Dan Abbot, Samantha X, Rumplestillborne, Verbaine Horehound, H.E.A. the Lobster Girl, etc. He has also collaborated live and in recordings with a wealth of musicians including Soriah, Moe! Staiano’s Moe!kestra!, The Hobo Gobbelins, The Master Musicians of Hop-Frog, The Nightgaunt Ensemble, Bill Horist, Nathan Hubbard, Sikhara, Ripit, Tom Swafford, Paul Rucker, Ishan Vernallis, The Monktail Creative Music Concern, Noancer, Joan Laage, Linda Austin, Yellow Swans, The Dead Science, and many many others. His solo four-track project, Dig the Butcher, has released a single track on a compilation CD, and otherwise lies in wait in a box full of tapes and notebooks. He was also somewhat well-known during his wild adolescence as the lead singer of L.A. blues-punk band Poor Old Timer, and before that cut his musical chops as a child vocal prodigy in musicals and choruses and with a rudimentary noise band called Tarterus.
Noah Mickens is a performance artist and butoh dancer. His explorations into movement-based performance began with his introduction to Seattle butoh troupe P.A.N., which led very rapidly to collaborations between that troupe and Nequaquam Vacuum. Over time, his relationship with these dancers led to increasing involvement in the dance element of these performances, till at last he began to practice butoh independently of his role as musical accompanist. He was made an official member of P.A.N. in 2004; and has since founded his own butoh-inspired troupe in Portland, Insomnia Butoh.
His most-developed performance project has been the nightmare opera Societas Insomnia. First conceived by Mickens, David Heifetz, and Dale Morris; Societas Insomnia brings together performers from the transgressive and ghettoized genres of pain threshold performance, S&M, and fire dancing with practitioners of the circus arts, butoh, and improvisational music. The result evokes a living nightmare, a continuing mythopoeic story arc which has been presented thus far in four chapters over the course of December 2004 – November 2005. In this troupe, Mickens plays the part of Dig, a demonic ringmaster-like figure who leads the Nightmare Comor Comedy. The Cicuri played to a sold-out crowd at Portland’s Crystal Ballroom before collapsing under pressures both internal and external during the late stages of mounting its second production.pany through butoh-esque movement and glossolallia vocals, as well as dabbling in hook suspension and the occasional firesword duel.
Mickens has also performed, choreographed and danced with Death Posture, Soriah, The Villainaires Academy, Implied Violence, The Gyrl Grip, Mizu Desierto, Alenka Loesch, Michael Sakamoto, Fredrick Zahl, Roadkill Puppet Theater, Bryan LeFay, Mya Fitzdare and on with The Cabaret Boris and Natasha Dancers under choreographer Linda Austin.
Noah Mickens is a circus ringmaster and Master of Ceremonies. His first circus project was a one-shot attempt at mainstream crossover called Cicuri Curajul, co-produced with Mr. Tony St.Clair of Third Flo
Many of the people he brought to the Cicuri became part of the aforementioned Societas Insomnia, which was initially conceived as much more of a circus than it actually turned out to be.
Shortly thereafter, Mickens was asked by Dylan McPuke of The Plaguewater Collective and freakshow mother Samantha X to co-produce and ringmaster a traveling sideshow called Thee 999 Eyes Ov Endless Dream. This show, avowed by many surviving showmen of the classical carnival era to be the only live freakshow operating in the United States, embarked on a brilliant-yet-troubled national tour in the Summer of 2005; and will do so again in 2006. The inspiring and unique souls with whom he shared these experiences, the traditional music he learned to play along with, and the growth he experienced in returning to his acting roots, have left an imprint on him that will never fade. The 999 Eyes will soon be the subject of a documentary funded by The National Geographic Society.
Beginning September 2nd, Mickens will present a monthly Victorian circus based on the real-life troupe of legendary ringmaster William Batty. This show, Batty’s Hippodrome, will serve as a framing device for showcasing touring circus troupes.
Mickens has also performed with Monkeywrench Puppet Labs, and Seattle hook suspension crew Balance in various speaking/announcing roles, and continues to don the top hat from time to time as an MC for hire, as well as serving as announcer for the many events which he helps to organize.
Noah Mickens is a director of large musical ensembles, usually improvisational. He recruited and oversaw The Nightgaunt Ensemble for Societas Insomnia, Banda Curajul for the Cicuri Curajul, three iterations of The Moe!kestra!, La Orquesta Lengua for a number of 2Gyrlz events, Consumption Junction for the 2004 Language of Consumerism event, The Little Beirut Ensemble to play with Steve MacKay at his first Portland show, and 2003’s Language of the Senses, which involved short films being soundtracked live by an improvisational orchestra conducted by Scott Nydegger via a system of lights.
Noah Mickens is a collage and assemblage artist whose work has been featured in three gallery shows; as well as gracing the covers of CD releases by Nequaquam Vacuum, Sikhara, and The Eugenics Council; and a host of concert posters.
Noah Mickens is a queer father of two, an erstwhile political revolutionary, an occasional journalist and writer of fiction, a tireless promoter, and a recovered business executive.
His work has been the subject of newspaper articles in The Portland Tribune, Willamette Week, The Portland Mercury, JustOut Magazine, The Oregonian, Exotic Underground, The Organ, Portland Monthly, The Seattle Stranger, SF Weekly, The Bay Area Guardian, The Asian Reporter, West Coast Performer, and the national arts and design magazine PLAZM.; and local television programs Oregon ArtBeat and AM Northwest.
He will continue.
Performer links
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