What’s sampson up to?
The View Upstairs
The View UpStairs is a powerful, music-driven, immersive theatrical experience presented by SecondStory Theatre Company and performed inside Geno’s Rock Club. Set in a beloved New Orleans bar in 1973, the show celebrates community, resilience, and chosen family. Sampson is Assistant Director to Tommy Walz, SecondStory Theatre Company Board President.
Get tickets here:
February 20, 7-9:30 at Geno’s Rock Club
February 21, 7-9:30 at Geno’s Rock Club
February 22, 4:30-6 at Geno’s Rock Club
Brazen Bandits
Sampson is a founding member of Brazen Bandits, a trans artist collective based in Portland.
Knowing and Unknowing is an all trans artist show at the Portland Public Library from Friday, Mar 6, to Friday, Apr 3.
My Queer Body is None of Your Business
A new song by Sampson Spadafore, available on all streaming platforms
Showing up to a Free Palestine Protest?
Here’s a song!
I wrote a protest song! Please, use it at your protest. Teach it to your friends. Sing it when you need your voice to be heard.
About Sampson
Sampson Spadafore (they/them) is a white, neurodivergent, queer and trans person currently living on unceded Wabanaki tribal land. Sampson works as a poet, writer, and theatre artist around themes of trans identity, queer and trans joy, family, romantic partners, community, grief, spirituality, and self expression. They hold a BFA in Musical Theatre from Nazareth University of Rochester. They are the recipient of the 2022 Bodwell Fellowship through the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and Hewnoaks Artist Residency. They were nominated as Portland Poet Laureate. They proudly a founding member of Brazen Bandits, a trans artist collective.
Artist Statement
I work and play in the realm of liberatory movement. My writing and performance is based in my own personal experience and identity, and while not representative of the whole of the trans experience, is a piece of the larger consciousness raising movement that has spanned hundreds of years through trans cultural icons, trans innovators and advocates, and the every-day, working-class trans person. I create for my community, and for everyone else. For those who love me and hate me, because I believe in their liberation too.
Theatre is a spiritual space for me and it is where I find myself the most comfortable and energized. Just as ancient humans once used the stage to tell the stories of and honor the gods, we humans today play as a way to see the divine in one another. My humanity is on full display when I’m on stage. I use song, dance, poetry and speech to engage, confront, and challenge audiences. I like to hold a mirror to society and ask them questions that may scare them but lead to their freedom.
Choreopoetry has become a staple of my work. I've found that combining movement with spoken word or recorded poems adds a layer of complexity to the words. It's become a somatic practice for me but also connects with audiences in an unexpected way. I continue to be surprised by choreopoems as they arise and I'm in wonder of what I continue to excavate through this practice.