Philadelphia-born, Pittsburgh-based artist Shikeith will create an experimental opera that tangles history, myth, and biography into an epic story of metamorphoses, using the elemental nature of the beach––the ocean, the ebb and flow of the tide, and the never-ending sand––to explore transformation in all its forms. The aesthetic and staging of Shikeith’s first major performance is inspired by his artistic contemplations on hauntology, a concept referring to the return or persistence of elements from the past along with African-American histories attached to the color blue. Working with choreographer Morgan Bobrow-Williams, musical artist Rashad McPherson, and costume designer Carlos Soto, as well as an array of performers from inside the New York queer community, the artist will re-contextualize dominant ideas of Black masculinity in a tale of a contemporary man whose identity is, in part, marked by the history of American colonialism.