jkjk is married couple: punk rocker and Queer performance artist khattieQ and writer, comedian, and theatre maker Jenny Larson-Quiñones. The two create devised queer performance that centers joy and disrupt the status quo.
photo by Minerva Villa
khattieQ and Jenny began working together in 2015 as part of Adrienne Dawes’ Denim Doves, a play devised with Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin, TX. They have been artists-in-residence at the Osage Arts Community in Belle, MO (2016) and performed at the Kaustinen 50th Anniversary Folk Music Festival in Finland (2017). In 2019, they participated in the Vancouver B.C. Interplay Festival. In 2020, jkjk’s Catalina La O Presenta: Now With Me was the Vancouver Fringe New Play Prize Winner courtesy of Playwright Theatre Centre in Vancouver, B.C. The performance-film screened in November of 2020 and also screened as part of the OUTsider Festival in February 2022 in Austin, TX and the Ars Nova’s ANT Fest in NYC in June 2022. In June of 2022, Catalina La O: Now With Me premiered live and was presented by the Queer Arts Festival, co-presented by Rumble Theatre, produced by From the Corner Productions, co-produced by frank theatre company, as an associate production of Neworld Theatre. In February 2023 the piece performed live at the OUTsider Festival.
Their piece Desperately Seeking Comfortable Shoes was written with support from the Emerging Playwrights Unit and the Bill Millerd Fund at the Arts Club in Vancouver, Canada and as Artists in Residence at the DeerLake Eagle’s Estate. In September of 2021, the couple participated in the Canadian Digital Dramaturgy Initiative with the Playwright Theatre Centre for their play, always boy. always boy also received development as part of NYC’s Workshop Theatre Fall Intensive, the GVTPA’s Digital Connections Co-Hort, and as a part of the New Harmony Project 2022 conference. always boy is also the recipient of a ScriptWorks Revision Resource Fund (2024). In April of 2022 their piece spring creek brook performed at Rumble Theatre’s Untrue Stories Live event. In October 2022, the two co-directed Adrienne Dawes play Casta, presented by Blanton Museum of Art & produced by Salvage Vanguard Theater with support from the MAP Fund, NEA, and M-AAA. In June 2023 they premiered their play Desperately Seeking Comfortable Shoes, produced by the Trinity Street Players. In June 2024 they presented their new comedy Death by Bad Jokes: Stop, Stop You’re Killing Me to sold out crowds.
We would like to acknowledge that we are currently building work on the Indigenous lands of Turtle Island, the ancestral name for what is now so-called North America. Specifically, we would like to acknowledge the Alabama-Coushatta, Caddo, Carrizo/Comecrudo, Coahuiltecan, Comanche, Jumanos, Kickapoo, Lipan Apache, Tonkawa and Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo.
This project was supported in part by the City of Austin Economic and Development Department.
We acknowledge the support of the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts 2020-2021. The Canada Council for the Arts is Canada’s public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. The Council champions and invests in artistic excellence through a broad range of grants, services, prizes and payments to professional Canadian artists and arts organizations.
Thank you to our donors!
Kat Sparks, Harvey and Kathleen Guion, Kris Larson, Touchstone Theatre, Lee Eddy and Macon Blair, Kalli Angel, Roberto Benavidez, Will Dibrell, Tirsa Ramos, Erik Secrest, Rob Jacques and Nitra Gutierrez, Rene Quiñones, Heather Hanna, Jay Byrd, Emilio Englade, Hilah Johnson, Laura Freeman, Natalie Vallot, Laurel Hilton, Yebuny Clark, Emily Zartman, Chris Krejci and Derek Mudd, Anna Nuttall, Andrés Quiñones, Nick Smith, Derek Rosenstrauch, Ashley Pearce, Jason Hays, JoAnn and Rupert Reyes, Stephen Heatley, Edgar Quiñones, Elle Mahoney, Katherine Hodges, Travis Hale, Frank, Leah Moss, El Casinader, Jacob Childress, Michael Joplin, Maria DuMond, Adrienne Dawes, Megan, Tamara Goheen, Rae Comeau, Heidi Taylor, Florinda Bryant, Jessica Gardiner, PJ Raval and Curran Nault, Eric Roach, Julia Henderson, Melba Martinez, Zuleyka Mendoza, Zac Crofford, Daniel Alexander Jones, Carrie Jakob, Eli Young, Lauren Dreyer, Annie McCall, Henna Chou, Sid Napier, Josh Meyer, Graham Reynolds, Sarah Saltwick, Erin Randall, Gwendolyn Barclay, Angelica Mcauley, Scott Roskilly, Elaine Holton, Adrienne Sneed, Chelsea Anderson, Julia Smith, Maddie Burns, Lise Wilson, Silky, Jorge Sermini, Edith Nee, Kayla Dunbar, Lucy Miller Downing, Kate Taylor, Kaci Danger, Cyndi Williams, Tamara Ramos, and Melicia Zaini.