2005 POINT SCHOLARS

Yve Laris Cohen

University of California, Berkeley

Dance and Performance Studies
Practice of Art

Multidisciplinary artist Yve Laris Cohen aims to foster a richer public understanding of transgender issues through his creative endeavors.  Through work that ranges from multimedia installations and video/performance art pieces to dance choreography projects, Yve is concerned with reconstituting subjectivity within fine arts discourse, often by placing himself as the work’s (transgender) subject.   Yve’s most recent research involves intersections and affinities among representations of disability and gender variance within movement-based performance.  Yve’s presence as a transgender-identified person in the contemporary dance community challenges the rigid gender binary system upon which the discipline has traditionally been based.  Yve has coordinated and spoken at numerous conferences and summits that aim to empower youth to combat racism, cissexism, heterosexism, classism, and other interconnected oppressions in their schools and communities.  Following his own queerphobia-motivated sexual assault in his first semester of college, Yve spearheaded a grassroots campaign to expose faulty reporting of rape statistics on campus, and has since been an outspoken activist in the struggle to end hate-based violence.  Yve has focused his most recent political organizing efforts on defending affirmative action and immigrants’ rights.

In Yve's own words: “The notion that we are powerless in the face of insurmountable challenges is an illusion. We have the power. I am committed to cultivating that collective strength to fight injustice.”