Ksenya Leah Basarab

Ksenya Leah Basarab has been a musician since the age of four. Her current projects include creating music with her long-running experimental/punk/noise/prose band Ex. by V.  and upcoming ventures Zodiac Veins and solo project Low Moan Hover.  She focuses on writing lyrics taken from her essay / prose writings and original musical composition via a bass guitar, vocal / sound layering, and reaching back to her childhood musical studies of the piano. Previous work includes being the founder of Gender EDGE (2010-2013), a trans and queer punk arts activism collective whose members worked together to organize trans and queer centered music and reading events throughout Philadelphia. Ksenya continues to organize, curate, and perform within shows that feature trans and queer bands / musicians and are dedicated to artistic activism. Her current focus is social medicine, community health, and healthcare activism for vulnerable and marginalized communities. She is the co-organizer of ELECTRIFEST, a two day music / art / healthcare / wellness event centering LGBT/QPOC bands / artists interwoven with multiple workshops / panel discussions, which will be taking place in Philadelphia in April 2017.

Ben and Ksenya will produce a multi-disciplinary event that will use visual media, art, skill sharing, dialogic education, and musical performance, to develop greater solidarity with trans* and gender non conforming people in the prison industrial complex and other gendered spaces of confinement.   The event will provide an opportunity to educate members of trans* and gender non conforming communities and other participants, on how and why this issue is important to us all.  The multi-disciplinary event is also intended to strengthen community ties in an effort to generate support and to fight for justice for socially destabilized members of our communities.