Serena Chopra is a teacher, writer, dancer, filmmaker, soundscape designer and a visual and performance artist. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Denver and an MFA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is a MacDowell Fellow (Stanford Calderwood Fellow, 2022), a Kundiman Fellow, a RedLine Artist-in-Residence and a Fulbright Scholar (Bangalore, India). She has two books, This Human (Coconut Books 2013) and Ic (Horse Less Press 2017), as well as two films, Dogana/Chapti (Official Selection at Frameline43, Oregon Documentary Film Festival, QueerX and Seattle Queer Film Festival), Mother Ghosting (2018), and Dayawati, Full of Mercy (2022). She was an 8-year company member with Evolving Doors Dance and a co-founder and actor in the poet’s theater group, GASP (Denver Colorado, 2011-2018). In 2016 she worked with Splintered Light Theater on a full-length production of her most recent book, Ic, for which she composed the soundscape. She was a featured artist in Harper’s Bazaar (India), Revry, as well as in the Denver Westword’s “100 Colorado Creatives,” and has recent creative publications with the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Burrow Press Review, Sink, Foglifter as well as in the anthology Alone Together: Love, Grief and Comfort in the Time of COVID-19 (Central Avenue Publishing, 2020; Washington State Book Award, 2021). She has critical essays in Matters of Feminist Practice (Belladonna Collective, 2019), Rehearsing Racial Equity: A Critical Anthology on Anti-Racism and Repair in the Arts (Amherst College Press, forthcoming 2024) and in the republication of Judy Grahn’s The Highest Apple: Sappho and the Lesbian Poetic Tradition (Sinister Wisdom, 2023). In October 2020, Serena co-directed No Place to Go, an immersive, artist-made queer haunted house with choreographer Kate Speer and artist Frankie Toan. Serena is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Seattle University.

If interested in inviting Dr. Chopra for teaching, lectures, visiting artist workshops, retreats, readings or other performances or events, please send an email to Serena.R.Chopra@gmail.com.

 

Fellowships, Grants & Residencies 

MacDowell Fellow, Stanford Calderwood Fellow, Peterborough NH, 2021-2022

Vashon Artist Residency, Vashon WA, 2022

ArtHyve Archives As Muse Film Grant, Denver, 2018

Fulbright Scholar, Research Grant, India, 2016-2017

Redline Artist in Residency, Denver, 2011-2013 

Dance

Evolving Doors Dance, Performer, Company Member 2010-Present

Control Group Productions, Writer/Creative Assistant, 2018

Counterpath Press, Choreographed and Performed by Serena Chopra, 2014

You & Me Productions, Dancer and Performer, 2014-2015

Filmography and Soundscapes

Dayawati, Full of Mercy, film (2022), Sound, Text, and Image by Serena Chopra Action Books, Accelerants, June 28th, 2023

Dogana/Chapti, film, November 2018, Sound and Image by Serena Chopra and Kasey Ferlic

Mother Ghosting, film triptych, October 2018, Sound and Image by Serena Chopra

  • Premiere: Georgia Art Space, Denver, October 2018
  • Understudy Denver, December 2018

There Is Nothing Good About the Tyranny of Beauty, Sound and Image by Serena Chopra, 2018

“My Family’s Fears,” Soundscape and Poem composed by Serena Chopra, 2017

Seahorse Powder Room, Actor, Directed by Ed Bowes, 2017

Ic Soundscape, Soundscape composed by Serena Chopra, 2016

Grisaille, Actor, Directed by Ed Bowes, 2013

Theater and Performance Art

No Place to Go: A Collaborative, Queer, Artist-Made Haunted House, Co-Director with Frankie Toan and Kate Speer, Denver, October 2020

Celebration, Florida by Greg Wohead, Square Product Theater, Denver 2019

DioramART, Immersive Theater/Dance Performance, Choreography and Direction by Serena Chopra and Kasey Ferlic, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, November 2018

Splintered Light Theater’s production of Serena Chopra’s, Ic, Denver June 2016:

GASP, Co-Founder, Co-Director and Performer, 2011-Present

Visual Art

stills from Mother Ghosting, Pulpmouth, Issue 3, March 2020

RedLine Gallery Denver, Resident Artist 2011-2013

Shows & Exhibitions

Urban Aggregate, Understudy, Screening: Mother Ghosting, Denver, December 2018

Real Life: An Installation by Julie Carr, ATLAS Theater, Screening: There Is Nothing Good About the Tyranny of Beauty, Boulder, October 2018

Gendered Senses, Georgia Art Gallery, Screening: Mother Ghosting, Denver, October 2018

Invisible Boundary curated by Carmen Winant, “The Rejection of Closure” (Graphite, 2 ft x 12ft.), RedLine Gallery, October-December 2013

Material Engagements curated by Harmony Hammond, “Soft Architecture” (Clay, Paper, Crayon, Ink), RedLine Gallery, November-December 2012

Collaborations

Memory Is a Future Tense, a Text/Image Collaboration with artist, Lu Cong

You & Me, Dancer and Performer, 2014, 2015

Collections, a digital instillation by Bryan Leister with text by Serena Chopra, 2012

Recent Media Features

“Multi-Talented Interdisciplinary Artist, Serena Chopra,” Revry, January 4th, 2022

“Queer Memoir and Rhizomes with Serena Chopra,” This Plus That podcast, October 26th, 2021

“Queering the Age of Aquarius with Dr. Serena Chopra,” What the Folk podcast, Episode 16, December 30, 2020

“These Are Definitely Not Normal Haunted Houses. Then Again, 2020 Isn’t a Normal Year,” John Wenzel, The Denver Post, October 22, 2020

“No Zombies or Jump-Scares: This Artist-Designed Haunted House Gives You a Safe Way to Process Day-to-Day Fears,” Maggie Donahue, The Denverite, October 20, 2020

“Drive Through Queer Fear in Immersive show, No Place to Go,” Susan Froyd, Denver Westword, October 19, 2020

“Pride in Focus: Frameline Comes to San Francisco,” Meera Prahlad, India Currents, June 17, 2019

Harper’s Bazaar India, 9th Anniversary Issue (Print Edition), Featured Artist, March 2018

“100 Colorado Creatives  #8: Serena Chopra,” Susan Froyd, Denver Westword, August 9th, 2018