ZiggZaggerZ the Bastard

Website

Expertise

Performance Poetry and Transmedia

Bio

ZiggZaggerZ the Bastard, a.k.a. Shannon Theus, is a transmedia artist, performance poet, and cosplayer.  The cosmic world of ZiggZaggerZ the Bastard, Queen of the Damaged, explores how radical black becomings afford inventive escapes, reimaginings, and adaptations to markers of disability, gender, and race. ZiggZaggerZ is author and publisher of the two-part zine The Bastard’s Manifesto, in which she calls for the revolution of human identity through alien becoming, lived science fiction, and cosplay. Living with photophobia, and as a distanced daughter of Arkestra drummer Sonship Theus, ZiggZaggerZ inhabits a dark universe that eschews the light of the sun and its sons. By inventing black feminist spaces of cosmic solace, ZiggZaggerZ embraces interventionist and poetic forms of black alien and post-apocalyptic expression. As a professional cosplayer, Shannon Theus debuted on The View with Whoopi Goldberg, performing as Frank Beddor’s Wonderland character Queen of Clubs. She has cosplayed at international comic-cons and festivals as JetSeer, Uhura, Queen Hippolyta, Wonder Woman, Kali, Kiko, Leeloo, and MadCatwoman. ZiggZaggerZ is the lead cosplayer in a short documentary futurist film directed by tobias c. van Veen, LOST ALIEN. Distributed by Cinema Politica, it will be released in Fall 2018. ZiggZaggerZ has performed as an invited keynote speaker at the 2018 Our_Futures conference at Quest University, Canada, and as a panelist at the 2017 Science Fiction Research Association. ZiggZaggerZ is also a dedicated environmentalist and Recording Secretary of Culver City Democratic Club. As part of efforts to stop oil fracking in Los Angeles, ZiggZaggerZ has turned cosplay into causeplay, performing Gamora in public interventions at Culver City Hall. Ziggy’s cosplay and poetry has been featured in publications including Pique Newsmagazine and the Journal Women and Language. Her cosplay appears on Instagram @ZiggZaggerZ, her poetry, images, and writing at ZiggZaggerZ.com, and her zines and photos are available through ZiggZaggerZ.BigCartel.com