Louis DeVaughn Nelson

Louis DeVaughn Nelson is the founder Hokum Arts started in 2006. Nelson has worked for twenty years as a performer, choreographer, producer and director for film, theater, dance and more. His works have been shown in USA, Europe, Australia, and South Korea. Nelson was named Best New Choreographer by The Philadelphia City Paper (2007) and received a top prize for his short film "YouBahn" at the CIANT Festival of Film and New Media Art (2011), a video art film regarding the subliminal culture of art and technology in subway environments. Nelson studied at DeSales University, Drexel University and The New School and is a member of The Village Playwrights and The Dramatist Guild of America. Domestic violence, racism, sexuality, discrimination, bigotry, misogyny and the marginalization of class and social systems are frequent topics of Nelson's film and dance theater work. His most notable pieces were included in his three-part dance theatre series regarding sociopolitical warfare and sensationalism in the media in America entitled "Human Error" (2007), "Man Bites Dog" (2010), and "Until Proven Guilty" (2018). In all of these ballets he used innovative methods combining several media/disciplines collaborating with photographers, filmmakers, fine artists and performing artists. Since the pandemic - he has directed several theatre/dance productions for ZOOM, YouTube and Twitch with an aim to push the envelope in this time of burgeoning new media. Credits Include: The English Theater Berlin, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, The Festivale! GLBT Arts Festival, The Philly Dance Collective, CEC's New Edge Mix Festival, The Peekaboo Revue, The HOT! Festival, Hearts on the Wall by Dark Matter Productions, The FailSafe Festival, Sans Limites Dance Festival, Manhattan Repertory Theatre, The Secret Theatre, Broadway Bound Theatre Festival, Dixon Place, Sitting Shotgun Theatre Co., Village Playwrights, Bloodline Dance Theatre, Exquisite Corpse Company, Musical Theatre Factory/Poetic Theatre Productions, Miami Queer Collective, The Tank NYC.