Brandon Kazen-Maddox has always felt an affinity with mermaids.
“We both straddle two worlds,” said Mx. Kazen-Maddox, 36, an American Sign Language dancer, choreographer and filmmaker who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.
Mx. Kazen-Maddox, like both their parents, is hearing. But they grew up living with their mother at her parents’ home in Washington State, where their maternal grandparents, both of whom are deaf, spoke with their hands.
Soon, Mx. Kazen-Maddox learned to do the same. “I like to say my words are just along for the ride,” they said.
Mx. Kazen-Maddox has been interpreting professionally since 2012 and has worked on the Broadway production of “Aladdin” and for former President Joe Biden, the composer Lin-Manuel Miranda and the actress Marlee Matlin.
In a half-hour PBS special scheduled for Tuesday, “SOUL(SIGNS): Making Music Visible,” Mx. Kazen-Maddox documented the process of choreographing, filming and performing an A.S.L. music video for Morgan James’s “Drown,” shedding light on their own relationship with music and sign language.
“I see a lot of A.S.L. as an afterthought or interpretation just thrown in,” they said, “and it ends up not doing service to the Deaf community.”
In 2020, Mx. Kazen-Maddox started the Up Until Now Collective with Kevin Newbury, a director and Mx. Kazen-Maddox’s partner of five years, and Jecca Barry, a producer. The collective, whose projects include “SOUL (SIGNS),” has a multidisciplinary focus on inclusive storytelling.
As a person who yo-yos between various projects, Mx. Kazen-Maddox loves having a home base in a cozy duplex on the Upper West Side of Manhattan along the Hudson River, where they live with Mr. Newbury, 47, and more than a dozen plants.
“My Sunday is essentially five lives in a day,” they said.
SUN, SUN, SUN HERE IT COMES I wake up at 8 a.m. I try my hardest not to use an alarm. I just think it’s healthier. Sometimes I’ll go to sleep with the windows open so I wake up to the sun.
SOUL SESSION I like to put on Spotify and play healing, meditative sound bowls when I’m in the shower. It’s a nice way to get in tune with my own spirituality and be grounded. Then I’ll turn on something like “The Telepathy Tapes” by Ky Dickens — information that feeds my soul and my curiosity for the universe.
GOING GREEN I’ll drink a smoothie or eat a pitaya bowl from Cool Fresh Juice Bar on the Upper West Side. Then I water my plants with my partner, Kevin — we’re plant daddies — and that reminds me to be grounded and care for the earth. We have 16, so it takes about half an hour.
MEDITATION AND MUD Around 9:30 a.m., I’ll either take the train or jump in the car down the F.D.R. to the Russian & Turkish Baths in the East Village, where I spend a good four hours, at least, working on my body, mind and spirit. The baths are so special because they’re my Danger Room, in X-Men parlance — they help me practice the extremes.
I’ll go in the Russian room, which is like 160 degrees — it’s intense. And the hammam, the steam room, is this place where there’s humidity. I bring my oils; I’ll put lavender in the air and peppermint and will breathe them together. It’s so nice for your skin, your lungs and any opening to your body.
When I can afford it, I get a series of treatments: a mud massage with mud from Israel, a salt scrub and a soap wash. When they apply the mud, they let it dry for 15 to 20 minutes, during which time I meditate.
STRETCH IT OUT Then I do the dry sauna, where I’ll stretch my splits, my back and my shoulders. That keeps my dance alive, and it’s meditative. And it’s a little bit of a display of, like, take care of your body, everybody. I also love the cold plunge because, when I go in, I think about what it feels like to be in outer space, and what it feels like to be at the bottom of the ocean.
A SHOP THAT ROCKS I pop into one of my favorite stores, Crystals Garden, which is across the street from the baths. They have dream catchers, incense, plants and a whole slew of crystals and rocks and handmade things. It’s a good place to find gifts to send to family or friends.
FOOD MODE I go to Joe & Pat’s, which is just around the corner, and order a cauliflower crust pizza. They have this amazing broccoli rabe, and I put that on the pizza, which is red sauce and pepperoni. And then I put their cheesy Alfredo sauce on top of it all. I can eat the entire thing after a morning at the baths, and it makes me feel really great because it’s cauliflower crust and wheat free.
Or I might go to this Japanese place called Ramen Takumi, which is at the northeast corner of Washington Square Park. The Steinhardt roll is my favorite. I love that area, which is very much a home base for me — when I was at school at N.Y.U., I would always be around Washington Square Park and walking through the Village. They also have cool comic book stuff on the walls.
Often, Kevin and Jecca will come and meet me, and we’ll talk about something we’re doing with Up Until Now Collective.
SIGN CHECK At 2 p.m., I head to Club Cumming for a rehearsal for a performance we’re doing on April 15, the day my PBS special airs. We’re going to have a public screening of “SOUL(SIGNS).” Then we’re creating a show called “SOUL(SIGNS): 3X3X3” which is all about Nina Simone’s music. I’m asking three Black soul jazz singers to each pick a Nina Simone song to sing, and then I will be signing, and the jazz pianist Lance Horne will be playing on keys. And I’m going to work with a deaf director of artistic sign language, Patrice Creamer, to translate all three of these songs from my perspective and with her guidance. I’m so excited.
AERIAL ARTS It’s on to another rehearsal at 4 p.m., this one at One Day One in Dumbo with my aerial hoop coach, New York Cat. I started writing a theatrical production of American Sign Language dance theater called (FREEDOM), which is basically my story: It’s about a Black queer child raised in a white deaf family. I wanted to add an element that would keep my body really strong, which is an aerial hoop, and I had never seen anyone do American Sign Language in an aerial hoop before. So I was like, well, let’s do that!
NEIGHBORHOOD NOSH I get home around 6:30 and cook dinner with food that Kevin picked up from Westside Market, our favorite market. Their Portuguese kale soup is phenomenal.
MOVIE NIGHT Kevin and I wind down by watching a movie recommended by “The Queer Film Guide” by Kyle Turner. It’s this cool book that goes through all these movies that you may or may not have thought have anything to do with queerness — like “The Fly,” for example. Who knew? If it’s nice, we’ll bring our projector up and watch it upstairs on the roof.
CUDDLE TIME After the movie, Kevin and I will cuddle up next to each other and read our books. Right now, I’m reading “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros, and it is so good. Those are the kinds of books that I love, fantasy with blends of strong reality. I’m a big believer that what makes it into our subconscious sets our mood. So I try to make sure that whatever I’m listening to before bed is positive and joyful, or interesting and fantastical, so that it affects my dreams.
