2017, Sarah Brown.
About Cody
Cody La Vada is a 25 year old, New York-based multi-disciplinary artist and muse with a repertoire that primarily focuses on introspective works of self-expressionism. She has worked as an independent writer of novels, short stories, plays, film scripts, and journalism pieces, the majority of which deal with the exploration of topics such as gender identity, mental health, social justice advocacy, and the surreal border between the real and the performed, the authentic and the fabricated.
Cody believes firmly in the therapeutic effects of self-reflective artwork and explores this terrain through visual art, such as pen and ink, watercolors, photography, as well as highly-stylized theatrical performance pieces.
Cody is currently working with a variety of photographers and visual artists to continue a collaborative photography, film, live performance, and literary project (The Venus Project) that documents her transitional journey and physical metamorphosis as a result of HRT and, in the future, surgical procedures. Along with this chronicle of transformation, Cody is also working on a companion book - The Venus Complex: A Lyrical Exploration of the Self - which will compile essays, anecdotes, prose, poetry, drawings, vignettes, and (self) portraits of Cody, all working together to tell the story of her transition. It will be available in print, in its first iteration (Face A), by early 2018.
2017, Sarah Brown.
Cody already has two independently-published books: Smoke & Mirrors, a Grim Phantamagoria, which centers around a young transgender teen's quests for her true identity amid the grit of mental instability, unrequited love, and dark dreamscapes - as well as Melancholia: Lovelorn Letters from a Shattered Psyche, which is a collection of 50+ poems focusing on themes of gender, mental illness, and loneliness placed against a bleak Gothic backdrop. Cody has also worked for the highly-lauded ArtTour International Magazine in the roles of contributing writer, reviewer, and editor. Aside from this publication, her work has been featured in such literary magazines as Breadcrumbs Mag, Submissions Magazine, and Italics Mine.
Cody's work as a performance artist can be traced back to early childhood, but has become far more refined as of late, now that she has been attending SUNY Purchase since 2013 and studying both Creative Writing (in the extremely-prestigious Creative Writing program) and Theatre Performance. Cody's performances focus on the blurred line between public and private selves, as well as the concept of identity, sex, and gender being performed and socially-fabricated constructs. Having worked as an actress, occasional dominatrix, freelance model, and nightlife personality has given Cody a wide array of experience to draw from, and her pieces consistently manage to simultaneously shock, delight, appall, and illuminate various facets of the darker, less-traversed parts of human existence.
Aside from work as an artist, performer, and writer, Cody is also a scholar, social justice advocate, and lecturer. She has organized and delivered numerous speeches about transgender rights, history, politics, bodies, and identities - both independently and in collaboration with GLSEN. College psychology departments and LGBTQ clubs have specifically enlisted Cody to appear as a guest speaker, the results of which have created wildly successful symposiums about identity, bodies, gender performativity, and the harmful policing of gender. Cody plans to continue this advocacy through her public persona and is currently seeking new and unexplored venues for such discussions. If you are interested in collaborating with Cody, feel free to contact her.
In 2016, Cody was a recipient of the Edgar Richards Scholar Award, and a guest of honor at the award ceremony, hosted at the historic Riverside Church in NYC on behalf of Maranatha: Riversiders for LGBT Concerns. In 2017, on top of being the Keynote Speacker for the GLSEN Hudson Valley Annual Leadership Awards, as well as the Student Speaker at the 2017 SUNY Purchase Commencement Ceremony, she was accepted to join the New York branch of the Teach for America Corps, where she will continue her advocacy for the freedom of safe self-expression among all young people.
Cody flourishes the most in places that facilitate an atmosphere of passion and creative freedom, and works diligently to spread messages of love, acceptance, and education through art, discussion, and performance. With works that have been called "shockingly insightful," "commanding yet vulnerable," "unexpectedly moving," and "a striking blend of glamour and grotesquerie," Cody hopes to continue pioneering new and profound ways to express personal inner struggles, identity, and marginalized human experience, while also normalizing the existence of trans individuals.
