Zarah at Space Acres!
Zarah Cabañas was born in Manila, Philippines where she joined her grandfather on long walks as he collected various thrown away materials from the streets. It is through these walks that Lolo taught her the value of turning “junk” into something beautiful and useful: an old tire into a flower pot, bits of lumber into a swing. Lolo’s lessons in joyful alchemy are infused in all of Zarah’s work, and a deep appreciation for magical spontaneity thrives in the heart of Zarah’s creative process.
Zarah is a video director and video artist also known as vj Lady Firefly. Her ethereal, vibrant, and mood-inspired live visual work has led to long term creative partnerships with Blue Man Group, The Roots, Dave Chappelle, Cirque du Soleil, and have been presented on five continents in stadiums and underground music/art spaces alike. Favorite artists to VJ with include Erykah Badu and Yasiin Bey. In the US, Zarah’s expressive and dreamy creations have found homes in places as varied as Radio City Music Hall, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, Essence Festival, 9/11 Memorial Gala, The Experimental Television Center, American Museum of Natural History, Tonic, Nublu, 23 Windows, and the International Poetry Film Festival. She received her B.F.A. in Film/Television Production at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she received accolades in Best Direction for her experimental film at the First Run Festival.
Most recently, she was Video Artist for Dave Chappelle’s 4-day “It’s A Celebration” run at Madison Square Garden in 2023 where she created live visuals for musical acts including Justin Timberlake, John Mayer, The Roots with De La Soul and Ludacris, and Burna Boy.
When not working with pixels, Zarah plays with trees. Zarah and her husband Matt are Co-Founders of Space Acres--a creative forest sanctuary in the Catskills of New York where they love to produce projects and events around music, video art, nature, herbalism, comedy, and wellness. She is member of bands City and Forest and Pond Wave, where she is hard at work recording a new single and a 3 song EP. Undoubtedly, Zarah is also a World Champion arnisador who represented the US National Team at the World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation 2014 in Hungary.
In 2020, Zarah founded Space Acres Botanicals which specializes in small-batch wildcrafted skin care and botanicals elixirs. Zarah is a graduate of the medicine making and foraging programs at Chestnut School of Herbs, and the botanical skin care program with Herbal Academy. She was honored to be a presenter at the 33rd annual American Herbalists Guild Symposium which featured her video art installation/research on forest bathing.
As an educator, Zarah has taught/guest lectured at Manhattan Neighborhood Network, School of Visual Arts, Boston University, and at New York University, where she was producer and digital media strategist at the Department of Media Production (NYU URPA). She was also a member of The Office for Creative Research. She currently serves as faculty member and consultant at The Homestead Collaborative College High School and as board advisor to its Academic Affairs Committee.
Most importantly, Zarah is Mom to two inquisitive and beautiful children with whom she loves to explore the world with. Feel free to connect, she would love to hear from you!
zarahtropic [at] g m a i l . com
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