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Brandon Kazen-Maddox<\/a> has always felt an affinity with mermaids.<\/p>\n \u201cWe both straddle two worlds,\u201d said Mx. Kazen-Maddox, 36, an American Sign Language dancer, choreographer and filmmaker who is nonbinary and uses they\/them pronouns.<\/p>\n Mx. Kazen-Maddox, like both their parents, is hearing. But they grew up living with their mother at her parents\u2019 home in Washington State, where their maternal grandparents, both of whom are deaf, spoke with their hands.<\/p>\n Soon, Mx. Kazen-Maddox learned to do the same. \u201cI like to say my words are just along for the ride,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mx. Kazen-Maddox has been interpreting professionally since 2012 and has worked on the Broadway production of \u201cAladdin\u201d and for former President Joe Biden, the composer Lin-Manuel Miranda and the actress Marlee Matlin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In a half-hour PBS special scheduled for Tuesday, \u201cSOUL(SIGNS): Making Music Visible<\/a>,\u201d Mx. Kazen-Maddox documented the process of choreographing, filming and performing an A.S.L. music video for Morgan James\u2019s \u201cDrown<\/a>,\u201d shedding light on their own relationship with music and sign language.<\/p>\n \u201cI see a lot of A.S.L. as an afterthought or interpretation just thrown in,\u201d they said, \u201cand it ends up not doing service to the Deaf community.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2020, Mx. Kazen-Maddox started the Up Until Now Collective<\/a> with Kevin Newbury, a director and Mx. Kazen-Maddox\u2019s partner of five years, and Jecca Barry, a producer. The collective, whose projects include \u201cSOUL (SIGNS),\u201d has a multidisciplinary focus on inclusive storytelling.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cMy Sunday is essentially five lives in a day,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n SUN, SUN, SUN HERE IT COMES<\/strong> I wake up at 8 a.m. I try my hardest not to use an alarm. I just think it\u2019s healthier. Sometimes I\u2019ll go to sleep with the windows open so I wake up to the sun.<\/p>\n SOUL SESSION<\/strong> I like to put on Spotify and play healing, meditative sound bowls when I\u2019m in the shower. It\u2019s a nice way to get in tune with my own spirituality and be grounded. Then I\u2019ll turn on something like \u201cThe Telepathy Tapes<\/a>\u201d by Ky Dickens \u2014 information that feeds my soul and my curiosity for the universe.<\/p>\n GOING GREEN<\/strong> I\u2019ll drink a smoothie or eat a pitaya bowl from Cool Fresh Juice Bar on the Upper West Side. <\/strong>Then I water my plants with my partner, Kevin \u2014 we\u2019re plant daddies \u2014 and that reminds me to be grounded and care for the earth. We have 16, so it takes about half an hour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n MEDITATION AND MUD<\/strong> Around 9:30 a.m., I\u2019ll either take the train or jump in the car down the F.D.R. to the Russian & Turkish Baths<\/a> 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\u2019re my Danger Room, in X-Men parlance \u2014 they help me practice the extremes.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll go in the Russian room, which is like 160 degrees \u2014 it\u2019s intense. And the hammam, the steam room, is this place where there\u2019s humidity. I bring my oils; I\u2019ll put lavender in the air and peppermint and will breathe them together. It\u2019s so nice for your skin, your lungs and any opening to your body.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n STRETCH IT OUT<\/strong> Then I do the dry sauna, where I\u2019ll stretch my splits, my back and my shoulders. That keeps my dance alive, and it\u2019s meditative. And it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n A SHOP THAT ROCKS<\/strong> I pop into one of my favorite stores, Crystals Garden<\/a>, 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\u2019s a good place to find gifts to send to family or friends.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n FOOD MODE <\/strong>I go to Joe & Pat\u2019s<\/a>, 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\u2019s cauliflower crust and wheat free.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Or I might go to this Japanese place called Ramen Takumi<\/a>, 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 \u2014 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.<\/p>\n Often, Kevin and Jecca will come and meet me, and we\u2019ll talk about something we\u2019re doing with Up Until Now Collective.<\/p>\n SIGN CHECK<\/strong> At 2 p.m., I head to Club Cumming for a rehearsal for a performance we\u2019re doing on April 15, the day my PBS special airs. We\u2019re going to have a public screening of \u201cSOUL(SIGNS).\u201d Then we\u2019re creating a show called \u201cSOUL(SIGNS): 3X3X3<\/a>\u201d which is all about Nina Simone\u2019s music. I\u2019m 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\u2019m 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\u2019m so excited.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n AERIAL ARTS<\/strong> It\u2019s on to another rehearsal at 4 p.m., this one at One Day One<\/a> in Dumbo with my aerial hoop coach, New York Cat<\/a>. I started writing a theatrical production of American Sign Language dance theater called (FREEDOM), which is basically my story: It\u2019s 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<\/a>, and I had never seen anyone do American Sign Language in an aerial hoop before. So I was like, well, let\u2019s do that!<\/p>\n NEIGHBORHOOD NOSH <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n MOVIE NIGHT<\/strong> Kevin and I wind down by watching a movie recommended by \u201cThe Queer Film Guide<\/a>\u201d by Kyle Turner. It\u2019s this cool book that goes through all these movies that you may or may not have thought have anything to do with queerness \u2014 like \u201cThe Fly<\/a>,\u201d for example. Who knew? If it\u2019s nice, we\u2019ll bring our projector up and watch it upstairs on the roof.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n CUDDLE TIME<\/strong> After the movie, Kevin and I will cuddle up next to each other and read our books. Right now, I\u2019m reading \u201cFourth Wing<\/a>\u201d by Rebecca Yarros, and it is so good. Those are the kinds of books that I love, fantasy with blends of strong reality. I\u2019m a big believer that what makes it into our subconscious sets our mood. So I try to make sure that whatever I\u2019m listening to before bed is positive and joyful, or interesting and fantastical, so that it affects my dreams.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n