Performance art is sacred in Seattle. Comedy, music, spoken word, and theater – shining spotlight on heart is venerated in Seattle and maybe more so in this politically-charged time. Performance is a vulnerable medium for performers and attendees, and theaters have been increasingly called out in the Me-Too era, making Seattle an exemplary study. There are as many approaches to progress as there are Seattle theaters. This is the first in a series of profiles about doing this work.
Abby Posner found a surprising queer anthem in a late-nineties punk song. She’s the first to admit punk band Alkaline Trio’s “Cooking Wine” is not a queer song but, growing up queer in rural Colorado in the nineties, she took what she could get.
Trans/Enby Yoga is Lizz’s brainchild: a twice-weekly yoga class for the non-cis folks of Seattle. “It’s a break from microaggressions, that’s what I’m offering,” they said. “It’s a little reprieve from microaggressions where people can be honest and vulnerable in their bodies and not need to have walls up around themselves.”
It’s hard not to think about today’s rapidly changing and gentrifying Seattle when listening to the latest single from Emma Lee Toyoda, ‘i don’t wanna play your show.’ The song is raw and punk, like skinning your knee on the concrete floor of a basement house party mosh pit. And then getting up and moshing again anyway. It’s a departure from the more folksy, ethereal, indy sounds of their previous work.
The Queer and Trans Youth Music Project (QTYMP) wants youth programs in the hands of the youth themselves. The project was birthed out of the legacy of Queer Rock Camp in 2016 and is a fiscal sponsee of the Vera Project. Under the umbrella of QTYMP are Camp Emerald and Rogue Rainbow. Camp Emerald is a week-long summer camp in Seattle where queer and trans youth ages 14 to 21 learn to play an instrument, join a band and perform in a show on the final night.
Smutty and salacious comic Woody Shticks has baked all his best cookies for a new show Who Cares! and fully expects you to, well, not care. Members of the audience will be given tomatoes they can throw onstage at any time, telling him to skip to the next bit. “It’s like if you’re watching a Netflix thing you can just skip the intro, skip this thing, skip this thing,” Woody explained. “Either audiences skip every piece of the show – and then the show is 20 minutes – or the opposite is true where nobody skips anything because they’re too scared to do it.”
Thriving While Trans: A Love Manual is a literary project with two heads. One is an upcoming multi-genre performance event. It will feature a number of different trans writers, dancers, and songwriters. The other is an anthology of writings, a copy of which comes with admission to the performances. Both the writings and performances focus on personal stories of trans thriving and resilience.
The sprawling, irreverent mythologies of Champagne Larry, Mae Flood, and Lazy Susan inform surrealist drag band The Loungettes.
Mary Lambert, the Seattle-area songwriter made famous for her feature on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ song, “Same Love,” is returning to the Emerald City stage Oct. 29th to play a set at the Crocodile Café. For one of music’s best – and most vulnerable – stage performers, coming back home will prove both cathartic and joyous.
If you’re a member of the LGBTQ community and play games, whether tabletop, console or mobile, there’s a robust community and resources available to you. Local groups like Queer Geek! Seattle connect players via social media and through in-person events. Diversity-oriented conventions such as GaymerX and GeekGirlCon connect participants on a larger scale and help foster conversations on better inclusion
Femmes… They hold a variety of roles and positions in our community as Leather continues to diversify and we continue the process of purging our misogyny. I had the pleasure of getting a small glimpse into the world Femmes in the kink community speaking with Northwest Handler 2017 and newly sashed International Puppy Trainer 2018 Caressa Lyric Dunn.
Queen Victoria Ortega was an activist since pretty much the beginning. Growing up in L.A.’s Boyle Heights, a neighborhood characterized by it’s Mexican American population, made it difficult to be trans, says Ortega. But being the child of activist parents taught her a lot of lessons that sit with her to this day.