Philadelphia-based artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase is one of the most sought after painters from a growing pool of young, queer, POC artists. His lush, colorful, mixed-media depictions of often taboo subjects – sex, queerness, and the black male body – are energetic in a way that seem the set the still images in motion.
For some queens, though, drag is about more than just developing a persona and lip-syncing to dance hits on stage. Meet three drag queens who have combined activism with drag, and have fought for everything from queer and trans rights to anti-violence efforts.
The journey of Drag Race from the US to the UK has exposed some of the geographical and regional differences between the forms. And it has also highlighted some polarized thinking in drag culture that needs further disruption.
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.
Queerspace Magazine, in partnership with Lifelong, presents the HEYO Interview Series, filmed live at the Big Queer Talent Show at Seattle’s Vera Project. In this episode, your host Lilith welcomes trans masculine drag artist Stasia Coup, who talks about his preference for a beautiful, gentle, artistic masculinity and how the art of drag allows him to also portray his feminine side.
Recent strides, and stumbles, in the of area queer representation in media have again put a spotlight on the question of who are the most appropriate people to play the roles of trans and nonbinary characters in TV and movies. While cisgender actors have frequently been used to play trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming roles, their lack of perspective when it comes to dealing with questioning gender, combined with the serious lack of roles like that to audition for, point to the need for more opportunities for trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people to be able to tell their own stories – like these three actors, who have been making a big splash taking on the roles of trans and nonbinary characters.
Queerspace Magazine, in partnership with Lifelong, presents the HEYO Interview Series, filmed live at the Big Queer Talent Show at Seattle’s Vera Project. In this episode, your host Lilith welcomes trans poet and spoken word performer Ebo Barton, who talks about dealing with family while coming out and the struggles of being queer and trans in the Navy.
Audience members at The Timbre Room witnessed five artists performing acts of radical self love. The artists were challenged to pull back the curtains on the emotional trauma that inspired their performances. Hosts Lillith and Stasia Coup, along with dance performers The Drama Tops, burlesque artist Britt Brutality, and drag artist Angel Baby Kill Kill Kill each gave us their artistic interpretations of a broken heart, followed by a short, intimate conversation on stage about just what makes their broken hearts tick.
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.
What do you get when a dozen of the PNW’s best queer comics compete for some serious cash prize money? It’s the Outstanding: Queer Comic Competition, hosted by Bobby Higley, where you, the audience, get to choose you wins and who walks. In the episode, Chocolate the Entertainer and Genevieve Ferrari square off on stage with competing bits about dental dams and herpes sores.