Out on the Fringe: Shamamian shakes the earth she loves

Louisine Shamamian
(photo: Kyle MaKrauer)

Courage can take many different forms. Comic Louisine Shamamian binds together distinct forms of true courage in her new monologue, Shake the Earth (FringeNYC), directed by Misti B. Wills. But don't expect one of her standup routines or her offbeat "lesbian matchmaker to the straights" videos.

While Shake the Earth has sweetly amusing moments, its Armenia-born writer-performer earnestly imparts two stories--her immigrant youth and coming out in Brooklyn and the Turkish oppression and slaughter of its Armenian population, including members of her family. This year marks the centenary of the Armenian genocide, a crime still denied by the Turkish government. In fact, in today's Turkey, it's criminal to even breathe the words "Armenian genocide." Shamamian breaks all silence--personal and political.

First, she charms us with family portraits and vignettes. As a kid, her red shock of hair and her size made her stand out; her kin called her "a red round tomato." There were enormous, festive gatherings with "women cooking for days." She recites a litany of food and its flavorful ingredients, the music, the dancing. You know how it goes--familial and, even to this Bajan-American, instantly familiar, the same sort of memories for many in an audience hailing from around the American melting pot.

Curious about the odd eating habits of one relative, the young Shamamian began asking questions and eventually researching the genocide with a "passion for a mythical place," her Armenia. At the same time, another life-altering passion stirred--a crush on a beautiful Black butch who returned her interest. Her sweetheart "didn't entertain shame." They became the first openly queer couple in their high school.

Shamamian took a big step in coming out to her mother. I don't know if the comic is aware of this, but her mom's initial reaction ("There are no gay people in Armenia!") syncs up perfectly with the words of comedian Margaret Cho's mom ("There are no gays in Korea!") in Cho's I'm The One That I Want performance. Some day, these two mothers--both of whom came around because they love their daughters--should really get together.

On occasion, Shamamian falls into a didactic tone that feels arid and artificial. There must be more efficient ways to impart facts than these flat, inserted teachings. (Expand the brief notes on genocide in your program? Project some text on the curtain behind you?) But she hits her high point with a recounting of one man's amazing escape from a Turkish work camp near Aleppo, Syria. We learn the source of her dedication to accurate history and honesty about the continued threat to Armenians and Kurds.

"Hold this information with me today," she says. "It is all I ask."

In accordance, each audience member receives a forget-me-not pin--the centennial symbol not only of past suffering but also the hoped-for unity, futurity and eternity of the Armenian people.

Remaining performances of Shake the Earth:

Saturday, August 22 (7pm)

Monday, August 24 (2pm)

Saturday, August 29 (8:45 pm)

For information and tickets, click here or here.

Read an interview with Shamamian here.

For information on all programming of the 2015 New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), continuing through August 30, click here.

Spectrum

121 Ludlow Street (between Delancey and Rivington Streets), 2nd floor,  Manhattan

(map/directions)

Wanda Sykes interviewed by Judy Gold at 92Y

Wanda Sykes
(photo: Malcolm Jason Low)

If the delightful, Emmy-winning Wanda Sykes were to be offered Jon Stewart's Daily Show, would she take it?

After all, wouldn't it be great to have a woman--and, way better still, an out, activist lesbian of color--running with the late-night wolves?

Wanda Sykes
(photo: Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

With Judy Gold at right, Wanda Sykes greets fans at 92Y.
(photo: Malcolm Jason Low)

The Daily Show correspondent Jessica Williams, touted all over social media as a top choice, has recently asserted that she does not want this challenge. A nation--well, a nation of women of color--might well turn their lonely eyes to Sykes who, for a short time, did host her own late-night talk show on Fox.

She's not saying yes. But she's not exactly saying no. At least, during her 92Y conversation last night with Emmy-winning colleague Judy Gold, she seemed to keep a fan's hope alive.

"How can you follow Jon Stewart? He was so good," Sykes first responded to the question. "Who knows?"

After citing family priorities, though, she added, "But if they asked me, how could you not?"

Pay attention to that last sentence. "But If they asked me" is far from a casual line with this particular talent. As Sykes outlined her pathway in the entertainment business--as multifaceted comedy writer and performer--it became clear that she's consistently approached and invited by folks like Chris Rock and Larry David who know she's right for their projects. Listening carefully to Sykes's history, Gold noted, with a flicker of envy and shade, that Sykes seems to never have had to audition for a part. The industry knows her worth. Even the Obamas know her worth, tapping her in 2009 to be the featured entertainer at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner--a first for a Black woman or anyone queer.

Gratitude is a big operating principle for Sykes, as it should be, given the blossoming of her career, love life and family life as wife to Alex and co-mom to their twins. If truth be told here, Sykes has got to be one of the luckiest people in showbiz.

Although it might be inscribed "in the US Constitution," as the two comics joked, that late-night talk shows have to hosted by white men, surely it's time for a new amendment to that constitution.

Visit Wanda Sykes's Web site here, and Gold's site here.

Keep up with happenings at 92Y by clicking here.

Lesley Gore, 68

Lesley Gore, ‘It’s My Party’ Singer-Songwriter, Dies at 68
The Associated Press, February 16, 2015

Nancy Garden, 76

Nancy Garden Dies at 76; Wrote Young Adult Novel of Lesbians
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, June 30, 2014

Programming a lesbian play? Well, we'll just shut you down!

USC Upstate closes gender studies center that booked lesbian play
by Alison Piepmeier, Charleston City Paper, May 13, 2014

Life on the Fringe: "Inexcusable Fantasies" [UPDATE}

Susan McCully

The New York International Fringe Festival

(now through August 25)

Say, do you know where you're going to be this Saturday afternoon? Specifically at 4:45pm? (Or, as I just learned, tonight at 7:30!) Well, I do.

You'll be in the East Village, at The Theater at the 14th Street Y, seeing Inexcusable Fantasies, a two-woman play written by Susan McCully and performed by McCully with Rachel Hirshorn. Inexcusable Fantasies takes up musings and memories from the perspective of an aging lesbian--one with humble charm, wired nerves and uproarious humor to burn--in a complicated relationship with her own fluctuating libido. Over seventy minutes, the tale spans several scenes, including one with a couple of rival job seekers nearly coming to blows over one's driving lust for Martha Stewart, the media empress painstakingly analyzed and finally deemed "just the perfect erotic blend of butch/femme in motion." Both actresses are gifted with deft physical and verbal adaptability--McCully, enormously so. Her total embodiment of a biker dyke trying to flex her powers of seduction is simply perfection.

This is one Fringe show that makes and keeps its promise, and I predict you're going to have fun.

You're welcome.

Director: Eve Muson

Last chance: See it Saturday, August 24 at 4:45pm. Get tickets!

WAIT, WAIT! There's a show tonight at 7:30, too!!!!

Theater at 14th Street Y
344 East 14th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues, close to 1st), Manhattan
Entrance at the big orange banner (directions)

For complete information on the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival, click here.

Life on the Fringe: "Pussy"

Maura Halloran in Pussy
(photo by Claire Rice)

The New York International Fringe Festival

(now through August 25)

Predictable double entendres abound in Pussy, a one-woman show on the ups and mostly downs of a bi-cultural lesbian affair, written and performed by Canadian-born, San Francisco-based actress Maura Halloran. Just short of an hour, the work leans heavily on character sketches and physical theater techniques, especially in the form of clever mimicking of feline behavior. Yes, an especially nosy cat--who stages one hilarious and pivotal intervention late in the story--is one of four characters the lithe and sly Halloran portrays. She also impersonates a sweet, vulnerable Canadian woman, her snobby, exploitative English lover and their watchful Russian landlady. Halloran's often uncomfortably sharp talent for the subtleties of psychic shifts and facial expressions are the main reasons to catch this otherwise modest production.






Pussy

Director: Claire Rice
Movement Director: Julianne Fawsitt

Upcoming performances:

Thursday, August 15 at 8:15pm
Sunday, August 18 at 3:30pm
Wednesday, August 21 at 2pm
Thursday, August 22 at 9:30pm

The Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre
115 MacDougal Street (between West 3rd Street and Minetta), Manhattan
(map/directions)

For complete information on the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival, click here.

"Lavender Review" e-zine plans issue on lesbians in dance

Mary Meriam edits Lavender Review, an international, biannual e-zine dedicated to poetry and art by, about, and for lesbians, whatever might appeal to a lesbian readership. For the December 2013, she plans to publish poems and images about lesbians in dance.  

She's asking: "Are there lesbian dancers? Are there lesbian poets who write about dance? Lesbians who make art about dance? Lesbian dancers who write poems?" 

If you're interested in contributing to this issue of Lavender Review--or know lesbian dancers or poets who should be included--please reach out to Mary at lavender.review@gmail.com.

Antonio Ramos and the Gang Bangers present "Neverland"

Of all the places to present a dance work that, from start to finish, features performers cavorting naked: A little theater in El Museo del Barrio, its walls sweetly decorated with scenes out of fairy tales!

Neverland--the result of Antonio Ramos's year-long residency at the museum--also seems, as a title, packed with provocation. Peter Pan and Michael Jackson zip through the mind.

Ramos's dancers--sometimes wearing wigs of glistening, fluttering Mylar or other minor trinkets and accessories--repeatedly, and repetitively, spill through the aisles or over the equally-bare stage, pumping and prancing around to lengthy dance tunes. Neverland has that certain in-your-face quality--literally: eventually, you do find yourself mooned by a quartet of dancers for what seems like hours--and a feeling of an outrageous and inescapable drug-trip version of a Broadway show. And unlike some nudity in contemporary dance, there's absolutely no attempt to tamp down the sexiness of the human body. Here, sexiness is often the point (and to that I would add, just sheer beauty and style and, sometimes in Ramos himself, a kind of ancient classical heroism). 

This work is clever as hell. Inspired by a magazine story about a homeless lesbian finding hardship and community in New York City--and, by extension, Ramos's own story of moving to this city without a job or a friend--Neverland's tawdriness easily and irreversibly slides into glamour, ritual elevation and radical badass-itude. It reminds us that dancers are the artists who profoundly unnerve and rock the system by putting their bodies front and center all the time, even when fully clothed. So, when they're unclothed (and foregrounding sexuality) in a society with serious issues about the body and embodiment, they're making revolution. 

"Let your whole body talk," sings RuPaul in a song on Neverland's soundtrack.
These dancers demonstrate that, no matter the context or circumstances, we can express ourselves with creative energy and pride.

So, hats off--if nothing else, for the moment--to Ramos and Joey Kipp, Adele Loux-Turner, Saúl Ulerio and Rebecca Wender--for braving this hour+ work and to Amanda K. Ringger for gloriously lighting it. And, while I'm at it, a tip of the hat to Charles Rice-Gonzalez for giving us, for once, the clearest, most helpful answer to that perennial question: "Okay, so, what the heck does a dancemaker's dramaturge do?" This one has done a very good job.

For more information on El Museo del Barrio's exhibitions and programs, click here.

Acclaim for controversial film about lesbians at Cannes fest

'Blue Is The Warmest Color,' Lesbian Film At Cannes With Explicit Sex, Draws Praise From Critics
by Christopher Rudolph, The Huffington Post, May 24 2013

"Dance is the air I breathe": Janine Williams

Choreographer Janine Williams, profiled in the 1998 documentary, 

"Positive Addiction: The Artists' Passion"

Director: Andrew Guidone

Poets as activists, activists as poets

POETRY+ACTIVISM+IDENTITY, OH MY!!

A celebration, discussion and reading with 

Susan Sherman and Kathy Engel

Wednesday, March 27 (7pm)

at Bluestockings

Sharing personal experience and their own work, these two poet/activists will examine the fulfilling but often problematic relationship of poetry/identity and activism, as well as celebrate the NYC launch of Susan Sherman's new collection of poetry, The Light that Puts an End to Dreams (Wings Press).

For over thirty years, Kathy Engel has been a cultural worker, writer, educator, producer and consultant in the meeting place of imagination and social justice/change. Her books include Ruth's Skirts (IKON, 2007) and We Begin Here: Poems for Palestine and Lebanon, co-edited with Kamal Boullata. (Interlink Publishing, 2007). In 2012, she was Featured Poet at the Split This Rock Poetry Festival, and a fellow at the Hedgebrook Women Writers Retreat.

Poet, playwright, co-founder of IKON magazine, Susan Sherman, has published five collections of poetry, and a memoir, America's Child: A Women's Journey through the Radical Sixties (Curbstone, 2007). Intense political poems, intimate love poems and provocative reflections characterize her new collection, the journey of one woman intimately involved with "many of the most important events of our time, including feminism and gay liberation, anti-war activism, and the movements in Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Cuba.

Free admission

Bluestockings
172 Allen Street (between Stanton and Rivington Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)
212-777-6028

Women, spirituality, healthy relationships: a talk at BAAD

I'm happy to announce that I've been asked to give a talk at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD) on the topic of spirituality and healthy relationships, specifically for queer women and transpeople.

Sunday, February 17 (5:30-7:30pm)

Admission is free, and this informal, interactive talk will be followed by a free screening of Cheryl Dunye's film, co-written with Sarah Schulman, Mommy is Coming ("a sassy, raunchy, romantic sex comedy set in the edgy underground of Berlin where love and taboo affairs collide.")

Light refreshments will be served.

Click here to RSVP or call 718-482-5223.

BAAD
841 Baretto Street, The Bronx
(map/directions)

Time to get "Writeous"

Writeous! 

Friday, January 11 

(7:30pm; doors open at 6:30pm)

at the Brecht Forum

An evening of readings, performances, and music celebrating Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice's Lesbian Writer's Fund and supporting its Global LGBT Arts Fund.

Featuring the words of Urvashi Vaid, Lenelle Moise, Staceyann Chin, Jacqueline Woodson; the music of Imani Uzuri; and beats by DJ Tikka Masala

$20 (No one turned away for lack of funds)
Food and WitchesBrew drinks available for purchase

Venue is wheelchair accessible through ramp in rear courtyard. If you need any further information about accessibility, please email development@astraeafoundation.org

For tickets, click here.

Brecht Forum
451 West Street (between Bank and Bethune Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Margaret Morrison's "Home in Her Heart"

Margaret Morrison and Ericka L. Hart in Home in Her Heart

Home in Her Heart, a new play by Margaret Morrison--better known for her sharp and personable tap dancing--deals with the complexities of race and queer identity in a particularly fraught time for the world. It is 1939. Hitler's shadow looms over Great Britain, and two popular American entertainers based in London--a singing, tap dancing male-impersonator and her gifted pianist--face a wrenching decision. They must evacuate. Still, as difficult as it will be to leave secure careers, that may be the least of their problems.

Both women, they are deeply in love and, quite clearly, in lust. One is white and Jewish (Morrison), the other, Black and Christian (Ericka L. Hart). The dilemma of returning together, openly, as a couple to their segregated homeland and, in the case of the pianist, a potentially homophobic family, cause the lovers to painfully confront assumptions they have made about their individual lives and choices, their treasured, private relationship and how they relate to the outside world.

Someone told me that, since its initial showing in April at the 2012 Left Out Festival (created by the play's director Cheryl King), Home in Her Heart has been reworked to beef up the characterizations. After all, a two-character play--and one addressing issues of this magnitude and consequence--really needs to have characters with depth and plausibility. This enhancement, with more backstory for each character, occasionally makes the evening feel protracted. Luckily, the two actresses make it work.

Morrison brings her fine-tuned physical expressiveness and sincerity to every single moment, even if her personality sometimes projects a bit too much for King's tiny Stage Left Studio. Hart with her more understated gleam, her blend of gentleness and contained pride, seems better suited to the closeness of the studio's space. Claire Hicks (Hart's character) is a formerly straight, proper, church-going widow who likes to insist that the dynamic, devoted Jimmie LeRoy (Morrison) seduced her. The pair's erotic chemistry is frank and believable.

If all that's not enough, throw in a few brief tap routines for Morrison in a man-tailored stripe-suit, for which the great Brenda Bufalino was choreography consultant.

Cynthia Hilts contributed the soundtrack of piano solos.

Home in Her Heart continues at Stage Left Studio on November 2, 10, 13 and 27, December 4, 11 and 17 at 7:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Stage Left Studio
214 West 30th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), 6th Floor, Manhattan
(map/directions)

Celebrate women at WORD*ROCK*&SWORD

Toshi Reagon presents

WORD*ROCK*&SWORD: A FESTIVAL CELEBRATION OF WOMEN'S LIVES 

Various New York City venues

September, 16-23

See full schedule below or check out Facebook.

Laura Flanders

September 16, 4pm: Why We Care! Opening Service: Laura Flanders, Sara Zaidi, Jacqueline Woodson, J. Bob Alotta

The Brecht Forum
451 West Street (between Banks and Bethune), Manhattan
FREE and open to the public

September 17, 8pm: My Name is My Own II: An Evening of Words by Formerly Incarcerated Women

Curated by: The Correctional Association of New York

Casa Frela Gallery
47 West 119 Street, Harlem
FREE and open to the public

September 20, 6pm: Rituals of Sound and Body led by Ola Ronke of So Hum Studios and vocalist/composer Imani Uzuri

Sacred Studio (http://www.sacredbrooklyn.com)

$10-$30 sliding scale. 30 spaces available (RSVP suggested). 5 scholarships available. yoga mats will be provided. please wear comfortable clothes, bring a journal and an open heart.

Filmmaker Shalini Kantayya

September 21, 7pm: Free screening of A Drop Of Life and discussion with filmmaker Shalini Kantayya

Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation
1360 Fulton Street, Brooklyn

RSVP http://www.restorationplaza.org/calendar/adropoflife

At last year's festival (l-r): Imani Uzuri, Alsarah, Sun Singleton, Invincible and Joan As Police Woman (Photo by Desdemona Burgin)

September 22, 6pm: Doors open for Word*Rock*& Sword: A Musical Celebration of Womens Lives.

Toshi Reagon, Meshell Ndegeocello, Joan As Police Woman, Lizz Wright, Slanty Eyed Mama, Morley, Dj Rimarkable, Alsarah, Imani Uzuri, Marcelle Davies Lashley, Sun Singleton, Allison Miller, Ganessa James, Alex Nolan, Liza Jessie Peterson, Arooj Aftab, Staceyann Chin, Christelle Durandy, Lenelle Moise, BETTY, Gwen Snyder Siegal, Climbing PoeTree

September 23, 6pm: Closing Service Kundalini Foods! To Heal/Cleanse Energize your Chakras With Chef/Healer Stefanie Kelly

Pillow Cafe
505 Myrtle Avenue, Brooklyn
718-246-2711

Get complete information here.

Call for submissions: "Her Saturn Returns," Queer Women of Color

Her Saturn Returns | Queer Women of Color Life Transitions seeks essays, prose, poetry, interviews, and other forms of documentary writing for an upcoming Anthology on women’s experiences turning 30, and/or turning 60 – when Her Saturn Returns.

Deadline: October 15, 2012

Submit on the Submissions Page or email hersaturnreturns@gmail.com for more information.

Author Terrance Dean discusses Black queer literature

Click here to read an interview with Terrance Dean, creator of Live to Tell, a panel of Black queer writers at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, co-sponsored by the Black Gay & Lesbian Archive.

Wednesday, August 8, 6pm 

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, Manhattan
(map/directions)

I plan to attend this event and hope to record and post an audio of Dean's panel which will include these notable Black LGBT writers:

Stanley Bennett Clay
James Earl Hardy
G. Winston James
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor
Imani Henry

For more information, click here.

Admission is free, but you must register (click here) or call 212-491-2040.

Una Noche de Prosa y Poesia

Las Buenas Amigas joins Bronx Acadeny of Art and Dance to promote the creative expression of Latina Lesbian and Latina Queer women with a creative writing workshop.

Una Noche de Prosa y Poesia (A Night of Prose and Poetry)

June 28, 7-9pm
Admission: Free

All works will be displayed and the installation shared with community members. In order to create the dynamic of Woman Space, this will be an exclusive workshop for Latina Women, Cis-Gender and Trans-Gender. Refreshments will be served. 

Noche de Prosa y Poetry para la Latina Lesbiana y Identificada Queer, Junio 28, de 7PM a 9PM. Este Taller de Poesia es exclusivo para Mujeres Latinas Cisgenero y Transgenero. Las esperamos! 

Abre las puertas a tus talentos creativos y artisticos.  Este es un Taller rico para Todas Nosotras en la comunidad!

BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance

841 Barretto Street, 2nd Floor, Bronx
Information: 718-842-5223

(directions)

It Gets Better: NYC Dance Community Edition

I'm going to record my It Gets Better video on Tuesday, June 5 with other members of New York City's dance community! Are you?

Join us in offering hope to LGBT youth.

Find out more and sign up (free!) here:

It Gets Better: NYC Dance Community Edition