Out & About

As LA’s iconic ‘Dragstrip’ reunites, its co-creator has eye on history

Dragstrip’s big reunion bash at Los Globos on April 22 – is an event guaranteed to be packed, since all its advance tickets were sold

Published

2 years ago

April 22, 2023

John Paul King

Dragstrip 66 (Photo courtesy of Paul Vitagliano)

LOS ANGELES – Picture, if you will, a nightclub full of diverse patrons, gathered for a communal evening of music, dancing, and gloriously free self-expression. Yes, there’s a drag show, but it’s not just on the stage; most of the people in the crowd are bedecked in the edgiest, cheekiest, most deliciously transgressive gender-bending finery they could devise, assembled from the treasures found in their closets or their neighborhood thrift stores.

It’s campy and kitschy, yes, but it’s also edgy and sexy and intoxicating fun. Outside the walls, there might be an aggressively bigoted, homophobic faction of society that would love to shut the whole thing down, but in this place, for this moment, they are powerless to stop this vibrant celebration from happening or put even the slightest damper on the joyful spirit of the mixed queer-and-allied community lucky enough to be there.

The scene above might sound like a typical evening at any number of popular nightlife venues in 2023 – despite the hateful vitriol and clumsy legal overreach of the conservative homophobes currently working overtime to try and legislate all things queer out of existence – but it’s one that could be found in Los Angeles for two decades (from 1993-2013) at a regular monthly happening called “Dragstrip 66’, and for those who were regulars it’s more than just a memory. It’s a cultural touchstone to an experience that helped to shape their lives.

Of course, it’s not exactly news that a club event like Dragstrip was spawned 30 years ago, and it certainly wasn’t the only one; legendary drag-themed events like Wigstock and TrannyShack were also happening in other big cities, launching the careers of countless queens and other performance artists who have gone on to leave their indelible mark on the art form. Though drag popularity has undergone a recent surge in the mainstream, anyone old enough to remember a world before RuPaul knows well enough it’s not a new phenomenon – though it can sometimes seem to queer elders that newer generations within the community are largely ignorant of their cultural history.

Now, as he gears up for this weekend’s big Dragstrip 66 Reunion, marking the tenth anniversary of the event’s final manifestation in 2013, that’s exactly what worries Paul Vitagliano.

Better known to queer Angelenos as DJ Paul V., he co-founded Dragstrip in 1993 with his best friend, “Mr. Dan” Derkacz – who quickly became a local drag legend in his own right as the impresario of East LA’s Cavern Club, where he has been holding court since 1994. The two men had collaborated on a few previous club events that never quite took off the way they had hoped, but when they opened the doors of their newest brainchild (at Rudolpho’s in Silver Lake), everything changed. With a crowd encouraged to dress in drag, weekly themes (like “Florence of Arabia,” “Jocks N Frocks”, and “Vegas in Space”), DJ Paul spinning an eclectic blend of music unlike anything typically heard in LGBTQ nightclubs at the time – from rock to disco, funk to hip hop, indie pop to electro, and everything in between – and Mr. Dan presiding over the festivities as “Gina Lotriman”, whose role might be better described as “ringmaster” than as “MC”, Dragstrip 66 became a local underground sensation almost by word-of-mouth alone.

“We didn’t really advertise,” Vitagliano says. “You had to find it. You had to work to find it.”

That’s because, as he puts it, there was “a synergy” around drag in the ‘90s, a radical, even dangerous aura that made it unwelcome in many queer spaces. “I like to joke that if you told any of the Levi and Leather guys back then that someday there would be drag queens hosting brunches and bingos in their bars, their heads would have exploded.”

Wonder Twins (Left), Chanel Twins (Right) (Photo courtesy of Paul Vitagliano)

It was partly this separatist attitude, perhaps, that helped Dragstrip not only to quickly attract an audience, but to keep them coming back for twenty years.

“We elevated the freaks and the misfits and the artists above the muscle men and the pretty boys,” he explains, simply. “These were people who didn’t have a place to be welcomed in mainstream gay culture, the queer kids who didn’t fit with the “cool” crowd and didn’t want to.”

There were other, even more personal reasons these “freaks and misfits” were so eager to convene each month in Dragstrip’s early years, when AIDS and a volatile political struggle for equality were an inescapable part of the LGBTQ cultural context.

“Our friends were still very sick and dying,” Vitagliano recalls. “Our daytime existence could be a living hell, we might be taking care of sick people, there was grief, and loss, and sadness – and even just once a month, for a few hours, Dragstrip was a respite from all that. It was a way to feel alive, and connected, to not feel like we were sick and dying.”

“And then when the cocktails happened, and we were told we were going to survive, that we were still going to be here, it became a different kind of celebration.”

By the time Dragstrip reached the end of its long run, it certainly felt like there was plenty to celebrate. The tide of public opinion was swinging decisively in favor of LGBTQ rights, marriage equality was within our grasp, and Barack Obama was in the White House. Why not end things on a high note?

All of this is the kind of “unwritten” history Vitagliano fears will be lost if the next generations don’t start learning about it before it’s too late – something that’s been even more deeply on his mind since the death of Helkina, who was a frequent participant in Dragstrip both before and after founding Trannyshack in 1996.

“We’ve lost a giant,” he says, still audibly shaken by his friend’s unexpected passing in London earlier this month. “These stories need to be told before the people who can tell them aren’t here anymore.”

He believes it’s particularly important now, perhaps more than ever. With conservative backlash against LGBTQ Americans in general at frighteningly regressive levels, and trans people and drag queens in particular bearing the brunt of their bigoted legislative furor, elevating our heroes and their histories is a crucial element of countering that hate in the public arena, but it can only happen if we know about them ourselves.

Fortunately, he’s prepared to do his part – in fact he’s been preparing for it over the past ten years, when as he and his cohorts prepared to stage what they presumed would be Dragstrip’s final installment, they decided to film it and build a documentary – which would eventually gain the title “Dragstrip 66: The Frockumentary” – around the footage with the archive of images, videos, and press clippings they had amassed over their two-decade run. With the help of a Kickstarter campaign that was launched to fund the movie, Vitagliano and co-director Phil Scanlon set to work digitizing all that material and assembling it into a rough cut – but since they both had day jobs, it took them years to do it. It also ate up all the money they had raised for the project.

Dragstrip patrons flank punk icon Nina Hagen, one of many celebrities who could frequently be spotted in the crowd during the event’s twenty-year run (Photo courtesy of Paul Vitagliano)

Now, on the eve of Dragstrip’s big reunion bash at Los Globos on April 22 – an event guaranteed to be packed, since all its advance tickets were sold in quick order once it was announced via newsletter to the hundreds (if not thousands) of former patrons still on the email list – Vitagliano and Scanlon are gearing up to do another round of filming, this time to capture an epilogue for their movie. They hope to capture the strong bond of community that has kept Dragstrip in the hearts and souls of their patrons across the years, as well as to contrast the stark difference between the hopeful political environment that surrounded its last appearance in 2013 with the atmosphere of extremist right-wing opposition we’re experiencing today.

They also hope to provide a crucial jolt of financial life to the documentary, encouraging the party’s enthusiastic attendees to donate on the project’s Film Independent funding page and crossing their fingers over the not-unreasonable possibility that someone among the former patrons of a highly popular Los Angeles LGBTQ club event might have a Hollywood connection or two that might be interested in helping them shepherd the project to completion. After all, Dragstrip attracted a vast array of celebrity guests over the years, and not just on the stage, where now-iconic queens like Jackie Beat, Sherry Vine, and more were regular performers, but among the crowd; the list of stars who attended over the years is far too long to publish here, but it includes more than a few famous names – including Ryan Murphy, who is known to have attended more than once while the event was still being hosted by Rudolpho’s.

Whether any of that will yield the necessary push needed to complete “Dragstrip 66: The Frockumentary” remains to be seen, but given the quick advance sell-out and the almost certain likelihood of epic-length lines for “at the door” admission, the odds might be better than most aspiring indie doc projects typically face.

Paul Vitagliano – aka DJ Paul V – being interviewed for ‘Dragstrip 66 The Frockumentary’
(Photo courtesy of Paul Vitagliano)

Either way, Vitagliano and Scanlon have no plans of giving up on it anytime soon; it’s a passion project for them both, to put it mildly. The latter even sent a statement saying us that he wants it to celebrate “an embattled LGBTQ community that learned to live and thrive again” and “to inspire all others to stand in their strength and never be silent.”

Vitagliano vigorously agrees with that goal.
“Dragstrip 66 was a lightning-in-a-bottle queer miracle,” he says. “It was just the right idea, at the right time, with all the right people creating their own chosen-family community. It was a lifeboat during a very tough time that Mr. Dan and I needed ourselves, while also providing a very necessary, all-welcoming, and incredibly fun nightclub. We really want this documentary to honor our generation, who experienced it over 20 years, and inspire the next generation to carry our torch.”

Up Next

Queer Here Cinema brings monthly film showcase to WeHo

Don't Miss

LA Leather Pride 2023 is in full swing through Sunday, March 26

FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM

Out & About

Will Alaska topple Mariah Carey’s “Christmas Queen” crown?

As she graces America’s stages with her newest contribution to Christmas culture, is Alaska threatening to topple Carey? Unlikely…

Published

12 months ago

December 6, 2023

Rob Watson

With many million followers across various social media platforms, Alaska is one of the top tier of famous drag queens. (Screenshot/YouTube Producer Entertainment Group/PEG)

HOLLYWOOD – If RuPaul, giving out crowns the way he does across Drag Race franchises, ran Christmas — Mariah Carey would be demanding to be crowned its queen. Carey was rejected in 2022 trying to trademark the title, and other stars like Darlene Love, were all for the defeat.

One queen who did not enter the fray, but now could, is RuPaul’s own classic diva and All Star crown-holder, Alaska.

Alaska launches her “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like ALASKA” Christmas show today. Opening at the Neptune in Seattle Washington, she hits San Francisco on December 10^th at Bimbo’s 365. Other stops on the tour include New York (December 14^th), Pittsburgh (December 17^th), and delivers her to her family’s doorsteps just before Christmas in Erie, PA on December 23^rd.

“My mom said, ‘It’s not going to just be Christmas music, is it??’, No. My best friend Jeremy plays the piano in the show and we have been doing Christmas cabarets for years. Our goal is to do as little Christmas music as possible in them. It’s a chance to sing songs that we love and songs we have always wanted to do. There is a drop of Christmas music, just enough to call it ‘a Christmas show’,” she tells me on a recent episode of Rated LGBT Radio.

With many million followers across various social media platforms, Alaska is one of the top tier of famous drag queens. With the RuPaul All Stars’ crown to her credit, her brand is loved and adored. The public first fell for her on the fifth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” where she finished in the final 3 before returning and taking the aforementioned crown as winner of season two of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars.”

She has released four chart-topping studio albums, “Anus,” “Poundcake,” “Vagina” and “Red 4 Filth.” With several acting credits and awards, Alaska has also released a young adult novel titled “Alaska Thunderfun and the Inner Space Odyssey,” plus released her memoir “My Name’s Yours, What’s Alaska?: A Memoir” She has toured the globe spreading her otherworldly message of love, kindness and gender non-conformity. Alaska also co-hosts the wildly popular Race Chaser podcast with Willam and co-created the Drag Queen of the Year Pageant Competition Award Contest Competition. She debuted a new live stage show in the fall of 2022 called DRAG: The Musical. She is the face of one of six featured flavors with SERV Vodka. Her latest foray finds her in the world of smells with her “Red For Filth” fragrance.

“When I started drag, it was not a viable career choice, like it is now, it was underground—this kind of strange thing that not many people knew existed, and if they did, they did not understand anything about it. There weren’t many eyes on it from the mainstream culture. Now that there is, I guess we get our turn to be a distraction so the government can not do anything about important issues,” she says.

When she first started dabbling in drag, her family was supportive, but not quite sure exactly they were supporting. Alaska describes her mother as being “protective”, and not wanting her to be subject to ridicule. “It took my family a while to understand. That was pre-Drag Race. There was no information as to what being a drag queen even was. Now my family loves it and comes to every show.”

Alaska is famous for her laissez faire stage presence, but the cover hides some anxiety. “I always get nervous when I go on stage. I am not exuding confidence; I am just doing the thing,” she confesses.

Doing the thing, she is. As she graces America’s stages with her newest contribution to Christmas culture, is Alaska threatening to topple Carey as the top Christmas diva? Unlikely.

But it will be a damned hoot to watch her try.

Complete tour dates:

December:

8^th: Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater

10^th: San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo’s 365

12^th: Montreal, QC @ Le National

14^th: New York, NY @ Town Hall

15^th: Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Hall

16^th: Boston, MA @ Big Night Live

17^th: Pittsburgh, PA @ Carnegie of Homestead Music Hall

21st: Chicago, IL @ House of Blues

23^rd: Erie, PA @ Erie Playhouse – 2 Shows

29^th: Vancouver, BC @ The Vogue

30^th: Seattle, WA @ Neptune

******************************************************************************************

Rob Watson is the host of the popular Hollywood-based radio/podcast show RATED LGBT RADIO.

He is an established LGBTQ columnist and blogger having written for many top online publications including The Los Angeles Blade, The Washington Blade, Parents Magazine, the Huffington Post, LGBTQ Nation, Gay Star News, the New Civil Rights Movement, and more.

He served as Executive Editor for The Good Man Project, has appeared on MSNBC and been quoted in Business Week and Forbes Magazine.

He is CEO of Watson Writes, a marketing communications agency, and can be reached at [email protected]

Out & About

Comedian Quincy Bazen wants you to laugh through the darkness

Up-and-coming comedian Quincy Bazen isn’t afraid to dive into the dark and scary topics in his new show, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Published

1 year ago

November 17, 2023

Special to the LA Blade

Comedian Quincy Bazen isn’t afraid to dive into the dark & scary topics in his new show, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. (Photo by Dante Velasquez)

By Rob Salerno | LOS ANGELES – Up-and-coming comedian Quincy Bazen isn’t afraid to dive into the dark and scary topics in his new show, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Family breakdowns, mental illness, suicidal thoughts, and the scariest topic of all for young gay men – turning 30 – are all fair game for the hilarious observations that make up the hour-long show that recently made its LA debut at The Virgil.

The newly minted tricenarian grew up in a military family and moved fourteen times before he finished high school, which inspired the title and much of the substance of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

“Trying to carve out my own identity throughout all those moves and all those changes was not an easy thing. Especially when you’re in the closet, right? You’re already trying to latch onto anything you can so nobody’s paying attention or asking questions about like what’s really going on behind the curtain,” Bazen says.

Bazen says the show is his way of answering the question, “where are you from?” which has always been a tricky thing to answer.

“I don’t really feel like I’m from anywhere. So, okay, what is the most authentic piece about me then I can give you? And yeah, I do struggle with mental health, and it’s been a lifelong struggle, but it’s something that I think that we have to find comedy because it’s the human experience,” he says. “I don’t want to make small talk about my life. I want to talk about it for an hour.”

And Bazen’s comedy is unabashedly gay. From bits about topping and bottoming, being selfish in bed, his monogamous relationship with his British boyfriend, and reacting to his father’s discomfort with his being gay, Bazen always finds a uniquely queer and hilarious take.

“Queer comedy kind of stands in the face of everything that queer people are really brought up to believe,” he says. “I love to get on stage and act as faggy as I absolutely can. I just love to do it and I think it’s because I’m a little rebellious. I just I hated growing up being told I couldn’t, and now I’m just flying in their faces every single day.”

Bazen’s only been doing standup for a little over a year, but he has an obvious comfort and confidence on stage that he says comes from being a theatre kid since he was a child. While he’d previously been putting on musicals and creating web series, when the pandemic hit and everything was shut down, he had to find a new way to express himself. Comedy turned out to be a natural fit.

“I’ve been type-A since I was 6 years old,” he says. “I think that’s why stand up is so fun, because there’s no rules. You’re changing what you’re saying based on how other people are responding in the room. I think there’s a sense of ease in that.”

And 2024 is already looking like it’s going to be a big year for Bazen. He’s planning a tour of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in February and has a monthly comedy showcase in Los Angeles beginning in January.

He’s also the co-host of the weekly Dom Pop podcast, where he and cohost Hayden Baker break down their favorite new and classic pop albums. That podcast will soon be holding its third annual Dommie Awards, which Bazen describes as “the unofficial Grammy Awards, they’re where the girls that you always want to win a Grammy get to win.”

All of this activity has proven to be a healthy antidote for the other major change in his life – turning 30. While he had dreaded the big 3-0 as “gay death,” he’s found instead that he’s thriving. “I feel like I was one of those really serious religious people in 2012, ready for the world end, and then I woke up on D-Day and I’m like, ‘Oh? It’s okay? I’m still here I’m still fine?’” Bazen says. “I’d like to think that I’m doing better than I was, but I’d be remiss or lying if I said that I was never anxious about it.”

******************************************************************************************

Rob Salerno is a writer and journalist based in Los Angeles, California, and Toronto, Canada.

Out & About

Queer Here Cinema brings monthly film showcase to WeHo

Queer Here Cinema happens every third Tuesday of the month at 8pm at Stache, 8941 Santa Monica Blvd. The next edition is Tues, Nov 21st

Published

1 year ago

November 11, 2023

Special to the LA Blade

Queer Here Cinema/Los Angeles Blade graphic

By Rob Salerno | WEST HOLLYWOOD – Over the last year, Queer Here Cinema has become the premiere monthly event for LGBTQ cinephiles and filmmakers to get together, network, and watch the latest queer short films and web series, and now Queer Here Cinema is setting up a new home at Stache in West Hollywood.

The new venue and regular schedule on the third Tuesday of every month provides an excellent screening environment and brings the event closer to the LGBT community, says Queer Here Cinema programmer Jeremy Rodriguez.

“I like to highlight that, because I’ve seen so many coincidences where people come here and have a great time at the club, but they’re also out there being comedians, being actors, making art. Why not make a home for all that?” Rodriguez says.

Rodriguez says that’s partly what makes Queer Here Cinema different from the bigger film festivals like Outfest and Outfest Fusion. By being right in the heart of West Hollywood and happening on a regular monthly schedule, Queer Here Cinema is building a new community of queer filmmakers and fans.

“We do now have regulars, people asking when the next one is. They’re either working on a project they want to screen, or they’re in writing something and want to get inspired, or they’re people who are coming for date night, just wanting a fun night with queer films,” Rodriguez says.

Queer Here Cinema has already attracted a high caliber of submissions, including films from overseas, and films that feature up-and-coming Hollywood stars. Queer Here Cinema recently screened Requiem, a student film by rising director Em J. Gilbertson starring The Last of Us’ Bella Ramsey in a story about lesbian desire during the Salem Witch Trials.

Rodriguez says another recent highlight was a screening of the short Worst Date, Best Date, at which Demi Moore and her daughter Rumor Willis were in attendance.

“As a lifetime fan it was just such a treat to meet her,” he says. “I don’t geek out a lot, but that’s Molly from Ghost!”

Queer Here Cinema got its start at the now-closed 10 DTLA, where Rodriguez was working last year. He had the idea of hosting short film screenings on off nights, having been to several queer film festivals in the past as a producer of short films.

“We did the film festival circuit, the non-queer festivals, and then we did the queer festivals and there was a different sense of camaraderie and that we’re all in this together, and sitting in the audience and everyone gets the joke,” he says. “I wanted to have that experience of those smaller festivals here.”

The next edition of Queer Here Cinema is happening Nov 21, and the diverse lineup of films includes Dutch animated documentary Outside the Lines, bisexual coming out comedy Bi Bi Baby, stop-motion Wizard of Oz adaptation The Tin Woods, and the horror short Kathy.

Queer Here Cinema is open to queer films and films that members of the queer community have been involved in, whether as directors, writers, actors, or crew.

“If you worked on it and you’re in our rainbow, you have a home here,” Rodriguez says.

Queer Here Cinema happens every third Tuesday of the month at 8pm at Stache, 8941 Santa Monica Blvd. The next edition is Tues, Nov 21.

******************************************************************************************

Rob Salerno is a writer and journalist based in Los Angeles, California, and Toronto, Canada.

Out & About

LA Leather Pride 2023 is in full swing through Sunday, March 26

Volunteers are always welcomed and appreciated at LA Leather Pride 2023 events. There are many opportunities to get involved and help out

Published

2 years ago

March 24, 2023

Special to the LA Blade

WeHo Times/Los Angeles Blade graphic

By Paulo Murillo | LOS ANGELES – LA Leather Pride 2023 kicked off earlier this week on March 19 and will host a series of event through this weekend on Sunday, March 26. So far it’s been a week filled with events, music, and community building.

The kickoff Party event began on March 19 at The Bullet Bar. On March 20, LA Leather Pride 2023 hosted La La Leather IV, a concert of classic and original music performed in gear by members of the Los Angeles Leather Community, at MCC in the Valley. There was also a Contestant Meet & Greet on March 23rd at 910WeHo, where contestants competing for the title of Mr. Los Angeles Leather 2023 met their supporters.

On Friday, March 24, The Assembly will be a formal leather/uniform dress code event starting at 7:30pm at Rough Trade Gear.

Also on Friday, DenLA Presents: Release!, a dance & play party for men at an all new, larger DTLA venue. Ticket includes: Open Bar! Free clothes check! Play spaces throughout.

On Saturday March 25, the Mr Los Angeles Leather Contest will be held at The Catwalk Club, starting at 5pm.

Off Sunset Festival is taking place on Sunday, March 26. This will be a day of fun, food, and entertainment for the entire community. More info OffSunsetFestival.com.

This year’s theme is “Release!”

“We live in a post pandemic world that is fraught with anxiety, worries and fears,” said Gabriel Green, Chairman of LA Leather Pride 2023. “While we are now free to move about the world, there is a cloud of uncertainty that looms over wondering what will tomorrow bring. For these reasons we chose the theme of ‘Release!’ for this year’s Los Angeles Leather Pride. Release has two meanings: to enable to escape confinement and to allow something to move, act or flow freely.”

Volunteers are always welcomed and appreciated at LA Leather Pride 2023 events. There are many opportunities to get involved and help out, including assisting with event setup, serving drinks, and greeting attendees. If you’re interested in volunteering, visit LALeatherPride.com and fill out the volunteer application form.

Get your tickets now for leather pride week at LALeatherPride.com

**************************************************************************

Paulo Murillo is Editor in Chief and Publisher of WEHO TIMES. He brings over 20 years of experience as a columnist, reporter, and photo journalist.

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The preceding article was previously published by WeHo Times and is republished with permission.

Out & About

Mark your calendar for these LA events

Art exhibits, AGT returns, and more

Published

2 years ago

March 12, 2023

LA Blade Digital Staff

The City of West Hollywood’s Artists and Icons series will host a conversation with actress, director, and concerned citizen Barbara Bain.

It’s a busy season in LA — here are our staff picks for some of the events not to miss this spring.

‘America’s Got Talent’ season 18 begins taping in Pasadena. Join Simon Cowell, Sofia Vergara, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel, and Terry Crews as part of the live studio audience for “America’s Got Talent.” Fans ages 8 and older can be a part of the star-studded audience and watch the world’s best performers in-person. It all begins on March 23 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and continues through mid-April.

Odyssey’s ‘Threshholds of Invention’ performance series presents Sandra Tsing Loh, Michael Kearns in April. Threshholds of Invention is Odyssey Theatre Ensemble’s new series, curated by actor, director, musician and performance artist Tony Abatemarco, of first looks at pieces-in-progress by prominent LA visionaries working in pop-up form. Next up in April: new work by Sandra Tsing Loh and Michael Kearns. Saturday, April 1 at 8 p.m.

“A Madwoman of the Theatre: 25 F*king Years of Sandra Tsing Loh,” a hilarious, quasi-TED-style rant revealing Loh’s past artistic ms/adventures, and an introduction to Loh’s new comedy Madwoman of the West that will star Caroline Aaron, Marilu Henner, Melanie Mayron and JoBeth Williams at the Odyssey beginning May 26.

“It Must Be Him,” a musical memoir exploring the splendor of gender written and performed by Michael Kearns, recently named the “Godfather of LGBTQ+ authenticity” by the Los Angeles Blade. Sunday, April 2 at 2 p.m., Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles

Coming up at the Zephyr Theatre on March 17 and 18 at 7 p.m.: “Steady Bad Luckers,” an evening of stories about lovable (and sometimes not-so-lovable) losers from history, brought to you by comic, stripper, queer porn archivist and historian Woody Shticks and writer, producer and podcast host Alex Steed (co-host of the podcast “feelings podcast about movies” You Are Good with Sarah Marshall). In a world full of redemption arcs and revised narratives, we remain heartened by all of the resonant losers and bad-luckers that history has forgotten. With some slides and a lot of good humor, we are eager to share some of our favorites with a live audience. Alex will tell Woody about a bad-lucker from his profession, Woody will tell Alex about a bad-lucker from his. Think live podcast, minus the podcast, plus the PowerPoint. There will be plenty of slides and a whole lot of jokes! Admission is a $15 suggested donation. Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles.

Loft Ensemble in North Hollywood has announced its next production, “Gifted” by Bob DeRosa. Directed by Jennier DeRosa & Sarah Nilsen, the cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Biniyam Abreha, Antwan Alexander II, Lemon Baardsen, Isaac Deakyne, John Goodwin, Jay Hoshina, April Littlejohn, Ignacio Navarro, Jazmine Nichelle, Danielle Ozymandias, Bree Pavey, Benjamin Rawls, Madylin Sweeten, and Nate Thurman. There will be 12 performances only, beginning Friday, March 10, and running Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. through April 2. General admission is DONATE WHAT YOU WANT. Seats may be reserved online at www.loftensemble.org or by phone at 818-452-3153. Loft Ensemble is located at 11031 Camarillo Street in North Hollywood, 91602

The City of West Hollywood’s Artists and Icons series will host a conversation with actress, director, and concerned citizen Barbara Bain, highlighting her decades-long career. Conversation will Highlight the Work of Ms. Bain, Best Known for Her Work in the Television Series ‘Mission: Impossible.’ Event will Take Place on Thursday, March 16 at 7 p.m. at the City’s Council Chambers/Public Meeting Room. RSVP is Requested.

Big Little Theater Company in association with the Los Angeles LGBT Center has announced its world premiere production of “Menstruation: A Period Piece by Miranda Rose Hall.” Produced by Camille Jenkins and under the direction of Katie Lindsay with music by Tova Katz, previews begin on March 16 with opening set for Friday, March 24, at 8 p.m. The cast will feature (in alphabetical order) Kaci Hamilton, Audra Isadora, Kate Lý Johnston, Jane Hae Kim, Jo Lampert, Bibi Mama, and Marnina Schon. Running time is 90 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $25 for previews and $35 for regular performances, and may be purchased online at www.lalgbtcenter.org/tickets. Previews are Thursday 3/16, Friday 3/17, Saturday 3/18, Sunday 3/19, Wednesday 3/22, and Thursday 3/23, at 8pm. Opening is on Friday 3/24 at 8pm, and the engagement runs through April 16 only. The regular playing schedule is Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Monday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m.

The LGBT Center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre is located at 1125 N. McCadden Place (one block east of Highland, just north of Santa Monica Boulevard), in Hollywood, 90038.

Collections this spring at the The Museum of Contemporary Art:

Henry Taylor: B Side: Surveying thirty years of Henry Taylor’s work in painting, drawing, sculpture, and installation, this retrospective celebrates a Los Angeles artist widely appreciated for his unique aesthetic, social vision, and freewheeling experimentation. Populated by friends and relatives, strangers on the street, athletic stars, politicians and entertainers, Taylor’s canvases describe an imagination encompassing multiple worlds. Informed by experience, his work conveys its fundamental empathy in close looking and sharpened social criticism alike. Henry Taylor: B Side is the largest exhibition of Taylor’s work to date.

“Long Story Short” presents artworks dating from the 1970s to the present day, drawn from MOCA’s world-renowned, ever-growing collection of more than 7,500 objects. It demonstrates the myriad ways contemporary artists have addressed aesthetic, political, and philosophical concerns in the last fifty years, whether by reclaiming public space in guerilla-style street performances, innovating new forms, commemorating loves and losses, challenging the hierarchy of art and craft, or rethinking the conventions of portraiture. By exhibiting artworks that are widely regarded as hallmarks of the museum’s collection alongside lesser-known pieces, recent acquisitions, and artworks that have never previously been on view at MOCA, Long Story Short reminds us that art history, and history more broadly, is made in the present.

“Our Voices, Our Getty Reflecting on Drawings,” Feb. 7–April 30, GETTY CENTER. Explore a selection of rarely seen drawings from the Museum’s collection, accompanied by personal interpretations written by the 2022 cohort of interns from the Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship program. Contemplative, creative, and sometimes questioning, the students’ reflections cast these drawings in a new light. Getty Center, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles.

Out & About

Behold! Queer film & performance series continues

Event is pay what you can w/RSVP in person at HIGHWAYS PERFORMANCE SPACE, 1651 18th St, Santa Monica, CA 90404 RSVP & info at Highways.org

Published

2 years ago

February 8, 2023

LA Blade Digital Staff

HIGHWAYS PERFORMANCE SPACE (Photo Credit: 18th Street Arts Center)

Out & About

“Fully Lit” plays LA’s The Wiltern Thursday

“This is my first time, touring, in a major way since the pandemic,” she noted. “Now, honey, it’s ready to set the nation on fire”

Published

2 years ago

January 24, 2023

Scott Stiffler

Photo by Davide Laffe

NEW YORK – Who needs to “Hark” when you can “Halleloo”? Heralding its impending arrival in the City of Angels with the righteous reassurance of a “fierce, fabulous, and fiery” experience that flat screens and social distancing simply cannot supply, the Fully Lit Tour is a live stage show starring actor, performer, drag entertainer (and, yes, dancer) D.J. “Shangela” Pierce.

“It’s gonna be high-energy. It’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be on-stage performances and never-before-heard, behind-the-scenes stories, many of them about celebrities, as well as custom mixes, death drops, and more, baby,” said Shangela, of what to expect when the tour plays LA’s the Wiltern on Thursday, January 26.

The three-season “RuPaul’s Drag Race” contestant—still basking in the dewy glow of cinematic cred earned from her screen time with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in 2018’s “A Star is Born”—saw that upward trajectory continue, as one of three peripatetic drag ambassadors in the three-season HBO series “We’re Here.” Alongside Bob the Drag Queen and Eureka O’Hara, the trio travels from town to town, coaching and coaxing budding drag kids out of their shells, while angling to win heartland hearts and pry open closed minds (more on that later).

For the longest time up until now, having the “We’re Here” crew arrive unannounced at your humdrum day job was the only way to score same-room time with Shangla. This tour, she assures, changes all of that.

But why “Fully Lit”? It’s so named, said Shangela, “because I’ve always had a spark for entertaining. But when I first started drag, that spark was lit even more in me. And now, through all of these fun, amazing milestones I’ve experienced in drag, I like to consider myself Fully Lit. So I’m gonna be sharing a lot of what’s led me to this moment,” she says, of a show that was conceived, written, and executed as a statement “about connecting people. Since the pandemic, we had to be so distant from each other—and now I’m really excited to come with a show that’s going to bring us all back together.”

But beyond the longtime fans for which Fully Lit functions as a mother and child reunion, Shangela says newbie fans will not emerge disappointed if they came to see the first drag entertainer to compete on “Dancing with the Stars” (and come in fourth, no less). Mentions of that recent gig, which launched her into the household name stratosphere, are liberally peppered throughout our interview.

Savvy Shangela, always able to cut a rug but never known as a top-tier hoofer, won’t be passing on the opportunity to parlay her DWTS notoriety into live performance gold. “My four dancers and I have been working nonstop,” she told the Blade, while steeped in rehearsal two days before the tour opened in Boston on January 19. “This is my first time, touring, in a major way since the pandemic,” she noted. “Now, honey, it’s ready to set the nation on fire… In this 90-minute show, I wanna give fans everything they have come to expect from Shangela. And I’m going to be bringing a lot of my learning and excitement and energy from “Dancing with the Stars” into this project.”

That’s all well and good, we noted, but what will she be wearing? “Well, I mean, it’s Shangla,” she shot back. “I’m not coming on stage with a pair of socks, honey.”

On the topic of naked displays and raw emotions, talk turned back to her work on “We’re Here”—which co-producer Shangela notes is not an elimination series where manufactured conflict often guides the narrative. “It’s a real-life docu-series,” she says, of the show. “I stress the words ‘real life’ because that’s exactly what we’re experiencing and that’s what I believe comes through when people watch the show.” But don’t confuse “real” with “professionally qualified.” Shangela credits the “We’re Here” track record of successfully nurturing aspiring drag performers to the fact that she’s “gone through a lot of the experiences” happening to “the daughters and drag kids I mentor. I’m not a trained therapist or licensed mentor or a coach in any way. I’m just a real person. So I try to put myself in their shoes and listen to them, but also listen to people who are not familiar with who we are and have opposition to us—and hopefully, bring them to a space where they are more open.”

Asked what she’s open to, we pointed out a rare case of box-not-checked from the pre-tour press material, which notes that as a drag performer, Shangela’s dug her heels into the good earth on six of our planet’s continents—which begged the question: Why hasn’t she parlayed this year’s career-high notoriety into a docu-series shadowing Shangela and other queens as they take up residency in the best (only?) club in Antarctica?

“Oh baby, I don’t need to take anyone with me,” she insisted. “I’m Shangela. I’m ready to do a show right on the continent. It will happen. It will happen. Hopefully by the next time we talk, I’ll be able to say, “And now I’ve done all seven, thank you, Baby. Thank you so much!”

The Blade will continue to follow this important story as it presumably develops. In the meantime, Shangela’s Fully Lit Tour comes to LA at the Wiltern (3790 Wilshire Blvd.) on Thursday, January 26, For tickets: https://shangela.com/pages/tour.

Out & About

Google’s Frightgeist released: What’s trending this Halloween?

In SoCal trending choices were Spider-Man, 1980s-theme getups, and… clowns. Google’s Frightgeist tool includes a “Costume Wizard” feature

Published

2 years ago

October 23, 2022

LA Blade Digital Staff

Los Angeles Blade graphic/Google search

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ca. – The seventh annual Google’s Frightgeist, was released earlier this week. The company utilizes search data from Google Trends to determine America’s top-searched costume ideas in the months leading up to Halloween.

This year the results were pretty clear: The most-searched costume idea was a classic “Witch,” followed by “Spider-Man” and “Dinosaur.”

Here are the top 10:

Witch
Spider-Man
Dinosaur
“Stranger Things”
Fairy
Pirate
Rabbit
Cheerleader
Cowboy
Harley Quinn

In SoCal the trending popular choices were Spider-Man, 1980s-theme getups, and… clowns.

KTLA notes that in addition to the most-searched costumes, Google’s Frightgeist tool includes a “Costume Wizard” feature that offers suggestions to those seeking the perfect costume. Users can tweak the results by both “spookiness” and “uniqueness, too.

More information on Google’s Frightgeist, along with an interactive map of popular searches across the country, can be found online.

Out & About

DTLA Proud 2022 kicks off, healthcare orgs will vax for monkeypox

This year the festival will be held at Grand Park also for the first time, the DTLA PROUD Festival will be free for all ages to attend

Published

2 years ago

August 26, 2022

Brody Levesque

Graphic via DTLA Proud

LOS ANGELES – DTLA Proud returns this year with the festival celebrating the culture, history, and diversity of the growing LGBTQ+ community in Downtown Los Angeles.

In addition to DTLA Proud activities, this Saturday August 27, and Sunday August 28, St. John’s Community Health, John Wesley Health Centers, Kedran Health Center, and Mens Health Foundation will be on hand with thousands of MPX vaccines to offer eligible Los Angeles community members.

This year the festival will be held at Grand Park after five years at neighboring park, Pershing Square and also for the first time, the DTLA PROUD Festival will be free for all ages to attend.

Three blocks of Grand Park will feature curated programming; with special intention and effort on segments of the community that often go underrepresented. DTLA organizers are introducing a new shared space for parents and queer families and will also feature programming for people of color, trans, non-binary and femme communities.

The theme this year is “We are here, we are queer, and we aren’t going anywhere!” and organizers want to emphasize that their fight is not over emphasizing that their mission is to create safe spaces and experiences to celebrate queer love and representation.

On Saturday August 27, St. John’s Community Health, John Wesley Health Centers, Kedran Health Center, and Mens Health Foundation will host a press conference highlighting their joint effort to vaccinate and educate Los Angeles residents about the monkeypox virus (MPX) with speakers will including Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s Community Health, Dr. Jerry Abraham, Vaccine Director for Kedran Health and Dr. Tony Mills, CEO of The Men’s Health Foundation.

MPX vaccinations will take place at Grant Park on Saturday and Sunday, from 12 to 6:30 pm, Grant Park, 230-240 N. Hill Street.

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Out & About

New exhibit ‘Looking for Lesbians’ opens at ONE Archives West Hollywood

Looking for Lesbians is a new body of work created for ONE Archives at the USC Libraries by Sarah-Joy Ford

Published

2 years ago

July 26, 2022

Special to the LA Blade

Artist Sarah Joy Ford – Photo by Paulo Murillo for WEHO TIMES

By Paulo Murillo | WEST HOLLYWOOD – Looking for Lesbians–an exhibit featuring the works of ONE Archives Artist-in-Residence Sarah Joy Ford, opened on Saturday, July 23, 2022 at the ONE Gallery in West Hollywood at 626 North Robertson Boulevard. The exhibit, curated by Alexis Bard Johnson, will run for three months through the summer.

Looking for Lesbians is a new body of work created for ONE Archives at the USC Libraries. Sarah-Joy Ford’s work responds to ONE’s lesbian pulp fiction collection and other archival materials related to lesbian literature in Los Angeles.

Looking for Lesbians Exhibit by Sarah Joy Ford – Photo by Paulo Murillo for WEHO TIMES

The exhibition brings together works on paper, photographs, textiles, books, and archival materials—to showcase the significant collection of lesbian pulp fiction at ONE and to highlight the legacy and significance of this collection. Taken together, the artwork and archival materials ask: how do we connect with histories held by archives and individuals? How can these histories be navigated by one individual and how can we interact with them now?

“We wanted to highlight lesbian pulp novels. There is a lot of gay male pulp novels, which is amazing, but there is small section of lesbian pulp fiction, so that was my inspiration,” Ford told WEHO TIMES. “Two L.A.s novels, ‘Spring Fire’ by Marijane Meaker who went under the pseudonym Vin Pakcker, and a book called Odd Girl Out, by Ann Bannon, which is probably the most famous lesbian pulp novel written by a woman. Both of these novels were set in sorority houses and were about girls falling in love, but they had to have these tragic endings because of censorship; that was the only way to get the book published. I wanted to explore that and revisit the lesbian sorority and remaking it into a lesbian utopia and rethink these endings because there were no happy endings for lesbians back then.”

These new works produced by Ford explore the fascination with women’s societies and single sex spaces in lesbian culture. They include a quilt, a tracksuit, and embroidered patches. Their iconography is inspired by a range of lesbian symbols–from Anne Lister’s funerary hatchment to the labrys of Monique Wittig’s Amazons. The work claims a deliberately femme aesthetic, taking pleasure in shades of pink, pastel hues, satins, sequins, and decadent surfaces.

The new works are a response to Ford’s time spent in the archive, marking specific encounters and tracings of lesbian legacies at ONE. Using hand-made paper created out of archival waste, Ford crafts a visual record of the lesbian pulp collection at ONE, cross-referencing Barbara Grier’s Lesbiana ratings. She also visualizes a network of LA lesbian literature, including Carolyn Weathers and Jenny Wrenn’s Clothespin Press, the Lesbian Writers Series at In A Different Light Bookshop, and Terry Wolverton’s Excavations project at the Women’s Building.

This exhibition is curated by Alexis Bard Johnson. The exhibition is supported by ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, the partnership placement scheme from the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Center (Arts and Humanities Research Center), and Manchester Metropolitan University. The gallery is open Thursday-Saturday 12pm-5pm, or by appointment ([email protected]). Masks required indoors.

There will be a Looking for Lesbians panel discussion with Jenny Wrenn, Carolyn Weathers, Ann Bradley on Thursday, July 28, 2022, 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. One Galler. The event is free. To register, visit:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/looking-for-lesbians-panel-w-jenny-wrenn-carolyn-weathers-ann-bradley-tickets-380054070957?aff=erelexpmlt

About the Artist

Sarah Joy Ford – Photo by Paulo Murillo for WEHO TIMES

Sarah-Joy Ford is an Artist and Post-Graduate Researcher at Manchester School of Art where she is a co-director of the Queer Research Network Manchester and member of Proximity Collective.

Ford works with textiles to explore the complexities and pleasures of queer communities, histories, and archives. Her practice sits at the intersection of digital and traditional, using strategies of quilting, digital embroidery, digital print, appliqué, and hand embellishment.

Working with decorative textiles situates the practice within histories of gendered marginalization and a lineage of artists reclaiming cloth as a powerful language for disrupting discrimination, erasure, and hetero-patriarchy.

Her PhD research explores quilt making as an affective methodology for re-visioning lesbian archival material. The loving attention and protective qualities of the quilt offer a reparative site for investing in lesbian archives inherently bound to a history of injury and marginalization.

Her current solo show is a site-specific heritage intervention titled Beloved: crafting intimacies with the ladies of Llangollen and is open at Plas Newydd Historic House and Gardens from 30th April – 30th October.

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The preceding article was previously published by the WeHo Times and republished by permission.