Writer, Rapper, Story-teller

Red Durkin, from Raleigh, North Carolina, has toured extensively with the Tranny Roadshow, written and illustrated nine of her own zines, and wormed her way into the likes of Punk Planet magazine and the Advocate. A proud, mouthy southerner, Red brings her charming cleverness to everything she does and often carries herself on wit alone.
As a writer, a rapper, and a story-teller, she balances laugh-a-minute humor with her own queer-positive, pro-woman politics. Expect firey, from-the-hip feminism and unapologetically sarcastic satire from this multi-talented entertainer.

Links to the Wonderful World of Red Durkin:
Watch Videos and Subscribe to Reds Vlog on Youtube

Listen to Music from Red Durkins Hip-hop/punk/pop project MC Redorix

Red Durkin on Myspace

Copy of a Copy Press on Myspace (Check out Reds awesome Illustrations here!)

poetry, music

oakland, ca

Performer/author/musician solidad decosta is an uppity Portuguese woman who isn’t afraid to claim her black Latina maternal ancestry. Equal parts street journalist, storyteller and crone-ta-be with Leo moon credentials, her work encompasses the why and where of life outside the boxes in a label obsessed world, and the what, when, who and how of everything else.

solidad has performed at a variety of venues throughout the US, including St. Marks, Antioch University, Pitzer College, Bumpershoot Literary Stage, SomARTS and Brava! Center for the Arts. Her work has appeared in Shampoo, Mirage#4/Period(ical), ALLiance, P!, Angry Poet, Street NOTES and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In addition, solidad has facilitated writing and performance workshops at Cell Space, STARC, Dancing Tree, SF Juvenile Hall, Alameda County Youth Facility and Pitzer College. She holds an MFA in Writing from California College of the Arts, and was the 2008 recipient of the Kari Edwards Scholarship at Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program.

Official Website of solidad decosta

Click here for Show Schedule

Shock Value – Video

Athens Boys Choir is a Gender-Deviant, Multi-Media, Spoken-Word/Homo-hop Extravaganza. The name Athens Boys Choir can be a bit deceiving but you can’t blame a Transsexual Jew living in the Deep South for having a sense of humor about the whole ordeal.

He (Katz) has been on the road since 2003 performing for audiences that are becoming more diverse everyday. You don’t have to be a spoken-word enthusiast to enjoy the lyrical stylings of the Athens Boys Choir. Katz has the unusual skill of opening even the most skeptical minds to the world of performance poetry.

With Four CD’s released, Katz/The Athens Boys Choir has established himself as a force in the spoken-word/queer/pop culture/ homo-hop movement; you choose how it moves you.

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Check out this Awesome Athens Boys Choir Video!

Links to Athens Boys Choir:

Official Website

Myspace

Facebook

]]> http://trans-genre.net/content/athens-boys-choir/feed/ 1 http://trans-genre.net/content/comp-cd-2/ http://trans-genre.net/content/comp-cd-2/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 04:37:13 +0000 Lxadmin http://trans-genre.net/content/?p=819

Let’s Rock Together!

That’s right folks! We are at it again!

Announcing the Call for Submissions for the 2nd Trans-Genre Compilation CD! (set to release Jan. 2010)

What We’re Looking for:

• Musicians
• Bands
• Spoken Word
• Storytelling
• other Audio
• Artists
• Graphic Designers

…to showcase their amazing talent on the next Trans-Genre Compilation CD!

We’re Sending out the call now to give you all plenty of time to get your stuff together. Last Year we featured over 15 Artists, Musicians, Performers, & Speakers on the “Trans-Fusions CD. This Year it could be you…

Requirements:

• Must be a Registered Artist with Trans-Genre (not registered yet? Submit your profile here! )
• Work must be of original content and not infringe upon any legal or moral copyrights.
• Images (for the cover, inside booklet, back, and CD) in .jpg*, 300 dpi (prefered)
• audio in .mp3, .wav*

*other formats accepted with prior approval

You can Submit Directly through the Site with our Simple Submission Form Below, or by emailing A.J. Bryce at Trans-GenreSubmissions@live.com

*It is possible that all submissions may not make the final cut due to space limitations but we’ll try our best to include as many as possible!

Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, StormMiguel Florez is a Mexican aMaricon singer/songwriter, QueErotic performance artist, and live tranny sex show producer. Sometimes he does these things all at once. As a co-creator of Trans as Fuck and occasional leader of queer ritual, he is learning how to integrate trans and POC activism with sexiness and connection to Mama Earth.

StormMiguel, who now lives in the Bay Area has performed his music and spoken word across the US. He co-founded, co-produced (with Seeley Quest) and performed in the pornarific cabaret Trans as Fuck in San Francisco and West Hollywood (2004, 2006, 2008). Trans as Fuck received a Queer Cultural Center grant and showed at the 2008 National Queer Arts Festival.

StormMiguel has also featured at the National Queer Arts Festival: Intercourse (2001), Viva La Joteria (2004), Home Queer Home, and Transforming Community (2007). He was honored to have his music featured in Sean Dorsey’s Uncovered: The Diary Project in January 2009.

StormMiguel’s writing has been published in BANG magazine (out of Stockholm, Sweden), From the Inside Out: Radical Gender Transformation, FTM and Beyond (Manic D Press) and his own self published The Pussyboy Chronicles (Sticky Press).

Schedule:
THE FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL!

THE FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL – TIX SELLING FAST! June 18-21, 2009 (Thurs-Sat 8pm / Sun 7pm) (ASL Sunday night) TICKETS are selling like hotcakes – in this economy, people know a deal when they see one! The one-and-only Fresh Meat Festival of transgender and queer performance is next week – get your tickets now for this outrageously popular, critically acclaimed, history-making event before they sell out. Transgender and queer taiko, hip hop, ballroom, modern dance, live music, clogging, theater and much more. Performances by Zoe Balfour and Citabria Phillips, the Barbary Coast Cloggers, Ryka Aoki de la Cruz, Deadlee, D’Lo, Sean Dorsey Dance, Storm Miguel Florez, Mind Over Matter, Taiko Ren and Shawna Virago. Get your tickets early because these shows will sell out!

Links to Storm:

Official Site!

Fresh Meat Productions - – creates, presents, and tours transgender and queer performance dance, visual art, and media arts

Tranny Fest – Transgender & Transgenre video, film, & Culture

Musician: freak folk

a stick and a stone weaves minimalist instrumentation, layered rhythms, and inventive string-plucked harmonies, always behind a persistent folk backbone. Most recognized for his dynamic and distinctive voice, songwriter elliott harvey sings stories of family, religion, and philadelphia, with raw lyrics described as brutally honest poetry.

After putting out a collection of live boot-leg recordings and homemade demos, a stick and a stone is currently working on producing a full-length album with Bill Moriarty (link to billmoriarty.com) of Dr. Dog Studio, which will be out by Halloween. He will be hitting the road soon with fellow transgender artist and troublemaker Adelaide Windsome for the Dysphoric Cyborg (link to dysphoriccyborgs.com) tour starting this Autumn.

a stick and a stone hopes to meet more fellow transgender musicians who wrestle with the decision of hormones because of the ways it changes their voice. According to elliott, “I’m excited to be a part of the trans-genre project as a source for connecting with so many different transgender artists. Visibility is crucial for our survival, and art is such a powerful tool to get our experiences out there. I am extremely grateful to A.J. and everyone else in trans-genre for all the work being done to help our community get our stories heard through our collective creativity.

Links to elliott harvey:

booking: picnictableproductions@gmail.com

Friend elliott on Myspace

Music by a stick and a stone:

Syd Deucer is the Genderbent’s Gent. Hailing from Milwaukee, WI Syd had been performing for packed halls and intimate spaces with The Miltown Kings for more than 4 years. Syd began his Drag King career at the age of 7 when he would don a top hat, cane, and spats to perform in front of his family in the living room.

Thanks to his humble beginnings, followed by 12 years of performance art, Syd joined the Miltown Kings in 2005. Since that time, he has been wooing audiences with his humor, his passion, and his distinct style.

Witnessing Syd’s performance will leave no question why fans voted him the “Smoothest Muthafu**a” for the past three years. Syd Deucer is a multi-dimensional performer with dynamic charisma and the ability to make every performance his own. When asked recently what performing means to him, Syd simply replied, “Performance is my mistress and I treat her with all of the love, passion, and respect that I can offer. She returns the favor, tenfold.” Check his fresh out at miltownkings.com

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Links To Syd Duecer:

Find The Milltown Kings Site here.

Friend Syd on Myspace here!

Find Syd on Twitter here!

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Check out this video of Syd Deucer Performing:

Ryka Aoki de la Cruz is a writer, composer, chemist, black belt, and moonshiner who has recently featured at the National Queer Arts Festival, the National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival, Ladyfest South 2007, Atlanta Pride, UCLA’s OutCRY, and Fresh Meat.

In 2005, Ryka was the inaugural performer for San Francisco Pride’s first ever Transgender Stage. She has also worked with the American Association of Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-Bomb Survivors, and two of her compositions have been adopted by the group as its official “Songs of Peace.”

Ryka has been honored by the California State Senate for her work with Trans/Giving, LA’s only art/performance series dedicated to trans, genderqueer, and intersex artists. She was formerly head judo coach at UCLA and Cornell University, and is a professor of English at Santa Monica College.

Listen To “A Daughters Prayer” by Ryka Aoki De La Cruz

Find Ryka Aoki De La Cruz on the Web!

Rykas’ Official Website : RykaRyka.com

Friend Ryka on Myspace here!

Visual Art, Writer, Spoken Word Performer, Actor, Activist/Speaker

Cooper Lee Bombardier is a Visual Artist, Writer, Performer, Actor, Carpenter, Welder and Activist. He lives in New Mexico, with his two genius dogs. He works as an organizer with LGBT and straight ally youth and as a journeyman stagehand/carpenter.

Cooper’s visual art and performance have been exhibited nationally.
He is a veteran performer of the legendary Sister Spit tours, as well as the Lowdown Highway book tour. He has performed individually at institutions of higher learning ,sleazy bars and everything in between all across the country.
You can check out some of his writing in the anthologies Lowdown Highway, From the Inside Out-Radical Gender Transformation FTM and Beyond, and the forthcoming anthology Gendered Hearts. Cooper is widely known as the dude on the cover of the Drag King Book. He is currently working on his first novel. He would love to jump in your van for a tour!

Contact Cooper

Articles featuring Cooper:

Dealbreakers – Our Chart

TransNation Article – San Francisco Bay Times

Johnny Blazes is known throughout Boston’s drag and burlesque scenes for hir genre-bending, gender-blending, tongue-in-cheek performances. After training in traditional performance arts, theater, opera and ballet, Johnny started to develop hir own style of performance and art. While attending Oberlin College in Ohio, Johnny continued to expand and assert hir own personal style of performance while testing the limits of gender and genre in the performing arts. It was there ze founded OCircus! and directed the 95-student group for three years. Projects with OCircus! included a small ensemble circus that drew upon vaudevillian traditions to create a dark and sexy narrative with a cabaret feel. The show toured in the summer of 2007 and wowed audiences in Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, New York, DC, Richmond, and Boston.

Upon return to hir hometown of Boston, Johnny directed The Madcap Rumpus Society’s production of Mischief in the Machine, a circus-theater performance set to the boisterous music of Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band. The show made use of mask-work and combined non-verbal storytelling with poetry and music to tell a steampunk-inspired narrative. Ze also contributed choreography and staging to Big Moves’ 2008 show Big Top. Johnny continues to be involved with Big Moves as a “movement consultant,” aiding with auditions and character embodiment.

Johnny is a regular performer at Truth Serum’s TraniWreck and a member of the now-touring Femme Show cast. Ze is often seen performing at The Theater Offensive’s Works-in-Progress showings and at Jacque’s Cabaret. Johnny has emerged full force with art that refuses to be labeled. As Heywood Wakefield, MC for TraniWreck, once remarked, “I like having Johnny on board to confuse us all…”

By day, Johnny is a teacher of movement, drama and social activism to kids ages 2 through 16. Ze strives to be a role model that kids can look to as a positive example of gender non-conformity.

Johnny is currently working on an evening length piece, entitled wo(n)man show. This sequence of comical vignettes will incorporate physical theater, prop manipulation, puppetry, dance, lip synch and classical voice as it explores the question: How does one arrive at one’s present gender? Johnny plans to tour this show nationally in 2009, and hopes that hir use of physical comedy and recognizable archetypes will make this a show accessible not only to folks who are already interested in gender fluidity, but also to folks who have never been introduced to the topic.

Links to Johnny Blazes:

• Official Website of Johnny Blazes
• Friend Johnny Blazes Myspace
• Find more Youtube videos of Johnny here
• The Femme Show

Writer, Musician, Performer, Activist

Jamez Terry (alias Vermicious Knid) is a zine-writing, fiddle-playing, tomato- loving, radical tranny boy. In 2004, he co-founded the Tranny Roadshow and has since brought fantastic trans performance art all around North America. Jamez’ performances blend storytelling, humor, poetry, music, and sometimes circus costumes, drawing audiences into his unique world where laughter, adventure, and revelation abound.

Jamez has published more than 50 zines in the last 10 years with writings that include politics, fiction, poetry, personal stories, and humor. His zines have been featured in exhibits at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Center for Book Arts, as well as in the Zine Yearbook #8 and many other printed collections. In 2003, Jamez co-founded the Denver Zine Library, which quickly became one of America’s preeminent zine libraries and was featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition.

Jamez has worked in multiple queer activist settings, providing trans education at conferences, schools, churches, and nonprofits around the country. In addition to trans 101 and other introductory topics, Jamez has conducted workshops on HIV prevention for trans youth; zines and the trans community; working with trans survivors of sex assault; and addressing trans issues within radical communities.

In addition to being a traveling tranny performance artist and educator, Jamez is a history geek and an aspiring minister. These days, you are as likely to find him giving presentations on presidential assassins or liberal sermons as to find him on the performance stage.

Jamez moves as often as possible, in order to keep wreaking havoc in new parts of the world. He is currently living in Chesterville, ME, but dreaming of his eventual return to Alaska.

Links:

Tranny Roadshow
Denver Zine Library
Weekend Edition

Performer, Speaker, Spoken Word

Vince “Loki” Diaz is a 26 year old Comedian, Pagan, Priest, AND Goth who grew up in a Latino Roman Catholic background. He has been featured in American Goth, a documentary by Ryan Rhea (2005), and has done sporadic tour dates within the Missouri pagan and gothic communities.

Born in San Truce Puerto Rico, and raised by Latino Roman Catholic Assimilationist Republicans, Loki has much to say. His sometimes whimsical- most times powerful- stories hit you like a subway train. While trying to Balance his life as a pagan minister he tries to point out the “Queergods” that the gender binary obsessed culture fails to recognize. He currently resides in Portland Oregon spinning tales to expand thought.

Inspired by artists like George Carlin, 2 Gryphon, Margret Cho & Eddie Izzard, Loki decided that anything is possible, including expanding peoples’ consciousness through humor. And more amazing, though, is the possibility that people will listen.

Links:

Friend Vince “Loki” Diaz on myspace here!

Performer, Speaker, Spoken Word

Kestryl Cael is a performer, activist, slam poet, and gender revolutionary. When forced to choose a label, he identifies as a transgender butch. Kestryl Cael has appeared on-stage at conferences, colleges, festivals, and local theatres. He considers it his artistic duty to engage his audiences in critical thought without letting them take him (or themselves) too seriously.

XY(T), Kestryl’s solo performance debut, had it’s world premiere in Portland, Oregon, and it’s NYC premiere at UNDER St. Marks, as part of the 2008 FRIGID Fringe Festival. Critics described Kestryl Cael’s work as “provocative,” “brave,” “appealingly wry,” “heartfelt,” “profound,” and “essential.” XY(T) will next appear as part of the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC).

Kestryl wrote his first play at age seven, an epic melodrama involving masks, unicorns, tigers, and entirely gender-neutral casting. After being cast as “The Father” in his 2nd school play, he has consistently been cast in roles that conflict with the gender of his audition—most recently, he portrayed a high-femme drag queen rendition of “The Duchess” in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Kestryl Cael was an ensemble member in “The Language of Paradox,” a performance group directed by Kate Bornstein. Having graduated from Lewis & Clark College with a degree in Theatre and Anthropology, he is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts in Performance Studies at NYU.

Kestryl Cael is currently developing 348, his newest solo performance piece. 348 is a searing examination of madness and forced institutionalization in America, rooted in Kestryl’s own experiences of being held against his will in a “therapeutic boarding school” for a year as a teenager. As part of PoMo Freakshow Productions, Kestryl is currently working with his partner, Sassafras Lowrey, to develop a performance examining the politics of passing. Traitors without (T)reason explores the themes of betrayal, privilege, invisibility, sacrifice, subversion, and loss that are inextricably tied into public passing.

Kestryl Cael lives in New York City with his partner, two puddle-shaped cats, and a chihuachsund.

Links:

Pomo Freakshow – Official Site

Friend Kestryl on Myspace here!

…embracing melancholy with magical…

performing ‘The Neck Hater’ from Hear Them Howling: Surreal Fables and Mental Health Survival

“reflective and imaginative…an intimate moving experience”                                      - New Haven Pride Center

Amid cups of tea, mounds of fabric and thread, piles of cardboard, and altars of found objects, Geppetta fervently builds tiny heads and arms, sculpts mystical creatures, paints imaginary, yet nostalgic landscapes, and collects piles of rusty found objects. What crawls from the wreckage become twisted tales, whimsical puppet theater, and story-punk melodies described as “mournful but ingenious” with delightful twists and turns.

Inspired by classic fables and myths, occult symbolism, street art, and surrealism infused with a pension for social/ environmental activism and transfeminist sensibilities, Geppetta presents art/performance as a cryptic, yet politically aware language that is imaginative and enlightening.

Geppetta has been featured with the Tranny Roadshow, the Femme Show, and Puppet Uprising, and featured visual work with Fresh Meat Productions Defying Gravities and Critical Views through Red Sun Press among others. She is a principle artist and organizer for the upcoming Trans Fusions National Tour.

Additionally, she teaches art and social workshops at schools and universities across the country.

For further inquiries, commisions 0r booking, as well as forlorn love letters, please contact Geppetta at stitchingtentacles@gmail.com

Links:

Geppetta’s website

Stitching Tentacles – Geppetta’s Blog

Author, Artist, Performer, and Activist

Sassafras Lowrey is a genderqueer high femme, militant storyteller, author, artist, performer, and activist. Ze believes that everyone has a story to tell, and that the telling of those stories is essential in order to create social change.

Hir visual art has been showcased in conferences and galleries across the United States, including the “Fresh Meat” Gallery in San Francisco, and the legendary “Southern Comfort” conference in Atlanta. An accomplished storyteller, ze was an original member of “The Language of Paradox” founded and directed by Kate Bornstein and was honored as one of Portland’s top emerging writers by In Other Words Feminist books and resources in 2004. . Ze is also a contributing author for LGBTQ: America Today a three-volume 600,000 word encyclopedia from Greenwood Press.

Hir first book GSA to Marriage: Stories of a Life Lived Queerly is scheduled for release from the queer publisher Homofactus Press. Additionally, Sassafras is the editor of the Kicked Out anthology also from Homofactus Press which is bringing together the voices of current and former LGBTQ youth from around the world who were forced to leave home as a result of their sexuality and/or gender identity.

Sassafras Lowrey has led workshops at schools, conferences, and for community groups across the country including The Portland Zine Symposium, NYAC’s (National Youth Advocacy Coalition) conference in Washington DC, and Sylvia’s Place emergency LGBT youth shelter in Manhattan. In addition to workshops and presentations, Sassafras designed and taught the ‘Gender Revolution: Explorations in Gender Transgression” at Portland State University as part of the revolutionary Chiron Studies program.

Sassafras is available to teach/facilitate workshops and lecture on a variety of topics, all of which can be tailored to a specific audience. You can find more information about bringing Sassafras to your campus or organization including rates, and detailed workshop descriptions here…

Sassafras lives in New York City with hir partner, two puddle-shaped- cats, and a princess dog.

Websites:

Pomo Freakshow Official Site!

Friend Sassafras on Myspace here!

Kicked Out on Myspace here!

TransNation Article – Sassafras Lowrey