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.

Upcoming Performances & Appearances:

• January 11: TraniWreck
• January 17: The Zombiepocalypse featuring Mumbles and the Dust
• February 8: Big Moves Burlesque show Tea and Strumpets, TraniWreck
• February 20: Johnny Blazes’ 25th Birthday Bash Benefit
• March 8: TraniWreck
• March 21: YARRR A Pirate Revue by Big Moves
• March 22: Odditorium with ENSMB
• April 22: wo(n)man show premieres at Oberlin College Contact Info

Links to Johnny Blazes:

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

Author

Jacob Anderson-Minshall writes the syndicated column, TransNation. He co-hosts the Gender Blender radio show on KBOO radio, co-authors the Blind Eye Mystery series, freelances for Just Out, Bitch magazine & KBOO news and co-hosts the QLiterati! reading series.

Gender Blender airs monthly on kboo.fm one Tuesday 6-7 pm PST. QLiterati! is the 2nd Tuesday of every month at Portland, OR’s QCenter. TransNation comes out every Thursday. Jacob’s writing in Just Out comes out bi-weekly

Jacob Anderson-Minshalls’ Links:

Anderson-Minshall.com - Official Website

TransNation - Jacobs Column

Blind Eye Mystery Series - Myspace

QLiterati - Myspace

Gender Blender - on kboo.fm

Sam Peterson is a Sam-of-all-trades. He’s tattooed Diamanda Galas, been filmed by the Discovery Channel, interviewed by Randy Barbato, taught feminist porn-writing, escaped from a cult, and played at CBGBs. And that was before he manned-up!

Currently he’s making music, painting, and writing. He’s particularly excited about his blog, which chronicles his transition in a manner somewhere between Henry James, David Sedaris, and Joan Jett. He was a frequent guest on Austin’s KOOP Outspoken show, and toured with Gynomite as a writer. He works in Carrboro, NC now, painting out of his home studio, writing incessantly, and cracking wise about the tragicomic pratfalls of being a middle-aged former woman with an 18 year old boy’s brain.

Sam’s artwork is playful, stormy, and reflects his relationship with divine consciousness, typically via deep sea creatures. He feels an especial kinship with the artful, monstrous beauty of cuttlefish and other cephalopods. “That’s the most natural equivalent to being trans I can relate to – they’re mysterious, gorgeous on their own terms, and communicate with electric flashes, just like transpeople!”

Sam is gregarious, warm, and articulate. He would be delighted to speak at your college, school, bath house, or bank. For booking information, please contact Sam through Trans-Genre, or you can Email Sam Directly.

Links to Sam Peterson:

Sam’s personal blog - Tha Man Sam

Artwork by Sam Peterson - Hands of Sam

Jacob Anderson-Minshall

With all the protests this past weekend, one could easily conclude that the ban on same-sex marriages is the single greatest affront to LGBT civil liberties today.

And yet, many of us are still being violently attacked and sometimes killed simply for being queer or transgender.  Last month, in little over one week, three Washington State University students were assaulted on campus. Two were trans masculine identified while the third was an openly gay student so brutally assaulted that he suffered a collapsed lung.

These attacks are not isolated incidents.  According to the FBI, which released its annual Hate Crime statistics a few weeks ago, while racial and religious-based attacks were down between 2006 and 2007, crimes against gays and lesbians increased by six percent.  And that might only be the tip of the iceberg.

The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP)—which collects its own statistics—argues that the FBI consistently underestimates the number of attacks on queer and trans individuals.  First, the FBI relies solely on law enforcement data, rather than including reports to victim service organizations. Second, the FBI doesn’t include statistics about violence against trans or gender variant individuals.

In contrast with the six percent increase the FBI describes, NCAVP reported an alarming 24 percent escalation in victims reporting incidents of anti-LGBT violence last year. With some indication that violence against the LGBT community erupts during anti-gay campaigns, those numbers may be set to rise even higher in 2008, a year that saw multiple anti-marriage ballot measures including California’s Prop 8.

Richard Juang, a genderqueer, Taiwanese-American, male-born femme who contributed to National Center for Transgender Equality’s Responding to Hate Crimes argues that these violent acts are meant to relay a message to the entire community that “our existence is deviant and of no value.”

Thursday, November 20 is the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance honoring those who’ve been killed by anti-trans violence.  International vigils will pay tribute to this year’s dead, including 15-year-old Lawrence King from Oxnard, California who was shot to death by a classmate allegedly in part because he liked to wear girl’s clothing.

In addition to King, at least fifteen other Americans were killed in the past year (and 400 since 1970) for their non-conforming gender expression or identity.  As violence against the trans population goes woefully under-investigated, many of their murders will never be solved.

The Day of Remembrance was started by columnist Gwen Smith to remember the murder of Rita Hester, a highly visible transgender activist in Boston, who was stabbed to death Saturday, November 28, 1998.  A decade later her murder remains unsolved.

Smith founded Remember Our Dead to memorialize those killed by anti-trans violence.  Last year, TransFM’s Ethan St. Pierre co-founded The International Transgender Day of Remembrance (transgenerdor.org) to further Smith’s work.

“I can’t tell you enough about the work that [Gwen]’s done on our behalf;” contends St. Pierre, who says it’s a difficult job.  “I work on that website for half a day and I’m bawling my eyes out.  Lives…snuffed out for no other reason than they’re trans or different.”

While some communities, like Chicago, Ill. and Oakland, Calif. hosted Trans Remembrance events this past weekend, Columbus, Ohio honored the dead Wednesday and still others will do so this Thursday and Friday including:

San Francisco’s observance begins Thursday at 6 pm at 815 Hyde Street offices of Trans: Thrive (transthrive.org) and will feature community speakers, a reading of names of known 2008 victims and concludes with a march to City Hall.  Special tribute will be paid to King and Sacramento area trans woman, Ruby Molina, whose body was found floating in the American River this September.

Friday, November 21 at 7:30 PM San Francisco’s Congregation Sha’ar Zahav (shaarzahav.org) will hold a Transgender Day of Remembrance Shabbat with special liturgy, music, sermon and reading of names.

In Denver the Gender Identity Center of Colorado (303-202-6460) will be holding a service Thursday at the Washington Park United Church of Christ from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.
In Portland, Oregon a candlelight vigil will be held Thursday 6:30pm-7:30 pm in the Park Blocks and will feature speeches by trans author Reid Vanderburg, Spirit of Pride award winner Laura Calvo and Executive Director of TransActive, Jenn Burleton.
A show by award winning trans performing artist Scott Turner Schofield  (Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps) follows the vigil from 8-9:00 pm in the Portland State University Smith Memorial Center Ballroom.
New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center (gaycenter.org) hosts the 7:00-8:30 pm Thursday event , featuring a candlelight vigil, speeches from community leaders; and a display of quilts, collages and other meaningful items honoring the dead.

In tribute of the tenth anniversary of Rita Hester’s death, Boston will hold a candlelight vigil Thursday night, retracing the original route past Hester’s home.  Community members are invited to share their feelings at a 7 pm reception at Saint Luke’s and Saint Margaret’s Church (masstpc.org/dor).

*****

Trans author Jacob Anderson-Minshall co-hosts the radio show Gender Blender on Portland’s KBOO.  Download the November 18th episode on gender-based violence at kboo.fm.

——————————————————
Jacob Anderson-Minshall co-hosts Gender Blender on Portland, Oregon’s KBOO 90.7 (streaming live at kbooo.fm). The next episode is November 18th. Jacob also writes the syndicated column TransNation, co-hosts Portland’s QLiterati!, freelances with Just Out & KBOO radio news and co-authors the Blind Eye Mystery series. Blind Curves and Blind Leap are available through boldstrokesbooks.com and bookstores nationwide. Discover more at anderson-minshall.com or myspace.com/blindeyemysteries.

Baltimore, MD

Citizen Rahne Alexander is a songwriter & multimedia performing artist from Baltimore. She is the frontwoman for the all-girl garage band, The Degenerettes.

Rahne is a core member of Baltimore’s long-running queer cabaret, the Charm City Kitty Club, and her award-winning video art has screened at festivals across the country, including Microcinefest and MIX, the Queer Experimental Film Festival. She is a regular contributor to Baltimore’s City Paper and blogs regularly at The Foucauldian Ho.

Links to Rahne Alexander:

Rahne.com
the Degenerettes site
Charm City Kitty Club site

Find music from Rahne Alexander here:

Buy “Blonde on a Bum Trip”

Citizen Rahne Alexander Myspace

the Degenerettes Myspace

Find more Videos here:

Youtube - Rahne Alexander

Youtube - the Degenerettes

Singer, Songwriter, and Guitar playing poet.

Joshua Aiden Benscoter is a 29 year old trans man living on nothing but cigarettes, caffeine, and his good ol guitar.

A St Louis metro area resident, Josh has been playing and writing songs for 15 years. As a new member to the Transgender community, Josh is bound to create new sound waves as he learns both the upsides and downsides to transitioning while making music.

“I am currently working on some new tracks and hope to add them soon” says Josh in regards to his upcoming music.

“Josh’s music is soulful and comes from the heart. I have met few other people that I could sit down with and come up with music that I truly felt expressed myself as well as I have with Josh…” ~ A.J. Bryce a.k.a. Modern Day Pinnochio

Links:

Friend Josh on Myspace here

“I have the word ‘Paradox’ tattooed onto my chest,” reveals author, artist, performer, and activist Sassafras Lowrey, who uses the gender-neutral pronouns ze and hir.  The tattoo hints at Lowrey’s complicated gender identity.  “I came out as trans when I was 18 and lived as an FTM—including several years of being on testosterone.”

“I knew that I wasn’t a girl,” Lowrey explains now.  “And that I wanted to play with gender.  [But], I honestly thought the only option available for me involved adopting masculinity.  I came out into a community that was incredibly femme-phobic.  Femmes …were considered to be less queer than the rest of the community.  I’d lost everything—family, home, friends, community—to live an authentic life.  Being culturally recognizable was very important to me.”

Because of that, Lowrey says, “It took me many years to feel comfortable…playing with my own femininity, and to come out as femme.  As a genderqueer femme I see my femininity as being incredibly performative. It’s over the top, complicated, inherently queer, and outside of the gender binary. It’s also very invisible.  Folks don’t always know how to see me, and [they] frequently miss the ways in which I’m subverting gender.”

Lowrey recalls hir time with The Language of Paradox—a performance group founded and directed by trans playwright Kate Bornstein—as a “fundamental turning point in my life, both personally and artistically.  Working with Kate and becoming friends with hir truly changed my life.”

With hir partner Kestryl Cael, in 2007 Lowrey established PoMo Freakshow (pomofreakshow.com), a queer production company that, by “invoking the spirit of the sideshow,” hopes to challenge norms and subvert assumptions, while producing collaborative and solo works that mix elements of theater, performance art, visual art, spoken word, slam poetry, storytelling and/or filmmaking.

“Much of what we do riffs on the performance of otherness [and] the vivid imagery of the freak,” Lowrey explains.  Still, ze admits pondering, the history of sideshows as “paradoxically exploitive and a lucrative sanctuary. There’s no denying the fact that many sideshow ‘freaks’…were abused, used against their will and otherwise exploited. [But some] consensually chose to participate, and found sanctuary within a community of those who’d been continually othered.”

Personally, Lowrey recalls, growing up, “dreaming that I’d be brave enough to run away and join the circus.  I had this innate feeling that it…would offer home to someone so—queer.  For me, there’s a sense of conjuring that childhood dream, now, as an adult living and working in a community of the freaks I [always] knew were waiting for me.”

PoMo Freakshow’s first piece, Traitors without (T)reason premiered this summer  and, Lowrey says, grapples with “the complexities of passing,”  and “centers around the idea that we’re a queer couple that—despite our best efforts—pass as straight. Traitors explores the betrayal, invisibility, sacrifice, subversion, and loss that are inextricably tied into public passing.”

A freelance journalist, Lowrey was honored as one of Portland, Oregon’s top emerging authors in 2004.   Hir first book GSA to Marriage: Stories of a Life Lived Queerly is an autobiographical exploration of hir multiple gender changes from butch to FTM to high femme.

Lowrey also edited 2009’s Kicked Out, an anthology by current and former homeless LGBTQ youth from around the world who were forced out because of their sexuality or gender identity.

“Kicked Out is realy a dream for me,” ze notes.  “I was kicked out when I was seventeen after coming out as a lesbian in semi-rural Oregon. One of the first things I remember doing in the face of all that upheval was go to the library and look at every book I could find on teenage queerness.”  But ze was disappointed to find that none reflected hir reality.  Now ze’s thrilled to have organizations like the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and PFLAG backing the anthology.  Matthew Shepard’s mother wrote the foreword.

But Lowrey hasn’t limited hir efforts to combat the “epidemic” of queer youth homelessness, to the anthology.  Instead, ze also established the Come Out, Kicked Out campaign (kickedoutanthology.com) to “break down the cultural shame and silencing faced by those of us who were kicked out or left home as teens.  Until it’s safe for current and former homeless LGBTQ youth to talk about our experiences we won’t be able to effectivly fight the epidemic.  As a community we need to make this a top priority.  There’s no reason that some of the youngest and most vulnerable members of our community should be so disenfranchised and alienated.”

Interested in how marginalized people alter society by telling personal stories, Lowrey begins a graduate program in Transformative Language Arts at Goddard College, where ze plans to focus on queer storytelling and the role it plays in “the construction of community.”

The creative femme is also an activist who leads workshops at schools, conferences, and for community groups across the country, and an artist whose work has been showcased at conferences and in galleries nation-wide.

“Visual art is very much activism for me,” contends Lowrey about the connection. “The vast majority of my visual art centers around pushing boundaries, and crossing borders related to themes of gender and sexuality.  It’s my goal to make people think, and to leave them with more questions than answers.”

Now a new assistant producer of Woman-Stirred radio—a queer cultural journal aimed at celebrating and preserving the work of LGBTQ artists, musicians and writers—Lowrey is primarily responsible for increasing its social networking presence.

“Social networking…is a really important tool for building community,” ze contends. “The Internet was something that really shaped my experience of queerness. Coming out in a very conservative area and ultimately losing my home and family; though I felt profoundly alone, I knew—from my brief Internet access—that there were others like me.”

* * * * * *

Trans writer Jacob Anderson-Minshall (jake@trans-nation.org) co-hosts Gender Blender, a new show on Portland, Oregon’s 90.7 fm KBOO radio and streaming live at KBOO.fm.  Download  Tuesday, October 21st’s show on trans youth, free at kboo.fm.

© 2008 Jacob Anderson-Minshall

Visit Sassafras Lowreys’ profile on Trans-Genre to find more info, videos, and links to hir sites!

Spoken Word

Kit is a transgender boi, who has been slamming since he was 18 and has won numerous slams and toured all over the country. Kit has featured with nationally recognized poets like Jason Carney, Iyeoka Okoawo, Reggie Gibson and Michael Brown.

Before the age of 21, he landed a spot in the Lizard Lounge national slam team, competed in the Individual World Poetry Slam, and won the world’s largest slam. Kit’s words speak as if having a heart-to-heart with you, taking you to his home in Hawaii, to the streets of pride parades, and through his transition as an Asian American female to a male Transgender artist.

Kit’s pieces will bring you to tears as he navigates topics such as racism, sexism, and transphobia even within minority communities. Kit also uses comedy to speak to audiences providing a complete picture filled with positive and comedic stories about being queer, transgender, and Asian.

Currently he is one half of the nationally touring duo, The Good Asian Drivers, a music and spoken word group with award-winning composer and singer-songwriter Melissa Li.

Current Tour Schedule

Links:

Good Asian Drivers Website : the official Website of Good Asian Drivers, with more photo’s, music,  info, and an updated tour schedule.
Good Asian Drivers Myspace page : Friend the Good Asian Drivers on Myspace here!
Good Asian Drivers Youtube : find videos for Good Asian Drivers on Youtube!

(<–photo by Kelly G.)

pop/r&b/dance

no single paragraph on a profile could begin to describe the bio of the cute little white guy who has now become his own one man boy band.

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Writing / Poetry, Photography

Pat Paul Jammernegg was born in Salzburg, Austria in 1979. Paul used to live in both Asheville, NC and Salzburg, currently he is planning on relocating and touring (new live readings in 2009).

Reader’s Round Table Prize by the House of Literature in Salzburg, 2000.
Published in the anthology book Langeweile! (Boredom!), 2002.
First poetry in English featured in the compilation book Bound By The Secrets We Share, 2008, debut poetry book “Prototype”, May 2008.

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Musician: Indie Folk, Roots, Americana

Joe Stevens is a singer/songwriter based on the west coast, and a modern day troubadour. Joe and his partner Ingrid Elizabeth travel the country as the group Coyote Grace with their debut studio album “Boxes and Bags.” “The Harvey Tour,” a live album from their year on the road in a 22 foot RV with singer/songwriter Courtney Robbins has also just been released!

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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.


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Location: Pacific Northeast US (see tour schedule below)

Dates: June 22 - July 3

How long can you hold your breath under water?!?
Adelaide Windsome, artist, activist and puppeteer from Boston, will be touring across the Northeast Us with her ukelele, and Nell, the handsome cabin boy, to bring you a puppelele show so creative you won’t want to miss it!

Featuring original music by Adelaide herself, We’re sure you’ll be singing along as Nell battles through Treacherous adventures both above and below sea.

Tour Schedule:

June 22 - 8pm:

the Dooryard

Portland, Maine

June 23 - 8am:

Tinder Box

Brattleboro, Vermont

June 24 - 8pm:

Langdon Street Cafe

Montpelier, Vermont

June 27 - 8am:

Wrench in the Works

Willimantic Connecticut

July 3 - 9am:

the Slipper Room

New York City, New York

You can find Adelaide’s profile here with links to her sites for more information.

Musician, Country Dancer

Linda Bedore was born on December 4th, 1930, and named after her grandfather, Joseph. From very early on, Linda knew that she was different from the boys around her, but was fearful that if she told anyone, she would be outcast.

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June 7, 2008 - Trans as Fuck: Exhibitionism at its finest!

This is an 18 and older event.

Trans as Fuck was founded in 2004 by Bay Area artists/activists, Seeley Quest and Storm Florez. The two artists were each looking for places to celebrate and heal their relationships with their bodies and sexuality via performance and realized that no such venue existed for trans and genderqueer people. The two decided to create a show specifically for this purpose.

The show has been a great success and has showcased a hot and talented line-up of performers with heartfelt, humorous and intense acts, some which have included stripping, body manipulation like piercing and pumping, erotic dance, fisting, squirting and carrots in the butt.

Performers incorporate music, spoken word and frank discussion in their pieces which has allowed audience
members to connect and engage with what’s happening onstage. This year, Trans as Fuck was the recipient of a Queer Cultural Center grant, and will be featured in the 2008 National Queer Arts Festival.

* Photos by Darling Propaganda

TRANS AS F*CK on June 7th

http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/QFest08/TransAs.html

Curated by Storm Florez. Original concept by Seeley Quest and Storm Florez

Trans as F*ck: An evening of TranSEXxxhibitionism that
rocks the gender bound world!

Join us for an evening of erotic performance where
transgender and genderqueer performers will explore,
celebrate and heal what it means to be sexual in our trans
bodies. Trans as Fuck is radical performance that shatters
the confines of sexual expectations. This show is about
expressing and exposing ourselves. Quite literally.

Featuring performances by Charlie Anders as Emcee, ‘ron
daniella, solidad decosta, Luis Gutierrez-Mock, Storm
Florez, Seeley Quest, Helen Wong and a short film by Annie
Danger

Add us to your Myspace!

***INFORMED CONSENT: There will be consensual, explicit sexual content in the show. Audience members are welcome to leave at any time during any performance; however there will be no ticket refunds.

This is an 18 and older event.