Alumni
HEELS ON WHEELS Roadshow
2010: Princess Tiny & the Meats || Sequinette || Laurence
Sequinette called a “Drag Impresario” by the New York TImes and a “Dolly Parton-esque beauty” by the Village Voice, Sequinette is one of the most stylized of NYC’s “Female to Female Drag Queens.” She was crowned Miss LEZ 2008 in Murray Hill’s queer beauty pageant, and also starred in Michelle Handelman’s Dorian in 2009.
Chicago is a solo artist who performs as Princess Tiny and the Meats. Their debut electronic album, “Will S UR D 4 Coin” was released Fall 2010. [check it out!] Their music brings awareness and education to a broader audience about queer culture. Princess Tiny and the Meats also performs acoustic songs on guitar and piano in a theatrical fairy tale called “Confessions of a Love Sick Teenager”.
Laurence is a trilingual femmeboy beast from Montreal. They DJ as DJ It Gets Better and were of great help as roadie on the 2010 tour.
HOW TO BUILD A FIRE Workshop & Performance Series
Silas Howard 2010-2011 || Leah Lakshmi 2010 || Jordan Arsenault 2011 || Laura Boo 2011
Photo by Leilani Nisperos
LEAH LAKSHMI PIEPZNA-SAMARASINHA is a Worcester raised, Toronto matured, Oakland-based queer Sri Lankan writer, performer and teacher. She is the 2009-10 Artist in Residence and part-time professor at UC Berkeley’s June Jordan’s Poetry for the People and the co-founder and co-artistic director of Mangos With Chili, North America’s only touring cabaret of queer and trans people of color performing artists. She is a 2009 commissioned performer with Sins Invalid, the national performance organization of queer people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Her one woman show, Grown Woman Show, has toured nationally, including performances at the National Queer Arts Festival, Swarthmore College, Yale University, Reed College and McGill University. The author of Consensual Genocide, her writing has appeared in the anthologies Yes Means Yes, Visible: A Femmethology, Homelands, Colonize This, We Don’t Need Another Wave, Bitchfest, Without a Net, Dangerous Families, Brazen Femme, Femme and A Girl’s Guide to Taking Over The World. She is finishing her second book of poetry, Love Cake, and her first memoir, Dirty River and is happy about the forthcoming publication of The Revolution Starts At Home: Transforming Abuse Through Community Accountability, which she co-edited with Ching-In Chen and Jai Dulani, by South End Press in 2010. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College, focusing on creative nonfiction and community-based teaching by writers of color.
—————-
SILAS HOWARD (writer, director, musician), co-directed his first feature, By Hook Or By Crook, with Harry Dodge. The indie classic was a 2002 Sundance Film Festival premiere and five-time Best Feature winner. See a preview here.
Howard’s next feature film in development, Exactly Like You, (co-written with Nina Landey) is based on the life of Billy Tipton. What I Love About Dying, Howard’s short documentary based on Kris Kovick, premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. You can check out Howard’s music videos, short musical and documentaries which have aired on MTV and LOGO networks and at Disneyland, Anaheim.
For eight years, Howard toured with his band Tribe 8, the notorious queer punk band (a band boycotted by republicans and women at Michigan womyn’s music festival). The band has been featured in Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, and The Los Angeles Times.
Howard’s writing is also featured in the anthologies, “Without a Net: Growing Up Working Class” and “Live Through This,” as well as the artists’ journal, “LTTR.” Silas intervewed on Live Through This. Currently Silas is working on a novel set in San Francisco’s mid-90′s homocore scene.