Cal Performances at Home is much more than a series of great streamed performances. Fascinating behind-the-scenes artist interviews. Informative and entertaining public forums. The Cal Performances Reading Room, featuring books with interesting connections to our Fall 2020 programs. For all this and much more, keep checking this page for frequent updates and to journey far, far Beyond the Stage!
Major support for Beyond the Stage is provided by Bank of America.
Beyond the Stage
An Eclectic Survey of Ai Weiwei’s Artwork: 10 Works to Know
An Eclectic Survey of Ai Weiwei’s Artwork: 10 Works to Know
“Art is a tool to set up new questions.”
By Krista Thomas, Cal Performances’ Associate Director of Communications
Ai Weiwei’s adventurous work in sculptural installation, filmmaking, photography, ceramics, painting, writing, and social media is widely acclaimed for shedding light on pressing societal issues and values. The renowned artist and activist was born in Beijing in 1957 and for decades has been an outspoken voice on social issues including human rights, especially as they have related to his home country of China, where he has been the target of frequent government interference and was once imprisoned for nearly three months without charges. Currently residing in Portugal, Ai continues to advocate for international human rights, with his work and life often informing one another.
Throughout his decades-long career, Ai has developed powerful works of art that show an incredible range, both in their medium and in their subject. To help you become better acquainted with his artistry ahead of his visit to Cal Performances on September 24, we’ve compiled 10 of Ai’s works showing the breadth and depth of his creative vision and mission.
1. S.A.C.R.E.D., 2013
S.A.C.R.E.D. is an intimate and unsettling installation created by Ai to depict the conditions in which he was kept during his 81-day imprisonment in China in 2011. The work features six diorama scenes, whose individual names together make up the acronym S.A.C.R.E.D.: Supper, Accusers, Cleansing, Ritual, Entropy, and Doubt. In six separate 5ft x 12ft steel boxes, Ai utilizes figures of himself, guards, and a bleak enclosure to depict his degrading daily routines and the constant surveillance he endured. The doors on the outside of the boxes are merely a facade and cannot open; to see the dioramas inside the boxes, viewers must look through small apertures in the walls, contributing to the sense of surveillance and isolation within.
Photograph of a scene from S.A.C.R.E.D. Image courtesy of designboom.
See additional photos from the exhibit.
2. Study of Perspective, 1995–2003
Since 1995, Ai has been taking photos of his middle finger pointed at spaces and symbols that represent political/national power, including the Eiffel Tower, the White House, and even the Mona Lisa. Ai’s first photograph in his series was produced at Tiananmen Square where, upon visiting after his return to the country, he was disheartened to feel that not enough had changed. Ai reports that the photo is an expression of his “inner frustration” and represents “the stance and attitude of individual existence” within larger structures of political, cultural, and economic power. In recent years, Ai has evolved the project to include an interactive element by which individuals around the world can create and submit their own images overlaying a location with Ai’s iconic middle finger.
Select images from Study of Perspective. Image courtesy of The Artling.
Read more about this project and learn about the interactive feature (and begin making your own image!)
3. Forever Bicycles, 2014
Forever Bicycles is a work of sculpture that fuses over 1,000 bicycles into a fascinating geometric design. The term “Forever” references a popular brand that has mass produced bicycles in Shanghai since the 1940s, and it has been suggested that the sculpture itself invites consideration for the disparate ways that various social classes in China have historically used—and continue to use—bicycles as a means of transportation, as well as the global shift from bicycles to automobiles.
Photograph of Forever Bicycles. Image courtesy of Sightlines.
4. National Stadium of Beijing (“The Bird’s Nest”), 2005–08
Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron to design the stadium that would be used to host the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics and Paralympics. According to design firm Arup which helped execute the project, the circular design of the stadium represents heaven, while the neighboring water center represents the Chinese symbol for earth; additionally, the intersecting lines that contribute to the stadium’s nest-like appearance are inspired by Chinese-style crazed ceramics. Despite designing the building, Ai did not attend the Olympics, later regretting the project’s use as a political tool to promote China’s greatness despite the government’s record of human rights abuses.
Photograph of the National Stadium of Beijing. Image courtesy of Architectuul, © Iwan Baan.
5. Sunflower Seeds, 2010
Perhaps Ai’s best known creation, Sunflower Seeds comprises 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds, individually crafted and painted by roughly 1,600 Chinese artisans who reside in a village that was historically used to develop porcelain for the courts of ancient emperors. Individuals are invited to walk on, pick up, and feel the porcelain seeds—in part as a way to wrap their minds around the idea that these are in fact porcelain and not true seeds. As to the significance of the sunflower seeds, in Chinese culture, Mao Zedong was often depicted as the sun. Additionally, Ai has said of his own experience with the seeds, “When I was growing up in China, we had few possessions. … But even in our darkest days, we might well have had a little handful of sunflower seeds in our pockets. They offered spiritual comfort as well as a modest answer to our hunger, and people were always cracking seeds between their teeth.”
Photograph of Sunflower Seeds. Image courtesy of Tate, © Ai Weiwei.
6. Human Flow, 2017
Ai served as director and co-producer of Human Flow, a poignant visual documentary that captures the experiences of refugees across 23 countries as they seek “safety, security, and justice.” From Bangladesh to Mexico, from stretches of barbed wire fences to harrowing ocean journeys, the film exposes the struggle of individual people, but also delivers a message of hope and of the resilience of the human spirit.
Ain Al-Hilweh, Lebanon, 04/09/2016. Image courtesy of Human Flow.
Learn more about Human Flow, including where to watch and take a look at photos from the film project.
7. Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995
This set of three photographs, produced early in Ai’s career, shows him in preparation, during, and after purposefully breaking a valuable urn from China’s Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.). The work challenges the idea of how we form and preserve cultural values, particularly around historic and national identity. It was also said to have been a potential response to how Mao Zedong had attempted to divorce China from elements of its traditional history during the Cultural Revolution. One of Ai’s most provocative works, the piece sparked debates internationally about whether or not the action of breaking the urn qualified as “desecration,” and even whether or not destruction should be interpreted as art.
Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn. Image courtesy of Royal Academy.
8. Ye Haiyan’s Belongings, 2013
Ye Haiyan is a Chinese women’s rights activist who was frequently targeted by the Chinese government and eventually cast out of the country. Ai, who was an ally for Ye and helped to support her when she was removed from her home, created this installation with all of the hastily packed belongings Ye was left with upon eviction. The exhibit is a powerful rendering of displacement, a common theme in much of Ai’s work.
Photograph of Ye Haiyan’s Belongings. Image courtesy of Royal Academy.
9. Water Lilies #1, 2023
Ai’s 50-foot recreation of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies is made entirely out of Legos—approximately 650,000 of them. Ai explained, “In Water Lilies #1, I integrate Monet’s Impressionist painting, reminiscent of Zenism in the east, and concrete experiences of my father and me into a digitized and pixelated language.” Ai’s father was a renowned poet in China whose criticism of the government led to the family’s exile. Reflecting this experience, Ai integrated the outline of a black door into the traditional Water Lilies image to represent the underground dugout where his family once lived.
Photograph of Water Lilies #1. Image courtesy of CNN, Ela Bialkowska/OKNO studio.
10. So Sorry, 2011
Ai dedicated multiple art projects to the thousands of schoolchildren who died when their classrooms collapsed during the Sichuan earthquake of 2008. These works include Remembering, which used colored backpacks adhered to the facade of a building to spell out a quote from one of the victim’s mothers, reading in English: “She lived happily on this earth for seven years”; and Straight, a sculpture made from tons of reinforcing rods that were hand-straightened after being distorted during the earthquake. Following the disaster, Ai became a leading voice calling for accountability and exposing corruption that led to the building failures—and later attempts by the government to cover it up. So Sorry is a documentary produced by Ai that tracks his investigative work on the case and the backlash and physical violence he experienced at the hands of the government in reaction to his advocacy.
Still image from So Sorry.
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What It’s Like to Be a UC Berkeley Student Working at Cal Performances
What It’s Like to Be a UC Berkeley Student Working at Cal Performances
Roughly 75 students work critical roles at Cal Performances each season.
Featuring Cal Performances student workers: Shane Barrows, Usher Captain & Assistant House Manager; Jordan Dudas, Scene Technician; Alisa LeFebvre, Front of House Manager; and Mina Rossman, Lead Cashier. Video filming and editing by Tiffany Valvo, Cal Performances’ Social Media and Digital Content Specialist.
UC Berkeley students have a plethora of options when it comes to choosing an on-campus job. So, what makes a student apply to—and stay at—a performing arts center? What kind of skills do they hone here, and are they relevant to more than just music, dance, or theater majors? We interviewed four of the roughly 75 UC Berkeley student workers employed by Cal Performances year-round to learn more about their perspective on the important work they do to support our organization.
Interested in working for Cal Performances? Visit our Jobs page to see what positions are open.
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Cal Performances Artistic Leadership Reminisces on Memorable Moments from the 2022–23 Season
Cal Performances Artistic Leadership Reminisces on Memorable Moments from the 2022–23 Season
From the Two Who Saw It All!
Interview of Jeremy Geffen, Cal Performances’ Executive and Artistic Director, and Katy Tucker, Cal Performances’ Director of Artistic Planning. Video filming and editing by Tiffany Valvo, Cal Performances’ Social Media and Digital Content Specialist.
As we inch closer to the start of our 2023–24 season, Cal Performances’ Executive and Artistic Director, Jeremy Geffen, and Director of Artistic Planning, Katy Tucker, take one final moment to reflect on some of the highlights and surprises of the past year. In this video, they answer:
- What performance made you the most emotional? (0:33)
- Share a time when a member of a group or ensemble really stood out to you. (1:47)
- Which performance ran smoothly on the surface but, due to unforeseen circumstances, required lots of scrambling/problem-solving behind the scenes? (3:29)
- Share a moment (outside of William Kentridge’s campus residency) when you got to see an artist really connect with students. (5:13)
- In which performance did you feel the greatest sense of community? (7:21)
Note that, for context, you can find programs for each performance mentioned in the video linked in the transcript below.
Transcript
Jeremy Geffen:
Hi, I am Jeremy Geffen, Executive and Artistic Director of Cal Performances.
Katy Tucker:
And I’m Katy Tucker, Director of Artistic Planning at Cal Performances.
Jeremy Geffen:
We are seated backstage in Zellerbach Hall in the Green Room, which is generally where artists warm up, and it is the last thing they see before they see all of you when they walk out onto the Zellerbach Hall stage.
Katy Tucker:
And today, Jeremy and I are going to be looking back over the 22–23 season and sharing some of our favorite memories from this past year.
What performance made you the most emotional?
Katy Tucker:
I was just openly sobbing during William Kentridge’s week with us multiple times. But both parts of that performance [SIBYL], “The Moment Has Gone” by Kyle Shepherd and “Waiting for the Sibyl” were just transformative life experiences.
Jeremy Geffen:
I have to agree with you on this one, that like, from the from the moment that Kyle Shepherd started playing in “The Moment Has Gone,” there was something that just like instantly transported you.
But if I can add another one to this, just a few days earlier, we had the Vienna Philharmonic with us and gave a performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 that has to be on my top 10 lists of musical performances of my lifetime. It was one of those moments where you think, “I don’t know if the composer actually understood that this the piece was capable of this”—the depth, the feeling of ensemble, just the quality of the sound… That really got me, too.
Share a time when a member of a group or ensemble really stood out to you.
Katy Tucker:
After Camille Brown & Dancers’ first performance—they did two or three shows—after their first performance, I was walking out of the building, and I ran into one of the dancers who had in the piece done something like 10 or 15 successive jumps, just jump, like this, just straight up in the air like this. And he got so high and he was so pin straight, and it was so beautiful and athletic. And I said to him something like, “Bet you didn’t know you could do that in your dance career,” or something like that. And he’s like, and he said, “Yeah, this isn’t even my real job.” And I was like, “What else can you do better than this?” And he just laughed and walked away from me. Just like, what?
Jeremy Geffen:
So I’m thinking of the performance of Artemis. They were all stars, but I don’t think I was, and each one of them is a virtuoso. They’re also composers. So we had compositions from most of them. There was a new album coming out. The drummer, Allison Miller. I mean, she made Animal look like he was tamed, sedate. She was just the most energetic, inspiring, and kinetic performer. I could have watched her for hours.
Which performance ran smoothly on the surface but, due to unforeseen circumstances, required lots of scrambling/problem-solving behind the scenes?
Jeremy Geffen:
I have a feeling you’re probably thinking of the exact same situation that I am.
Katy Tucker:
The Guided Tour of the Exhibition?
A long story short: the cargo for some of the William Kentridge events didn’t arrive on time due to shipping issues in France! For reference, Guided Tour was on a Wednesday and the SIBYL premiere was Friday.
Jeremy Geffen:
Yes. So the morning of Guided Tour of the Exhibition, actually I think this plan had been made the day before.
Katy Tucker:
The day before, yeah.
Jeremy Geffen:
They sourced all of similar types of props and costume and even sets from within Zellerbach Hall and also from our friends at the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies.
Jeremy Geffen:
And on Thursday, I think, on Wednesday I think we got—
Katy Tucker:
Half of—
Jeremy Geffen:
Yeah. Some part of SIBYL, but none of Guided Tour.
Katy Tucker:
Correct.
Jeremy Geffen:
Thursday we got the remaining part, and they got that very complicated show up in a little over 24 hours. Which, I mean, I don’t think that was apparent to anyone in the audience.
Katy Tucker:
No. And a huge boon to our technical staff, who were really the people who were undergoing the most rehearsal process for that, because, of course the cast had just done it in Paris. Our crew had never moved the chair that breaks or swept up all of the papers that they throw all over the stage. And so they had basically 24 hours to learn an incredibly difficult show. And it looked fabulous on Friday night when it opened. So, a huge success. But a sweaty one!
Share a moment (outside of William Kentridge’s campus residency) when you got to see an artist really connect with students.
Katy Tucker:
This is something that I’ve known, I knew already, but it was really reinforced in a very real way. But Jeremy Denk is such an unbelievable performer, and an equally unbelievable teacher. He gave a masterclass this year for us in the music department. He worked with four young pianists out of the music department. And the depth of his knowledge about repertoire, the thoughtfulness with which he approaches music-making, and his ability to articulate it in such a human and totally open way, it was really touching, it was really beautiful. I loved watching him give that masterclass.
Jeremy Geffen:
Can I add one more? When Maxim Vengerov give his recital in October, you know, I didn’t realize—we are on the campus of a major university—there were so many students who clearly had grown up listening to his recordings. They found every entrance to this building and they waited outside each of them to meet him afterwards. And when we were driving out of the parking structure, we saw a group of people standing up at the corner. And this is like 10:30 at night on a Friday night in Berkeley; it’s not a time that you see these sorts of clusters of people. When it turned out they were waiting for him, he got out of the car, he spoke with every single one of them, as he did with all the other students he encountered. He was incredibly gracious and really engaging, and he loved talking to his fans.
In which performance did you feel the greatest sense of community?
Jeremy Geffen:
There are a lot of performances where you feel community, and it’s different types of community. Kyle Abraham’s piece for Ailey [Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater], Are You in Your Feelings?, is that—
Katy Tucker:
Yep.
Jeremy Geffen:
It was, like, the most virtuosic piece for that company featuring, you know, all sorts of combinations of dancers and so many different styles. And, you know, there’s this moment that you get when you’re all seeing something new for the first time, and that, “Oh my God, this is incredible”—that feeling was absolutely rising from the audience and you know, the electricity of the reception definitely reflected it.
Katy Tucker:
Parable of the Sower was—I’m not a sci-fi fan; I did listen to that book on tape in sort of preparation for our presentation of it… And to see all of the people come out because of Toshi, because of Octavia E. Butler, because of the combination of the two, you know, a very large portion of an audience that kind of comes already with some preconceived information; but then to be totally taken over and, like, beguiled by the absolutely gorgeous music in that opera, all kind of leading up to a group singing moment at the very end of a song that Toshi teaches everybody in the audience that her mother [Bernice Johnson Reagon] wrote… This is a very simple song about “a sower went out to sow her seeds.” And it just was such a beautiful cap to not only that piece, but our season, and it felt like there was a lot of involvement with each other in those moments. It was very heartening.
Jeremy Geffen:
I’m gonna add one more. Rachell Ellen Wong. One of the things that I know that we share is the belief in giving artists a shot at the beginning of their career. And, you know, when you’re introducing an artist to the public, all you’re doing is essentially giving them a turn at bat. And then it is up to them to hit the ball. And watching someone hit it out of the park… And by the way, it’s a miracle if that—
Katy Tucker:
Sports reference landed.
Jeremy Geffen:
—If that sports metaphor was correct, because I’m so bad with sports. But I just… the fire that came from her, like, there was an enormous amount of scholarship that went into that program because there were some really off-the-beaten-track pieces by composers that I think only a few people in the audience would’ve heard from. But, oh man, just that moment of discovery, it’s sort of similar to Kyle Abraham’s piece, that when you’re all having this moment together, you feel it.
Katy Tucker:
For sure, for sure.
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A Day in the Life of an AileyCamper
A Day in the Life of an AileyCamper
Behind the Scenes of Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp’s 21st Year
Video by Tiffany Valvo, Cal Performances’ Social Media and Digital Content Specialist
Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp is a joyful and rigorous six-week program, free to youth ages 11 to 14, that has been hosted by Cal Performances for 21 years! Conceived by Alvin Ailey himself, the camp is designed to use dance as a vehicle for personal development, and cultivates a supportive community where young people can connect meaningfully with each other and with caring adults, express themselves creatively, and experience the transformative power of dance.
Although schedules vary and students don’t have each class every day, AileyCampers receive daily training from experienced teaching artists in four major dance forms: modern, ballet, jazz, and African dance. They also explore creative writing and the visual arts in creative communications class, and they enhance their social and emotional development through a personal development course.
AileyCamp is a truly inspirational and exciting experience for the campers—and what better way to demonstrate this than by giving you a look at the day-to-day magic taking place right here on the UC Berkeley campus? On June 25, we followed Berkeley/Oakland AileyCampers around to see what a day in their life is like and got some direct feedback from a wonderful returning camper as well!
For more information on AileyCamp—including how to have a child apply to the program, how to sponsor a child’s free tuition, or how to attend the campers’ final performance later this week—visit calperformances.org/aileycamp.
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A Family Transformed by AileyCamp
A Family Transformed by AileyCamp
“They say it takes a village to raise a kid, we’ve had seven! I don’t think we could have done it without AileyCamp’s help.”
By Krista Thomas, Cal Performances’ Associate Director of Communications
This June marked the start of another year of Cal Performances’ Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp, a powerful full-scholarship dance and personal development program conceived by Alvin Ailey himself. Over the course of six weeks, campers ages 11–14 take dance classes in modern, West African, jazz, and ballet; as well as in creative communication and personal development, delving into topics such as goal-setting, conflict management, media literacy, positive self image, and leadership development. This program is known for its ability to transform participants, and Brenda Scott, a longtime proponent of the program, has seen this firsthand—six times!
Brenda and her partner Kathryn have been together for over 20 years, and in that time they’ve raised seven of their grandchildren, six of whom have attended AileyCamp as a household “rite of passage.” (The youngest is not yet old enough to attend.) At the time their AileyCamp journey began, they had four grandchildren under the age of 3. With so many active young ones running around, Brenda and Kathryn frequently looked for activities and outings to keep the family entertained.
“One day Kathryn was looking through the paper and saw AileyCamp’s end of year production [the culmination of six weeks of hard work at camp], which was free to attend. She knew about Alvin Ailey and had always wanted to see the company but had never felt she could afford to, so we were wowed at the camp and decided to take the kids,” she said. “After the performance, they kept saying, ‘I want to do this! How old do we have to be?’ It became their goal.”
The family attended AileyCamp final performances every year until the eldest of the grandkids were finally old enough to apply in 2011. “As soon as the two eldest—born 10 days apart—both entered 6th grade, the first thing they asked was, ‘Did you get the application in?’ And we did.” It turned out that, based on birthdays, all three of the oldest qualified to attend that year together.
That first summer proved to Brenda and Kathryn what a valuable impact this program could have for their grandkids. “They all had their own trauma they’d gone through, especially around losing or not even knowing their parents. But AileyCamp gave them confidence in themselves, a lot more than I could have done,” she said.
Brenda described one of the first grandsons as being very “defiant” when he entered camp, with AileyCamp’s director sharing with Brenda that he’d “never had a student go toe-to-toe with [him] three separate times.” With the conflict resolution lessons and patient conversations that staff had with him, however, Brenda saw a remarkable improvement with his openness and collaboration that has lasted “all through his life.” Her granddaughter who attended that year, Brenda shared, “had night terrors for years. She was afraid of everything, very shy… After she got out of AileyCamp, she ran for secretary at her school. She was very open and no longer afraid to voice her opinion. Her teachers saw it too, and told me, ‘There’s this glow coming out of her.’”
Each new year a grandchild would enter sixth grade, the AileyCamp applications would happen like clockwork. The children were not only excited for the program, but really dedicated to making it happen. Brenda recalls one year that car issues and conflicting work schedules made it impossible to take one of her grandsons all the way to camp, but he was so determined that, despite being nervous, he took BART by himself and walked the rest of the way to campus to ensure he could participate.
Last year, the second-youngest of her grandchildren—who had watched the eldest grandchildren’s final performance when he was only 3 years old—was finally able to attend. The year leading up to AileyCamp, he had experienced extreme harassment at school that bled into social media, with some students even taking inappropriate photos of him without his knowledge and circulating them online. “When he went into the program, his head was so down… He found himself again at AileyCamp,” she said. His newfound confidence was game-changing and, when he went to a new school this year, the principal coincidentally recognized him from his final performance! “When the principal met him and mentioned AileyCamp, he lit up. He has done so well in school this year and is feeling better about himself.”
In addition to promoting confidence, Brenda attests that, “because it took the form of the arts, the kids started to realize there were other parts of them.” Each one of her grandchildren found expression through the performing arts following this experience and went on to attend a longer program at East Bay Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond, where they explored everything from acting to African drumming to improv—and, of course, more dance. A few even pursued the arts into adulthood via acting and playwriting!
The youngest child is seven so will not be able to attend camp for a few years still, but the family is already looking forward to the tradition they’ve treasured over the years when they attend their loved one’s final performance and, for the older grandkids, experience the shared sense of accomplishment and growth they felt on that very stage years before.
Reflecting on the overall impact of the camp, Brenda said, “They say it takes a village to raise a kid, and we’ve had seven! I don’t think we could have done it without AileyCamp’s help. Each child in their own way found their inner strength and bloomed from there, and they still carry a lot of what they learned at AileyCamp to this day… I’m not sure how they all would have turned out if they hadn’t had this transformational experience.”
This year marks Berkeley/Oakland AileyCamp’s 21st year, with over 70 campers currently attending the program and experiencing their own form of growth and arts exploration. If you’re interested in having a child apply to the program, sponsoring a child’s free tuition , or seeing the culmination of their hard work at the final performance later this month, you can learn more at calperformances.org/aileycamp.
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Queer Luminaries from World History You’ll Want to Know
Queer Luminaries from World History You’ll Want to Know
Celebrating LGBTQ+ Roots in Honor of Stonewall’s 54th Anniversary.
By Krista Thomas, Cal Performances’ Associate Director of Communications
June 28 represents the anniversary of the 1969 riots at Stonewall, which sparked the 20th century LGBTQ+ liberation movement. Stonewall’s anniversary and Pride month are not only an invitation to celebrate the queer community around us today, but also to reflect on those who fought for rights and representation before us. This coming season, Cal Performances is fortunate to feature the West Coast premiere of Taylor Mac & Matt Ray’s Bark of Millions, which celebrates and explores the spectrum of the queer community through the lens of such forebears. In the words of Taylor Mac, “[The production is] 55 songs, one song for every year after Stonewall, inspired by a different queer person from world history. They’re all people that I never would have known about my entire upbringing. And it’s an exploration of the ideas that these people inspire.”
In honor of Stonewall’s anniversary, we’re highlighting a few underrecognized queer figures in history who have made an impact on the LGBTQ+ community—and who’ve inspired Bark of Millions. On behalf of Cal Performances, we’d like to thank the creators of Bark of Millions for shedding light on these individuals.
Mother Flawless Sabrina (1939–2017)
Performer, drag pioneer, queer advocate, and self-proclaimed “gender clown,” Flawless Sabrina was one of the main figures who brought greater visibility to drag beginning in the 1960s. Born in Philadelphia in 1939, Jack Doroshow (the man behind the drag) attended his first drag show in Manhattan in the late 1950s, and shortly thereafter was inspired to stage a drag pageant alongside friends in 1959. Though Doroshow ran the first events in a suit, he and his co-hosts decided it was only fitting that they dress for the occasion and, by pageant number three, his drag persona Flawless Sabrina was born. To signal to competing queens that she was not a competitor, Flawless Sabrina adopted the title of Mother, which would turn out to perfectly express her support and mentorship of other queens. Despite beginning her career at a time when drag had not yet hit the “mainstream”—and crossdressing was still criminalized—she was able to find commercial success over time in her Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant, which went on to host competitions at a national scale.
In the late 1960s, Mother Flawless Sabrina retired from hosting pageants and turned her attention to film, starring in her own iconic documentary, The Queen, and even consulting on drag and queer representation for a handful of Hollywood films. Later in life, she acted as a cultural producer and arts socialite, and continued her work of mentoring and advocating for queer youth. She is particularly recognized for her advocacy for trans folks, in society at large as well as within the gay community.
Chavela Vargas (1919–2012)
Chavela Vargas, beloved Mexican Ranchera singer, was an icon of rebellion and queer expression. Born in Costa Rica, Vargas moved to Mexico as a teenager to find greater opportunities as a singer and began her career performing on the streets and in clubs in Mexico City. In addition to her sultry voice and beautifully raw interpretation of Ranchera music, Vargas was known for her rebellious image. Contrary to gendered expectations, she wore masculine clothing, smoked cigars, drank heavily, and even carried a gun. She also frequently addressed love interests in her music as women and was known to have had many love interests of her own, including a rumored romance with Frida Kahlo. At age 81, the international musical icon publicly described herself as a lesbian. In a 2000 interview, Vargas said, “Nobody taught me to be like this. I was born this way. Since I opened my eyes to the world, I have never slept with a man. Never. Just imagine what purity. I have nothing to be ashamed of.” At her passing in 2012, Vargas was lauded for paving the way for free expression and representation within her field.
Frances Thompson (1840–1876)
Frances Thompson is believed to be the first trans woman to testify before the US Congress. Thompson was born into slavery in the South in 1840 and, following the Civil War, was granted freedom in her mid-20s. After her emancipation, she was living as her authentic self wearing bright dresses, shaving her face, and taking in washing to earn a living.
In 1866, Thompson was raped during the Memphis Riot, in which white men targeted the Black community in Memphis over the course of three days of atrocious violence that left nearly 50 people dead, nearly 100 buildings destroyed, and an entire community damaged and vulnerable. Thompson was among a handful of Black women who were called on to testify to the crimes before Congress. As a result of her brave testimony, Thompson had greater recognition in the South and was subject to increased harassment. Ten years after the trial, Thompson was arrested for cross-dressing and imprisoned. Her arrest and identity as a trans woman were used politically to discredit her previous “lynchpin” testimony. Though persecuted during her time, Thompson is often referenced now as an example of how the history of queer liberation and Black liberation are inextricably linked.
Niankhkhnum & Khnumhotep (25th century BC)
Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were believed to be chief manicurists to a ruler of Egypt in the fifth dynasty. When their tomb was discovered in 1964 in Cairo, the two men drew significant attention due to how intimately they were depicted together in carvings on the wall of their tomb: In one very powerful reference, the two are seen facing each other, holding hands, and touching noses, which was considered the greatest sign of intimacy at that time and was typically reserved for husband and wife. Other depictions showed one of the men in positions traditionally reserved for women in such carvings and, while the two did have wives and children who were present in the artwork, they were hardly featured in the core of the carvings. While some scholars have suggested that the two men may have been given a joint burial and connected depiction because they were twins (or even conjoined twins!), a leading theory remains that the two were lovers and that their tomb represents the first recorded same-sex couple.
If you’re interested in learning even more about queer history and music this month, we recommend watching Taylor Mac, Matt Ray, Machine Dazzle, and other Bark of Millions collaborators chart centuries of popular music through a queer lens in Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music, which will be released for streaming on June 27.