Sights & Sounds is your weekly guide to the Bay Area arts scene. Drag queen Black Benatar (aka Beatrice Thomas) told KALW’s Jen Chien about three spectacular arts events happening around the Bay this week.
- Show Us Your Spines — Hormel LGBTQIA Center at SFPL on 4/12 at 7 p.m.
- ¿Donde Esta Mi Comedy? — Galería de la Raza on 4/15 at 4 p.m.
- Geek Show 2: BindleCon — Bindlestiff Studio from 4/12-4/28
Come to the second ever public performance for Show Us Your Spines at the James Hormel Center at the San Francisco Main Library. Created in partnership with Radar Productions and the Hormel Center, Show Us Your Spines is a series of month-long residencies for QTPOC writers. Each residency cohort is comprised of four writers and artists who create a piece inspired by material from the Hormel Center. April's residents are: Director of the Kween Culture Initiative Aria Sa'id; black and queer Virginian and Oakland high school teacher Vernon Keeve III; singer and educator Itoro Udofia; and poet/musician/physician Yeva Jonhson. This event is free and open to the public.
"I love Radar Productions because it centers queer literary art, and I love that they do their work at the library!"
¿Donde Esta Mi Comedy? is part of the Latinx literary performance showcase series of live comedy and storytelling ¿Donde Esta Mi Gente? Bay Area writer and comedian Baruch Porras-Hernandez created the series four years ago to push back on the “tragedy porn narrative” of the immigrant experience. The show features comedy from award-winning spoken word artist Yosimar Reyes, Kat Evasco, Amanda Muñiz, and Johan Miranda. This event is free and open to the public.
"I have been to many many many of Baruch's shows. I'm a big fan ... I think he is literally one of the funniest people on the planet. He is an incredible curator of comedy. Funny people know funny people!"
The Geek Show 2: BindleCon, conceived by producers Thomas Paras and Marc Abrigo, rips the roof off a convention center, as interconnected stories emerge from one day at the "geek fest" that is BindleCon. The Geek Show is both a love letter and a critique on contemporary geek culture. From comedy sketches to dramatic pieces, the multi-genre production brings together the passionate, the ostracized, and the awkward in celebration of everything under the umbrella of geekdom. There is a pay-what-you-can community preview on 4/12 at 8 p.m., and the show will open 4/13 and run until 4/28.
"I love Bindlestiff. It is maybe the only Filipino black box theater in the country, and they consistently put on incredible work that is completely diverse that embraces contemporary issues. So I like this because it's like, let's talk about POC geeks, y'all!"
Black Benatar will be performing Black Benatar’s Black Magic Cabaret at Brava Theater Center on 4/19 as part of So Soul San Francisco.