Arts & Entertainment
Local singer Peter Fox succumbs to cancer
Jazz-and-standards performer battled untreatable illness in recent months
Gay singer Peter Fox. (Photo courtesy of Signature)
Peter Fox, a likable local gay singer/songwriter, died early Monday morning, according to a statement released by his family. He was 45 and died of central nervous system lymphoma according to his friend, fellow musician Tom Nichols.
Fox, a Pompton Plains, N.J., native, studied business and music at Pennsylvania State University and had devoted the last seven years mostly to singing. He performed at corporate and LGBT events, sang at the 2010 AIDS Walk and performed a cabaret show last summer at Signature Theatre. He had previously been active in the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington and sang in its Potomac Fever ensemble. His eponymous debut album came out in May, 2010. By day he was membership director for an HIV medical certification association. He had previously been a truck driver.
Fox had a good relationship with his family and said his coming-out process had been easy. His brother was at his cabaret show last summer and Fox told a funny story about taking his (straight) father to a Pittsburgh gay bar.
“The Fox family is deeply saddened to share with you the passing of our beloved brother Peter in the early morning hours of Monday,” the statement said. “He left this earth peacefully in the loving arms of his family. We thank our family and friends for their love and support during this difficult time. Service and memorial details will follow soon. Prayerfully, the Fox family.”
MORE IN THE BLADE: ‘A RARE AND BEAUTIFUL SOUL’
Fox became ill suddenly in November. A round of chemotherapy did not go well and doctors advised no further chemo treatment, Nichols said. Fox had just performed with Nichols at the release party for Nichols’ debut album. The two had sung together for more than a decade in the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington.
Fox was single but previously had a relationship with Antonio Casavez who lives in Australia but returned to the U.S. to be with Fox in his final weeks. Casavez declined to comment but Nichols said the two had “a special relationship” and even when they were in relationships with others, “were soul mates and had a special place in each other’s hearts.”
Fox and Nichols were roommates for about three years before Fox bought his own place. Nichols remembers him as a motorcycle enthusiast and a great roommate.
“He was a true artist,” Nichols said of his friend. “He had a one-in-a-million voice … and a unique ability to make every single person he encountered feel like they were the only person in the room.”
Fox was preceded in death by his parents but is survived by three brothers and a sister. A public viewing is planned for Thursday at DeVol Funeral Home (2222 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.) from 6 to 9 p.m. The service is set for Friday at 10 a.m. at Foundry United Methodist Church (1500 16th Street, N.W.). Anyone may attend.
In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that memorial gifts in Fox’s honor be made to the Icla Da Silva Foundation, the largest bone marrow recruiter for the National Marrow Registry.
Team DC, the umbrella organization for LGBTQ-friendly sports teams and leagues in the D.C. area, held its annual Night of Champions Awards Gala on Saturday, April 20 at the Hilton National Mall. The organization gave out scholarships to area LGBTQ student athletes as well as awards to the Different Drummers, Kelly Laczko of Duplex Diner, Stacy Smith of the Edmund Burke School, Bryan Frank of Triout, JC Adams of DCG Basketball and the DC Gay Flag Football League.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The 2024 National Cannabis Festival was held at the Fields at RFK Stadium on April 19-20.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Covering the @NatlCannaFest at RFK Stadium for @WashBlade . Stop by the LGBTQ+ booth and pick up a paper if you are here. pic.twitter.com/is7hnsaPns
— Michael Patrick Key (@MichaelKeyWB) April 20, 2024
Theater
‘Amm(i)gone’ explores family, queerness, and faith
A ‘fully autobiographical’ work from out artist Adil Mansoor
‘Amm(i)gone’
Thorough May 12
Woolly Mammoth Theatre
641 D St., N.W.
$60-$70
Woollymammoth.net
“Fully and utterly autobiographical.” That’s how Adil Mansoor describes “Amm(i)gone,” his one-man work currently playing at Woolly Mammoth Theatre.
Both created and performed by out artist Mansoor, it’s his story about inviting his Pakistani mother to translate Sophocles’s Greek tragedy “Antigone” into Urdu. Throughout the journey, there’s an exploration of family, queerness, and faith,as well as references to teachings from the Quran, and audio conversations with his Muslim mother.
Mansoor, 38, grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and is now based in Pittsburgh where he’s a busy theater maker. He’s also the founding member of Pittsburgh’s Hatch Arts Collective and the former artistic director of Dreams of Hope, an LGBTQ youth arts organization.
WASHINGTON BLADE: What spurred you to create “Amm(i)gone”?
ADIL MANSOOR: I was reading a translation of “Antigone” a few years back and found myself emotionally overwhelmed. A Theban princess buries her brother knowing it will cost her, her own life. It’s about a person for whom all aspirations are in the afterlife. And what does that do to the living when all of your hopes and dreams have to be reserved for the afterlife?
I found grant funding to pay my mom to do the translation. I wanted to engage in learning. I wanted to share theater but especially this ancient tragedy. My mother appreciated the characters were struggling between loving one another and their beliefs.
BLADE: Are you more director than actor?
MANSOOR: I’m primarily a director with an MFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon. I wrote, directed, and performed in this show, and had been working on it for four years. I’ve done different versions including Zoom. Woolly’s is a new production with the same team who’ve been involved since the beginning.
I love solo performance. I’ve produced and now teach solo performance and believe in its power. And I definitely lean toward “performance” and I haven’t “acted” since I was in college. I feel good on stage. I was a tour guide and do a lot of public speaking. I enjoy the attention.
BLADE: Describe your mom.
MANSOOR: My mom is a wonderfully devout Muslim, single mother, social worker who discovered my queerness on Google. And she prays for me.
She and I are similar, the way we look at things, the way we laugh. But different too. And those are among the questions I ask in this show. Our relationship is both beautiful and complicated.
BLADE: So, you weren’t exactly hiding your sexuality?
MANSOOR: In my mid-20s, I took time to talk with friends about our being queer with relation to our careers. My sexuality is essential to the work. As the artistic director at Dreams of Hope, part of the work was to model what it means to be public. If I’m in a room with queer and trans teenagers, part of what I’m doing is modeling queer adulthood. The way they see me in the world is part of what I’m putting out there. And I want that to be expansive and full.
So much of my work involves fundraising and being a face in schools. Being out is about making safe space for queer young folks.
BLADE: Have you encountered much Islamophobia?
MANSOOR: When 9/11 happened, I was a sophomore in high school, so yes. I faced a lot then and now. I’ve been egged on the street in the last four months. I see it in the classroom. It shows up in all sorts of ways.
BLADE: What prompted you to lead your creative life in Pittsburgh?
MANSOOR: I’ve been here for 14 years. I breathe with ease in Pittsburgh. The hills and the valleys and the rust of the city do something to me. It’s beautiful, it’ affordable, and there is support for local artists. There’s a lot of opportunity.
Still, the plan was to move to New York in September of 2020 but that was cancelled. Then the pandemic showed me that I could live in Pittsburgh and still have a nationally viable career.
BLADE: What are you trying to achieve with “Amm(i)gone”?
MANSOOR: What I’m sharing in the show is so very specific but I hear people from other backgrounds say I totally see my mom in that. My partner is Catholic and we share so much in relation to this.
I hope the work is embracing the fullness of queerness and how means so many things. And I hope the show makes audiences want to call their parents or squeeze their partners.
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‘Amm(i)gone’ explores family, queerness, and faith
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