Arts & Entertainment
Gearing up for ‘Change’
LGBT conference unfolds in Baltimore this weekend
Not surprisingly, Rea Carey, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, is excited about the start of the 24th Creating Change conference, now underway in Baltimore.
This year, the Task Force expects a record-breaking crowd of about 3,000 LGBT activists and their allies to come together for a weekend of celebrating victories, analyzing losses and developing strategies for moving forward in the challenging political and social landscape of 2012.
“This conference is where many of us got our start as LGBT activists,” Carey says. “It brings together an amazingly diverse array of people from across the country and around the world.”
The NAACP’s Benjamin Jealous speaks at Creating Change in Baltimore this weekend. (Photo courtesy NAACP)
There are, for example, workshop tracks on aging, arts and culture, disability, community centers and community organizing, fundraising, legislative challenges and the 2012 elections, families, gender issues, campus mobilization, labor, religion, people of color, the transgender community and sexual freedom. In addition, the conference started with day-long skill-building and networking institutes and the first-ever Creating Change Lobby Day where activists traveled to Capitol Hill to brief their congressional delegations on the spectrum of issues facing gay and lesbian Americans.
Carey notes that two of the most active contingents this year are youth and elected officials. “We have a large contingent of young people who are working in their high schools and colleges and in their communities to create progressive change. We will also have more elected and appointed officials participating in the conference than we ever have before.”
Conference attendees come together for a series of plenary sessions emceed by lesbian comedian Kate Clinton. This year, the plenaries include a state-of-the-movement address by Carey, a panel on international issues moderated by Cary Alan Johnson of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, and a performance by gay actor and activist Wilson Cruz. Blade editor Kevin Naff moderates a panel on national politics with the Victory Fund’s Robin Brand, Equality Forum’s Malcolm Lazin and Equality Federation’s Rebecca Isaacs Friday at 3 p.m.
The highlight of this year’s conference is the keynote address by Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP. Jealous comes from a long line of civil rights advocates and has become a straight ally in the fight for LGBT equality.
“We are deeply honored to have one of the best civil rights leaders in the country address us and I am sure he will be speaking from the heart,” Carey said.
Jealous has spoken movingly of the struggles faced by his gay brother, whom he describes as “the closest person to me in the world,” and remembers how they fought together against childhood bullies. Working with NAACP Chairman Emeritus Julian Bond, Jealous created a LGBT Equality Task Force at the NAACP to help the African-American community fight the challenges of homophobia and transgender discrimination.
Jealous and the national office of the NAACP were staunch opponents of Proposition 8, the anti-same-sex marriage measure in California, but Jealous notes that lack of outreach to the African-American community was in issue in the loss. At last year’s NAACP convention, Jealous said, “If folks really wanted to win on Prop. 8, and thought the black community was so important, then they should have started organizing outreach a lot sooner.” Instead, LGBT organizers “who came to the black community late” sent a message of disrespect.
Carey emphasizes that, “It is part of the value of the Task Force to partner with non-LGBT organizations as we seek justice and equality. The challenge for all of us is that we have a lot to learn from other movements and they have a lot to learn from us.”
The conference runs through Sunday at the Hilton Baltimore. Visit creatingchange.org for details.
WorldPride 2025 concluded with the WorldPride Street Festival and Closing Concert held along Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. on Sunday, June 8. Performers on the main stage included Doechii, Khalid, Courtney Act, Parker Matthews, 2AM Ricky, Suzie Toot, MkX and Brooke Eden.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
The 2025 WorldPride Parade was held in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, June 7. Laverne Cox and Renée Rapp were the grand marshals.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key and Robert Rapanut)
Theater
A hilarious ‘Twelfth Night’ at Folger full of ‘elegant kink’
Nonbinary actor Alyssa Keegan stars as Duke Orsino
‘Twelfth Night’
Through June 22
Folger Theatre
201 East Capitol St., S.E.
$20-$84
Folger.edu
Nonbinary actor Alyssa Keegan (they/them)loves tapping into the multitudes within.
Currently Keegan plays the melancholic Duke Orsino in Folger Theatre’s production of Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “Twelfth Night.” Director Mei Ann Teo describes the production as “sexy, hilarious, and devastating” and full of “elegant kink.”
Washington-based, Keegan enjoys a busy and celebrated career. Her vast biography includes Come From Away at Ford’s Theatre; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Helen Hayes Award, Best Actress) and Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, both at Round House Theatre; Diana Son’s Stop Kiss directedby Holly Twyford for No Rules Theatre Company; and Contractions at Studio Theatre, to name just a few.
In addition to acting, Keegan works as a polyamory and ethical non-monogamy life and relationship coach, an area of interest that grew out of personal exploration. For them, coaching seems to work hand in hand with acting.
WASHINGTON BLADE: You’re playing the lovesick Orsino in Twelfth Night. How did that come about?
ALYSSA KEEGAN: The director was looking to cast a group of actors with diverse identities; throughout auditions, there were no constraints regarding anyone’s assigned sex at birth. It was really a free for all.
BLADE: What’s your approach to the fetching, cod-piece clad nobleman?
KEEGAN: Offstage I identify as completely nonbinary; I love riding in this neutral middle space. But I also love cosplay. The ability to do that in the play gives me permission to dive completely into maleness.
So, when I made that decision to play Orsino as a bio male, suddenly the part really cracked open for me. I began looking for clues about his thoughts and opinions about things like his past relationships and his decision not to date older women.
Underneath his mask of bravura and sexuality, and his firmness of feelings, he’s quite lonely and has never really felt loved. It makes sense to me why his love for Olivia is so misguided and why he might fall in love with the Cesario/Viola character.
BLADE: As an actor, do you ever risk taking on the feelings of your characters?
KEEGAN: Prior to my mental health education, yes, and that could be toxic for me. I’ve since learned that the nervous system can’t tell the difference between real emotional distress and a that of a fully embodied character.
So, I created and share the Empowered Performer Project. [a holistic approach to performance that emphasizes the mental and emotional well-being of performing artists]. It utilizes somatic tools that help enormously when stepping into a character.
BLADE: Has changing the way you work affected your performances?
KEEGAN: I think I’m much better now. I used to have nearly debilitating stage fright. I’d spend all day dreading going onstage. I thought that was just part of the job. Now, I’ve learned to talk to my body. Prior to a performance, I can now spend my offstage time calmly gardening, working with my mental health clients, or playing with my kid. I’m just present in my life in a different way.
BLADE: Is Orsino your first time playing a male role?
KEEGAN: No. In fact, the very first time I played a male role was at the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Va. I played Hipolito in Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy.
As Hipolito, I felt utterly male in the moment, so much so that I had audience members see me later after the show and they were surprised that I was female. They thought I was a young guy in the role. There’s something very powerful in that.
BLADE: Do you have a favorite part? Male or female?
KEEGAN: That’s tough but I think it’s Maggie the Cat. I played the hyper-female Maggie in Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Round House. In the first act she didn’t stop talking for 51 minutes opposite Gregory Wooddell as Brick who barely had to speak. That lift was probably the heaviest I’ve ever been asked to do in acting.
BLADE: What about Folger’s Twelfth Night might be especially appealing to queer audiences?
KEEGAN: First and foremost is presentation. 99% of the cast identify as queer in some way.
The approach to Shakespeare’s text is one of the most bold and playful that I have ever seen. It’s unabashedly queer. The actors are here to celebrate and be loud and colorful and to advocate. It’s a powerful production, especially to do so close to the Capitol building, and that’s not lost on any of us.
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A hilarious ‘Twelfth Night’ at Folger full of ‘elegant kink’
