Arts & Entertainment
Queery: Steven Wilson
The Oasis Dance Company founder/director answers 20 gay questions
Steven Wilson (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)
When Steven Wilson moved to Washington in 2008 because his husband, Brandon Wilson, got a job in the area, the 28-year-old dancer and choreographer decided to re-launch his Oasis Dance Company here.
It’s evolved since then — this weekend’s event “The Affair: Bow Ties & Pumps,” a benefit for Transgender Health Empowerment and the Wanda Alston House for homeless LGBT youth, is the launch of his expanded vision which will be known as the Oasis Dance Collective. It will continue to encompass his adult company for 18-25-year-olds (there are 13 dancers in the troupe) but a youth contingent is also launching along with a series that will find well-known choreographers coming to D.C. to offer master classes (the group is online at oasisdanceco.com). Wilson re-launched the group with co-founder Jami Shackles.
Sunday night’s event, to be held at THEARC Theater (1901 Mississippi Ave., S.E.), is designed as a dance tribute to several local public figures, both LGBT and allies, who are making a difference in the D.C. area. Similar to the Kennedy Center Honors, Wilson is overseeing mini-tributes to each of this year’s honorees: Revs. Dennis and Christine Wiley, pastors of LGBT-welcoming Covenant Baptist United Church of Christ; comedian Sampson McCormick; youth advocate Kenya Hutton, Abdur-Rahim Briggs, president of Al Sura; drag performer Shi-Queeta Lee; The Center’s David Mariner; and Rev. Aaron Wade, pastor of Community Church of Washington.
“Imagine Victoria’s Secret meets the Grammys meets ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’” Wilson says. “It will be so many different things and highly entertaining.”
Red carpet starts at 6:30 p.m. The performance is at 7:30. General admission is $30; VIP admission is $50. Tickets will be available at the door or can be purchased in advance at thearcdc.org. Proceeds go to the Alston House and THE. Details are at oasisdanceco.com/events.
Wilson works by day in Annandale, Va., as a clinical research assistant at Clinical Alliance for Research Education in Infectious Diseases (CARE-ID) and lives in Fairfax, though all his Oasis work is in Washington. The Norwich, Conn., native enjoys dancing, writing and hiking in his free time. He and Wilson have two dogs, Joi and PJ.
How long have you been out and who was the hardest person to tell?
I have been out since my sophomore year of college in 2004 and my father was the hardest person to tell.
Who’s your LGBT hero?
Alvin Ailey
What’s Washington’s best nightspot, past or present?
Town
Describe your dream wedding.
With all family in attendance on the coast of Spain.
What non-LGBT issue are you most passionate about?
Education
What historical outcome would you change?
The transfer of HIV/AIDS from primates to humans.
What’s been the most memorable pop culture moment of your lifetime?
My first concert was a Janet concert (the “Velvet Rope Tour”) and it just kind of solidified everything I wanted to do in life. A lot of my friends were really into Michael Jackson, but I didn’t really grow up on Mike. I grew up way more on Janet.
On what do you insist?
Faith
What was your last Facebook post or Tweet?
“The Affair Sunday, September 23, 2012”
If your life were a book, what would the title be?
“Pieces of a Dream”
If science discovered a way to change sexual orientation, what would you do?
Nothing. I am proud of who I am and wish everyone else the same — just be you.
What do you believe in beyond the physical world?
Heaven
What’s your advice for LGBT movement leaders?
Stay connected, make sure the messaging remains relevant and focus on legal issues more than emotional ones. A person may not agree with me, but I want to ensure that they cannot legally hinder my happiness.
What would you walk across hot coals for?
My family
What LGBT stereotype annoys you most?
That gay equates to be a feminine male or butch female.
What’s your favorite LGBT movie?
I don’t have one. “Center Stage,” but that not really gay.
What’s the most overrated social custom?
Shaking hands
What trophy or prize do you most covet?
My ultimate goal is to win a Tony Award for choreography.
What do you wish you’d known at 18?
The only person who must buy into your vision is you!
Why Washington?
It is the nuclei of America.
Denali (@denalifoxx) of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” performed at Pitchers DC on April 9 for the Thirst Trap Thursday drag show. Other performers included Cake Pop!, Brooke N Hymen, Stacy Monique-Max and Silver Ware Sidora.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
Arts & Entertainment
In an act of artistic defiance, Baltimore Center Stage stays focused on DEI
‘Maybe it’s a triple-down’
By LESLIE GRAY STREETER | I’m always tickled when people complain about artists “going political.” The inherent nature of art, of creation and free expression, is political. This becomes obvious when entire governments try to threaten it out of existence, like in 2025, when the brand-new presidential administration demanded organizations halt so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming or risk federal funding.
Baltimore Center Stage’s response? A resounding and hearty “Nah.” A year later, they’re still doubling down on diversity.
“Maybe it’s a triple-down,” said Ken-Matt Martin, the theater’s producing director, chuckling.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
‘La Lucci’
By Susan Lucci with Laura Morton
c.2026, Blackstone Publishing
$29.99/196 pages
They’re among the world’s greatest love stories.
You know them well: Marc Antony and Cleopatra. Abelard and Heloise. Phoebe and Langley. Cliff and Nina. Jesse and Angie, Opal and Palmer, Palmer and Daisy, Tad and Dixie. Now read “La Lucci” by Susan Lucci, with Laura Morton, and you might also think of Susan and Helmut.
When she was a very small girl, Susan Lucci loved to perform. Also when she was young, she learned that words have power. She vowed to use them for good for the rest of her life.
Her parents, she says, were supportive and her family, loving. Because of her Italian heritage, she was “ethnic looking” but Lucci’s mother was careful to point out dark-haired beauties on TV and elsewhere, giving Lucci a foundation of confidence.
That’s just one of the things for which Lucci says she’s grateful. In fact, she says, “Prayers of gratitude are how I begin and end each day.”
She is particularly grateful for becoming a mother to her two adult children, and to the doctors who saved her son’s life when he was a newborn.
Lucci writes about gratitude for her long career. She was a keystone character on TV’s “All My Children,” and she learned a lot from older actors on the show, and from Agnes Nixon, the creator of it. She says she still keeps in touch with many of her former costars.
She is thankful for her mother’s caretakers, who stepped in when dementia struck. Grateful for more doctors, who did heart-saving work when Lucci had a clogged artery. Grateful for friends, opportunities, life, grandchildren, and a career that continues.
And she’s grateful for the love she shared with her husband, Helmut Huber, who died nearly four years ago. Grateful for the chance to grieve, to heal, and to continue.
And yet, she says of her husband: “He was never timid, but I know he was afraid at the end, and that kills me down to my soul.”
“It’s been 15 years since Erica Kane and I parted ways,” says author Susan Lucci (with Laura Morton), and she says that people still approach her to confirm or deny rumors of the show’s resurrection. There’s still no answer to that here (sorry, fans), but what you’ll find inside “La Lucci” is still exceptionally generous.
If this book were just filled with stories, you’d like it just fine. If it was only about Lucci’s faith and her gratitude – words that happen to appear very frequently here – you’d still like reading it. But Lucci tells her stories of family, children and “All My Children,” while also offering help to couples who’ve endured miscarriage, women who’ve had heart problems, and widow(ers) who are spinning and need the kindness of someone who’s lived loss, too.
These are the other things you’ll find in “La Lucci,” in a voice you’ll hear in your head, if you spent your lunch hours glued to the TV back in the day. It’s a comfortable, fun read for fans. It’s a story you’ll love.
The Blade may receive commissions from qualifying purchases made via this post.
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