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Calendar: Aug. 2-8

Parties, concerts and events in the week to come

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OutWrite, gay news, Washington Blade
OutWrite 2019 runs this weekend.

Friday, Aug. 2

OutWrite 2019’s kickoff event Parties, concerts and events in the week to come is tonight from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at the Ten Tigers Parlour (3813 Georgia Ave., N.W.). OutWrite is a nonprofit festival celebrating LGBT literature and runs through Sunday. This opening event features writers Kristen Arnett, Jericho Brown and Wo Chan with host Rebecca Kling. Event highlights include “Ask an Editor,” impromptu poetry, a genre hybrid conversation, tarot readings and more. Visit thedccenter.org for more information. 

The “America is…” national juried show opens at the Touchstone Gallery (901 New York Ave., N.W.) tonight from 6-8:30 p.m. and runs until Aug. 29. During the show artists explore, ask and answer “What is America today?” through varied exhibitions. Hors d’oeuvres and gourmet frozen desserts provided and the event is open to the public. For more information, visit touchstonegallery.com.

Saturday, Aug. 3

OutWrite 20 continues today in the Reeves Center (2000 14th St., N.W.) from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. This free event includes readings, panel discussions, a zine-making table, a used book sale and a variety of LGBTQ vendors to explore. More information is available at thedccenter.org.

Neo-soul singer-songwriter Bilal performs tonight at City Winery (1350 Okie St. N.E.) starting at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $35. Known for his wide vocal range and his work across multiple genres, Bilal has performed with Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar. Visit washingtondc.eventful.com for tickets and information. 

The World’s Fair is in Washington at the DAR Constitution Hall (1776 D St., N.W.) today from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. This is a free event and audiences can experience the excitement, innovation and wonder of the 1900 World’s Fair. On display will be inventions that thrilled fairgoers from an earlier era as well as booths and activities from local embassies and cultural centers. Girl Scouts can earn a badge by attending the event. For more information visit washingtondc.eventful.com

Sunday, Aug. 4

OutWrite 2019 continues today from 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m at the Reeves Center (2000 14th St., N.W.). The workshops are free and open to the public. No registration required. Workshops include culinary writing, “Drag Poetics,” query letters to agents, horror writing and more. Visit thedccenter.com for more information. 

Tuxedo, a retro band featuring hip-hop producer Jake One and self-titled “elegant funk” singer Mayer Hawthorne, performs tonight at the 9:30 club (815 V St., N.W.). Tickets start at $25 and audiences can expect to be entertained by danceable tunes reminiscent of the late disco era. With eight Grammy nominations between them, their combination is still original in sound and style. For more information visit 930.com.

The 2019 Mister Nice Jewish Boy Pageant begins today at 2 p.m. at the U Street Music Hall (1115 U St., N.W.). Tickets start at $25. The event is put on by Nice Jewish Boys D.C. and is hosted by NYC drag queen Lady SinAGaga and Mr. Nice Jewish Boy 2018 Jeremy Sherman. Proceeds benefit Kishet and support regional teen LGBTQ and ally Shabbaton. For tickets and information, visit ticketfly.com

SIR, an interactive all-male burlesque show hosted at SAX restaurant and lounge (734 11th St., N.W.), is today starting at 11 a.m. This high-energy show is a theatrical experience featuring dancers, aerialists, pole performers, go-go boys and table service studs. SIR takes place at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sundays, tickets required. For more information, visit saxwdc.com

Monday, Aug. 5

The National Portrait Gallery (8th and F St., N.W.) continues to feature works such as David Lenz’s “Eunice Kennedy Shriver” as part of its ongoing exhibition series “The Struggle for Justice.” The portrait series is available for viewing 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. daily and admission is free. This series showcases historical figures who struggled to achieve civil rights for marginalized groups. For more information, visit npg.si.edu.

Tuesday, Aug. 6

The Lincoln Theatre (1215 U St., N.W.) presents “An Evening with Dawes” tonight starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are $40 and doors open at 6:30 p.m. Dawes is a Southern California band with a smooth blues rock/folk rock sound that has evolved and grown more electric with time. Visit thelincolndc.com for tickets and information. 

Wednesday, Aug. 7

The Struts continue their “Young and Dangerous” tour tonight at the 9:30 club (815 V St., N.W.). Doors open at 7 p.m. This riff-heavy rock band has opened for icons such as The Rolling Stones, The Who and Guns N’ Roses. “Young & Dangerous” is their second album and continues the U.K band’s glam-rock revamp with deeper and more inventive sounds. For tickets and information visit 930.com

Bookmen DC, an informal men’s gay literature group, discusses William E. Jones’ “True Homosexual Experiences: Boyd McDonald and Straight to Hell” tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Park Library (3310 Connecticut Ave.., N.W.). All are welcome. Boyd McDonald’s chapbook of readers’ “true homosexual experiences” was admired by Gore Vidal and William S. Burroughs as one of the first works to combine a contempt for authority with a sharp literary style. For more information, visit bookmendc.blogspot.com

Thursday, Aug. 8

Rufus Du Sol, an Australian three-piece band, performs its live electronic act tonight at The Anthem (901 Wharf St., S.W.). Tickets start at $35 and the show begins at 8 p.m. Rufus has released two platinum-certified albums, “ATLAS” and “Bloom,” and the upcoming album, Solace, explores deeper lyrics which the trio says is “about finding a sense of hope in a darker time.” Tickets and information are on theanthemdc.com.

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Television

How this Texas drag king reclaimed their identity

Chicano performance art serves as inspiration

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Three out of ten drag kings who were cast for this first season of King of Drag self-identified as Latinx and after episode two, only one Latinx king remains in the running for the competition. 

Buck Wylde, a king from Dallas, Texas delivered a performance that took inspiration from their Catholic upbringing and Catholic school days to put together this persona. During the episode, they shared that they like to “play with religion.” 

Murray Hill responded by adding, “sometimes we can’t afford to go to therapy for the Catholic guilt, so we do drag.” Buck Wylde says their therapy and their church is drag. 

Buck Wylde, cancer sign, goes by Trigger Mortis when they are outside of drag and present more on the femme side. Along with Big D—another drag king on the series—they are the only two who are more femme outside of their drag persona. 

During this episode, Buck Wylde also spoke about the difficulty of performing drag in a red state. They live in conservative Dallas, so they still struggle to find large-scale acceptance and support in the midst of statewide legislation targeting the LGBTQ community in Texas. 

“Sometimes it doesn’t feel [as] safe as [I] would like it to be. There’s protesters all the time and we don’t have as many spaces to perform as kings there,” they said in the interview. 

Buck Wylde says that for them, the most important thing about drag, is that it is and always has been a protest. 

Living in a conservative state is a challenge to them as a drag king, but they say that it’s important for them to stand their ground and not only bring that representation to these areas, but also intentionally keep it there. 

“So many people leave Texas for their safety and mental health to go to Portland, LA, or Colorado Springs or you know, anywhere but here.” 

During the episode, Buck Wylde also opened up about how their religious background and cultural heritage added an extra layer to their identity issues growing up where they did. Their family wanted them to assimilate and even prevented them from speaking Spanish and they say that through Buck, they are able to re-examine what it means to be a part of that culture. 

Buck Wylde is a third generation Mexican-American and they say that though their Spanish is not fluent, they say they do prefer their horchata without (ICE). 

“I kind of straddled different worlds there, because I was sort of assimilated but I still had my Mexican culture. I always felt like I wasn’t connected enough because of the assimilation and it was through drag that I was able to reclaim my culture.” 

In the first round of competitions for the second episode, the kings broke up into three teams of three for an improv skit where they would have to mansplain a topic and whichever team did it the best—won the group Weenie Challenge.

The winning team included Buck Wylde, Alexander the Great and Henlo Bullfrog. Together they improvised a skit where they mansplained the Amelia Earhart story.  

For the solo show, they dressed up as ‘The Devil’ for the improv solo challenge, cracking a joke about how they are dressed like the person currently living in The White House. 

Dressed as the Devil, sporting a Zoot Suit for the final competition, Buck Wylde improvised a skit with food. 

Buck Wylde says they felt the pressure to perform because along with the other nine kings who were cast, they are the first ten kings to make it to the mainstream and represent king culture. 

“We call ourselves the first ten because whatever happens, we’re responsible for how the kings are viewed and how we move forward together, being the blueprint for what’s to come,” said Buck Wylde in an exclusive interview with Los Angeles Blade. 

Back stage before the solo improv competition, Buck Wylde says they felt their drag persona “crumbling” away. 

They felt like Buck had abandoned them prior to their big moments to prove to the judges that they should stay in the running for the competition. They went up against Perka $exxx, who gave a king-based Dave Chappell performance. 

In the end, it was Perka $exxx who received a 4-1 vote from the judges. 

Buck Wylde left the show with some advice for the kings and the audience: “No matter what life throws at you, always remember who the Buck you are.”

King of Drag is now available to stream on RevryTV, an LGBTQ streaming platform for queer movies, TV shows, music and more — all for free. New King of Drag episodes will premiere weekly on Sundays. 

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Out & About

Help preserve Black LGBTQ history

Preservation Committee to hold public meeting

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A scene from D.C. Black Gay Pride in 1994. (Washington Blade archive photo by Kristi Gasaway)

The Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs will host “Black LGBTQ+ History Preservation Committee Public Meeting” on Wednesday, July 16 at 6 p.m. at 899 North Capitol St., N.E.

Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs and the Black LGBTQ+ History Preservation Committee will discuss their upcoming grant project. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and network with committee members. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite

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Theater

Exciting lineup on tap for theater festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va.

Queer artists play prominent roles in various productions

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Christopher Vergara (Photo by Shai Yammanee)

Contemporary American Theater Festival
Through Aug. 3
Shepherdstown, W.Va.
Catf.org

As a queer Latino freelance costume designer, Christopher Vergara’s work has taken him from Broadway to a multitude of regional outposts and companies worldwide. Over the last decade, he’s lent his prodigious talents to theater, opera, TV, and film, and beyond. 

Currently the native New Yorker is costuming playwright Mark St. Germain’s new two-hander “Magdalene,” now making its world premiere at the annual Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) at Shepherd University in historic, queer-friendly Shepherdstown, W.Va. (just a 90-minute drive from D.C.). 

“Magdalene”is the story of Peter reconnecting with the banished Mary Magdalene and discussing their widely divergent memories of Christ. At 90 minutes without costume changes, it may not sound like a big job, but Vergara applies his usual meticulous consideration.  

“It’s not the Bible pageant you might see at church,” he says. As a costume designer, Vergara approaches all new works by delving deep into the script with collaborators. 

“I like to do what I call a visual dramaturgy, to read the script and take it in aiming to arrive at a sort of truth, not necessarily historically accurate. 

“Without being period, I get to what their world was like in some way. And because the play’s conversation is contemporary, I’m inspired by both old and new lines and fabrics. It’s speaking to us now but set in a different time.” 

Born and raised in New York, Vergara learned to sew at the side of his Panamanian grandmother. “Growing up I was enthralled. She had an amazing Singer machine that could sew through steel. But it was always a covert thing. Boys shouldn’t be sewing.”

He put his skills to use at Valparaiso University in Indiana where while majoring in music he found a well-paying and flexible job in the costume shop. After graduation he returned to New York and entered a Juilliard apprentice program concentrating on a costume track and a busy career has ensued. His vast résumé includes Broadway shows like “Here Lies Love” and the revival of “The Color Purple”among numerous others; he was associate designer for a production of “Ben-Hur” in Rome that featured a cast of more than 200 with 1,000 costumes.

Vergara is enjoying his introduction to CATF. “Initially I was feeling a little apprehensive. I’d never been to West Virginia before, but when I saw all the Pride flags lining the main street in Shepherdstown, any misgivings were dispelled,” he says. 

Lisa Sanaye Dring (Photo by Stephanie Girard Photography)

CATF also presents “Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular” by Lisa Sanaye Dring with Rogue Artists Ensemble. Based on true life events, it’s the story of queer Hollywood stuntmen navigating the dangers of exposing their love. Living up to the “spectacular” bit in the title, the guys’ story is told through video, puppetry, illusions, and live stunts.

The playwright says “I’m queer so I’m interested in queerness, and I’ve also been interested in masculinity for some time. I lived in LA for 10 years so the play is a love letter to Hollywood and the weirdness of the industry.”

Also, of interest to Sanaye Dring is the interracial and intergenerational relationship at the play’s center: Clay is a white man in his late 40s and Felix is mid-20s and Asian (played Aubrey Deeker and Glenn Morizio, respectively). 

Her transition from actor (including commercials and some TV) to playwright can be traced back to her one-woman show titled “Death Play,” a work spurred by the passing of her parents and grandmother. “It wasn’t easy. I hadn’t anticipated just how emotionally difficult that five-week run would be. It was after that when people started asking me to write plays and direct.”

CATF Artistic Director Peggy McKowen describes this year’s festival as being “about understanding the things that make us unique, but also the things that make us similar,” adding that it also explores “questioning who are as people and how we fit into our community.” 

Here are the other new works in the festival’s exciting lineup. 

West Virginia-born playwright Cody LeRoy Wilson’sDid My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather?”It recounts the unlikely journey of his blended family from Vietnam to Plum Run, W. Va. 

In “Kevin Kling: Unraveled NPR commentator Kevin Kling tells the story of finding his way as a disabled artist. With humor, he reflects the life challenges he has surmounted, including a congenital birth disorder and partial paralysis from a near-fatal motorcycle accident. 

And finally, playwright Lisa Loomer’sSide Effects May Include…,” a work that takes audiences on a frightening and complex trip into the world of psychiatry as a mother tries to help her son on his journey to wellness. 

CATF runs through Aug. 3 in three varied venues on the Shepherd University campus: Frank Center, Marinoff Theater, and Studio 112. 

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