ARTIST
STATEMENT
The white Othello is how I see it when heteronormative producers and performers portray Queer. I equate it to seeing modern white actors using blackface to play Shakespeare’s African moor. It furthers bias and maintains a limited view of my community's diverse experiences. I am happy to see growing representation, but it is rarely detailed and often propagates a narrative that serves hierarchical oppression. We are straight-washed as comic relief or tragic victims.
By obtaining support, I have the chance to create from and with my LGBTQIA++ peers. We can remove our masks used to appease the status quo and find solidarity. And, perhaps, when mainstream culture sees us disrobed, they recognize their desires in our nakedness.
Queer evolution is fundamentally a push for societal equality. It pushes respect through acceptance. It turns violence into fetish play and camps binary exaggerations. Of course, I am promoting Queercore culture that began with Punk, but couldn't we use more of that?
If I have a chance to create and share art through New Queer (R)evolution, perhaps I can help soften the warmongering, guilt the greedy, and help the citizen to say, "no more."
My problem has never been lack of vision but that we live in a culture of exceptionalism. It keeps tyrants on top and stalls open democratic societies.
I do not want to manipulate or spin the truth but provide a creative discussion between the artists and the viewers. My approach is that the engagement gives breathing room and reflection. I build shows by doing, playing, and getting messy.
The imperfections are accidents in a laboratory where epiphanies happen—explosions from the New Queer (R)evolution.