Fresh Meat Productions was founded by artists and activists who understand the power of the arts to transform culture, heal trauma, build community, forge solidarity and create trans/gender, racial, disability, immigrant, economic and social justice.
The Bay Area is home to one of the world’s largest and most dynamic transgender and gender-nonconforming (GNC) communities. Our founding members recall that as our community grew significantly in size in the 1990’s, so too did our community’s hunger to see ourselves reflected in art and culture. We began to see more out trans and GNC artists developing their work – but without any organizational or institutional support.
Driven by the rapidly-growing trans and gender-nonconforming community, the inspiring emergence of transgender artists, and the multiple barriers that made it difficult or impossible for trans and gender-nonconforming artists to create and stage original work, transgender choreographer, Sean Dorsey, brought together a group of Bay Area artists and activists to found Fresh Meat Productions in 2002.
Fresh Meat Productions was founded to invest in the creative expression and cultural leadership of trans, gender-nonconforming, and allied communities. We came together to provide well-paid and professional performing opportunities for transgender artists, empower trans/gender-nonconforming/queer artists and audiences, expand the repertoire of original work authentically exploring intersectional trans, GNC and queer experiences, bring visibility to trans communities, connect transgender artists with diverse audiences, promote the artistic development of emerging and established transgender artists, create new dialogue and build community.
Fresh Meat worked to overcome the many barriers facing transgender and gender-nonconforming artists: limited organizational infrastructure serving the transgender community; lack of professional performing opportunities; lack of access to supportive and trans-positive professional arts training and education; censorship by media, public arts funding agencies and foundations; and the absence of affordable professional venues and of individual and community donors.
Our first event — the 2002 FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL of transgender and queer performance at ODC Theater in June 2002 — was praised as “outstanding, joyful, irreverent” (Critical Dance) and “history in the making” (Bay Area Reporter). Even more important than the positive critical reception was the overwhelming enthusiasm of our sold-to-capacity trans, gender-nonconforming and LGBTQI+ audiences, who made clear our community’s hunger for authentic and positive transgender artistic expression and leadership. Never before had audiences had the opportunity to see transgender lives reflected onstage so powerfully and at such a scale – the event was heralded as inspiring, transformative and healing.
This tremendous community response led us to expand Fresh Meat Productions into a year-round arts organization that could invest in and nurture the burgeoning transgender arts community, provide mentorship, training and leadership, and build a transgender arts and culture movement.
Fresh Meat Productions was born and grew to include our award-winning year-round programs.