FRIDAY: ASL interpretation — let us know you’re coming! production@freshmeatproductions.org SATURDAY: GALA Performance & Reception! ALL NIGHTS: Post-show receptions every night with DJ Frida Ibarra, go-go dancers, photo booth, drinks & dancing!
Jaw-dropping vogue dance, boundary-breaking hip-hop, transgender opera, world champion gay ballroom, queer bachata, gender-bending dance theater, live music and more? It must be the FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL — the nation’s most celebrated transgender and queer performance festival!
The 16th annual FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL offers Bay Area audiences the artistic antidote to Tr*mp – with fierce, exquisite, unapologetic trans and queer performance that is insightful, powerful, sexy and soul-feeding.
Artistic Director Sean Dorsey says “I curated this special lineup as a love letter to our trans and LGBTQ communities – to give us much-needed spiritual nourishment, comic relief, sass, mood elevation, love and power in the face of continued attacks on our communities.”
Embodiment Project
Emcee Annalise Ophelian
Angelica Medina and Jahaira Fajardo
Sean Dorsey Dance
Breanna Sinclairé
Devi Peacock
Elena Rose
House of Energi
Robbie Tristan & Ernesto Palma
Rotimi Agbabiaka
Shawna Virago
StormMiguel Florez
Tajah J.
Taller Bombalele
THURS JUNE 15
Opening Night
Jahaira Fajardo & Angelica Medina
Robbie Tristan & Ernesto Palma
Embodiment Project
Shawna Virago
Sean Dorsey Dance
House of Energi
Tajah J.
Elena Rose
Devi Peacock
Breanna Sinclairé
Taller Bombalele
FRI JUNE 16
ASL interpretation
Jahaira Fajardo & Angelica Medina
Robbie Tristan & Ernesto Palma
Embodiment Project
Shawna Virago
Sean Dorsey Dance
House of Energi
Tajah J.
Elena Rose
Devi Peacock
Breanna Sinclairé
Taller Bombalele
StormMiguel Florez
SAT JUNE 17
Gala Performance & Reception
Jahaira Fajardo & Angelica Medina
Robbie Tristan & Ernesto Palma
Embodiment Project
Shawna Virago
Sean Dorsey Dance
House of Energi
Elena Rose
Devi Peacock
StormMiguel Florez
Rotimi Agbabiaka
Taller Bombalele
ACCESS NOTES:
Z Space is a wheelchair accessible theater. Seating is provided on floor level for people using wheelchairs & scooters, as well as anyone who cannot climb stairs (there are stairs starting at row 2 to the back of the theater). Tickets are general seating: accessible seating will always be made available upon request at the door — it’s also super helpful if you’d like to RSVP ahead of time to production@freshmeatproductions.org
Bathrooms are wheelchair accessible and will be welcoming to all genders.
Friday June 16 performance will be ASL interpreted by Azora Telford and Monique Clark; reserved ASL seating will be available. If you have questions or would like to request ASL reserved seating Friday June 16, please email: production@freshmeatproductions.org.
Rotimi Agbabiaka is an actor, writer, director, and teaching artist who uses humor, glamor, and drama to challenge the status quo. He is a collective member of the San Francisco Mime Troupe and has performed in theaters, parks, museums, nightclubs and on screens all over the Bay Area and beyond. www.rotimionline.com
Angelica & Jahaira are Bachata dancers and instructors. They are trained by the prestigious Salsamania Dance Company and Inessence Dance Company. In 2015 Jahaira & Angelica won 1st place in the Ladies Latin Dance Division at the World Latin Dance Cup. Since then, Jahaira and Angelica have started teaching Bachata for AnD World Wide Dance Company.
Embodiment Project (EP) was founded by Nicole Klaymoon 2008 and is a resident company at the ODC Theater and Destiny Arts Center. EP’s mission is to challenge systemic inequity by exploring issues of trauma, healing, womanist histories, race, and gender role dissolution; take street dance out of its traditional performance context and reinterpret it as concert dance; and share the origins, history and appreciation of hip hop dance culture through street dance, live song, spoken word, and theater. www.embodimentproject.org
StormMiguel Florez is a Xicanx trans singer-songwriter and filmmaker from the SF Bay Area via Albuquerque, New Mexico. His Southwest desert roots are deep and are a muse for his songs about family, death, loss, love, and your basic scorpionic woes. www.stormflorez.com
House of Energi: Founded in 2002 in Washington, D.C., the House of Energi is a diverse family of dancers committed to the development and promotion of Vogue as an art form, lifestyle, and culture. Our mission is to be a positive force in people’s lives and to help create change — both on and off the dance floor. houseofenergi.com
Annalise Ophelian is an award-winning documentary filmmaker (MAJOR!, Diagnosing Difference), queer psychotherapist, and Chihuahua fetishist. She’s currently working on “Looking for Leia,” a documentary about Star Wars fangirls. www.annaliseophelian.com and www.lookingforleia.com
Devi Peacock is the Executive and Artistic Director of Peacock Rebellion, a crew of queer and trans people of color who write comedy for social justice. Send them a love note (devi@peacockrebellion.org) or cruise their work at www.peacockrebellion.org
Elena Rose: Sweet-talking trans mestiza monster queen Elena Rose rode stories out of rural Oregon and hasn’t stopped burning since. An internationally-recognized preacher, poet, and educator, she has performed with the Fresh Meat Festival, Writers Resist, Mangos With Chili, Queer Rebels, Brouhaha, the Speak! Radical Women of Color Media Collective, and Girl Talk: A Trans and Cis Women’s Dialogue, which she co-curated; co-edited the book Queer and Trans Artists of Color, Volume 2, with Nia Levy King; and can be found on Twitter at @burnlittlelight.
Sean Dorsey Dance – Sean Dorsey is a trans/queer choreographer and dancer, and the founder and Artistic Director of Fresh Meat Productions. Recognized as the U.S.’ first acclaimed transgender modern dance choreographer, Dorsey has toured his work to 26 cities across the US. Dorsey was named “San Francisco’s Best Dance Company” (SF Weekly) and was named one of the nation’s “Top 25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine. He has been awarded four Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and the Goldie Award for Performance. www.seandorseydance.com
Breanna Sinclairé is a recent graduate from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with a Masters in opera performance and performed lead in works such as Carmen, Dalila, Mignon and many others. She will make her debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall as a guest artist for the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, July 8th 2017.
Tajah J is a Contemporary R&B, Soul, EDM, and Pop artist. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and currently lives in the S.F Bay Area. As a black transgender multi-media artist and activist, Tajah J puts forth her experiences being formerly incarcerated, her love life, and her passion for trans empowerment as the essence of her music.
Taller Bombalele Ensemble is an acclaimed bomba performance ensemble directed by Denise Solis and taught by Julia Cepeda (granddaughter of Puerto Rican Bomba Patriarch Don Rafael Cepeda Atiles). Denise Solis is also founder/director of Las Bomberas de la Bahia. Bombalele Ensemble has performed at festivals and venues in the Bay Area including Galeria de La Raza SF, Studio Grand Oakland, Brava SF, Napa Valley College, CIIS in SF, and UC Santa Barbara. Taller Bombalele promotes our Afro Puerto Rican roots music and dance tradition of Bomba, by teaching its history, dance, music, and songs through classes, lectures, workshops, and Bombazos to continue to preserve and expand this form of expression in community.
Robbie Tristan & Ernesto Palma are World Champion and Gay Games Gold Medalist Same Sex Ballroom dancers. They have been featured in the New York Times, Good Day LA, NBC Raw, LA Times Magazine and the LA Weekly. Tristan is the founder of Dance of America Foundation, a nonprofit that brings Ballroom Dance projects to at risk and LGBT youth. They live in New York City. www.robbietristan.com and www.ernesto-palma.com
Shawna Virago is a transgender trickster celebrated for her striking lyric-based songs. Her music twists together folk, punk and trans-americana, offering raw observations about survival in a predatory world, queer love, sticking up for the underdog, and gender rebels. Virago has performed as an out transwoman since the early 1990’s. Virago’s music has been profiled in publications, including Bitch Magazine, No Depression, OUT, The Advocate, SF Weekly and Curve Magazine, and on left-of-the-dial radio. www.shawnavirago.com
