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#reFRESH Program 4 – Program Credits

2021 FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL

20TH ANNIVERSARY

#reFRESH Program 4

Program Credits

(artist bios at bottom)

JAHAIRA AND ANGELICA
Queer Bachata

Choreographed and performed by: Jahaira Fajardo and Angelica Medina

J MASE III AND RANDY FORD
The Right to Black Trans Dream(s)

(Bad Theology and Zone of Rarity)
Written by: J Mase III / Choreographed by: Randy Ford
Performed by: J Mase III and Randy Ford

STAR AMERASU
Dark Angel and Let Go

Written and performed by: Star Amerasu

THE SINGING BOIS
Original Music

Music and performance by: The Singing Bois
Written by: The Singing Bois and Alphabet Rockers

SEAN DORSEY DANCE
BOYS IN TROUBLE (excerpts) 

Choreographed, written and narrated by: Sean Dorsey
Movement created and performed by: Sean Dorsey, Brian Fisher, ArVejon Jones, Nol Simonse, Will Woodward
Music by: Jesse Olsen Bay, Alex Kelly

IVY MONTEIRO & JAVIER STELL-FRESQUEZ
Mother the Verb (excerpts)

Performed by: Ivy Monteiro & Javier Stell-Fresquez
Music by: mixed with original tracks by Ivy Monteiro, “Agüita” by Claudia Cuentas, “Doomed” by Moses Sumney

 

NEW VOICES BAY AREA TRANS, INTERSEX AND GENDERQUEER (TIGQ) CHORUS

1. United in Song (Mari Esabel Valverde)
2. The Willow Song (Music: Ralph Vaughan Williams Text: William Shakespeare)
3. Let the River Run (Carly Simon, arranged Kirby Shaw, with queer additions by New Voices Bay Area)

Pianist: Vutu Nguyen, Chorus Manager: Kelly Sundin, , Director Reuben Zellman
Performed by: Lili Argüello, Wesley Ameliorette, Ronan Beltracchi, Lene Kristian Bryngemark, Sage Carleton-Ferris, Tristan Donato, Rachel Dwight, Elliot M.M. Franks, Seth Frost, Jasmine Jubillee Gee, Pax Ahimsa Gethen, Ruby Harrison-Clay, Dre Helmns, Leo Herod, Annie Hochenauer, Grace Koyama, Kirby Lee, Sage Carleton-Ferris, Kai Moore LeFranc, Catalina Macdonald, Tanya Mannion, Evan Parra, Nico Peck, Rae Raucci, Adrian Ray Avalani, Redwoods, René Rivera, Lucas Sanchez, Maura Sipila, Roisin Stevenson, Kelly Sundin, Joe Supan, Cheyenne Thanatos, Phoenix Thanatos, Jayden Torrey, Alex Trauner, Ki Traverso, Arie Van Antwerp, Julia Wolf, Al Yuen, Julia Zajac.

ARTIST BIOS

Angelica Medina and Jahaira Fajardo are the Directors of In Lak’ech Dance Academy, in Oakland CA. They both share an immense passion for dance, and in 2014 they met and fell in love on the dance floor. They soon after decided to grow as dance partners while training for competition. In December 2015 they placed 1st in the Latin Ladies Same Gender Division, at the World Latin Dance Cup. Jahaira made history as the first Bachata female leader to become a World Champion. In 2018, they returned to to WLDC as pros and placed first in the Bachata Couple Pro Cabaret division. 

In 2018, In Lak’ech Dance Academy produced the first ever Queer Latin Dance Festival, where Queer and Trans Latinx dancers are highlighted and celebrated. This event continues on an annual basis. 

In Lak’ech Dance Academy is the direct result of the passion Angelica & Jahaira share for Latin Dance and for their community. To learn more about In Lak’ech Dance Academy, please visit their website: inlakechdance.com & queerlatindancefestival.com

J Mase III is a Black/trans/queer poet & educator based in Seattle, by way of Philly. He is the author of “If I Should Die Under the Knife, Tell my Kidney I was the Fiercest Poet Around”, as well as “And Then I Got Fired: One Transqueer’s Reflections on Grief, Unemployment, and Inappropriate Jokes about Death”. He is also the co-editor with Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi for the “Black Trans Prayer Book”. https://jmaseiii.com/

Randy Ford, is a Seattle-born dancer, choreographer, actor, curator, director and activist. She created and co-produced her first full-length evening show QUEEN STREET at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute with CD Forum in September of 2019. She is one half of the dance duo DANDY with David Rue and is also a member of Au Collective, an organization dedicated to centering womxn, queer folx, and people of color in all the work that they do. https://www.therandyford.com/

Together alongside their 3rd cohost Dani Tirrell they do a weekly podcast The Living Room that is a space that centers Blackness, Transness, and Queerness throught the arts, fashion, pop culture, etc. You can tune in by subscribing to their YouTube or FB page The Living Room Seattle.

Star Amerasu is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her music and video work have been featured in many publications including Out Magazine, Paper Magazine, Them, I-D, Billboard Magazine and KQED Arts to name a few. She creates indie electronic music under the moniker Ah-Mer-Ah-Su and her last album “Star” Released in 2018 was voted Top 20 LGBT albums of that year by Billboard Music. Her voice though its own unique timbre has been compared to Nina Simone, her sound in a world of its own. www.starmusic.tv

The Singing Bois is a queer/trans retro band that performs a blend of R&B, soul, rock, hip hop, and Latin genres. Their signature sound features catchy hooks, lush vocal harmonies, and an infectious groove to offer a soulful take on songs of love and liberation. The Singing Bois has performed around the U.S. at venues including Freight and Salvage, UtahPresents at University of Utah, UC Riverside, SF Pride Main Stage, UC Santa Cruz, Z Space, EastSide Arts Alliance, the Fresh Meat Festival, and the National Queer Arts Festival. The group released their debut self-titled EP in 2018.

Sean Dorsey Dance is directed by Sean Dorsey, a San Francisco-based transgender choreographer, dancer, writer, educator and activist. Dorsey is the founder and Artistic Director of Fresh Meat Productions and the Fresh Meat Festival.

Sean Dorsey Dance is currently working on a new project while sheltering in place: THE LOST ART OF DREAMING explores expansive futures and imagination. Sean Dorsey Dance has toured work 30 cities across the US and internationally. Dorsey has been awarded five Isadora Duncan Dance Awards and the Goldie Award for Performance. He is an inaugural Dance/USA Artist Fellow, and last Fall became the first openly transgender person on the cover of Dance Magazine.

SDD company members include Sean Dorsey, Nol Simonse (who also performs with Garrett+Moulton Productions and Christy Funch, has collaborated with Sue Roginski, Eric Kupers, Stephen Pelton and Kara Davis, and creates his own work), Will Woodward (who also performs with Printz Dance Project and Baloney, and who has collaborated with Blue Scorpion Dance Theatre, Palanza Dance, Peninsula Ballet Theatre, Tim Rubel Human Shakes, James Graham Dance Theatre and more) and Raul Torres-Bonilla (who has collaborated with Aguas Dance Company, Presidio Dance Company, Tika Morgan Dance, Sarah Bush Project, James Graham Theater, Catherine Turocy, Sammay Dizon and more). www.seandorseydance.com

Javier Stell-Frésquez  (Piru & Tigua Pueblo Nations from El Paso, Texas) serves Indigenous communities of the San Francisco Bay on the organizing committee of the BAAITS Two-Spirits Powwow. With life-long experience in many dance forms and performance art, she serves on the Izzies Dance Awards Committee. She has walked the west coast House Ballroom Scene, and premiered Chaac & Yum, a two-spirit performance piece in 2020. In March she co-produced and co-curated Weaving Spirits, the first Festival of Two-Spirit Performance.

Ivy Monteiro develops practices and performative roles in Dance, Music, and Visual Arts. They are a natural shapeshifter, re-imagining femininity, gender, social and race expectations through (dis)identification. Furthermore, she reshapes ancestrality and spirituality in her queer futuristic work. Ivan also goes by the name “Tropikahl Pussy”, an alter-gender-bender ego, performing “draglesque” and live music.

New Voices Bay Area Trans, Intersex and Genderqueer Chorus is a 35-voice choral ensemble of transgender, intersex and genderqueer singers. We are based at San Francisco’s Community Music Center in the Mission. Our goal is to build a creative, empowered, joyful space for our TIGQ community, to encourage voices that have been silenced or shamed to grow and be heard, and to change how the world thinks about gender identity and music. Made up of singers from beginners to professionals, the chorus learns and performs great music of many styles and traditions, builds strong connections, and lifts up our community’s strength and struggle through choral singing. NVBA debuted in 2018 at SF Trans Day of Remembrance, and has since sung at the Fresh Meat Festival, Grace Cathedral, the National AIDS Memorial and other events, and in 2019 hosted CMC’s groundbreaking Trans and Singing symposium. Featured on KQED and in the SF Chronicle, the chorus continues to welcome new TIGQ singers, without audition. Join us! Pianist: Vutu Nguyen. Director: Reuben Zellman. https://sfcmc.org/new-voices-bay-area-tigq-chorus/