#kNOwSHADE VOGUE ENSEMBLE is a vogue performance ensemble based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that creates brave, experimental, hyper queer art through visual, dance, and theater. kNOwShade speaks from the perspectives of today’s urban LGBTQ youth/young adults of color with goals to build a diverse community of support for both the performers and their respective artistic expressions. #kNOwShade is currently in its 3rd year of productions since its debut at the Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s 9th Annual New Moves Contemporary Dance Festival in May 2016. https://www.truetpgh.com/knowshade-vogue-performance-ensemble

DENA STANLEY is the founder of Trans YOUniting a non-profit organization in Pittsburgh that advocates for the transgender community and provides participants with positive role models, and opportunities for those in need of supportive services. Dena has over 15 years of baking experience, and she is the owner/operator of Maddezsweetz, a boutique bakery which specializes in an array of delicious goods (www.maddezsweetz.biz). The company Dena Operates is also used to help Transgender individuals build their resume and job experience by mentoring through her catering company and offering interning opportunities through a program at TransYouniting. Dena is a fierce advocate for her community, and she serves on the board of the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh and the steering committees of the International Women’s Day Strike Coalition, TransPride Pittsburgh, and SWOP Pittsburgh. She is also a member of Pittsburgh DSA, and the Trans Justice Program which is a campaign through the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Dena believes that collaboration and conversation with organizations and individuals is the key to educating people about the trans community, who just wanted to be treated with dignity and respect. https://www.transyounitingpgh.org/

Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu’s acclaimed dance company presents hula as a full theatrical experience that blends traditional and contemporary forms of Hawaiian dance.

Founded in 1985 by Director/Kumu Hula Patrick Makuakāne, the company of 40 dancers is known for its unique contemporary style called hula mua, or “hula that evolves.” The style blends traditional movements with non-Hawaiian music like opera, electronic, dance, alternative, and pop. Both hula mua and authentic, traditional pieces are showcased in the company’s visually captivating stage productions. https://naleihulu.org/ 

Amir Rabiyah is a queer, trans, disabled, poet. They are the co-editor of Writing the Walls Down: A Convergence of LGBTQ Voices, and the author of the poetry collection, Prayers for my 17th Chromosome, which was a finalist for the 2017 Publishing Triangle Award. Amir’s work has been published in numerous journals and anthologies, and explores living life on the margins and at the intersections of multiple identities. Amir writes about living with chronic pain and illness, war, trauma, spirituality, healing, redemption–and speaks on silenced places. For more about Amir, visit www.amirrabiyah.com 

Robbie Tristan and Ernesto Palma: are one of the most successful Same Sex Ballroom duos, have won numerous national and International titles, including The Gold Medal at the Gay Games (World Gay Olympics). Robbie originally from Hungary and Ernesto from Costa Rica, are both living in New York City and perform all over the United States. Together they are featured in the Award-Winning Documentary film, Hot to Trot. Available on iTunes and Amazon. For more information about them go to www.robbietristan.com and www.ernestopalma.com

Robbie & Ernesto are super happy to be part of this beautiful, eclectic, amazing and inspiring family of performers at FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL 2020 online. 

STORMMIGUEL FLOREZ is a Xicanx trans filmmaker from San Francisco via Albuquerque, New Mexico. He spent the majority of his artistic life as a music recording artist until 2012 when he discovered his love for filmmaking while producing a zombie music video for his country drinking song, “I’ve Been To Manhattan.” From there he went on to co-produce and edit the award-winning documentary, MAJOR! about Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a prominent Black trans elder and activist. He recently completed his feature directorial debut, The Whistle, about lesbian youth culture in Albuquerque in the 70s and 80s.

StormMiguel was chosen as Community Grand Marshal for San Francisco Pride 2020 and hopes that you celebrate with him by donating to TGI Justice and following and supporting Black Trans leadership. www.stormflorez.com 

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. Dorsey is a 2020 Doris Duke Artist and an inaugural Dance/USA Artist Fellow.

Sean Dorsey Dance is currently working on a new multi-year project: THE LOST ART OF DREAMING investigates and imagines expansive futures. Sean Dorsey Dance has toured to more than 30 cities across the US and internationally.

SDD company dancers are: 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

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 

BLACKBERRI is a songstylist, songmaker, poet, writer, photographer, health educator and community advocate. In other words an Artivist born in 1945 in Buffalo, New York, Blackberri grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. He performed music and appeared in several films including  Marlon Riggs’s  Tongues Untied, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien (No Regret)], Anthem, Affirmations, and Black is Black Ain’t, Isaac Julian’s Looking for Langston, and Nancy and Peter Adair’s Word is Out. Blackberri’s first album, Blackberri and Friends: Finally (1981) featured the classic award winning song, “Eat the Rich.” He also recorded the soundtrack for the Haight-Ashbury Radio Collective’s History of San Francisco, Knowing at the Gateway of Gold, which aired on KPFA, a Berkeley, California Pacifica Network Radio affiliate. This pioneer also appeared on the first anthology on Men’s Music Wall to Roses: Songs of Changing Men, which is now in the Smithsonian Folkways collection and Gay Men’s Music Strong Love Song of Gay Liberation, 1972-1981 CD. This national treasure has toured internationally and has made many radio and TV appearances. He is one of the most visible black queer/same gender loving artivist in the country. Blackberri currently lives in Oakland and has recently been given the lifetime achievement award from Generations.
https://www.facebook.com/blackberri.singer 

Toby MacNutt is a queer, nonbinary trans, disabled dancer/choreographer from Burlington, VT. Their current work in progress, “A Singular They”, is a solo work showcasing fluidity and changing embodiment. Past works include “Enter the Void” and “One, Two”. They have also danced for Murmurations Dance (“Bone Hooks”, “When Women Were Birds”), Tiffany Rhynard’s Big APE, and Heidi Latsky’s “GIMP”, among others locally and internationally. Toby was an AXIS Dance Choreo-Lab choreographer in 2018 and 2019, and a 2019 recipient of the Rebecca Blunk Fund Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts. Find out more about Toby’s work at www.tobymacnutt.com, on twitter @tobywm, or instagram @tobymacnutt. 

HOUSE OF AMOR (FORMERLY HOUSE OF ENERGI) is a Bay Area born family of artists dedicated to preserving Ballroom culture, and embodying the foundations of love and chosen family. https://www.facebook.com/amorballroom/

MAIKAZE DAIKO is a San Francisco-based performance ensemble and taiko school. Their name, “Dancing Wind”, reflects our focus on innovative arrangements, precision taiko playing and creative use of movement and space. Founded in 2007 by Bruce “Mui” Ghent, Maikaze Daiko is in residence at Dance Mission Theater and performs throughout the Bay Area. The group offers ongoing Taiko classes and workshops to the public.

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

AXIS DANCE COMPANY – Founded in 1987, AXIS Dance Company is the nation’s most acclaimed ensemble of disabled and non-disabled performers based in Oakland, CA. AXIS creates virtuosic productions that challenge perceptions and redefine dance and disability. Alongside our artistic programming, the Company provides unparalleled integrated dance education and outreach programs that remove barriers and showcase the beauty of difference. www.axisdance.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 organizes community care as Executive Director at Trans Lifeline. She lives in the East Bay, and can be found on Twitter at @burnlittlelight.

EMBODIMENT PROJECT – Since EP’s inception in 2008 we have been committed to offering up stories of healing and triumph to disrupt the shame and silence that allows systemic sexualized and racialized harm to flourish.  Bringing hip hop and street dance to the concert dance stage, EP expands upon the legacy and visibility of these social dance traditions, as acts of healing, resistance, and liberation, while preserving their cultural roots.  www.embodimentproject.org/ 

SHAWNA VIRAGO is a songwriter celebrated for her lyric-based songs. She is one of the nation’s first openly transgender women to perform and tour nationally, and has performed as an out transwoman since the early 1990’s. She has been profiled online, in print and on radio including Bitch, the Advocate, Huffington Post Louder ThanWar, No Depression, Paste magazine, on NPR and PBS. POP DOSE Magazine wrote “In these turbulent times, you may often wonder, ‘Where’s our Bob Dylan? Where’s the bard of the 2010s translating the dicey political and social climate into musical stanzas?’… Enter Shawna Virago.” Virago is also a published writer and her work appears in several anthologies. She is also the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival. www.shawnavirago.com 

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. www.tajahj.com/ 

COHDI HARRELL is a New Mexico-born performance maker. Coming from a backwoods history of training in circus and martial arts, he has spent the past 20 years crafting, improvising, producing and examining the articulation and potential of the human body. A primarily self-taught trapeze artist and an untrained dancer, his unique approach to acrobatic performance art has brought him international acclaim. A 2013 recipient of the Makers Muse Award from the Kindle Foundation, his work has been featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, BBC and CNN amongst others. He is one half of the circus of two, The Ricochet Project, whose work has toured the world over with their award-winning show, Smoke and Mirrors. Outside of Ricochet, he works on his solo projects and often collaborates with Nature, Brian Mayhall, Dnumbers, and Coco Rosie. http://cohdiharrell.com/

MIND OVER MATTER – M.O.M. *MIND OVER MATTER*, one of San Francisco’s longest running hip hop dance companies was created in 1993 by So You Think You Can Dance season one top 20 contestant Allan Frias. Mind Over Matter quickly became an unstoppable force in the SF Bay Area dance scene with their intricate, hard hitting, unique style of choreography, formations, stage shows, sensuality and stage presence. www.facebook.com/mindovermatter415/ 

DEVI PEACOCK – Devi grew up around the Klan and cracked jokes to survive. They still do. Devi’s the founding Artistic and Executive Director of Peacock Rebellion; a member of the QTPOC4SHO arts collective; an advisor to the Resilience Archives, and an activist cat mom. If you liked their set, please donate to TGI Justice Project: www.tgijp.org. 

BREANNA SINCLAIRÉ is a graduate from Calarts and San Francisco Conservatory of Music (first Trans person in the Opera program). On the stage, she has performed in many operatic works: Carmen, Samson and Delilah, Durufle’s Requiem to name a few. She has sung with the SF, Washington DC and Los Angeles  Gay Men’s Chorus as their guest artist, recently she performed for the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention (alongside House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi). She sang the national anthem for the SF GIANTS, OAKLAND A’s , and The San Francisco Deltas as the first trans singer to perform at a national sporting event. Breannawas named OUT Magazine’s LGBT Hero of the Year 2015.

She has traveled across the States and Canada. Her debut at the Walt Disney Concert Hall on July 2017 was a huge milestone in her operatic career. She performed at the Lincoln Theater, Nourse Theater and many celebrated halls.

December 31st, 2018, she made her debut with the San Francisco SYMPHONY as the first trans singer to perform with the orchestra.  https://www.facebook.com/breanna.sinclaire 

THE SINGING BOIS –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.

THE BARBARY COAST CLOGGERS started in 1981 when a gay men’s square dance group decided they wanted to learn how to clog.  The group was the only all-male traditional clogging group for a while and has evolved over the years.  Thanks to Fresh Meat Productions, the Barbary Coast Cloggers began to push against traditions and gender expectations in our performances.  Today the organization is made up of men and women mostly from the LGBTQ community and perform as Mussel Rock in its co-ed incarnation.  Our mission is to continue to promote clogging and men dancing, and share America’s folk dance blended from the immigrant cultures during the country’s formation. 

TALLER BOMBALELE ENSEMBLE was founded in Sept. 2014 by Julia Cepeda (granddaughter of Puerto Rican Bomba Patriarch Don Rafael Cepeda Atiles) and Denise Solis (founder/director of Las Bomberas de la Bahia). Taller Bombalele offers Bomba percussion, song, and dance classes and hosts Bombazos (Bomba performed informally in community) throughout the Bay Area. Currently Taller Bombalele classes are offered on Saturday afternoons at Rhythmix Cultural Works in Alameda, CA. Please visit their website for more information on our classes (www.rhythmix.org). The Taller Bombalele Ensemble is made up of students from our workshop, local Bomba practioners and musicians from the Bay Area, the ensemble is also directed by Denise Solis and Julia Cepeda.

Taller Bombalele strives to promote 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. Taller Bombalele is also proud to be part of a diverse community in the SF Bay Area and is therefore committed to teaching, learning, and collaboration and in reflection of this community, we welcome our community of different cultural experiences, gender expression or identities, and intergenerational participation. We strive to continually learn, grow and support each other in our learning by lifting up our music and dance tradition as a community that focuses on the collective and grounded by lifting up and leading through a women of color perspective.  https://www.tallerbombalele.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.

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/

GAY ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER (GAPA) MEN’S CHORUS – A significant cultural component of the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance (GAPA) in San Francisco, the GAPA Men’s Chorus was formed in 1989 to provide a showcase for the vocal music talents of gay, bisexual and transgender Asian & Pacific Islander (API) men. Our multilingual repertoire includes songs in Mandarin, Tagalog, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Indonesian, Hawaiian, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian and English, among others. Celebrating over 30 years of achievement, the Chorus promotes GAPA’s goals by highlighting diversity and queer Asian Pacific visibility at its every appearance. https://www.gapa.org/

Lottie Riot hails from Chicago, where direct-talk and casual swearing are norms. She headed West during Y2K to drag king and get an astrophysics degree. Now, she is a lezzie comedienne in the Bay. A proud mixed-chick and soft-butch dyke, Lottie enjoys ‘90s riot grrrl punk music, speaking truth, and flannel. #lesbionic #lezbehonest 

A Bay Area native, ANTOINE HUNTER is an award-winning Internationally known African-American Deaf choreographer, dancer, instructor, speaker and Deaf advocate. Hunter has received the 2019 National Dance/USA fellowship award, the 2018 inaugural Jeanette Lomujo Bremond Award for Humanity, 2018 Isadora Duncan (Izzie) for Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival (BAIDDF) and SF King of Carnaval (2017). Hunter is on the board of Dance/USA and Drop Labs as an ambassador for Deaf Arts and travels the world lecturing at Kennedy Center’s VSA, Harvard, Duke, National Assembly of State Arts to name a few. Hunter has been featured on the front cover of Deaf Life, in Dance Spirit, Dance Magazine and in Oakland North, 48Hills, CNN’s Great Big Story and KQED Arts. He is former president of Bay Area Black Deaf Advocates and is the founder/Artistic Director of Urban Jazz Dance Company and produces the BAIDDF since 2013. https://www.realurbanjazzdance.com/mr-antoine-hunter.html