It’s Memorial Day and the official start of summer in the Crescent City. There are so many Festively Gay Things to do this week, so get ready. Here are just a few of them.
#1. Monday, May 30, 2016
Are you ready to get made-up in the WACKIEST RACE you will ever see on Bourbon Street (and that is saying a lot)! Get ready for the MASCARa Race 2016 starting at 1 p.m. Teams (pit crews) will compete in putting a contestant in drag stopping at different venues and adding a piece of glamour to the racer at each stop. It is fun to participate and watch. Proceeds benefit the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA) Foundation. The Pit Stops include Clover Grill, Cafe Lafitte in Exile, Rawhide2010, Good Friends Bar, Bourbon Pub, and OZ. Race Starts at 1 p.m. with your MC Coca Mesa. The race begins at the Clover Grill (900 Bourbon Street).
#2. Tuesday, May 31, 2016
The last Tuesday of every month, Carnival Kings take the stage Upstairs at The Bourbon Pub (801 Bourbon Street) for a special variety show. Doors open at 9pm and the Show starts at 11pm. There is a $8 cover and drink specials.
#3. Tuesday, May 31, 2016
See ‘Em On Stage: A Production Company has some big news to share so what better way than to throw a party! From 7-10pm at Ugly Dog Saloon (401 Andrew Higgins Driive), See ‘Em On Stage will be announcing their 2016/2017 season. The theme of their 4th season is REBEL REBEL! They have an exciting four-show mainstage season of regional premieres, including three critically-acclaimed musicals and one award-winning classic drama. They will also be formally announcing our new divisions which will bring original productions from local writers as well as burlesque shows, comedy shows, community outreach productions, and much more to our audiences.
In addition, they will be announcing our talented and devoted new company members who have been working hard for several months now as we prepare for all of our upcoming projects. There will be a variety of raffle prizes donated from local businesses, artists, and theater companies, delicious BBQ and sides from Ugly Dog Saloon, and an exciting show featuring Leslie Castay, Alec Barnes, Leslie Claverie, Bob Murrell, Kali Russell, Abbey P. Murrell, Perse’ Fanny (Ashton Akridge), Alex Wallace, Nick Stephens, Abby Botnik, and Idella Johnson. Tickets are $15 at the door. Rebellious attire is encouraged!
#4. Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Join CommUNITY® Speak Out for this month’s topic – Preserving Our History with LGBT Archives Projects. The speaker will be Frank Perez from the LGBT Archives Project of Louisiana talks about our history, culture, and how the organization preserves those things. Come and see how you can get involved. RSVP at this link – https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-speak-out-preserving-our-history-with-lgbt-archives-project-tickets-25547005782. The event takes place at BEbyTees Hit Parade VIP Lifestyle Studio (741 Bourbon St).
#5. Thursday, June 2, 2016
Honor Thy Mother presents Fauxnique and her latest one woman show The F Word at the Ace Hotel (600 Carondelet street) starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are 25 and $35. You can buy tickets on Facebook. The show is Fauxnique: The F Word. The F Word is FEMINISM! No longer unmentionable, now on everyone’s lips – let’s hear it from the painted mouth of a lady drag queen. A frank fabulist whose Fosse-lized focus and forceful frame forge fanciful factual fictions, Fauxnique’s fashionably fierce form of feminism is filled with fucking fantastic feats of hi-femme frippery. See why she broke through the glass ceiling of the male-dominated world of drag to become a queen among queens.
Fauxnique made herstory as the first cis-woman to win a major drag pageant and has performed in such varied venues as the Stud Bar, City Hall, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and de Young Museum in San Francisco; New Museum, Judson Church and the Stonewall in New York; Afterglow Festival in Provincetown, Allways in New Orleans and Rebar in Seattle; and in London, Reykjavik, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Rome, Catania and Zürich. She created space for kids to dress drag queens at a major museum, performed vocals and starred in the beloved video for the dance track ‘Lipstique’ by Silencefiction (aka Marc Kate), played the DIRT (originated by Justin Bond) in Taylor Mac’s Lily’s Revenge at Magic Theater and most recently played Eurydike/Ismene in Anne Carson’s ANTIGONICK at Ashby Stage.
Fauxnique is the drag queen alter-ego of artist/choreographer/dancer Monique Jenkinson. Lauded for her ‘campy, intellectual juxtaposition of pop culture and high art’ and ‘rare personable flair for drama’ Fauxnique plays with artifice and authenticity and lives to question essentialist assumptions about gender, art and culture. Informed both by Jenkinson’s classical ballet training and a tradition of radical queer performance and theory, Fauxnique sees drag as a dance form and the performance of femininity as a forceful, vulnerable and subversive act.
#6. Friday, June 3, 2016
Come sing with the 2016 PRIDE Grand Marshals: The BIG EASY SISTERS of Perpetual Indulgence at Sisteroke from 7 – 9:30 p.m. at the Tulane Avenue Bar (3813 Tulane Avenue).
#7. Saturday, June 4, 2016
Want to find out what is happening this year during Southern Decadence, then come out to the Southern Decadence Press Party at the Bourbon Pub (801 Bourbon Street). Learn the colors, the theme and the song of the season. There will also be a special show at the event. All the festivities start at 6:30 p.m. So join Grand Marshals Tony Leggio, Jeffrey Palmquist, Derek Penton Robicheaux and Felicia Phillips as they make the announcement in true Southern Decadence style. (photo credit: Mac Reynolds for both this photo and the featured image photo).
#8. Sunday, June 5, 2016
Join the Tulane Avenue Bar (3813 Tulane Avenue) at 1:00 p.m. for Sunday Brunch with The Divas of Tulane featuring Dasani Water, Colin Backster, and Giselle Trivianni.