And just like that pride month is over and we’re done being proud until June 2024!!!! Never on my dead body/pride 4ever.
Here is the #content that made this month for me and will hopefully momentarily help you forget about the supreme court rulings.
Performances
Lindsey + Leanna at The Brick Theater
I feel like there is this type of shoutout in every newsletter I write but there is something so moving about being an audience for a friend- who is actually really talented and getting to sit there and watch them reign. I’ve been collaborating on and off with Lindsey and Leanna for around 10 years at this point (Lindsey had a very memorable performance as an ex-singer/bartender at Karaoke Means Joy) and I am realizing with time, that their work is often better than a lot of fully produced dance shows I see these days. Both extremely technically versatile and hilarious, they manage to walk the tightrope of fresh technical movement and satire of the form really well. Lindsey is creative through and through and spent a lot of care designing costumes for the show as well. I had just seen their work in August, which I loved as well, and this felt completely different- which is really hard to pull off just a few months from another show (even more so since Lindsey told me she only started working on this in March). I felt the rare feeling of wanting them to dance longer.
Photo of The Sphere by Christopher Lee
@ The Shed/ let me explain
So here is the deal- I hate everything about The Shed BUT my friend from high school back in the land of baguettes was in New York City because her husband (Ed) was presenting his work at The Shed, which you might have seen an ad- or a million for- The Sphere. I attended to support really not expecting anything and just happy to see them- and it was… healing?
The Sphere is an immersive musical experience curated by a collective of musicians and lighting designers for you to receive in a reclined chair- meditation-like. Jess told me that some of the musical experiences can be really intense but the Steve Reich one was like a wash over my head. It was wonderful.
I also… at The Shed… got confused between the Sphere and Kagami- the other show happening there right now which is a virtual reality piano concert by Ryuichi Sakamoto which I also ended up seeing- that same day. Having never experienced VR before I didn’t really have a great comparison for it but the house manager did acknowledge that it was a system in progress (which is never a great sign so I didn’t expect much) but it was really interesting. It basically felt like a Sims version of Sakamoto was playing the piano at the center of us in the round and we could explore the space and get closer to him playing which was nice. Because of the VR he was able to really play with set design elements, and though they were not all successful, there was one point where it felt like he was playing amidst snow, and in a 1990s video of NYC which I kind of loved. It’s not the real deal but offers something curious.
Finally if you are ready to watch a 2h45 minute play I would really recommend The Doctor- a show about medicine and ethics by Robert Icke. One of the most interesting elements was the actors played roles that didn’t necessarily match their gender or racial identity- without shifting their mannerisms or tone. This worked because their identity wasn’t relevant to their roles and yet was the central issue of debate in the story. I will say though that the show, as the New York Times review mentioned, is very “caffeinated”- sometimes veers a bit on the border of too much energy-wise.
Movies
Recently I feel like every new release’s PR move is to do a bunch of free screenings because word of mouth is the only way to get people at the movies in the first place which I don’t hate at all and fully accepted my free ticket to Asteroid City, Wes Anderson’s latest. It’s not wildly memorable but he does have a gift for casting and pushes the boundaries of his usual tropes making a film within a film within a play- that is partly in black and white. I saw it a week ago and already semi forgot about it but it’s lovely.
Still from The Stroll
If you have to see one movie this month, stream The Stroll documentary on Max. It’s a documentary about the Black sex workers that made 14th street what it was in the 80s, when they were shunned from working anywhere else and their dealings with the police. But really it’s also about gentrification and the impact of gentrification on the gay community at large and the hardships Sylvia Rivera faced having our community that trans people were still fighting for their rights. Directed by Kristen Lovell, a Black trans woman who was previously a sex worker on the stroll, it’s both about joy and love amongst the community and an archive of footage that has been forgotten.
If you want to watch a boring and easy on the brain film, the Blackberry movie is fine? Someone at Sarah’s book launch who is a movie critic mentioned it was their favorite movie that came out this month- I personally wasn’t super enthralled by it but I guess that they’re Canadian and sweeter than the Mark Zukerbergs of the world.
TV
Okay buckle up because I am about to sound insane but you NEED to watch Merpeople- a 4 episode documentary on people who identify as mermaids. It’s a crossover of a coming of age, queer, sports and dance documentary in which people risk their lives for a small reward in a very very niche community. Not so niche though because I mentioned it to my hairdresser who of course knows one of the main people and has a friend going to mermaid camp? Sign. Me. Up.
Still from Merpeople
Black Mirror episode 1 and 2 were also REAL standouts with pretty simple premises surrounding current technology that are what your worst nightmares are made of. The series gets worse after and more into horror/Buffy the vampire slayer vibes but you can watch them as stand alones.
Still from Black Mirror
If you’re into cults and reality tv, Shiny Happy People looks at The Duggars who had 19 kids and were on a reality show because of said situation. One of the brothers assaulted his sister which led her to leave and the rest of the family to protect him. It’s awful and she is the translator and narrator of the doc, shedding light onto why she stayed religious but is calling out this extremist branch of Christianity.
No matter what you watch do not watch Natalie Grace, a doc about an orphan abused by her adoptive parents who then tried to kill them. Please don’t.
Exhibits
I did see the Hannah Gatsby Picasso exhibit which is nothing to hate or love- it feels like an end of year presentation on whether Picasso is good or bad. Which is not something scandalous and worth getting so upset about.
Work by Kelani Abass
If you have to see a show this month I really recommend the Nigerian photo exhibit at The MoMA with a diversity of political, experimental and commercial photographers and Pepón Osorio’s retrospective at The New Museum.
Kelani Abass’ work in the Nigerian Photography exhibit really stood out to me as unique in form- an encasing of family photos in chronological order in order to be able to question the future more and contrast personal moments in photography with the historical time in which they took place.
Badge of Honor by Pepón Osorio
Pepón, an artist originally from Puerto Rico, builds his work in conversation with the community and was inspired by his experience as a social worker in the Bronx for a lot of his larger than life installations that are reflective of how Latinx people are portrayed by the media and the struggles they face in American society.
Another memorable show was Matthew Barney (also Bjork’s ex)’s first show in over a decade, and first show in his studio in LIC. The multi-camera installation is a hilarious/beautiful distillation of American Football morphed into performance art and sculpture. Barney was actually a Yale University quarterback and supposedly loved the momentary feeling of seeing stars after the shock of violence- which has inspired a lot of his similar work.
Podcasts
Two poetic and intimate shows, and one more serious documentary, to highlight this month.
Freed From Desire, a documentary about being asexual in the city of love, and winner of the Tribeca podcasts non-fiction award, follows non-binary journalist Aline in their quest to understand their sexuality in a culture where sexual freedom and desire reigns. I both love Aline’s writing and really enjoyed being brought back to Paris in the 90s and learning more about the asexual experience, which is rarely talked about and foreign to me. The show title refers to one of the biggest hits of my youth by electronic artist, Gala who had the anthem of many summers and the World Cup of the same name. After listening to the show I wondered what happened to that one hit wonder and it turns out- GALA WAS A LESBIAN AND SHE LIVES IN BROOKLYN. I love how the world works sometimes, 10 year old me would be going wild.
The last iteration of my work as a producer with Kaitlin Prest and is now around her relationship with her dad just came out this week under The Heart feed. I feel really privileged that KP let me interview her dad about their relationship and into this show about them. As always she made something incredibly exquisite to listen to, featuring old childhood VHS audio and the experience of making this show was one of the greatest privileges of my career,I am very very proud of her and really recommend it. Kaitlin’s dad, Greg, is a really special human and his willingness to be vulnerable and admit to his mistakes as a parent on record, for his daughter’s podcast, is not lost on me.
New Hampshire Public Radio also released a new series about the 13th Step in recovery that was really insightful of the vulnerability of people in addiction treatment and unfortunate abuse that some people with more power can have at times over said people- the opposite of which is the 13th step- not abusing of a privilege over people earlier in their recovery process. Though the show is initially framed a bit as a “me too” show in addiction centers, it stirs away from that and becomes more.
Books
Want a juicy queer coming into one’s one story featuring celebrity gossip? Pageboy, Elliott Page’s biography is an easy read about the joys of finally coming out and into one’s own that includes much detail about his romantic life with celebrities, bad relationship with his dad, and awful treatment from the film industry.
Want a summer read with a protagonist who is a professional scammer? The Guest by Emma Cline is FUN and will have you follow a wannabe socialist through a series of hoops to get her rich boyfriend back and avoid her past.
I hope we all get some fresh air at some point this weekend- and find ourselves by a body of water. We need it.
Much love and happy July.