April 21st, 2010 maggie
I originally posted this to my personal facebook page, because it felt, well, personal, but I’ve been encouraged to share it with you. I am doing much better now than I was when I first wrote it and I now have a 2009 Toyota Yaris, suitable for cramming in at least 3, maybe 4 femmes.
I never thought of myself as someone who was emotionally attached to her car, but then me and the Lesbaru had an encounter with a Dodge Ram on Lamartine Street Friday morning. I am fine, if a bit anxious and overwhelmed, but the Lesbaru will be appearing soon at a junkyard near you. I need to get going on cars.com, but first I need to say a few words in honor of the Lesbaru.
It was my maternal grandmother’s second to last car, and she gave it to me for a penny, with new tires and a clean bill of health. That gift meant freedom to quit working in politics when I was at the edge of burnout and marriage equality in Mass. was at the edge of victory. With a car, I could take better-paid work doing what I love, instead of lower wage jobs trying to teach hip-hop at community centers in Cambridge. I didn’t even know at the time that I would found a motley crew of queer performance artists, and that we would cram that car with petticoats and cheese snacks and drive all over the East Coast.
I put the Dar Williams bumper sticker on it that I’d saved since high school, and Mom bought me a rainbow. I immediately got a job teaching on Friday nights in a bad part of Weymouth and backed it into a parking spot every time because I was afraid it would get vandalized. Soon after wards, I started to feel too cool for bumper stickers, but it was too late, so I gave it the ironic nickname. (I hope the Crowleys aren’t offended).
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April 20th, 2010 maggie
Rachel showed up for the first Femme Show dress rehearsal with an Victorian etiquette guide in her purse, and the rest is history! Her secret powers being a kick-ass writer, facilitator, empowerer of youth, and eater of orange cheese snacks.
Tell us about your first Femme Show.
I was part of the small but illustrious stage crew for the first Femme Show. I had just moved to Boston from New York for grad school and was trying to find the queer community up here. In a fit of desperation, I googled “queer Boston” and the Femme Show came up. So I took a deep breath and volunteered to run the light board in the church basement (which was basically just twenty five light switches), and actually showed up to do it. I was also in charge of pulling the movie screen down for the Barbie doll film, and I think it worked out maybe 40% of the time– I needed someone else to bail me out the rest of the time. Somehow I managed not to break anything significant in the line of duty. A few months later, after a coincidental conversation about etiquette guides with Maggie, SPPSSM was born and I joined the Femme Show on the other side of the stage.
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April 6th, 2010 maggie
Ms. Webb is such a go-getter, we hear she filled out this survey while writing a song about blow-up dolls, producing a queer cabaret, making puppets, cracking sluts, and drinking water from a used beer bottle. Yum.
Oddly, this is not what she looks like in the Femme Show. Maybe Karin joined the witness protection program?
Tell us about your first Femme Show.
YMCA, Cambridge. Lovely Gals! I was not only impressed by the talent and variety of POV’s up on stage, but the strength, courage, and playfulness of these women. The show has grown so much since its inception. I felt right at home!
What have you been up to since October?
AHHHH! I’ve been performing with my troupe, “All The Kings Men” all over the country and most recently in London, I’ve been producing and performing “Bent Wit Cabaret” – a monthly show from my own production company “Axe To Ice Productions”. I’ve performed in “The Slutcracker”, and “Midnight Vultures”, a bunch of “Jerkus Circus’s”, puppetry with the “Elephant Tango Ensemble Puppet Players”, and other shows in and around Boston and NYC… I’m currently throwing myself into a new project that involves art, community, and taking over the world!
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March 29th, 2010 maggie
The True Colors Conference is always a special destination for me, but after 3 years of presenting, it’s now beloved by everyone at the Femme Show.
What’s not so beloved is a 10:30 AM start time. That might sound reasonable, but getting 6 femmes and friends awake, caffeinated, made up, warmed up, and in costume by that hour is no mean feat, not when you add a rush hour trip from Boston to Storrs, a cinder block, and two razor scooters. But we made it, with help from Mylene’s scones and the awesome UCONN staff. Carlos and his compatriots didn’t miss a beat in getting us hooked up to their fancy technology and getting info from me while I tried to put on my make up and run lines. Read the rest of this entry »
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March 23rd, 2010 maggie
The first time Madge/M. performed with us in Portland (about a year ago, I think) we had a femmetacular slumber party and I almost peed my pants laughing. Hir snaxuality is queer. That’s all I have to say.
Tell us about your first Femme Show I had fierce bangs, darling. I was serving a wicked bob in it’s last phases of queerness before it turned real housewives. My first femme show wasn’t so much “la la land” as “va va voom land.” I met smokin hot performers whose genders(and fringed lingerie) filled me with desire and solidarity. I contracted glitter herpes. In all seriousness, I did a more serious piece that used burlesque to explore the relationship between sexiness and violence as a feminine person. I felt supported, encouraged, and understood. The Femme Show fills you with daring and sharpens your focus as a performer.
What have you been up to since October?
During the day, I have been busting my ass as a community organizer. During the night, I have been showing my ass as a burlesque, drag, trash performer with Traniwreck, Intro to Anatomy, and other esteemed cabarets. I’ve also been privileged to go on several Femme road trips during which we sipped blood orange margaritas in the ancestral homeland and I lugged around a cinder block from stage to stage. It’s real cement. It gave me a cement hickey.
Why do you think the Femme Show is important?
The Femme Show has been a critical space for me to do performance art that’s explicitly, bombastically queer. The Femme Show has reigned in some powerhouses to make work about our Femme and femininity which otherwise might go on being invisible, closeted, criticized, not a worthwhile creative outlet, or simply not celebrated outlandishly enough. The Femme Show also snuffs out stereotypes and gives you a whole bouquet of Femme and feminine queer identities. I feel challenged, I feel looked after, I have a lifestyle compendium to consult should I ever go astray or find myself with a run in my stockings. There are so many Femmes in the show to look up and nuzzle in their bosom. Also, if the Femme Show is performing in your festival we got the goodies to put on your flier and fill seats, nah mean? #Imjustsayin.
What are you most excited about for the Femme Show in 2010?
I’m excited about people busting out new hot shit. The possibilities are endless. Well for me actually the possibilities are like rolling around on the floor, taking off my clothes, or choreography that’s limited to tripping and falling. Maybe I’ll try something super duper daring like poetry. Wait with breath that is bated, gurl.
What is your favorite thing to do onstage? Least favorite?
Favorites: Be awesome and/or creepy. Also, well costumed.
Least favorite: Suck. Or host.
Sweet or Savory?
Down with the snack binary!!!! It’s not either/or or even “both”. It’s ALL girl. Gimme all your sugar and umami. I’m that person at breakfast that needs a Belgian waffle and a grilled cheese. Let me get some pretzels after my ice cream. Let me get some sweet & sour chicken and tangy yogurt. What’s tangy anyway? And then there’s cardomom. How do you box in cardamom? Cardamom transcends. My snaxuality is queer.
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March 16th, 2010 maggie
Here is Ms. Alicia Greene, our resident footballer, MC and cake baker and all-round fabulous seasonal femme.
Tell us about your first Femme Show
I was not sure of what to expect. All of these feeling were rushing around in me. The energy backstage was so amazing! All of these strong and talented people doing such great things around me was almost too much to take. I do remember feeling a sense of divine-ness. Not just because all of the Femme Show performers are indeed divine in our own ways 
But, because I felt like I was finally in the right place at the right time.
What have you been up to since October?
Traveling to the Dominican Republic, baking lots of cakes, playing on the defensive line for my football team (Lava), performing in Queer Soup’s “Writer’s Speakeasy:Gender Icons” and announcing roller derby for the Boston Derby Dames as “Lady Oshun”
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March 2nd, 2010 maggie
Katie designed our world-famous logo and has done several of our posters, including the last two Boston shows. Read on to learn more about one of the awesome people who rocks the Femme Show from behind the scenes.
Tell us about your first Femme Show
My first Femme Show, I was attending as an art vendor. I had a bundle of feminist bike shirts, and a bunch of queer comics about safe sex. What captured me immediately was how much of a community we were—even though I was a complete stranger to the cast and crew! I helped out with sound needs, set up chairs, helped other vendors get settled. It was great and totally intoxicating. Read the rest of this entry »
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