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Past Event TQ Live!

A person is on stage dressed in a red, shimmery dress. They appear to be singing. The person has long, red hair and is wearing dark, purple eye shadow and red lipstick.

Photo by Sean Caroll

TQ Live! presents a queer evening of dazzling performance, dance, poetry, comedy, resplendent fantasies, music, and more. This fifth annual performance series features artists and performers from the many LGBTQIA communities in the Pittsburgh region and is produced by Scott Andrew, Joseph Hall, and Suzie Silver. Hosted by Joseph Hall, this year’s line-up includes performances by Mrs. Kasha Davis of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Vanessa German, Rickey Laurentiis, Ryan M. McKelvey, MICHIYAYA Dance, Theodore Rexx, theatriQ and a video work by Atom Atkinson + Scott Andrew.  

Please note this performance contains adult subject matter and strong language.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.

This project is supported in part by the Carnegie Mellon University School of Art, the Center for the Arts in Society, and the Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry and the Sylvia and David Steiner Speaker Series.

Artist Bios

Scott Andrew

Scott Andrew is a multimedia artist, working in video, installation, performance, and new media. He creates speculative fantasies that peer into otherworldly portals and voids and has most notably exhibited with the Institute for New Feeling at MoMA’s PopRally (New York City), Recess (New York City), Ballroom Marfa (Marfa, Texas), Whitechapel Gallery (London), Black Cube (Denver, Colorado), the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), and the J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles).

Atom Atkinson

Atom Atkinson is a poet living in Western New York, a doctoral student at University of Utah, the Director of Literary Arts at Chautauqua Institution, and 1/6 of the poetry collective Line Assembly.

Mrs. Kasha Davis

Mrs. Kasha Davis (MKD) is the alter ego of Ed Popil, season 7 contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race. A “lady,” an international celebrity housewife, and that maternal-like character that’s just a hoot and a holler at all family functions. MKD grew up in Scranton, PA, graduated from Marywood University with a BA in Theatre, and was a principal dancer in the Ballet Theatre of Scranton. She can be heard in her one woman show There’s Always Time for a Cocktail.

Vanessa German

Vanessa German makes art that calls in to reckoning, the submerged narratives that bridge the intersections of intellectual, physical and spiritual space. Her work considers the living ricochet of racism and its attendant traumas on the body, spirit, and earth in the simultaneity of time. She is a 2018 USA artists fellow, and winner of the 2017 American Academy of Arts and Letters Jacob Lawrence Prize.

Joseph Hall

Joseph Hall is a black, queer, transracial adoptee, podcast lover, creator, critic, and youngest of five. He is Deputy Director at BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance as well as a producer, curator, and performer working in New York City and Pittsburgh. As a performer, he has worked with choreographers Staycee Pearl, Maree ReMalia, Lida Winfield, and Jasmine Hearn, and video artist Suzie Silver.

Rickey Laurentiis

Lannan Fellow and Whiting Award winner, Rickey Laurentiis is the author of Boy with Thorn, winner of the Cave Canem Prize and the Levis Reading Prize, among other honors. He is currently the inaugural Fellow in Creative Writing at the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, University of Pittsburgh.

Ryan M. McKelvey

Ryan M. McKelvey’s performances are usually one-to-one encounters or public interventions. Alter egos occasionally get slipped on, too. Formative years in poetry and theater brought him to collaboration, drag, and live art. He has shown work in Seoul, Brighton, Bath, and Pittsburgh. McKelvey also collaboratively devises projects as Home Soil.

MICHIYAYA Dance

MICHIYAYA Dance is an all-women contemporary dance theater company co-founded by Anya Clarke and Mitsuko Verdery. Clarke and Verdery are an award-winning, multimedia duo from New York City that synthesize dance and visual art. Their work has been featured by Yale University, the Brooklyn Museum, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Opportunity Fund, THINX, Baruch Performing Arts Center, Gibney, and more.

Suzie Silver

Suzie Silver creates art that alludes to the capacity for desire to disrupt social boundaries and imagine new futures. Her well-known early videos, Freebird and A Spy are canonical works of queer video art. Silver’s videos have been screened at over 100 festivals on five continents. Her ongoing collaboration, Fairy Fantastic! a fairy and folk tale video series for gender non-conforming kids of all ages, has screened at festivals in Belarus, London, Portugal, Romania and Australia.

theatriQ

theatriQ is an LGBTQA+ youth ensemble with Dreams of Hope, a arts organization supporting young queer and trans people in the Pittsburgh region. The ensemble creates original work addressing LGBTQA+ themes including a full length play every year. The music group writes, composes, and performs music for all theatriQ productions. The group released their first album, Home, is 2016.

Theodore Rexx

Baltimore-based DJ Theodore Rexx’s dynamic fusion of pop music with global and club beats frequently results in many unexpected twists and turns on the dance floor. As a multi-instrumentalist, he has also laid down the rhythm for numerous artists and bands, most notably as a percussionist with the Baltimore Ravens Marching Band.

Artists

The image is a close-up of artist Scott Andrew. He is wearing a blond wig with white-framed sunglasses propped on top of his head. A fuzzy, cheetah print headband covers most of his forehead, and matches his cheetah print shirt and scarf. He is also wearing a chunky, pearl necklace bearing a gold pendant.

Photo by Scott Andrew

Scott Andrew

The image features artist Atom Atkinson. They are wearing a sheer, turquoise top, big ruby-colored necklace, braided pearl bracelet on both wrists, and blue flower ring. They also have on sparkly blue eyeshadow and coral lipstick. Their mouth is open, as if they are singing.

Photo by Scott Andrew

Atom Atkinson

The image is a headshot of artist Mrs. Kisha Davis. The artist bears a giant, feathery headpiece that spans nearly half of the image. Their elbows are bent, leaning on a black tabletop, and their fingers are intertwined. The wall in background, is a deep, muted red.

Mrs. Kasha Davis

The image is of artist Vanessa German. Her head is slightly tilted, as she smiles with her mouth closed. Her big, brown eyes are emphasized with dusty pink eyeshadow.

Vanessa German

Artist Joseph Hall is wearing a hot pink, pixie-cut wig. He has on a white button-down shirt underneath a dusty blue vest. His right hand can be seen grasping a microphone in the bottom right corner of the image.

Photo by Sean Carroll

Joseph Hall

The image is a portrait of poet Ricky Laurentis. His profile is visible as he looks off to the right. He has glasses and long, braided hair that goes past his shoulders. His black lace shirt nearly blends into the black background. His left arm is bent, covering his torso, as his hand grazes his right shoulder.

Photo by Beowulf Sheehan

Rickey Laurentiis

A bald man is pictured in the center of the image. His right knee is bent and positioned at the foreground. His right elbow rests on his knee, as he lifts his hand up, with his palm facing outward. His forearm is covered in spider tattoos. An image of bright, fruit-shaped candy forms the background of the image.

Ryan M. McKelvey

Two people are pictured at the top right of an image. They both have short, buzzed hair. One is resting their head on the other’s shoulder. The photograph appears ripped into two parts, revealing a second image of a forest in the background.

MICHIYAYA Dance

Artist Suzie Silver is pictured in the center of the image. She has short, cropped gray hair and black framed glasses. Suzie is wearing a gray t-shirt and black jacket, and the black strap of a bag can be seen resting on her shoulder.

Suzie Silver

Three people are in the center of the image. The person farthest to the left is staring down at a piece of paper; the person in the middle is staring directly at the viewer; and the person to the right is looking off to the left. They are all huddled around a red table with a silver countertop.

theatriQ

A man stands with his arms crossed at the foreground of the image. He is wearing glasses, a white button-down shirt, and navy blazer. A brick wall painted with brightly colored graffiti makes up the background.

Theodore Rexx

Related

LGBTQ+ Youth Prom Planning Committee Meeting

Two teens work on art projects in the Warhol’s studio space. There are colorful pieces of paper on the tables that the young people are using to create cat ears for headbands. A screen printed image of Andy Warhol as the Cheshire cat sits on the table in the foreground.

Photo by Sean Carroll

Dandy Andy: Warhol’s Queer History

A black and white photograph shows Andy Warhol from the chest up in drag, wearing a short coiffed brown wig, heavy face powder, black eyeliner, and dark red lipstick. He turns his head slightly and stares at the camera, with a loose white blouse unbuttoned at the neck.

Andy Warhol, Small Acetate (Self-Portrait in Drag), 1980
The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
1998.3.1135