Splendor & Grit: The Stunning South Tour 2009
MANGOS WITH CHILI:
the floating cabaret of QTPOC bliss, dreams, sweat, sweets & nightmares
presents
SPLENDOR & GRIT: The Stunning South Tour 2009
Who We Are:
Mangos With Chili is a Bay Area based arts organization committed to showcasing high quality work of life saving importance by queer and trans artists of color to audiences in the Bay Area and beyond. Founded in 2006 by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ms Cherry Galette, Mangos with Chili features an annual touring cabaret of queer and trans people of color performance artists, offering unforgettable performance in celebration of our lives, stories, survival, and the legacies we are creating for future generations of queer and trans people of color.
For over 3 years, Mangos With Chili has performed to sold out houses across North America, wowing audiences in world class theaters, underground performance spaces, bars, and campus halls, with their high intensity, breathtaking performance, politics, and storytelling craft, reflecting the lives and stories of queer and trans people of color, while making art that speaks out in resistance to the daily struggles around silence, isolation, homophobia, and violence that QTPOC face.
History:
Inspired by similar traveling roadshows like the Tranny Roadshow and the Sex Workers Art Show, performance artists Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ms. Cherry Galette started dreaming in 2006 of creating a similar tour featuring brilliant queer and trans artists of color. Six months later, the first Mangos With Chili tour hit the Northeast in April of 2006.
With no core funding and mostly grassroots publicity and media coverage, Mangos With Chili was a phenomenally successful tour. The show packed houses such as Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto, C-Space in Cleveland, Swarthmore College, Cattyshack in New York, The Black Repertory Theater of Providence, Theatre Juste por Rire in Quebec, and more. Audiences everywhere thanked us for both the high caliber of work presented and the life-saving importance of the testimonies we shared.
Using theater, spoken word, drag, dance and performance art to tell stories of class, survival, desire, dreams, migrations, and trans, femme and genderqueer identities that spanned Sri Lanka to Aztlan to the Philippines to the Caribbean to Brooklyn to the Arab world, to migrant small towns, Mangos With Chili 2006 was a groundbreaking performance cabaret, taking This Bridge Called My Back into the 21st century.
Our 2008 Queer Borderlands Tour took 10 artists across the Southwestern United States through the US-Mexico borderlands. Our featured artists created work addressing the themes of border transgressions, migrations, deportations, relocation, displacement, legacy and the struggle to create new worlds. We sold out every show, and received standing ovations, tears, flowers, and testimony that spoke to the life changing nature of the work shared on our stages. Additionally, we had opportunity to build, exchange, resource share, skill share, and connect with community members, organizers, artists, and academics, across the Southwest while learning the pulse of queer communities across the borderlands.
Mangos with Chili is unique in being multi-racial, multi-genre, and multi-gender – we consciously curate artists whose genders span the gamut from transwoman to Two Spirit to femme to trans fag to gender non-conforming to non-trans queer men. We create community, build bridges, and foster cross-cultural dialogue by presenting breathtaking shows featuring queer and trans of color artists creating cutting-edge, high-caliber work to audiences and communities whose stories are not always represented onstage. Sharing much needed and little heard queer and trans of color stories brings queer and trans people of color out from isolation, helping QTPOC build networks of community, support, resources and survival.
We have received positive media coverage from Bitch, Hip Mama and Make/Shift magazines (making Bitch’s Summer 2008, “Bitchlist: Things We Love”) as well as in independent media, the blogoshpere, campus media and raves from audience members for reflecting the lives and stories of queer and trans people of color.
SPLENDOR & GRIT: The Stunning South Tour 2009
We are currently planning and booking our 2009 tour which will run October 16-30, and kick off in Austin, Texas. The tour will run across the Southern states to New Orleans and then proceed up to DC, stopping at spots along the way.
Our 2009 lineup includes (Bios Below):
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Ms. Cherry Galette
Lenelle Moïse (on tour from 10/16-10/24 only)
SKIM
Aleksa Manila
Ms. Vagina Jenkins
Maceo Cabrera Estevez
Amir Rabiyah
Mangos With Chili Co-Director Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer Sri Lankan writer, performer and teacher. She is the 2009-10 Artist in Residence at UC Berkeley’s June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program, a 2009 Sins Invalid performer and the co-founder and co-artistic director of Mangos With Chili. Her one woman show, Grown Woman Show, has toured nationally, including performances at the National Queer Arts Festival, Swarthmore College, Yale University, Reed College and McGill University. The author of Consensual Genocide, her writing has appeared in Yes Means Yes, Visible: A Femmethology, Homelands, Colonize This, We Don’t Need Another Wave, Bitchfest, Without a Net, Dangerous Families, Brazen Femme, Geeks, Misfits and Outlaws, Femme and A Girl’s Guide to Taking Over The World. She is proud to be the queer femme mixed slut schoolteacher Sri Lankan granddaughter of her queer femme mixed slut schoolteacher Sri Lankan grandmothers. She is finishing her second book of poetry and her first memoir, and is happy about the forthcoming publication of The Revolution Starts At Home: Transforming Partner Abuse Through Community Accountability, which she co-edited with Ching-In Chen and Jai Dulani, by South End Press in 2010.
Born into a family of migrant music makers, Mangos With Chili Co-Director Ms. Cherry Galette is a dancer, burlesque artist, choreographer, theater maker, and producer committed to the telling of post-colonial fairy tales of modern resistance that celebrate queer desires, histories, survivals, migrations, and revolutions through movement and performance. Known for presenting genre pushing work based in sultry, sacred, and profane fusions of traditional dance forms of the Arabic, Latin, and Afro-Caribbean diaspora with story, burlesque and ultra-gay cabaret, Cherry has presented work as a solo artist and produced and curated productions in theaters, festivals, cabarets, clubs, and varied stages across North America. Cherry’s performance is a collision of cultural crossroads, era, tradition, and place, evoking elements of the cosmopolitan cabarets of the golden age of Middle Eastern dance, the legacy of movement passed down in women’s kitchens and salons, and the energy, joy, and enthusiasm of collective street dance. A favorite of the Bay Area burlesque, nightlife, and underground dance and performance scenes, Cherry’s work is grounded in the transformative power of story to make change, creating accessible, community oriented theater and performance, and putting movement and music back in the bodies of the people through creating a dance movement that encompasses all experiences, ages, genders, and bodies.
Lenelle Moïse is an award-winning poet, playwright, essayist and nationally-touring performance artist. She creates intimate, fiery, politicized, texts about the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, spirituality, culture and resistance. Curve Magazine calls her work, “Piercing, covering territory both intimate and political…vivid and powerful.” Equipped with an MFA from Smith College, Moïse has been a guest artist at the United Nations, the Culture Project, the Omega Institute, Homoagogo, Estrojam and theatres, colleges and conferences across the United States. Her writing is published in a number of anthologies, including “Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution,” “We Don’t Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists” and “Brassage: An Anthology of Poems by Haitian Women.” Visit www.lenellemoise.com for more.
Born in New York City, from a mother who taught herself how to play the piano, a father who conducted orchestras in his mind, and a culture called Hip Hop sweeping through the heart of the city, SKIM’s first language learned was music. Now based in Los Angeles, she has emerged as a fearless singer/ songwriter and poet. In 2006, she established her own production company, Mago Music, and released her first album, For Every Tear. Within days of its release, CD Baby’s executive director featured the album on the front page of the website. Drawing from each of her experiences and environments, she articulates herself through the music she creates, and captivates her audiences with raw honesty and charming humor. Skim mixes revolutionary visions and fiery rap lyrics with her sultry singing, while strumming a guitar. Her heart pounds as she drums with the passion of her Korean ancestry. Raised in New York City and presently in Los Angeles, she fuses the consciousness of third world peoples with the urban streets of U.S. cities. SKIM convinces ears to listen, bodies to dance, and hearts to open.
For the last 6 years The Lady Ms. Vagina Jenkins has titillated audiences all over the nation. Ever the ecdysiast exemplar, Ms. Jenkins acts defy audience expectations of what it means to be a woman of color and size. Through the lost art of the striptease Vagina Jenkins exhibits the kind of feminism that takes up space, and demands to be the center of attention. All this while awing audiences and leaving them hot, bothered and wanting more, more, more! Ms. Jenkins got her start at the 2003 Michigan Women’s Music Festival. And has since graced many stages, including but not limited to; Body Heat–The Femme Porn Tour (WA, OR, CA), South By Burlesque (Austin, TX), Miss Exotic World (Las Vegas, NV),The New York Burlesque Festival ’08, The Femme Conference ’08 (Chicago, IL), Moxie: A Queer Cabaret of Caliber (Atlanta, GA), The Southern Comfort Conference ’06 and ’07 (Atlanta, GA), Big Mamma’s House of Burlesque (Charlotte, NC) , and Atlanta PRIDE ’08. Vagina Jenkins is currently basking in the afterglow of a very successful one woman show aptly called “The Big Tease.” Be sure to check www.VaginaJenkins.com for dates in your town! The Southern Voice magazine calls her “…one of the top stars in Atlanta’s queer burlesque scene.” Charlotte’s Creative Loafing says Ms. Vagina Jenkins is “classy… a welcome shot of chocolate.” Atlanta Creative Loafing magazine named her “The Best Burlesque Dancer.” Critics have called her “Alluring”, “Sophisticated”, “Complex”, and “Unique.” No matter the adjective, Ms. Vagina Jenkins is sure to knock your stockings off!
From local bars to amphitheaters, lip syncing to live singing, solos to productions, black boas to Pink Martini, Aleksa Manila has traveled as a performer across North America. Aleksa Manila is known in Seattle and beyond as a stellar drag artist, consummate host and community activist. She is a beloved panelist and speaker at various LGBTQIA [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex and Allies], youth, people of color and political/activism workshops, trainings and conferences. When not in face, ‘he’ educates the community about the harms of crystal methamphetamine with Project NEON, a program of Seattle Counseling Service; tests for and counsels about HIV & STD with Public Health – Seattle & King County. Aleksa is honored to be a part of this cast! To know more about Aleksa Manila, visit www.aleksamanila.com
Maceo Cabrera Estévez hails from Brooklyn, New York and now lives in Oakland, California. Maceo is a performance artist, writer and long time text therapist. She has performed her work in various venues in NYC and the Bay Area such as the Asian American Writers Workshop, Dixon Place, La Galería de la Raza, La Peña, The Knitting Factory, The Nuyorican Poets Café and The National Queer Arts Festival. Maceo’s debut play Amor Cubano: In a bottle, a tube and a small packet was first performed at La Peña Cultural center’s Hecho en Califas Festival 2007. She also performed it at The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco, The Brooklyn Arts Exchange and The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance as part of their Blaktino Performance Festival. Her writing has been published in Sojourner: The Women’s Forum and Riffrag Journal she also writes the blog Dripping River Water. In her spare time, Maceo practices la yoga, flamenco dancing, takes quizzes on Facebook and prays to the One.
Amir Rabiyah lives in Oakland, California and is an Arab/queer/trans poet and performer. He received his BA in Women’s Studies from Portland State University and his MFA in Writing and Consciousness from the New College of California. He is super excited to be performing with Mangos With Chili and to continue to honor his ancestors by being a rabble rouser. He has performed and read his work all over the US and has been published in Mizna, Riffrag, Tea Party Magazine and the anthology: I Saw My Ex at a Party. He was a finalist in Cutthroat Magazine’s 2008 Joy Harjo Poetry Contest.
TOURING INFO: HOW TO BRING MANGOS WITH CHILI TO A STAGE NEAR YOU!
Thank you so much for your interest in bringing Mangos With Chili to your community! We totally depend on folks who work to book and bring us to their communities in order for our tours to have any success at all. We know how hard it is to help arrange a show for us, and we really appreciate your labor and care. This document is meant to give you all the information you need about booking performance spaces for us, as well as food, housing and tech needs for the show. If you have any questions, please email us at mangos.with.chili@gmail.com.
I. Honoraria:
From universities, we ask for $3,500- $5,000, plus housing (hotels, motels, guest lecturer housing on campus or dorm space). Universities usually fundraise this by having a coalition of departments and student groups- women’s studies, ethnic studies, queer studies, the women’s/gender equity center, Multicultural Student Center, LGBT Center, etc, fundraise to get us here. Our university fees pay for the community performances we do, which are free or much less well-compensated, and ensure that we can offer a fair wage to our artists.
From community organizations, we definitely don’t ask $3,500- $5,000. If you are a community group helping to bring us, we will likely charge admission at the door and use it to pay performers and for space rental. Please contact us and we’ll work out the details.
University bursars departments: please make the honoraria check out to our fiscal sponsor, CounterPULSE SF, and send it to their address (which is in the contact info at the end of this document.) However, please send the contract to us, either at mangos.with.chili@gmail.com or to 336 40th St, Apt. 4, Oakland CA 94609. CounterPULSE’s federal tax ID number is on the last page of this document.
II. Tech, Venue and Event Requirements
A. Performance space needs and working with technical staff:
1. Notes on the Venue/Space: 99% of the time, we need to perform in a space that has a stage. This is important because if we’re in a space with no stage where everything is on one level, no audience member more than 3 rows back will be able to see the performers, especially dance/movement performers. Our preferences for stage space are stages that are at least 20″ wide. We have made do with less, but if you are looking around and considering different venues, larger stages are wonderful for the dancers and theater performers. 1% of the time (ie, if we are performing in a bookstore or small community space in an isolated community) we are okay with making do with smaller stages and non-stage setups. However, if you are bringing us to a college campus, we need to perform on a stage, and not in a classroom.
Either way, please let us know as far in advance as possible how big the stage is and what the tech situation is, so we can talk to artists and they can plan what work will fit best in the space.
All stages/ performance venues must have a sound system (otherwise known as a PA- a system where CDs can be played and microphones hooked up to speakers) and a light board, and a tech or techs to run them. If there’s a digital projector and a projection screen, awesome – please let us know. This is not mandatory, however.
Whether you are working to book a community space or a university one, most venues need to be booked at least two months in advance, especially for weekend shows.
We ask that you locate space that is all ages and wheelchair accessible. Please reserve some seats in the front for people who use wheelchairs. Please also advertise that the show is scent-free space. There’s lots of good information here: http://www.peggymunson.com/mcs/fragrancefree.html for how to be fragrance-free. We understand that it will probably be impossible to ask everyone to go totally fragrance-free, but if folks don’t wear heavy perfume the night of the show it’ll make it much more accessible for everyone, especially folks with immune disorders.
We need a dressing room or green room where performers can get dressed, put on makeup and rehearse in private. This doesn’t need to be fancy, but it’s great if it has a mirror and lights.
2. Working with tech staff: Approximately two weeks before the show, we will email you and the tech staff a detailed technical script. Please let us know who the tech staff are, and how we can reach them. The tech script is meant to give you a baseline of what our needs are for the show in terms of light, sound, and stage set up.
We need to meet with the technical staff at least 2 hours before showtime. An hour tech is great; two hours is even better. While we definitely have managed to pull off doing a show with a half hour to do tech, it’s much saner for everyone involved if we have a couple of hours. This is especially true for performers who do dance and drag, and need time to both do tech check and stretch, put on makeup and change into costume.
3. Other Important Considerations: If it is possible for you to create gender-neutral bathrooms, do it! This is a super-easy way to make your space accessible and friendly to not just transgendered folks, but folks of all genders. You can make signs that say “gender neutral bathroom” and put them up over the male/female bathroom signs.
If at all possible, have childcare at the event! Parents often can’t make it to cultural and other events because of our society’s lack of childcare, and providing childcare is a great way of supporting the parents in your community in concrete ways. This is also easy to do by including “If you need childcare, please email” on the outreach flyers. That way you can get a sense of how many kids are coming and their ages, and get enough volunteers (usually 1 person per 3 kids) for the event. We realize that if we’re doing a show in a bar this may be impossible, but if it’s on a college campus it’s totally doable and the parents in the community will love you forever.
B. Outreach
We ask that you do outreach to help promote the show in your community. We work to promote our shows nationally and locally, but we know you know your community best. Some notes about this:
Please use the downloadable flyers and promotional photos and logos we have on our website or that we email to you. Please use our descriptions of our show and performers. Be creative in making flyers, using Facebook, Livejournal, Myspace, Craigslist and local queer, queer of color, women of color and progressive activism email lists and sites to promote the show. If you are a college or university, please promote the show both on and off campus. We would love it if folks from QTPOC communities off-campus come to our show!
We ask that you especially work to promote the show within local queer and trans of color communities, progressive of color, feminist of color and artist of color communities. We are happy to have everyone attend our performances, but we are first and foremost an artistic organization by and for queer and trans people of color and Two Spirit folks. It’s important to us that as many QTPOC folks know about and attend the show.
III. The Care and Feeding of Mangos
A. Food
We ask that you have some food for us at the performance site. Usually we pull in a few hours before performance, in time for soundcheck, and don’t have time to pick up dinner before we perform. When we’re on tour, not eating day after day takes a big toll on our physical health. Some folks on tour are vegetarian, some aren’t. We have one performer with a nut allergy, several who don’t eat pork, and several who don’t drink dairy milk. We’re not picky, but veggies, whole grains, Asian noodles, and flava are always good!
B. Housing
If you are offering to house us, thank you so much! We promise we’ll do our dishes, tell you great stories, and be good guests. A few things we ask:
If you are a college, we are open to staying at hotels, motels, guest housing and in dorm space (not on a student’s floor, but in the extra dorm space that sometimes gets opened for guests.) We are fine with having 2 performers share a queen or larger sized bed. We ask that you pay for this out of your budget, instead of asking us to pay and be reimbursed.
If you are offering community housing: While we’re thankful for any offer of housing, many of us are older and disabled folks, for whom sleeping on floors is difficult. Pull out couches, futons and (oooh!) spare bedrooms are great.
Alcohol/Substance Free Houses: Many of the artists on tour with us this year do not drink alcohol, and we are in process of locating alcohol free and substance free housing for them. If this sounds like your house, please be in touch!
Animals: We have folks on tour who have bad cat/dog allergies, so if your space has more than one dog, please let us know- some folks may need to dose themselves with anti-allergy meds to stay in spaces that have many animals.
Necessities: We are totally grateful to be put up for free in someone’s home. However, last year on tour, there was one incident where very nice and well-meaning people put us up in a house that had no running water and no heat. We’re not picky, but bathrooms and running water are important for us.
IV. Contact Information
Email: mangos.with.chili@gmail.com
Mailing address: 336 40th St., #4, Oakland CA 94609
Phone numbers: email and we’ll tell you!
Website: mangoswithchili.wordpress.com
Fiscal Sponsor: Counterpulse SF, 1310 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Fiscal sponsor Tax ID number: email us and we’ll tell you
ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? Hit us up at mangos.withchili@gmail.com
Thank you! We make this art for you and we couldn’t do it without you!
Mangos With Chili is a fiscally sponsored organization of CounterPULSE (http://www.counterpulse.org), and is made possible by the generous support of the Horizons Foundation, the Astraea Foundation for Lesbian Justice, and our network of grassroots community love partners.
