Arts & Entertainment

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Sundance 2022 Film Review: “Framing Agnes”

Chase Joynt’s follow up to his exceptional No Ordinary Man (co-directed with Aisling Chin-Yee) about the life of jazz musician Billy Tipton, is the equally thrillingly and similarly genre-defying feature Framing Ages—expanding upon his own 2019 short—which just had its world premiere in the NEXT lineup at Sundance. It’s a fitting section of the festival for the film to play given that it not only poses questions about what is next in the evolution of the representation of trans lives on screen, but also continually challenges broader notions about storytelling and form.  Agnes is the pseudonym of a trans woman who sought gender affirming […]

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Celebrate Black History Month at Occidental Center for the Arts with Sha’Motown! Concert

Saturday February 26 @ 7:30 pm. Sha’Motown! at Occidental Center for the Arts. Come join us as we celebrate Black History Month with an exciting live music homage to Motown’s greatest superstars and song hits! This amazing, award winning band features the refreshingly angelic songstress Ariel Marin, plus the musical arrangements of platinum producer James “Jae-E ” Earley. Get your dancing shoes ready! $30 General/$25 for OCA Members. Tickets/Info @ www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org. Proof of Covid vaccination is required, masking indoors as per County health order. Audience capacity will be limited to 65%. Fine refreshments available. OCA Art Gallery exhibit ‘Celebration of Black History” […]

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Cheryl King interviews Aja Gianola-Norris about her experience directing HAIR at 6th Street Playhouse

Aja Gianola-Norris is a Sonoma County-based director, whose passion is “empowering and connecting our community through music and theater.” She’s directed or music directed over 85 musicals, including The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Misérables, Grease, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, and The Wiz, to name a few.  In this interview she answers a few questions about her process, her work on this production and how HAIR, the musical, is still relevant and powerful more than 50 years after its original production. Q. It’s been more than 50 years since HAIR was first produced, and the US and the world have seen major cultural […]

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“May We Present…”Nefertiti Asanti’s fist of wind

Welcome to May We Present…, a column from Lambda Literary that highlights authors with recent or forthcoming publications. This November, we’re featuring Nefertiti Asanti and their new poetry collection, fist of wind, published on October 29th by Foglifter Press. fist of wind centers the simultaneously magical and mortal Black body as a site of healing and transformation from pain, ranging from larger forms of structural, communal, and intergenerational pain to the personal pain of menstruation out of which the collection was born. With fist of wind, Asanti became the first winner of the Start A Riot! Chapbook Prize, a prize for local emerging queer and trans Black writers, indigenous […]

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“Let Me Be Me:” the extraordinary journey that a family undertake with their autistic son

The brilliantly funny queer comedian Robert White who made it to the finals of Britain’s Got Talent flippantly explained his Asbergers away by claiming he is a genius.  He played the line for laughs although, by the time he finished his act, I had totally come to agree.    White’s appearance on TV is part of a visible dialogue about the sheer potential that people on the spectrum can achieve if their parents refuse to accept the traditional medical advice of just writing them off at childhood.  Up to very recently once a child had been diagnosed with Aspergers they were actively encouraged to place them […]

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Amy Schneider’s historic ‘Jeopardy!’ streak comes to an end after 40 wins

Long-running “Jeopardy!” champion Amy Schneider lost in an episode that aired Wednesday, ending the second-longest winning streak in the quiz show’s history. Schneider, an engineering manager from Oakland, California, was defeated by Rhone Talsma, a librarian from Chicago, who raked in $29,600 in the latest game, besting Schneider, at $19,600. She left the show with nearly $1.4 million in winnings and had no regrets about the streak’s end. “I got about $1.2 million more than my best case scenario in my imagination,” a smiling Schneider said moments after the stunning defeat. Almost all of Schneider’s wins had been in 2-to-1 blowouts going into Final […]

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“WEST NORTH WEST” is a Japanese queer drama that explores themes of gender, sexuality, nationality, and religious identity

Set amongst the bustling crowds and underground karaoke clubs of Tokyo, WEST NORTH WEST explores themes of gender, sexuality, nationality, and religious identity through the complex desires of three women. The film is now featuring on PeccadilloPOD, a new On-Demand platform for LGBTQ+ cinema.   Beautiful Kei (Hanae Kan) works at a cocktail bar, and her girlfriend Ai (Yuka Yamauchi) works as a model. Fearing she’ll be ostracized by society, Kei chooses not to admit her sexual orientation to anyone, and, as a result, she becomes distressed and lonely. One day, randomly in a café, Kei meets Naima, (Sahel Rosa) a very religious Iranian […]

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Duo Quartet performs at Occidental Center for the Arts Jan. 30

Sunday January 30 @ 3 pm. Duo Quartet at Occidental Center for the Arts. The Duo Quartet brings together the stellar talents of Nina Gerber and Chris Webster in concert with another dynamic duo, Pam Delgado and Jeri Jones of Blame Sally. With a beautiful set of original music mixed with surprisingly original takes on a few choice covers, Duo Quartet brings to the stage a band that is greater than the sum of its already impressive parts.Tickets are $30 General / $25 for OCA members at www.occidentalcenterforthearts.org . Proof of COVID Vaccine is required for this event, please bring your vaccine card and […]

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“The Perfume Thief:” A Story of Queer Bravery in Occupied Paris

Proust wrote “Perfume is that last and best reserve of the past, the one which when all our tears have run dry, can make us cry again!” The Perfume Thief by Timothy Schaffert offers a vivid and striking story that exemplifies this observation. A whiff of a scent conjures up an event in the past, transporting one to that moment where a smell becomes indelible in the catalog of one’s senses. In a novel imbued with deception hidden in plain sight, perfume emerges as the most powerful and truthful presence in this redolent tale of Nazi Occupied Paris during World War II.  […]

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Dr. Phil Shows his Anti-LGBT Stripes Once Again

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Dr. Phil is in the hot seat following an episode of his talk show featuring conservative blogger and podcaster/anti-trans activist Matt Walsh. The episode aired on January 19 and featured Walsh, a self-described “fascist,” debating a non-binary couple. Over the course of the conversation, the couple, identified as “Ethan” and “Addison”, argued with Walsh about what constitutes a woman as he accused them of “appropriating womanhood.” “This is one of the problems with left-wing gender ideology,” Walsh ranted. “No one who espouses it can even tell you what these words mean. What is a woman?” Later in the exchange, words got especially […]

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