Help StormMiguel record his new CD!
Go here for details: Long Lost Sun CD Project
::::: news/press :::::
Tranny Noise (Music & Performance) Coming Friday - August 21, 2009
Tranny Noise (Music & Performance) Coming Friday By Sister Dana Van Iquity
Published: August 20, 2009
http://www.sfbaytimes.com/?sec=article&article_id=11329
Meeting up at the Dolores Park Cafe a few months ago, Tranny Fest Artistic Director Shawna Virago was approached by Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory Artistic Director Dwayne Calizo. “Yerba Buena wants me to put on a series of events centered on queer performance. Wanna curate one of them?”
asked Calizo. “Can I invite whoever I want?” questioned Virago. “Yes,” said Calizo. “Even if they’re raunchy and act like bitchy divas and spill glitter on the ground,” asked Virago. “That’s required,” replied Calizo, and the result is “Tranny Noise!” It’s a history-making transgender and queer performance event taking place Friday Aug. 21 at Yerba Buena’s Room for Big Ideas at 701 Mission Street. Tix are $10 at the YBCA box office or online www.ybca.org.
“Tranny Noise” features some of the Bay Area’s leading trans and gender-queer artists including the soulful twang of guitarist Storm Florez; Landa Lakes, a former Miss Gay Indian Nations as well as the current reigning SF Grand Duchess; singer Josh Klipp, who blends the hottest elements of R&B and hip-hop into a sexy package; Butch Tap, a loose collective of Oakland based queer performance artists who combine 1930’s soft shoe expertise with post-modern “draglesque,” and transgender songwriting goddess Shawna Virago, who manages to channel Joe Strummer through a Candy Darling-like persona.
“I wanted to curate a line-up that demonstrates the professional level of talent San Francisco’s transgender community has, and also invite performers who are proud about being out and don’t equate success with assimilating into the dull, vanilla world of the gender binary,” says Virago. Sean Dorsey, artistic director of Fresh Meat Productions and event co-sponsor, says, “I’m elated - Yerba Buena is an incredible venue and we’ve never had transgender and gender-queer programming like this there before. This is not only a super hot event; it’s historic.”
Singer Joshua Klipp, who has been featured on the Tyra Banks Show, says, “’Tranny Noise!’ is an event that, decades from now, people will realize just how pioneering it was in that moment.” Florez adds, “I’m excited to be one of the trannies taking over Yerba Buena! I hope that we draw a large crowd of trans and queer people. It would be neat if straight people came too; I’ve always been curious about them, and diversity is a really good thing.”
Published: August 20, 2009
http://www.sfbaytimes.com/?sec=article&article_id=11329
Meeting up at the Dolores Park Cafe a few months ago, Tranny Fest Artistic Director Shawna Virago was approached by Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory Artistic Director Dwayne Calizo. “Yerba Buena wants me to put on a series of events centered on queer performance. Wanna curate one of them?”
asked Calizo. “Can I invite whoever I want?” questioned Virago. “Yes,” said Calizo. “Even if they’re raunchy and act like bitchy divas and spill glitter on the ground,” asked Virago. “That’s required,” replied Calizo, and the result is “Tranny Noise!” It’s a history-making transgender and queer performance event taking place Friday Aug. 21 at Yerba Buena’s Room for Big Ideas at 701 Mission Street. Tix are $10 at the YBCA box office or online www.ybca.org.
“Tranny Noise” features some of the Bay Area’s leading trans and gender-queer artists including the soulful twang of guitarist Storm Florez; Landa Lakes, a former Miss Gay Indian Nations as well as the current reigning SF Grand Duchess; singer Josh Klipp, who blends the hottest elements of R&B and hip-hop into a sexy package; Butch Tap, a loose collective of Oakland based queer performance artists who combine 1930’s soft shoe expertise with post-modern “draglesque,” and transgender songwriting goddess Shawna Virago, who manages to channel Joe Strummer through a Candy Darling-like persona.
“I wanted to curate a line-up that demonstrates the professional level of talent San Francisco’s transgender community has, and also invite performers who are proud about being out and don’t equate success with assimilating into the dull, vanilla world of the gender binary,” says Virago. Sean Dorsey, artistic director of Fresh Meat Productions and event co-sponsor, says, “I’m elated - Yerba Buena is an incredible venue and we’ve never had transgender and gender-queer programming like this there before. This is not only a super hot event; it’s historic.”
Singer Joshua Klipp, who has been featured on the Tyra Banks Show, says, “’Tranny Noise!’ is an event that, decades from now, people will realize just how pioneering it was in that moment.” Florez adds, “I’m excited to be one of the trannies taking over Yerba Buena! I hope that we draw a large crowd of trans and queer people. It would be neat if straight people came too; I’ve always been curious about them, and diversity is a really good thing.”
StormMiguel Florez at the National Queer Arts Festival - June 13, 2009
Storm Florez at the National Queer Arts Festival
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-10008-SF-Transgendered-Relationships-Examiner~y2009m6d13-Storm-Florez-at-the-National-Queer-Arts-Festival June 13, 3:38 PM
The 12th Annual National Queer Arts Festival is officially in full swing. With amazing queer performances happening nightly throughout the month of June I decided to highlight a handful of the amazing trans artists and their events that should not be missed!
Singer songwriter StormMiguel Florez has been performing and creating music since he was a kid, growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “I used to write little songs in my head and then on the piano and sing them to my family and friends.” After coming out in high school Florez started getting more serious about music performing monthly at The Feminist Coffeehouse, and sneaking into queer bars with older friends to perform. “Once, an older [lesbian] told a bar manager that she was my mom so I could get in.” In his mid-twenties Florez moved to San Francisco.
Before starting Testosterone he recorded a solo CD Standing Between the Day and Night. “Because of testosterone, I sound nothing like I did when I recorded that CD, but I still really like it. I never had an issue with my singing voice before I started T. In fact, knowing that my voice would change on T was initially a deterrent. I was worried that I would lose my range and [that I] wouldn't have a good singing voice once I started T. My first year on Testosterone was especially awkward for my voice.” During last year’s NQAF Florez performed a set entitled “My First Year on T” as part of his show Trans as Fuck. In his piece he sang several songs while his partner stuck piercing needles into his skin and created a pierced corset on his back. “The piece was about how unpredictable everything was during my first year on testosterone, lots of wincing during the songs.” The double meaning was beautiful and moving to witness from the audience.
This year Florez is part of two events in the Festival. On June 18 through the 21st Florez will be performing music at the Fresh Meat Festival at the Project Artaud Theater. “The Fresh Meat Festival is a dream gig for me. It is my favorite event of the year. Sean Dorsey, my dear friend and hero, produces it. Sean is an amazing and brilliant choreographer, dancer, trans activist, and POC (Person of Color) ally. The festival features trans and queer dance, music, and performance art.” Other performers include the amazing Shawna Virago, Taiko Ren, D’Lo and many more. This event will sell out so purchase tickets in advance.
Fresh Meat Productions has events throughout the year but their NQAF show should not be missed. In the U.S they are the first of their kind. According to their website “Fresh Meat's programs seek to empower transgender artists and audiences, expand the repertoire of original work authentically exploring transgender experiences, bring visibility to trans communities, connect transgender artists with diverse audiences, promote the artistic development of emerging and established transgender artists, create new dialogue and build community.” Fresh Meat was founded in 2001, and is led by Artistic Director Sean Dorsey.
Florez’s music will also be featured in the end credits of the documentary Diagnosing Difference, a film that seeks to answer the question: How does it feel to have your gender identity included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders? Director Annalise Ophelian filmed thirteen transgender/ transsexual/ genderqueer people discussing the impact and implications of the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis on their lives and communities. Diagnosing Difference premiers Saturday, June 20th, at the Victoria Theater at 4:30 as part of the 33rd annual Frameline Film Festival.
Also look for Florez to perform “My First Year on T” at We Are Who We Say We Are! An evening of sexual identities by performers of color at the Center for Sex and Culture on July 18.
For more information on the following check out these sites: To buy tickets to the Fresh Meat Festival: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/59970
Follow Storm at http://www.myspace.com/stormflorez
Fresh Meat Productions: http://www.freshmeatproductions.org/calendar.html
Diagnosing Difference, theater, and ticket information: http://www.frameline.org/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=1752&FID=45
What is Gender Identity Disorder? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity_disorder AND http://allpsych.com/disorders/dsm.html Center of Sex and Culture: http://www.sexandculture.org/events/icalrepeat.detail/2009/07/18/471/55|57|58/Y2Q0MzRjMzUwMzAyYzdiY2Y4MzA3ZjUxNDE1MjQ2YWE=.html
Author: Sarah Marloff
Sarah Marloff is an Examiner from San Francisco. You can see Sarah's articles on Sarah's Home Page.
My Bio Subscribe to Email Add Sarah to Favorite Examiners
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-10008-SF-Transgendered-Relationships-Examiner~y2009m6d13-Storm-Florez-at-the-National-Queer-Arts-Festival June 13, 3:38 PM
The 12th Annual National Queer Arts Festival is officially in full swing. With amazing queer performances happening nightly throughout the month of June I decided to highlight a handful of the amazing trans artists and their events that should not be missed!
Singer songwriter StormMiguel Florez has been performing and creating music since he was a kid, growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “I used to write little songs in my head and then on the piano and sing them to my family and friends.” After coming out in high school Florez started getting more serious about music performing monthly at The Feminist Coffeehouse, and sneaking into queer bars with older friends to perform. “Once, an older [lesbian] told a bar manager that she was my mom so I could get in.” In his mid-twenties Florez moved to San Francisco.
Before starting Testosterone he recorded a solo CD Standing Between the Day and Night. “Because of testosterone, I sound nothing like I did when I recorded that CD, but I still really like it. I never had an issue with my singing voice before I started T. In fact, knowing that my voice would change on T was initially a deterrent. I was worried that I would lose my range and [that I] wouldn't have a good singing voice once I started T. My first year on Testosterone was especially awkward for my voice.” During last year’s NQAF Florez performed a set entitled “My First Year on T” as part of his show Trans as Fuck. In his piece he sang several songs while his partner stuck piercing needles into his skin and created a pierced corset on his back. “The piece was about how unpredictable everything was during my first year on testosterone, lots of wincing during the songs.” The double meaning was beautiful and moving to witness from the audience.
This year Florez is part of two events in the Festival. On June 18 through the 21st Florez will be performing music at the Fresh Meat Festival at the Project Artaud Theater. “The Fresh Meat Festival is a dream gig for me. It is my favorite event of the year. Sean Dorsey, my dear friend and hero, produces it. Sean is an amazing and brilliant choreographer, dancer, trans activist, and POC (Person of Color) ally. The festival features trans and queer dance, music, and performance art.” Other performers include the amazing Shawna Virago, Taiko Ren, D’Lo and many more. This event will sell out so purchase tickets in advance.
Fresh Meat Productions has events throughout the year but their NQAF show should not be missed. In the U.S they are the first of their kind. According to their website “Fresh Meat's programs seek to empower transgender artists and audiences, expand the repertoire of original work authentically exploring transgender experiences, bring visibility to trans communities, connect transgender artists with diverse audiences, promote the artistic development of emerging and established transgender artists, create new dialogue and build community.” Fresh Meat was founded in 2001, and is led by Artistic Director Sean Dorsey.
Florez’s music will also be featured in the end credits of the documentary Diagnosing Difference, a film that seeks to answer the question: How does it feel to have your gender identity included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders? Director Annalise Ophelian filmed thirteen transgender/ transsexual/ genderqueer people discussing the impact and implications of the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis on their lives and communities. Diagnosing Difference premiers Saturday, June 20th, at the Victoria Theater at 4:30 as part of the 33rd annual Frameline Film Festival.
Also look for Florez to perform “My First Year on T” at We Are Who We Say We Are! An evening of sexual identities by performers of color at the Center for Sex and Culture on July 18.
For more information on the following check out these sites: To buy tickets to the Fresh Meat Festival: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/59970
Follow Storm at http://www.myspace.com/stormflorez
Fresh Meat Productions: http://www.freshmeatproductions.org/calendar.html
Diagnosing Difference, theater, and ticket information: http://www.frameline.org/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=1752&FID=45
What is Gender Identity Disorder? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_identity_disorder AND http://allpsych.com/disorders/dsm.html Center of Sex and Culture: http://www.sexandculture.org/events/icalrepeat.detail/2009/07/18/471/55|57|58/Y2Q0MzRjMzUwMzAyYzdiY2Y4MzA3ZjUxNDE1MjQ2YWE=.html
Author: Sarah Marloff
Sarah Marloff is an Examiner from San Francisco. You can see Sarah's articles on Sarah's Home Page.
My Bio Subscribe to Email Add Sarah to Favorite Examiners
Reflections on the Transgender Day of Remembrance March - November 21, 2008
http://www.apiwellness.org/trans_dayremember2.html
21 November 2008
by Woo Wood
The TRANS:THRIVE offices at 815 Hyde Street were packed Thursday, November 21 as folks gathered to celebrate the 10th annual San Francisco Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). Organized in part by SF-TEAM and El/La Program Para Las Trans Latinas, a diverse selection of trans artists and community activists—including TDOR founder Gwendolyn Ann Smith, San Francisco Police Commission President Theresa Sparks, San Francisco Human Rights Commissioner Cecilia Chung, and Senator-Elect Mark Leno—showed their support in the quest to “end the silence and stop the violence” against the transgender community.
When I began exploring my transqueer identity about a year ago, I was also searching for a community. I came to TRANS:THRIVE to attend one of the Tuesday night FTM (female-to-male) Support Groups, still one of the only groups at TRANS:THRIVE geared specifically toward trans-masculine folks. Since it is very rare that trans men and trans women share spaces in San Francisco, I was touched by the wide representation of our communities filling that space—including trans-feminine, trans-masculine, and genderqueer folks, as well as people of color—and fortified by our collective calls to action.
Gwendolyn Ann Smith was originally scheduled to appear at an engagement in Baltimore, which would have prohibited her from attending this year’s TDOR. Unfortunately that engagement was cancelled, “but to tell you the truth, I’m glad to be here,” Gwen insisted, who hasn’t missed an SF TDOR yet. In light of the ten year anniversary, Gwen spoke about the very first candlelight vigil on a rainy February 20, 1999 in front of the Castro Theater. Now Days of Remembrance are celebrated on or around November 20 each year in hundreds of cities across the world. “I’ve lost count,” Gwen admitted, “because every day there’s a new one.”
Singer/songwriter Storm Florez performed a moving original composition addressing the ways a person’s death can cause people to suddenly see and speak of them in an entirely different light. Referring to his struggles with his own family, Storm insisted he didn’t want acceptance—to finally be called “he”—after death. “I want it now,” Storm declared. “We want it now.”
This statement resonated with me as the group marched from TRANS:THRIVE’s offices in the Tenderloin to City Hall, gathering for a vigil and balloon launch. Each balloon was anchored by a rolled-up scroll listing the names of all the reported transgender murders since the Remembering Our Dead Project began in 1998. When released, a few balloons were so heavy with names that they languished, earth-bound. It was a powerful metaphor for the heaviness of our losses and the despair we feel in the face of transphobia, yet the symbol of those names flying free through the air offered hope.
I was bolstered by a comment made during the vigil—“What inspires me is seeing another trans person walking down the street and living their life.” I was elevated by the urge to believe in my own self-worth. I was lifted by the reality of what standing up for myself means to those around me. May we keep ourselves open to such inspirations, and may we continue to lift each other up.
For more information:
Transgender Day of Remembrance
http://www.transgenderdor.org/
21 November 2008
by Woo Wood
The TRANS:THRIVE offices at 815 Hyde Street were packed Thursday, November 21 as folks gathered to celebrate the 10th annual San Francisco Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR). Organized in part by SF-TEAM and El/La Program Para Las Trans Latinas, a diverse selection of trans artists and community activists—including TDOR founder Gwendolyn Ann Smith, San Francisco Police Commission President Theresa Sparks, San Francisco Human Rights Commissioner Cecilia Chung, and Senator-Elect Mark Leno—showed their support in the quest to “end the silence and stop the violence” against the transgender community.
When I began exploring my transqueer identity about a year ago, I was also searching for a community. I came to TRANS:THRIVE to attend one of the Tuesday night FTM (female-to-male) Support Groups, still one of the only groups at TRANS:THRIVE geared specifically toward trans-masculine folks. Since it is very rare that trans men and trans women share spaces in San Francisco, I was touched by the wide representation of our communities filling that space—including trans-feminine, trans-masculine, and genderqueer folks, as well as people of color—and fortified by our collective calls to action.
Gwendolyn Ann Smith was originally scheduled to appear at an engagement in Baltimore, which would have prohibited her from attending this year’s TDOR. Unfortunately that engagement was cancelled, “but to tell you the truth, I’m glad to be here,” Gwen insisted, who hasn’t missed an SF TDOR yet. In light of the ten year anniversary, Gwen spoke about the very first candlelight vigil on a rainy February 20, 1999 in front of the Castro Theater. Now Days of Remembrance are celebrated on or around November 20 each year in hundreds of cities across the world. “I’ve lost count,” Gwen admitted, “because every day there’s a new one.”
Singer/songwriter Storm Florez performed a moving original composition addressing the ways a person’s death can cause people to suddenly see and speak of them in an entirely different light. Referring to his struggles with his own family, Storm insisted he didn’t want acceptance—to finally be called “he”—after death. “I want it now,” Storm declared. “We want it now.”
This statement resonated with me as the group marched from TRANS:THRIVE’s offices in the Tenderloin to City Hall, gathering for a vigil and balloon launch. Each balloon was anchored by a rolled-up scroll listing the names of all the reported transgender murders since the Remembering Our Dead Project began in 1998. When released, a few balloons were so heavy with names that they languished, earth-bound. It was a powerful metaphor for the heaviness of our losses and the despair we feel in the face of transphobia, yet the symbol of those names flying free through the air offered hope.
I was bolstered by a comment made during the vigil—“What inspires me is seeing another trans person walking down the street and living their life.” I was elevated by the urge to believe in my own self-worth. I was lifted by the reality of what standing up for myself means to those around me. May we keep ourselves open to such inspirations, and may we continue to lift each other up.
For more information:
Transgender Day of Remembrance
http://www.transgenderdor.org/