TELL is an evening of story telling from the mouths and minds of queers in NYC hosted by Drae Campbell at the Bureau of General Services—Queer Division since February 2014.

BEGINNINGS is the theme of the thirty-fourth installment of TELL. Featuring Dorrell Clark, Matthew K. Johnson, and Justine Williams.

$10 suggested donation to support the Bureau and the performers. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Drae has been featured on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and on stages all over NYC. Drae’s directing work has appeared in Iceland, NYC, Budapest and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. The short film Drae wrote and starred in with Rebecca Drysdale, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in festivals globally. Drae won the grand prize at the first annual San Miguel De Allende Storytelling Festival in Mexico. She once reigned as Miss LEZ and also got dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell hosts and curates a monthly queer storytelling show called TELL at BGSQD. Check her out online!  www.draecampbell.com.

Dorrell Clark was born in New York City (Harlem Hospital) and grew up in Winsor, North Carolina. She received her A.A.S. degree, at Bronx Community College; majoring in Chemistry. Dorrell joined the US Army ranking as Private First Class. After 26 years of employment with NYC’s MTA, she retired in 2011. Without a breather she jumped right into volunteering her services with:{BAAD} Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance, SOUNDVIEW COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM, MISTAH COLES PRODUCTION COMPANY and Susana Cook’s Co. Dorrell understands the rhythm and importance of preparation, hard work, and respect. Applying these values to her endeavors by making an inventory of resources, planning activities and working on her goals daily. Her past experiences has completely supported her development and she is thankful for it.

Matthew K. Johnson is a playwright, poet, storyteller and fiction writer originally from Honolulu, Hawaii. He has been a featured performer at numerous venues around New York City, including the Bowery Poetry Club, the C.O.W. Theater and Dixon Place, and was the creator and host of “Tongue Lashing”, a literary series at The Phoenix in the East Village that ran from 2007 to 2010. He lives in Brooklyn.

Justine is a performer-creator-educator working across disciplines and fields of study. She is founder and current Den Mother to Queer Scouts, a civic performance project that takes up the traditional Boy and Girl Scouts, re-imagining their handbooks, histories and practices through a queer, and creative/critical/activist lens. Her work as a creator-performer has been presented at the Public Theater, Ars Nova, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Queens Museum, and her film work has presented at Maryland Film Festival, MOMA’s New Directors/New Films, Rotterdam Film Festival and others. She was a 2016 Queer Arts Mentorship fellow in Performance, and is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Abrons Arts with the Queer Scouts. Justine teaches clown, play, games and creation at Yale School of Drama, as well as within traditional and alternative learning spaces around the globe. MFA: CUNY/Brooklyn College in Performance and Interactive Media Arts
www.play-mountain.org