BGSQDBureau of General Services—Queer Division
BGSQD
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.
SCHOOL is the theme of the sixth installment of TELL, featuring stories by MARCIE BIANCO, MARIA CATALDO, KARMA MAYET JOHNSON, SHOMI NOISE, & SHANE SHANE
Marcie Bianco, Lesbian-feminist PhD, is the Senior News Editor at VProud.tv, and a contributing writer at Mic, AfterEllen, Lambda Literary, and Curve Magazine. She also makes frequent appearances on Huffington Post Live, to talk about all things feminism and LGBT. She recently published an essay regarding the “satirical aesthetics” of HBO’s GIRLS in a collected volume, and she is currently at work on a memoir about lesbian academic affairs, two excerpts of which have been published. Follow her on The Twitter at @MarcieBianco.
Drae Campbell is a writer, actor, director, story teller, dancer, and nightlife emcee. Besides winning the 2011 Miss LEZ title, 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, YOU MOVE ME won the Audience Award for Outstanding Narrative Short at OUTFEST 2010 and has been shown in fesivals globally. Drae was dubbed “the next lezzie comedian on the block” by AfterEllen.com for her comedic stylings on the interwebs. Campbell throws a monthly party in Brooklyn called PRIME. Check her out online and around town. www.draecampbell.com
Maria Cataldo is a New York City based filmmaker and theater artist. Her feature film editing credits include Rain, which premiered at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival, the award winning Children of God, voted one of The Independent’s 2010 Features to Watch, Wind Jammers, official selection at the San Diego Black Film Festival, and Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, awarded Best Family Feature at the Garden State Film Festival. Further credits include her post-production work through The Weinstein Company on films such as Bobby, Factory Girl, Dedication, The Protector, Penelope and The Dixie Chicks’ Documentary Shut Up and Sing. Additionally, Maria’s theater and experimental video have been presented in NYC through St. Ann’s Warehouse, HERE Arts Center, The Looking Glass Theater, and elsewhere including The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Most recently, Maria co-directed and co-produced MTV’s Rebel Music, a six part documentary series about protest music emerging from conflict areas around the world.
Karma Mayet Johnson is a multi-disciplinary performer, poet, composer, educator, and mystic. Offering vital Roots music for the 21st century, Karma Mayet’s sound is equal parts funk and glitter, Spanish Moss, cornbread and molasses.
Karma has performed at the world-famous Apollo, the Blue Note, The Juilliard School, Columbia University, Lincoln Center, and international venues including Sons d’Hiver (Paris), and the Melbourne International Arts Festival. She has worked with the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Meshell Ndegeocello, The Burnt Sugar Arkestra, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Bill T. Jones, Antibalas, and The Roots. Collaborators have included film-maker Michelle Parkerson, composer/pianist Major Scurlock, composer/guitarist Marvin Sewell, performance artist MonstaH Black, and the late guerilla theater innovator Rebecca Rice of D.C.’s Living Stage Theater Company, whose mentorship informs Karma’s ongoing practice of arts education as social activism.
Karma is composer of Indigo, a Blues opera: a music and dance-infused story of love and liberation, via Lesbians on the Underground Railroad. She is a featured vocalist on the The Mercy Suite, a collaboration between poet Yusef Komunyakaa and composer Tomas Doncker. Look for Karma Mayet’s original single September Song at cdbaby.com or itunes.com. Visit her website www.thisiskarma.net and join the mailing list to stay in touch!
Shomi Noise is a writer, musician, DJ, storyteller, dreamer, and tinkerer with an established reputation in the Brooklyn underground scene. Her work explores narratives of intersectionality, vulnerability, and resilience. She uses music to share empowering messages with the world through a creative mix of stories and sounds.
Shomi has DJed nationally and internationally with sets that include a clever mix of genres ranging from Latin dance music, hip-hop, electrohouse, reggae, pop, punk rock etc. Her ability to read crowds and create catchy and original song mashups on the spot makes her DJ work interesting and refreshing. She currently produces three parties in Brooklyn: Riot Chica,Telenovela, and Wretched. Riot Chica is a queercore/riot grrrl party that celebrates feminism and DIY culture by sharing empowering underground music made by ladies and queers,Telenovela is a new party for Spanish oldies and Wretched is a fun 90s party.
As a writer, performer, and musician, Shomi is working on original singer/songwriter material and other musical projects with friends. She is the author of “Building Up Emotional Muscles,” a coming of age story that incorporates music and storytelling to depict the struggles and triumphs she experienced growing up as a young queer immigrant woman of color in the US. It addresses her experience with the intersectionality of culture, race, class, sexuality and punk rock, and is based on a series of zines sharing the same title. She’s had the opportunity to share this original work as part of Heels on Wheels, an organization of radical queer femme performance artists that tours across the US and Canada. She is currently working on the 4th and last volume of the series and hopes to one day make a movie or play about it. Shomi’s work is best described as unique, sassy, musically eclectic, and fun. She is deeply committed to spreading messages of self-love, empowerment, social justice, and community building.
To find out more about Shomi visit:
www.shominoise.com
https://soundcloud.com/
https://www.facebook.com/
Shane Shane is the gay dance music project of Shane O’Neill. He tours constantly and has shared the stage with such acts as Kool Keith, Har Mar Superstar, and Big Freedia.
He also plays in a band called Screamin’ Cyn Cyn & The Pons and occasionally does drag under the name Anita Lane Bryant.
He recently moved to Brooklyn where he likes to sew hideous costumes and eat mayonnaise-based salads.
He has a cat named Wanda and is so totally super gay.