Back in 2011, I helped produce a wildly popular event at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park. It was called The Fab and Furious Queer Circus of Dastardly Delights. The extravaganza was the largest LGBT oriented visual and literary arts event organized by So Say We All, the local non-profit dedicated storytellers of all stripes. The Fab and Furious Queer Circus of Dastardly Delights was a massive endeavor featuring a good number of well-known queer artists and writers, many traveling down from Los Angeles. Perhaps you were there!
Well, So Say We All is at it again. Their now annual LGBT storytelling showcase returns July 26, this time to the White Box Live Arts Theater in the NTC Arts & Culture District. This year’s focus is The Family You Choose and the showcase will present stories about the people, places and things that caught us at that pivotal moment following departure from the nice warm closet, into the brisk air of a brave new gay world.
The theme makes sense. As we move past “the closet” and “coming out” and even struggles for liberation as archetypal narratives, this year’s point of departure is clearly and defiantly new, pointedly about the range of family configurations we have made for ourselves. Many in the community are marrying of course, but this isn’t the only option out there. Many others in our broad community define “family” as something else altogether: a dynamic of blood relatives and friends, a close configuration of exes, fellow travelers in one support group or another, and the list goes on.
If you are familiar with So Say We All, you know you are in for a treat. If the organization is new to you, let me leave you with this elaborate endorsement from a recent attendee:
“I teared up at least seven times tonight. Please understand that I missed American Idol for this – and I don’t have a DVR. But there is nothing 35-million-dollar Ryan Seacrest could have given me that would have come close to what your compensated-with-only-a-penile-enhancement pamphlet performers shared tonight. I mean where else can you hear a real gay man, a genuine bear even, finally debunk what the deal is with the poop factor let alone get tips on how to and not to give a handy! The great thing was that no two writers’ styles were alike, yet they were all equally hysterical. All such a pleasure. In my opinion, So Say We All is a name that can truly be associated with quality. Such advanced cleverness, skill, style and realness …”
Now go hear what Brian Peyton Joyner, Henry Aaronson, Leon Decklebaum, Brian Simpson, Patrick Mayuyu, Aries Hines, J. Dylan Yates and Phelo Mbong have to say about the family they chose!
Tickets and location information can be found here: www.sosayweallonline.com
