Live Arts Pride

Live Arts Pride: “The House Party” marathon celebration of chosen family, dedicated to Arnie Zane, takes inspiration from the infinity character to celebrate 8 years and amplify the “Pride” movement’s advocacy for the rights, self-affirmation, and visibility of the LGBTQIA+ community. This year’s royal rumble of sorts will feature most every fierce artist/nightlife collective that has been presented since 2018 including: Bodyhack, Bubble_T, Casa Diva, Double Dutch Dreamz, House of Transcendence,Legends of Drag, Papi Juice, RAGGA NYC, Switch n’ Play and Yas Mama!

In the Live Arts lobby, the program will feature a Ford Foundation Live Gallery exhibition co-presented by Queer I Art and Lite Brite Neon Studio, as well as an anticipated marketplace offering goods and more made by queer artists and artisans. The lobby remains free and open to the general unticketed public, providing both event attendees and passersby access to bathrooms, water, seating and WiFi. 

“Pride now, Pride forever. The trans community is under attack. It is imperative that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and our straight and cisgender allies rally, speak out and stand up for our trans, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and intersex family. We’ve always existed and we are not going anywhere! I created this event to celebrate chosen family and let me just say that our chosen family is infinite…Welcome to Infinity Pride,” said House Party Creator and Curatorial Organizer, Tyler Ashley. 

Full lineup featuring DJ and performance artists representing each house and marketplace vendors will be announced soon!

• BODY HACK is a mutual care resource and international fundraising collective for and by trans and queer people of color. We host a happy hour and afterparty for trans, non-binary cuties, and the squirrels that love us.
  
  
• Bubble T is a collective experience centering queer and trans Asian Pacific Islander communities. Through stages and dance floors, we uplift and amplify performers, DJs, musicians and artists who celebrate our intersectional, cross-cultural heritage. We enter each space with a deep respect for our shared histories and unique identities. Here, we support and move in solidarity with one another.
  
  
• Casa Diva is a queer home, DIY event space, and drag collective founded by Alexis Penney, Sam Banks, and Charlene Incarnate in 2015. Their underground drag shows feature a diverse range of performers from Brooklyn’s most cherished to most elusive.
  
  
• Double Dutch Dreamz presents “Get Your Jump On!  Be part of an exciting and fun-filled experience jumping ropes with the rhythm and rhymes of happy feet. The energetic creative activity invites  poetic call and response chants. Join with community in a time honored creative cultural activity.  Participants are invited to share moments of personal narratives and reminiscence about back in the day experiences. Learn basic skills for turning, entering the ropes and simple tricks. Demonstrations by members of Double Dutch Dreamz will help show up and show out.   So come on and  “Get Your Jump On!
  
  
• Originally founded in New York City by Linda La and The Perfect Poison after departing from the House of LaBeija, The House of Transcendence emerged during the Soaring 20s amidst a global pandemic, seeking a more trans-inclusive home and mission. Our mission is to provide safe spaces for Black and Brown transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) communities to connect with resources while fostering their development as artists and leaders through multimedia performing arts and Vogue/Ballroom culture. With over 30 years of combined experience in the nonprofit sector, we prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable TGNC individuals, offering support such as weekly self-care sessions, and advocacy for trans rights. We also organize community events and mutual aid initiatives, including seasonal cookouts, digital surveys with Black Trans Health for assessing community needs, and intergenerational events during Trans Awareness Month. Looking ahead, we aim to expand our digital presence and launch a mentorship fellowship for developing TGNC artists. For more information or to book an event, visit our Instagram @thehouseoftranscendence.
  
  
• Legends of Drag, a new photography book by Harry James Hanson and Devin Antheus, celebrates these queer elders who have long been cultural and spiritual leaders within their communities. Since 2018, we have photographed 81 drag legends in 16 cities, each styled with a custom floral arrangement. The book includes forewords by fashion icon Miss J Alexander and drag superstar Sasha Velour. The work has been published in the New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue (twice). The 2022 Legends tour produced sold out all-star drag shows in nightclubs and ballrooms across the country, and yielded two solo museum shows at the Museum of Wisconsin Art (Milwaukee, WI) and the Tenderloin Museum (San Francisco, CA). Legends of Drag is an essential contribution to the queer archive, and the first photo book of its kind. You can keep up with the work on Instagram.
  
  
• Papi Juice is a Brooklyn-based art collective that aims to affirm and celebrate the lives of queer and trans people of color. Papi Juice consists of resident DJs Oscar Nñ and Adam R., and art director Mohammed Iman.
  
  
• RAGGA NYC a platform/ project and art collective founded by Christopher Udemezue (@NeonChristina), RAGGA NYC connects a growing network of queer Caribbean artists and allies working across a wide range of disciplines—including visual art, fashion, poetry and more—to explore how race, sexuality, gender, heritage, and history inform their work and their lives. RAGGA NYC has shown at a variety of galleries and museums, including the New Museum, PS1 MoMa, Mercer Union (Toronto) and the New Museum. The sound of RAGGA NYC can be defined as the pairing of music from the greater Caribbean with electronic music originating in Detroit, being remixed across the African diaspora, and returning to the queer night clubs of New York City. At the nexus of these genres and various sub-genres is a shared lineage/universal narrative that, by allowing the marriage of, RAGGA NYC expands the notion of what scenes can be in community with one another. RAGGA NYC is the setting where queer folks can openly enjoy dancehall and reggae, where Black people can rejoice and re-stake claim to electronic music, and where the embrace of countercultures further inspires innovative sounds that reflect the multitude of identities in which they stem from. At no point does the sound reflect a basic exchange or one-to-one trade off of dancehall to techno, soca to club, kompa to house, etc. When properly conducted/curated, the sound of RAGGA NYC echoes an arrangement of acknowledgements of the identities and their associated music that encompasses the community that RAGGA NYC strives to serve.
  
  
• Switch n’ Play (SNP) is a Brooklyn drag collective established in 2006. Queer in every sense of the word, Switch n’ Play spans the gender spectrum in life and on stage. The collective’s impressive roster of artists includes Divina GranSparkle, K.James, Miss Malice, Nyx Nocturne, the Illustrious Pearl, Vigor Mortis, and Zoe Ziegfeld. The collective currently produces monthly at Littlefield in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Switch n’ Play won “Best Burlesque Show” at the Brooklyn Nightlife Awards in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and has also been recognized in the “Best Drag Show” and “Hall of Fame” categories. The collective has been invited to perform at Lincoln Center, Sasha Velour’s NightGowns, Bushwig, the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Brooklyn Museum. Switch n’ Play is also the subject of an award-winning 2019 feature documentary film, “A Night at Switch n’ Play,” directed by Cody Stickles.
  
  
• Yas Mama is an Experience! Brooklyn’s queer latinx party features multidisciplinary artists in drag, art, and music focusing on bringing latin sounds to the main stage.