Dear Shaded Viewers,
I’m thrilled that my queer video work from the ’90s will be screened at the Walker Art Center. On May 4, the Walker Cinema will present “The Brenda and Glennda Show/Glennda and Friends” on May 4. I’ll be there for an onstage interview with guest curator Jon Davies and audience Q&A. The program is part of the queer cinema series VIBRATIONS FOR A NEW PEOPLE, which will include Lizzie Borden’s guerrilla feminist classic from 1983 Born in Flames, Narcissister Organ Player by Narcissister and a shorts program with work by Amina Ross, Mariah Garnett, Pauline Boudry/Renate Lorenz and more. Tickets and info.
My program will include:
Seize Control of the Taj Mahal (1991, 14 mins) Brenda and Glennda lead a group of drag queens on a trip to Donald Trump’s Taj Mahal Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City. Intended to be a drag queen gambling getaway, the trip turns into a moment of protest.
On the Campaign Trail with Joan Jett Blakk (1992, 29 mins) In this episode of The Brenda and Glennda Show, Glennda meets up with guest co-host Joan Jett Blakk to discuss Blakk’s 1992 presidential run. The pair interview people on the street outside of the 1992 Democratic Convention, held at Madison Square Garden in NYC. They discuss topics including the police state, weaknesses of the two-party political system, feminism and political elitism.
Glennda and Bruce Do Times Square (1994, 29 mins) In Glennda and Bruce Do Times Square, Glennda is taken on a night tour of Times Square by author Bruce Benderson. They observe the dynamic between forms of culture that would typically be identified as “underclass” in “suburbanite” culture within the economic and spatial landscape of New York City. Glennda and Bruce visit the apartment of performer Consuela Cosmetic, who was prolific within New York’s ball scene. She maps out the ways in which she believes gender can be expressed, and discusses the implications of ‘passing’. Ultimately, the video acts as exploration of polymorphous identity in the 1990s, specifically in relation to the emergence of mainstream gay male discourses.
“How does a gesture, image, or word from history get passed down across time and space? What does it make possible in the here and now? Riffing on themes found within the exhibitions Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody and Sadie Barnette’s The New Eagle Creek Saloon, the cinema series Vibrations for a New People considers queer cultural legacies and transmission, exploring how the past resonates powerfully in the present. Guest curated by writer Jon Davies, this series examines how signals sent decades ago cry out to be heard today and how conversations started by those who came before are rekindled in the present when lessons from past movements demand to be relearned.”
Hope to see you there.
Love,
Glenn Belverio
