Joe Goode debuts new work at YBCA

by Jim Gladstone

“Idon’tthrow people away,” said Joe Goode, whose eponymous performance group’s latest work, “As We Go,” debuts next week at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

“Several of our company members are not spring chickens,” says Goode about the cast of 12 dancers in the new piece, some of whom he has worked with for more than 20 years.

There are performers in “As We Go” who are in their forties and fifties. Not to mention Goode himself, who is 72.

“This piece is especially personal for me,” said Goode, a gay man, in a recent interview with the Bay Area Reporter. “It’s about aging and the arc of life. I’ve been thinking a lot about myself in my early thirties as compared to now. How do I make the transition from being the bad boy to the elder statesman? How can I do this with grace and élan?”

Since the 1980s, Goode, now a faculty member in the Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, has stretched traditional boundaries of modern dance in collaborative and site-specific work incorporating spoken word and song along with movement. Goode’s pieces have won him international acclaim and honors, including fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and multiple Isadora Duncan Awards.

Now, in what Goode acknowledges is the early twilight of his career, “As We Go” finds him trying to define a path forward.

“Culturally, we don’t know how to deal with aging,” he noted. “We find ourselves living with a lot of fear. We don’t know what to do with our older people. We house them away and hide them away.

“This piece is a rejection of that. It’s a rejection of the idea that as you get older you should just sit at home and chat with your three friends about your latest surgeries and how on earth you’re going to live on an artist’s salary into your dotage. That feels false to me. This is a time of life to become active in your exploration of who you are. There’s more to be explored.”

Finding one’s way

Exploration is an essential element of the 75-minute “As We Go.” When Goode first began to plan the production with YBCA, he insisted that the work not be mounted in the center’s 757-seat theater, despite his company’s having performed on that stage in the past.

“I wanted to be in the main building,” he explains. “The piece is intended for a maximum audience of 100 people, and I want to have very intimate connections between audience members and performers.”

“As We Go” threads together ten short thematically-linked pieces that needn’t be viewed in a specific order. The pieces were collaboratively developed by the company in response to provocative prompts about the aging experience from Goode.

“There’s a moment at the beginning when everyone is gathered all together,” explained Goode, “but then they’ll be broken into four groups of 25 and eventually into even smaller groups. You might even find yourself pulled off for a moment alone, just one audience member with one performer.

“It’s a bit of a treasure hunt. Groups will be guided through the building along separate pathways. We’ll be in storage rooms, closets, hallways, and other spaces the public has never been in before.

“I play a character who is not too far from myself,” said Goode, “but with the frailty and feeling of invisible that come with age, exaggerated. I’m a big fan of self-deprecating humor, so you’ll see this guy bumble through the process of aging.

“As a young gay man, I thought of myself as having a bold sexually ambiguous persona. But how do you nav- igate that as you get older and grayer and balder? I might still see myself that way, but nobody else does!

“I think that laughing at myself as we’ve working on this piece has been very healing and helped me to think differently. I’m feeling refreshed. I think the real secret to aging well is to keep up your vitality; to be courageous enough to approach each day as a new experience to discover.”

Goode said that his work teaching college students has provided some valuable insights on aging as well.

“I work with young people all the time, and I love them. Many of them are courageous and full of bravado. But in part, that’s because they feel like the things they’re thinking are being thought for the first time!

“One of the benefits of being older is that you don’t have to care so much about everything. You’ve already been through a lot of scenarios. You don’t need to revisit them. You’ve managed to figure them out and get through them. That’s wisdom.”t

From page 13

Bruce has his own studio. They went in and jumped on board. We didn’t even tell him what to do. We let them decide for themselves. They ended up really getting into it enthusiastically. You can tell when you listen. Every time I hear it and I hear his voice on there, I just get so excited and happy. It’s such a thrill to hear him on there. He’s just such a sweetheart.

Another one of the stellar guest artists on the album is queer singer/songwriter Angel Olsen, who joins you on “Jukebox.” Why did you want to work with her?

I love her voice and her vibe and everything. I wanted another voice on there. I love having guests come in the studio and do their thing. It adds so much to the song. A lot of the time it has to do with if the person is available and how convenient is it going to be and all those technical details. She happened to be in Nashville around the time we were in the studio.

I think she told me she spends a lot of time in Asheville, North Carolina. But she was in Nashville, and she was really into coming in and doing something. That’s how all that happened. That went smoothly. She just came in and did her thing. It’s real subtle, but I think it really adds something, especially at the end.

To my ears, it sounds like you are addressing bigotry and discrimination in the song “This Is Not My Town.” Am I right about that?

I wasn’t necessarily, but it’s open for interpretation. I’m glad you mentioned that actually because I like to politicize things. I like to make statements about things. That was a collaborative effort

From page 13 excited to see what these entertainers will bring.”

Frottage, for his part, is delighted to be returning to Oasis for the latest contest. He considers Oasis owner D’Arcy Drollinger to be a genius.

“His vision has held our community together and I cannot sing his and his crew’s praises loud enough,” Frottage said. “Now that he is Drag Laureate, aka the gay mayor, I only wish that he were in charge of running the city and the country because then it wouldn’t be as screwed up as it is right now. Not that I would wish that on him, because his priorities are focused on his art.”

Frottage noted that the art of being a Drag King has changed over the years, both evolving and devolving as it has grown. Since he has a musical background, Frottage prefers to sing live when he’s on the stage, but says that there are no set-in-stone rules for the show. They’ve had everything from live bands, wrestling matches, between me and my husband Tom and Travis Stephens. I know Tom and I talked about this. It is politicized, but it might not be real obvious. You’re right, basically, it is supposed to be about that feeling of division; being politically divided and being frustrated with it, just all the stuff that’s been going for the last however many years.

Are you aware of if you have an LGBTQ following for your work?

I hope so! It’s hard for me to tell. Somebody would need to have been keeping track of all that. I mean, the only thing I could do is look out in the audience or, after the show, meet and greet people. But there’s always been a certain percentage of my audience from that community. I’m not sure if there’s more now or not. It would be cool if there were [laughs].

As the daughter of a writer, poet Miller Williams, do you think it was inevitable that you would someday write a memoir?

Yeah, probably. For years, people have been saying I should write a book. I’m such a storyteller. I’ve always written songs that tell stories. When I get on stage to perform my songs, I explain the song by telling the story behind the song.

The book is really just the same thing, just taking it a little bit deeper even; with more details about the characters and the songs because they’re all true stories. I talk a lot about characters that people already know about through the songs. When they read the book, they can get to know them even better, maybe see a photograph of them in the book.

Did you do anything special to commemorate your 70th birthday?

I think we were performing somewhere. It was January 26, so we would have been in Europe. We did the show and they brought a cake out on stage for me. The audience sang “Happy Birthday” [laughs]. It was a trip turning 70! I wanted to tell everybody, “I’m 70! I’m 70!”t

Lucinda performs with Big Thief on Aug. 8, 7:30pm at The Greek Theatre, 2001 Gayley Road, UC Berkeley campus. $56. www. lucindawilliams.com power tool demos, as well as live singing, dancing and lip-syncing.

Read the full interview, with music videos, on www.ebar.com.

“What I would like to say to the children is that the best way to own the stage is to develop a unique identity,” he said. “Not to copy what everyone else is doing, because that can get boring. Originality and creativity is what it takes to be successful, not some predictable formula act. The judges for SFDK are all OG, they have seen it all. They want to see a stellar concept and execution. Drag should be fun, funny, shocking, glamorous, filthy gorgeous, or any or all of those. It is a gay, outrageous, evolving art form with a long history that will live on forever.”

Proceeds from the San Francisco Drag King Contest will benefit Rocket Dog Rescue and PAWS, Pets Are Wonderful Support.t

The San Francisco Drag King Contest, Sunday August 6, 7pm, $25-$55. Oasis, 298 11th St, 21+. www.sfdragkingcontest.com www.sfoasis.com

by Gregg Shapiro

If Fin Argus, who stars as Derek in the movie “Stay Awake” (MarVista), now available on VOD, looks familiar to you, you may recognize them from their portrayal of Mingus in Peacock’s 2022 revival of “Queer As Folk.” Depending on how old you are, you may also recognize him from the time he spent as a member of “Kidz Bop.” He’s also an accomplished singer-songwriter.

In “Stay Awake,” Argus’ character Derek and his kid brother Ethan (Wyatt Oleff) struggle to keep their prescription drug-addicted mother Michelle (Chrissy Metz) alive and prevent her from overdosing, which she does with some frequency. Argus is marvelous as Derek, believable and empathetic. It’s a credit to Argus that his performance is so strong.

Gregg Shapiro: Fin, what was it about the character of Derek in “Stay Awake” that appealed to you as an actor?

Fin Argus: Derek is a born and bred people-pleaser. That’s something I can relate to. I grew up in an evangelical environment, which for me, turned into appeasing everyone else’s wishes for my life path and personality. I saw a lot of that in Derek. There were things that I could relate to in his experience of caring for some past the point of actually being able to make a meaningful impact on their health or well-being.

There comes a point when you start taking away your own light in order to keep someone else alive. That’s been a recurring theme throughout my life that I’d like to think I’ve dealt with. This was a way I could find catharsis and help get that story told so other people realize that they don’t need to be that crutch for people. There’s a certain point we you need to let people help themselves.

Addiction and rehabilitation are complex issues, occasionally resulting in families being torn apart. And yet, Derek and his brother Ethan do everything they can on their mother Michelle’s behalf. Do you think that that’s a reflection of your upbringing, to hold things together?

Yes, definitely. I think I’ve done a lot of work to not behave on that wavelength anymore. But it’s still a voice in my head, and that’s what spoke to me about Derek, and the brothers’ experience, in general. But, specifically, Derek, because I think he’s more on the wavelength of, “We need to live our own lives and move on.” It kind of personifies the battle I’ve had within my own brain.

Derek works at a bowling alley. Do you bowl, and if so, what’s your high score?

I have bowled [laughs]. I’m not very good. I would say that my skill level is that I might get a strike once per game. So, I’m not terrible, but I’m definitely not winning a tourney.

Are there other sporting activities that you enjoy?

I used to play competitive baseball. My whole life, I was a centerfielder and a third baseman because I could throw far and accurately. That was my special talent. And handball, which is a fun dorky sport, I was really into because my best friend at the time was like a pro, and now he’s literally a professional handball player. He was always going to practice. I was like, “This is annoying, I wanna hang out.” So, then I got into handball.

Derek has acting aspirations and Ethan describes him as “the most prolific TV commercial actor” in the region. Did you, at any point in your career, do regional or national commercials?

I'm

I did! That was my start in the TV/ film industry. I was a part of a children’s music franchise called “Kidz Bop” for three years [as Steffan Argus]. That was my launchpad. I’ve done plenty of other commercial work here and there. That embarrassment in that audition scene [laughs], I deeply resonate with. Commercial auditions tend to be humiliating, I’ll be honest. But it’s a super-valid work path, and I was on it for quite some time.

Speaking of Ethan, he and Derek have a close and supportive relationship. Do you have siblings, and if so, how would you describe your relationship with them? I have two sisters, one older and one younger. They are my best friends. We’re very close. They also live in L.A. as well. I don’t have a brother, so I had some nerves going into this movie not really knowing the dynamic of two brothers. What I discovered is that it’s not dissimilar from my relationship with my two siblings. It’s the closeness, it’s the intimacy. I think the big thing was tapping into the way their respective toxic masculinity clashes. But that wasn’t hard to do. Also, (co-star) Wyatt (Oleff) and I became so close, so fast, it really feels like he’s my brother. He’s a little twerp [laughs].

Your “Stay Awake” co-star Chrissy Metz performed in early June 2023 at the annual Pride month Concert For Love & Acceptance, produced by gay country singer/songwriter Ty Herndon and GLAAD. As a member of the LGBTQ community, what does it mean to you that Chrissy is part of such an event?

Allyship is important. That’s what provides queer people with safety and a large sense of community. While it’s incredible that the queer community is so close-knit and we support each other, we’re part of a larger community, which is just the fact that we’re humans, and we need to take care of one another. When people who are outside of marginalized communities use their voice and their platforms to uplift marginalized communities, that’s the best thing you can do. I really appreciate her doing that, as well as any ally using their voice to help queer folks.

You played the role of Mingus in the 2022 revival of “Queer As Folk.” There is a devastating scene in which a gunman opens fire in the bar when Mingus is performing onstage. At a time when the LGBTQ community is under constant attack from ultra-rightwing conservatives, what do you think it will take for real societal change to occur?

I think everything starts on a micro level. Outreach to your immediate community and being active in local politics. I think that’s what will make long- lasting impacts and being open to difficult conversations.

It’s a scary time to be a queer person in America. It has been, basically since America’s inception, but especially now, there’s so much hate targeting trans folks specifically. I don’t know what the answer is. I don’t know what’s going to push us over the edge into a safer living environment.

But I do know that what we can do is focus on community. Helping people day-to-day, making sure people are supported emotionally, and staying active in local politics. Making sure that we maintain our rights and make our voices heard, whether that’s protesting or using our vote or just being there for our queer friends or queer loved ones.t www.instagram.com/finargus www.marvista.net

by Brian Bromberger

With transgender people frequently in the news, mostly because of restrictive laws or outright bans effectively trying to silence their voices, it’s imperative their stories be heard. That’s precisely what director/ writer D. Smith accomplishes in her luminous and refreshing documentary “Kokomo City.”

The film centers on the lives of four sassy uninhibited Black transgender sex workers (Liyah Mitchell, Dominique Silver, Koko Da Doll, and Daniella Carter) in New York and Atlanta. Most transgender women are not sex workers, but Smith ingeniously uses that perspective to arrive at certain truths universal to the transgender journey.

Smith doesn’t invoke any shame or judgment on these women, but empowers them to speak their unvarnished truth with brutal honesty and openness, even if it defies the dictates of political correctness, which is one reason that despite dealing at times with grim subjects, “Kokomo City” is unexpectedly fun and wildly entertaining. These four dynamic women can be seen and heard as themselves, multi-dimensional but not defined only by what they do as sex workers.

The film’s sensational opening sets its funky tone with Liyah relating her “scariest moment” about trying to steal a client’s gun, then struggling with him in the hallway, managing to escape, but the kicker is that the next day she reinitiates contact with him, both deciding it was all a misunderstanding, then resuming their paid tryst. This incident relays the dangers of sex work but also its titillating unpredictability, a true living-by-the seat-of-your-pants extravaganza alternating between terror and tongue-in-cheek.

Later Daniella gives a sharp real- ity check, “I’m supposed to tell people this shit is cool? This shit is safe? This is survival work. This is risky shit… putting your life in the hands of a man that don’t know shit about you and the only thing he’s there for is escaping his own reality… and his reality is ten times better than the one he’s giving you.”

This violence is in retaliation against the dissolution of the gender binary.

Survival is key here with Koko matter-of-factly commenting, “A lot of girls don’t make it out,” then revealing that she herself has almost been killed several times, that “all her girlfriends are dead and gone,” either killed by their clients or HIV casualties. After often having been rejected by their families, they also fear being arrested, “been to jail three times, and the next time it’s a felony.”

Ambitious glamour

Yet these women seem intent on having a good time and relish making themselves look as glamorous as possible. Often wives and girlfriends don’t acknowledge trans women as women, prompting Daniella to scream, “My money, my swipe has the same motherfucking value as your sacrifice. It’s just two different sacrifices. I use my body and you use your brain. We were just two ambitious women trying to achieve a goal.”

Or as Dominique notes, “We’re always existing around systems who tell us who we should be for someone else.”

There are conversations about how they got into sex work, meet clients, and the types of men they confront with varying attitudes. As Daniella says, “We’ve broken down, but have a great way of making ourselves stand out.”

The other facet of the film is interviews with straight men who appreciate trans women, but also feel threatened by that desire.

“Some guys ignore the dick and don’t want anything to do with it, while other rugged dudes wanna see a pretty-ass girl with a big dick,” sneaking behind their wives or girlfriends to do so. Dominique observes, “violence doesn’t happen before the orgasm, but after… because they feel like their masculinity is threatened.”

Smith was a successful music producer working with talent like Katy Perry and Lil’ Wayne, even nominated twice for Grammys, but when she transitioned, nobody wanted to hire her. It took her three years to finish the film (with out lesbian writer/actor Lena Waithe as executive producer), crashing on different friends’ couches, with no assistant, no editor, no lighting person, “just the vision of a truth.”

She’s doing everything in this movie on her own (filming, editing, and scoring the doc with writing some original songs creating a captivating rhythm that propels the narrative) but undoubtedly her experience won the women’s trust, as if they were speaking to a friend, holding nothing back, in terms of explicit language and their uncompromising opinions.

The women condemn the hypocrisy of their Black community vis-à-vis transphobia, particularly Black men dating trans women but publicly castigating them. Daniella decries this Black sexual and gender conservatism of rigid norms: “We all scream the narrative that we’re oppressed…but we’re the first motherfuckers to turn out nose up to the next person who want to stand out and be different.”

Dominique angrily explodes, “The whole stereotype that you’re gay if you sleep with a trans woman just because we have male genitals, but a lot of us are way more woman than a lot of cis women.”

Sissy stigma

She frankly summarizes the film’s desire to explode the stigma surrounding dating “nontraditional” partners: “Why do you care where somebody else is putting their dick?

The problem with this world is that everybody is so worried about who’s fucking who, when at the end of the day, they want to fuck each other. That’s the whole tea.”

“Kokomo City” is shot in luscious Black and white photography with its stark contrast between light and dark.

The title comes from 1930s Black singer, Kokomo Arnold’s recording used in the film, “Sissy Man Blues,” with its potent line, “ I woke up this morning with my pork grinding business in my hand/ Lord if you can’t send me no woman, please send me some sissy man.” Smith also uses cheesy re- enactments (really not necessary) with animated and time-lapse visuals plus bubbly graphics all to create a snappy tempo and vibe juxtaposing sometimes appalling confessions.

“Kokomo City” is gripping yet hilarious, frightening with certain comments flat-out jaw-dropping with their shocking, no sugar-coating candor.

The vicissitudes of sex work has transformed these defiant women into street philosophers proclaiming hard-earned wisdom.

But sadly no raucous line or trenchant observation could capture the absolute necessity and urgency of this electrifying documentary to deplore the religious/political/cultural attacks against the trans community, than the news that Koko Da Doll was shot and killed in Atlanta this past April.

As Smith so aptly summarizes the dream of her mind-expanding film about vulnerable trans people in the press notes, “We’re all in the same boat. We’re all looking for a decent man, a woman, or whatever you’re into—we just want love, so we want the trans community to be recognized as part of the human community.”t www.magpicturesinternational. com/kokomo-city

by Victoria A. Brownworth

Do we need another cooking show? Always. The CW debuts “Recipe for Disaster” in August (check local listings). In each episode, three professional chefs and friends compete to prepare spectacular dishes under “absurdly adverse conditions.” disasters that challenge our chefs in ways they never imagined. They will attempt the perfect sear while stuck on a “sinking cruise ship” during a tropical storm, try their hand at risotto while bouncing in baby jumpers, or create an earth-shattering gnocchi with nothing but a chisel and rock hammer while dining with dinosaurs.

They will attempt the perfect sear while stranded on a show-stopping soufflé while dodging aliens on Mars. ”

To make matters worse, the cooking buddies are people from their lives who are total kitchen novices. Who will impress the judges, and whose dishes will succumb to the not-so-ridiculous disasters du jour? Ultimately, only one team will be crowned Masters of Disaster.

Executive producer Cyle Zezo told NPR, “A couple of years ago, if you’d brought up talking about climate on screen, people would think it was crazy and they wouldn’t even touch the subject.”

Queen

We’re not sure how we missed this amazing series last year, but does it matter when we can watch it now?

ABC has “The Golden Bachelor” and Netflix has “Queen.” Sylwester (Andrzej Seweryn, in an amazing performance), is a retired tailor and drag queen. He leaves his home in Paris where he is planning to move to the South of France after he receives a letter from a young woman who says she is his granddaughter and needs his help. Sylwester decides to return to his hometown in Poland, forcing him to face a difficult reckoning with his past–and come out into his present and future.

We found “Queen” absolutely mesmerizing and deeply moving.

The Netflix original four-part drama series was written by the late Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson and Kacper Wysocki, and is directed by Lukasz Kosmicki, best known for “The Coldest Game” and “The Dark House.” The cast includes Loretta, Maria Peszek as Wioletta, Julia Chetnicka as Izabela, and several drag queens; in Polish, with subtitles.

First X July is Disability Pride Month and the intersectionality of the LGBTQ and disability communities is the subject of director and writer Josiah Polhemus’s film “First X.”

The short film stars Nicole Adler and Lena Sibony and it will tear your heart out. As detailed by the producers, “Adler (28) is a two-time governor-appointed member of the State Council of Developmental Disabilities and takes her civic responsibilities seriously. She wants to make an impact on changing perceptions and accepting people for the way they are.” That is, disabled.

Disabled people, especially those with intellectual disabilities, are roundly considered by non-disabled people as not sexual and definitely not LGBTQ. “First X” explores how wrong that perspective is; on YouTube, and well worth your time.

Smiley

“Smiley” is a delightful Spanish romantic dramedy series based on the play of the same name by Guillem Clua which stars Carlos Cuevas (Alex) and Miki Esparbé (Bruno). It’s one of those shows you fall in love with watching the trailer because every single line is fabulous and it just gets better from there.

Netflix gives this oblique description: “Two men and their friends in Barcelona navigate hesitations, hang-ups and missed connections as they search for the true love they’ve been missing.” We’re telling you that Alex is heartbroken because he has just suffered a breakup. After asking for an explanation by voice mail, he mistakenly sends it to Bruno, whom he doesn’t know. This error changes Alex and Bruno’s lives as they navigate the hilarity–and where it leads.

Smiley also addresses those class and job strata issues that are often raised. Bruno is an architect, Alex a bartender. How much –outside of the gym– do they have in common? You can binge all eight episodes

Above: A scene from The CW’s ‘Recipe for Disaster’

Below: Andrzej Seweryn in ‘Queen’ of “Smiley” (the awful title refers to a critical emoji in the plot) in a weekend. Plus all the men are hot and believable and the other characters are very funny. And “Smiley” will make you laugh and feel good and don’t we need that? Yes we do!

Soccer time

Finally, FIFA is on baby, and this is lesbian soccer queen Megan Rapinoe’s final World Cup. We’re rooting for an unprecedented third win for

See page 19 >>

Above: Josiah Polhemus’s short film ‘First X’

Middle: The cast of ‘Smiley’

Bottom: US Women’s World Cup