THEYFRIEND Nonbinary Performance Festival
Poetry & Music Showcase
Friday, November 17, 2023
7pm (6:30 doors)
Brava Theater Center’s Cabaret
2773 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
$20 early bird | $25 general admission
Limited pay what you can tickets
Host: Vin Seaman
DJ: phishr_price
Live Performances by Alder Duan Hurley, Criibaby, Jean Wildest, Libby Oren, Xtra.dae
Video from TAYLORALXNDR & DeVery Bess
About the Event
Revel in the words, lyrics, and flow of the THEYFRIEND Nonbinary Poetry & Music Showcase! Hosted by Diamond Wave Director and Brava Artist-in-Residence, Vin Seaman, the evening will feature live performances from poets Alder Duan Hurley and Libby Oren, musician Criibaby, and performers Jean Wildest (Chicago) and Xtra.dae, with video from musician and drag performer TAYLORALXNDR (Atlanta) and performer DeVery Bess (Toronto). Come early or stay late to experience the music of DJ phishr_price!
ACCESSIBILITY: Brava is wheelchair accessible with ADA-accessible all-gender restrooms. The space also includes an upstairs mezzanine with additional seating that is only accessible by stairs. All videos will have open captions.
If you need ASL interpretation or ADA accessible seating for this show, please indicate so during the ticketing process no later than November 10th. For any questions about accessibility please email kiana@diamond-wave.org.
COVID: Masking STRONGLY encouraged, participating artists and staff are COVID tested before the event.
This event is made possible with support from the California Arts Council and the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation, and is presented in partnership with Brava! for Women in the Arts. Diamond Wave is a fiscally sponsored project of Intersection for the Arts that is supported by Grants for the Arts, the Horizons Foundation, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund and the San Francisco Arts Commission.
About the Artists
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(they/them)
Vin Seaman is an interdisciplinary artist and the director of Diamond Wave. They have been featured on Shondaland and Vice.com, were an inaugural APAP Leadership Fellow, and received the 2017 Americans for the Arts Emerging Leader Award, the 2019 Theatre Bay Area Legacy Award, and a 2022 CALI Catalyst Award. Their creative work exploring queer identity and drag culture has been presented at The Stud, Brava, Oasis, CounterPulse, the de Young, Frameline, the Austin International Drag Festival, SATELLITE ART SHOW Miami, the National Queer Arts Festival, Stolt Scenkonst, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Yale School of the Arts.
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(she/they)
Elle Lim-Chan (phishr_price) is a San Francisco based transfemme, nonbinary artist working in illustration, comics, and music. Her DJing style morphs genres with huge variety within a single set. Their signature sound includes mashups of Animal Crossing soundtracks and niche pop songs. So far they've played at venues like Mothership, El Rio, Public Works, HydeFM and more. Their primary residency is DJing at OKMarketplace, a monthly vintage popup in the Japan Center. Currently an MFA Student at CCA's Comics program, their comic works aims to evolve webcomic experiences through QR code based works. Their work can be found at OKMarketplace!
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(he/they)
Alder Duan Hurley is a poet based in the East Bay, on Ohlone land. They performed work at Theyfriend in 2022, as well as in APAture, Kearny Street Workshop’s arts festival for emerging artists, and at the 2022 QTAPI week celebration at the Legion of Honor. He is currently a student in the MFA program at SFSU.
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(she/they)
One night, she dreamed about a floating piano made of psychedelic glowing orbs. So they built it. At this special THEYFRIEND performance, you’ll experience Criibaby's handmade interactive light & sound sculpture which she recently unveiled at iconic music festival SXSW. Criibaby is an award-winning singer/songwriter known for her "dreamy romantic jams" (BILLBOARD) and “a refreshingly inclusive message of love” (EARMILK). Using all gender-neutral lyrics, Criibaby makes a conscious effort to create more inclusive music centering a queer perspective. Criibaby hopes to transport you to another universe with their dreamy lofi soundscapes, gentle voice, and poignant lyricism.
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(he/they)
Jean Wildest (he/they) blends dance, burlesque, and circus into engaging movement patterns with heartfelt storytelling. They started their career as a self-taught hip hop and modern dancer, but quickly fell into Chicago’s burlesque community and the counterculture elements of drag, sideshow, circus, and the “unpalatable” sections of performance art. Jean's transness (and therefore their authenticity and recognition of a self that is aberrant from the norm) is present in all of their work. In their most recent project, "Just a Touch," Jean used ensemble work to promote queer community, with support from DCASE, the Walder Foundation, and the NEA.
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(they/them)
Libby Oren (they/them) is a Los Angeles based poet studying Conservation and Resource Studies at UC Berkeley. Oren graduated from Venice High School, where they were the co-captain of the poetry team. They brought their team to the largest youth poetry slam in the US twice, participated in the Emerging Writers Fellowship twice, and is a two-time finalist in GetLit’s Why I Rise Competition. They performed for FOX TV’s Pride Month poetry video, which has over 1.5 million views and was broadcast on national television. When they’re not writing, they can be found talking to trees.
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Xtra.dae is the moniker of Daeun Maroon Hwang, an experimental performance artist residing in ohlone land in Oakland, California. Originally from South Korea, Xtra.dae is a persona that Daeun has created to connect with stories of korean mythology and folktales. As well as imagined fantastical stories of origin pre-colonization. Xtra.dae is also a project to bring together diasporic communities in Oakland to reflect, heal, and re-imagine origin stories.
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(they/she)
TAYLOR ALXNDR (they/she) is an Atlanta-based musician, drag performer, multi-media artist, and community organizer. As a musician, ALXNDR released their debut EP, NOISE, in 2017, followed by HOLOGRAM, in November of 2018. It was listed as one of the top 10 albums from Atlanta artists. They just released their new EP 1993 on March 11th 2022. ALXNDR is the co-founder and current executive director of Southern Fried Queer Pride (SFQP), a queer + trans, arts + advocacy organization centering Southern queer communities. They are also the mother of the House of ALXNDR, an Atlanta-based drag family and events hub, creating drag-centered, inclusive events. TAYLOR’s work has been featured in Vice, Forbes, Out Magazine, Vogue, them., and more. Bandcamp called them an “underground drag icon”. They were voted as Atlanta’s Best Drag Queen & Best LGBTQ Performer in 2019.
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(they/them)
Devery Bess has come a long way, having 13 years of performance experience. Born and raised in Montreal, grown in Calgary, Alberta–they now find themselves based in and taking Toronto By Storm. From the beaches of Vancouver to the harbors of Halifax, they have had the opportunity to wow and entertain crowds with their charisma, smooth moves, topped with the cheesiest of puns. They are only known as Devery Bess, and it’s a promise.
To Attend
$20 early bird
$25 general admission
Limited pay what you can tickets
About the Festival
Now in its third year, THEYFRIEND is the world’s first performance festival uplifting, centering, and celebrating nonbinary identity! This year we are hosting five events November 14–18 in partnership with San Francisco presenters, nightlife venues, and community organizations.
Curated by festival advisors Rawiyah Tariq, transcriptions01, the Living Altar, and Diamond Wave Director Vin Seaman, the 2023 THEYFRIEND festival features the work of 40 local, national, and international nonbinary performers!
With THEYFRIEND, we’re creating a space of trust and growth for nonbinary artists to connect and present their work.
