THEYFRIEND Virtual Performance Salon
with Tyler Holmes, Sharmi Basu, and Rawiyah Tariq
hosted by Kevin “Vin” Seaman
Tuesday September 13, 2022
6:00 - 8:00pm PT
About the Salon
THEYFRIEND is the world’s first festival uplifting and celebrating nonbinary performers. Happening at various locations throughout San Francisco November 16 - 19, 2022 THEYFRIEND will feature 20+ nonbinary performers.
Join Diamond Wave and host Kevin “Vin” Seaman on Tuesday, September 13, 6 - 8 PM PT for a virtual performance salon centering works-in-progress from this year’s featured artists Rawiyah Tariq, Sharmi Basu and Tyler Holmes.
This event is sneak peak into 2022 THEYFRIEND as well as an opportunity for trusted nonbinary, trans and queer community members to provide focused, constructive feedback to support the growth and development of our featured artists’ commissioned performances.
FREE, donations welcome!
Accessibility: Auto-generated subtitles provided. To request additional accessibility services, contact kevin@diamond-wave.org.
About the Artists
For over 15 years Rawiyah Tariq (they/them) has blended the art of storytelling with song and burlesque to create performance art that is vulnerable, empowering, hilarious and intimate. They are featured in the award winning film Heavenly Brown Body, and have performed with Rubenesque Burlesque (as Magnolia Black), the Hubba Hubba Revue (DNA Lounge), SOME THING (The Stud), Rebel Kings of Oakland (White Horse) and universities around the country. As a solo performer their work continues to reflect body liberation, visibility and self possession beyond the static sizest Eurocentric beauty myth.
Sharmi Basu (they/them) is a multimedia performance artist, curator, composer, and arts organizer born and based in the unceded territories of Chochenyo Ohlone peoples, also known as Oakland, CA. They create sound and performance pieces that address the vulnerability, accountability, and experiences of diaspora by creating new narratives for decolonial thinking toward individual and collective liberation. The majority of their organizational work is dedicated to providing resources, mutual aid, and moments of joy to queer and Trans BIPOC. Their ultimate goal through their work is to cultivate a sense of empowerment for themself and their community.
Tyler Holmes (they/them) is a singer-songwriter, visual and performance artist who uses art as a therapeutic device. Coming from a turbulent and traumatic ‘cult-like’ early life, Holmes has spent a lifetime crafting their own Black, Queer narrative by pushing the limits of their imagination. They use a surrealist lens to explore themes of multi-dimensional gender, technology, mental illness, trauma, religious violence and control, and the ramifications of the aforementioned topics on the Black American experience. They perform with a constantly changing electro-acoustic arrangement, always finding new ways to showcase an intimate horror. Most recently Holmes' released their music video "To Accept" via Paper Magazine.
To Attend
This event is FREE with registration!
Donations are also welcome via registration or through our fiscal sponsor Intersection for the Arts.
About the Series
THEYFRIEND is a performance festival that uplifts, centers, and celebrates nonbinary identity. With THEYFRIEND, we’re creating a space of trust and growth for nonbinary artists to connect and present their work.
2022 THEYFRIEND is funded by the California Arts Council and Intersection for the Arts (through funding from San Francisco Grants for the Arts) and presented in partnership with KQED Live, the James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center at the San Francisco Public Library, Brava! for Women in the Arts, Oasis, and El Rio.