THEYFRIEND

2020 SALON

October 7, 2020
6pm — Zoom

Featuring Kevin Seaman, Dorian Wood, Billy Dean Thomas, Evan Spigelman (aka Mz Aza Metric), and Beatrice L. Thomas (aka Black Benatar)

In October 2020, we presented the first THEYFRIEND salon in conjunction with the Western Arts Alliance and Arts Midwest conferences. The THEYFRIEND artist salon features the work of contemporary nonbinary artists from across the United States. The 90-minute interactive format creates space for nonbinary artists to contextualize their work, share it, and then to respond and discuss the work in an open format with participants.

THEYFRIEND 2020!

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 2020 Featured Artists

Headshot of Kevin Seaman in drag makeup, shirtless, putting on purple hoop earrings

Kevin Seaman (LOL McFiercen)

  • Kevin Seaman AKA LOL McFiercen is an interdisciplinary performance artist and cultural worker exploring queer identity and drag culture at the intersection of gender and sexuality. They received the 2017 Americans for the Arts Emerging Leader Award, were named one of SF Weekly’s 16 Artists to Watch in 2016, and participated in the Association for Performing Arts Professionals (APAP) inaugural Leadership Fellows Program.

    At home in nightlife venues, theatres and large-scale institutions, their work has been presented internationally at The Stud, CounterPulse, YBCA, Frameline, the Tank NYC, the Austin International Drag Festival, SATTELITE ART SHOW Miami, the National Queer Arts Festival, Stockholm’s Proud Performing Arts (Stolt Scenkonst), the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Yale School of the Arts.

    Additionally, Kevin / LOL has led sessions focused on queer arts and community issues for APAP|NYC, Grantmakers in the Arts, Americans for the Arts, National Performance Network’s annual conference and Stockholm’s Proud Performing Arts festival. They recently premiered their first evening-length solo piece, #femMASCULINE, while in residence at Brava Theatre Center in San Francisco, and continue to uplift feminist ideals within gay and queer masculine communities.

  • Kevin Seaman, with short blonde hair and a trimmed, light brown beard, is wearing drag makeup with pink lips and no shirt and putting on big purple hoop earrings.

Dorian Wood

  • Dorian Wood seeks to glorify both the sanctity and irreverence of intimacy. Through the use of their corpulent body and booming voice, Wood revels in challenging the artist-audience separation, using subject matter informed by their own perspective as a non-binary brown person and an autodidact. Their work has been showcased in concert halls and performance spaces around the world, including at institutions like The Broad, REDCAT, Museo Nacional Del Prado, the City Hall of Madrid and Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris in Mexico City.

    From 2019 to 2020, Wood completed several successful tours throughout Europe, Mexico and the U.S. with their chamber orchestra tribute to Chavela Vargas, XAVELA LUX AETERNA. Most recently, Wood became a 2020 Creative Capital Award recipient. Wood has released over a dozen recordings, among them the albums BOLKA (2007); Brutus (2010); Rattle Rattle (Atonal Industries, 2013); Down, The Dirty Roof (Atonal Industries, 2013), XALÁ (Atonal Industries, 2017) and two back-to-back albums recorded in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, ARDOR and REACTOR.

  • Dorian Wood, softly lit in front of a black background, looks off calmly to their right wearing no shirt and long red beaded earrings with white tassels.

Billy Dean Thomas

  • Billy Dean Thomas, AKA “The Queer B.I.G” is a grammy nominated Hip-hop recording artist and composer born and raised in Harlem, but currently residing in Boston. Billy challenges the music industry with polyrhythmic flows that align with intersectional feminism, social justice and have been described as “a blend between The Roots, rage against the machine and Run The Jewels.” After sharing their story on ABC’s The View, Billy Dean has been performing nationally and internationally to highlight their multidisciplinary approach to music.

    During their time in Boston they have been featured twice on NPR Radio, contributed to “The Love” a grammy nominated album, were nominated for four Boston Music Awards, and were invited to perform on Channel 5 News. After receiving the Boston Foundations LAB Grant Billy produced their annual showcase titled “American Gothic” where they composed and performed new works in the structure of a silent film at the Oberon Theater. Billy has performed at venues such as The House of Blues Boston, The Brooklyn Museum, The Isabella Stewart Gardner, and The Museum of Fine Arts. Billy Dean has recently completed a Mass Moca Residency and has officially stepped into the creative phase of recording their first full length record. They are excited to release a new single and music video in the second quarter of 2020.

  • Billy Dean Thomas (BDT) pictured looking straight forward through round sunglasses and wearing a bright red-orange, white, and black striped shirt.

Evan Spigelman (Mz Aza Metric)

  • Mz Asa Metric is a farce to be reckoned with. They're a singer, songwriter, dishwasher, fishmonger, occasional Baba Yaga cosplayer, dybbuk whisperer, and anti-fascist clown. As an anti fascist clown, they are finding that 2020 has made them FAR too busy. Please, do your part to make anti fascist clowning more difficult! Asa is one half of CREEP CUTS, a psychedelic genre-queer cabaret designed to glitch your senses. They're Asa Metric, and they approve this message.

  • Headshot of Evan Spigelman (aka Mz Aza Metric) covered in pastel colored goo with their mouth open and hands in motion next to their face

Beatrice L. Thomas (Black Benatar)

  • Beatrice Thomas (they/she), star and creator of Black Benatar’s Black Magic Cabaret and principal of Authentic Arts & Media, is a national multi-disciplinary artist, cultural strategist, social justice drag queen and creative producer.

    Whether through creative production, consulting or equity, diversity, and inclusion workshops, Mx. Thomas' focus is on uplifting and centering queer, transgender, and POC voices, with special attention to creating queer-inclusive family programming. They are a pillar of Drag Queen Story Hour, serving as director of the SF Bay Area chapter, on the Leadership Team for the national organization, and as a featured drag queen.

    Beatrice’s work has illuminated the audiences of the deYoung Museum, SF PRIDE Mainstage, CounterPulse, SomArts Cultural Center and KALW Radio, and has shown in galleries across the United States. They also serve on the national board of directors for the Association of Performing Arts Professionals and have been named a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist for 2020.

  • Beatrice L. Thomas, aka Black Benatar, looks over their right shoulder with their gold-gloved right hand under their chin. Their hair is up in a black wrap with gold sparkles, and they’re wearing bold, graphic drag makeup.

THEYFRIEND Salon 2020 was presented by Diamond Wave as a fiscally sponsored project of Intersection for the Arts.

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