Last week I participated in a phenomenal event called 2-4-6-8!  Smash the Church!  Smash the State!, which was a benefit for SOUL (the School Of Unity and Liberation in Oakland) and held at the Galería de la Raza (which, incidentally, has a great show up now from the folks at Dignidad Rebelde — check it out!).  It was also a release party for Tommi Avicolli Mecca’s new anthology about the early years of the gay liberation movement, with a similar title.  I’ve since been reading the book, and it’s pretty phenomenal to hear personal accounts from the days when the movement aligned itself with other leftist political movements seeking collective liberation rather than assimilationist demands like gay marriage.

The other performers and readers were all phenomenal: Dani Montgomery, Tina Bartolome, Erica Benton, Merle Woo, Paola Bacchetta (who was part of a group in the day called Dyketactics!), Thisway/Thatway, Malaya Arevalo (who read a gorgeous piece about Lawrence King), James Tracy (who did a great piece from an hetero), Annie Danger (who reprised her amazing motivational speech on rioting), and of course, Tommi Avicolli Mecca.  The audience was also really phenomenal — a great mix of elders and youth (including a bunch of kids in high school), politicized, and energetic.

I was excited to do a new piece that I’d been thinking about for a while — a cheesy, marriage-is-so-stupid-in-the-face-of-a-truly-radical/progressive-agenda thing to Judy’s “Get Happy.”  Video is here — sadly, the space was small and I kept knocking things over, and I totally didn’t realize that my dress was popping out the bottom, which ruined the reveal (oops):

Thanks to Angelique and Mariana for their work in pulling this together!