Jason Barnes wants drag to be something more than entertainment.
“I want to talk about drag academically,” says the man behind the city’s coolest drag performer, Pussy Noir. “I want to put drag into performance art and really mold that aspect of it.”
To that end, he’s been extraordinarily successful. Last summer, Barnes was invited to perform at the Hirshhorn Museum for a major performance art-focused event. Meanwhile, the popular bar Trade has played host to packed crowds for Sissy That Tuesdays, Pussy Noir’s “one-man drag show” held every third Tuesday of the month.
Barnes is a significant part of next Saturday’s “Ropeburn,” a new fall event from the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington. Billed as “a celebration of the queer underground,” it kicks off the GMWC’s provocative, politically-charged “Make America Gay Again” season. The fundraiser features atypical chorus activities ranging from vogue dance battles, to fetish demonstrations, to a Tom-of-Finland fantasy live model display.
Members of the chorus will perform throughout the evening, as will Barnes, who, in addition to “whipping out the burlesque, the androgynous drag, and things like that,” will perform with local musician Rich Morel as the electro-punk duo, Sistr Mid9ight. The name pays tribute to David Bowie and Iggy Pop, who, in 1977, recorded a duet by that title.
“Rich and I have been working together for about three years,” says Barnes, a classically trained opera singer. “We spent a full year really getting to know each other and experimenting with sound and music, and recording as we go along. Last year we started performing live.” The primary focus of the partnership at the moment is on writing and recording. And in fact, RopeBurn is Sistr Mid9ight’s only live show currently on the books.
Pussy Noir has never been a character separate and distinct from Barnes. “When I started drag, I wanted to have an image that was not about covering and transforming the self, but rather revealing the self, which is why I wear such little clothing. The makeup…is to enhance the features of my face, not to change [it]. Pussy Noir is the most honest version of me. So that glamor, that freedom, that sexuality, that sensuality, comes off stage with me and comes home with me.”
Ropeburn is Saturday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m., and is preceded at 6 p.m. with “The Ropeburn Panel: A Discussion on Kink and Ball History, Culture and Identity,” hosted by Rayceen Pendarvis. Dupont Underground, 1500 19th St. NW. Tickets are $75. Call 202-293-1548 or click here.
In the season of a historic election that's bound to keep Americans' eyes glued to screens other than the ones at the multiplex, studios are hauling out their big guns to draw the attention of moviegoers. And I'm not just talking about The Rock's double barrels in the holiday action-comedy Red One.
They're hoping to keep the box office humming with Oscar bets and big stars: Tom Hanks re-teaming with Gump guide Robert Zemeckis for Here, Denzel Washington brushing off his period English in Ridley Scott's Gladiator II, Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga terrorizing Gotham in Joker: Folie à Deux.
The highlights in classic music this fall? Well, it depends on what you're looking for -- and what you're open to. If you like opera and aren't too fussy about it -- so long as it still feels and sounds like opera -- then step right up to the IN Series, particularly the company's plans to adapt Verdi's Rigoletto under the big top. If you'd rather bask in the sounds of an orchestra and are willing to try out one focused on helping calm your mind, consider the seasonal offerings at the Capital City Symphony.
When it comes to broadening your classical horizons, you could do worse than focusing on a particular composer or two. On that score, this fall would be a fine time for Rachmaninoff, starting as early as this weekend with the one-day Rachmaninoff Festival at Strathmore, a kick-off to the National Philharmonic's 40th season.
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