Translocas LIVE
Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes’ groundbreaking book Translocas, exploring drag and transgender performance and activism, comes to life for the first time in an electrifying 3-night celebration with special guests at BAAD!
Thursday, June 20 | 8PM
Chit Chat with Lola von Miramar & special guests
Drag Queen Lola von Miramar (La Fountain-Stokes) chats with special guests Freddie Mercado, Luis Carle, Barbara Herr & Dr. Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé in this live talk show, followed by a book signing.
Friday, June 21 | 6PM
Tribute to Lady Catiria
Celebrate of the legendary drag/trans performer Lady Catiria with a screening of the limited-circulation documentary film Now and Forever: The Best of Lady Catiria, followed by drag & cabaret performances by Barbara Herr, Darylin LaFontaine, Warhola Pop, Vena Cava and more!
Saturday, June 22 | 8PM
Performing the Archive with Barbara Herr, Freddie Mercado & Jorge Merced
Translocas comes to life with onstage performances and theater by Jorge Merced, Barbara Herr & Puerto Rico’s Freddie Mercado.
About Translocas
Translocas focuses on drag and transgender performance and activism in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. Arguing for its political potential, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes explores the social and cultural disruptions caused by Latin American and Latinx “locas” (effeminate men, drag queens, transgender performers, and unruly women) and the various forms of violence to which queer individuals in Puerto Rico and the U.S. are subjected. This interdisciplinary, auto-ethnographic, queer-of-color performance studies book explores the lives and work of contemporary performers and activists including Sylvia Rivera, Nina Flowers, Freddie Mercado, Javier Cardona, Jorge Merced, Erika Lopez, Holly Woodlawn, Monica Beverly Hillz, Lady Catiria, and Barbara Herr; television programs such as RuPaul’s Drag Race; films such as Paris Is Burning, The Salt Mines, and Mala Mala; and literary works by authors such as Mayra Santos-Febres and Manuel Ramos Otero. Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, a drag performer himself, demonstrates how each destabilizes (and sometimes reifies) dominant notions of gender and sexuality through drag and their embodied transgender expression. These performances provide a means to explore and critique issues of race, class, poverty, national identity, and migratory displacement while they posit a relationship between audiences and performers that has a ritual-like, communal dimension. The author also pays careful attention to transgender experience, highlighting how trans activists and performers mold their bodies, promote social change, and create community in a context that oscillates between glamour and abjection.
