Talk by Larry La Fountain (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
The Puerto Rican performance artist, podcaster and drag queen Fausto Fernós has been performing in drag since the early 1990s, when he started studying under Linda Montano at the University of Texas, Austin. He transformed his drag cabaret Feast of Fools, created in Chicago in 1998, into an award-winning podcast in 2005, now known as Feast of Fun. Fernós and his partner Marc Felion have recorded over 1,750 hour-long shows, many with recurrent guest visitors. The show regularly features drag queens and trans women and is accompanied by extensive drag video production and occasional live drag appearances in Chicago. Numerous American drag and trans pioneers and stars such as Holly Woodlawn, Lady Bunny, Hedda Lettuce, Coco Peru, RuPaul, Kate Bornstein, and Heklina have been interviewed, as well as more recent drag celebrities such as many of the contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race. In this presentation I discuss the drag and performance career of Fernós and historicize drag and trans presence on the Feast of Fun. I also analyze the transformation from public access TV programs and live shows to podcasts and YouTube/Internet videos; map the complex intersections between drag and trans experience; and discuss the political use of technology and its intersection with live and recorded performance, as projects destined to promote Latina/o and LGBT acceptance and visibility in the U.S. and abroad.
Kresge 2-301
Northwestern University
1880 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
CONTACT: Joanna V. Maravilla-Cano +1 847 467 3980
joanna@northwestern.edu
Sponsored by the Latina & Latino Studies Program, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities.
Facebook event here.
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