HOWL! FESTIVAL AND THE JACKIE FACTORY PRESENTED
LOW LIFE 5: FLAMING QUEENS
SUNDAY JUNE 5, 2011
5-7 PM - FREE ADMISSION
TOMPKINS SQUARE PARK, NYC howlfestival.com
On June 5, 2011, JACKIE FACTORY producers CHI CHI VALENTI and JOHNNY DYNELL presented their fifth annual LOW LIFE to crown the 2011 HOWL! FESTIVAL. LOW LIFE is the free and fabulous Sunday evening climax to HOWL! - a two hour spectacular inspired by East Village decades past. This year's LOW LIFE 5: FLAMING QUEENS celebrated the East Village (and its pivotal nightclubs and boites) as the birthplace of brilliant Gay, Trans and Lesbian performers and performance genres for over a century. LOW LIFE 5: FLAMING QUEENS paid homage to movements and moments including the mid-century 82 CLUB and its lavish shows, the protest performance art of ACT UP and GRAN FURY, Tompkins Square's own WIGSTOCK and the notorious 19th century Bleecker Street Tranny Bar THE SLIDE.
This hour and a half show featured multiple dance companies, vocal and musical performances, burlesque and drag renderings and of course - brilliant lip synch! The bill included showstopping trans songstress SADE PENDAVIS (Paris is Burning), WIGSTOCK and SQUEEZEBOX supernova MISSTRESS FORMIKA, HOWL! resident butoh company VANGELINE THEATER, Low Life chorines the PIXIE HARLOTS (costumed by MACHINE DAZZLE), former MISS BOYBAR HRH PRINCESS DIANDRA, Neue dance/performance ensemble the RACHEL KLEIN THEATER, BLACKLIPS PERFORMANCE CULT icon FLLOYD with Pyramid eminence HATTIE HATHAWAY, chanteuse HEATHER LITTEER and the Low Life debuts of Bowery Boylesque star GO-GO HARDER, futurist trio EN SUBTITLES, fab dragstress MARGOH! CHANNING and Tango artistes CON ARTIST and ALLA SORKIN. LOW LIFE MC PAUL ALEXANDER (of THE ONES and JACKIE 60) joined SADE PENDAVIS to debut the new 21 century Voguing Anthem BRING IT! from new Jackie Factory music label ENDLESS NIGHT MUSIC.
LOW LIFE events were inspired by the seminal LUC SANTE book "LOW LIFE: The Lures and Snares of Old New York" and are produced by local performance collective THE JACKIE FACTORY NYC. The annual LOW LIFE extravaganzas at HOWL! continue a body of work born at the seminal Meat Market nightclub JACKIE 60 in 1997, with past editions in London, Minneapolis and of course, the HOWL! FESTIVAL since 2007. For the show's producers, East Village residents for over two decades, this annual spectacular is a Valentine to the neighborhood's past, present and future stars.
THE HOWL! FESTIVAL, the East Village festival of the arts, was named in honor of the groundbreaking poem by ALLEN GINSBERG and began in 2002. This year HOWL ARTS, INC brings the 8th annual HOWL! to Tompkins Square Park from June 3-5 - moved from its former September dates to a new June weekend. This "exceptional, existential and uplifting weekend of cutting edge art, fantasy and fun" arrives just in time to celebrate Allen Ginsberg's 85th birthday on June 3. That evening, the stage opens at 5pm with the festival's traditional reading of Ginsberg's famed poem HOWL, his impassioned words delivered by his friends and contemporaries led by BOB HOLMAN and including Beat poets JOHN GIORNO, HETTIE JONES, ED SANDERS and BOB ROSENTHAL. This weekend of poetry, performance art, music and dance will once again feature ART AROUND THE PARK, a two day exhibit of EV/LES artists exhibiting their work as they create it; main stage performances of HIP HOP HOWL!, HOUSE OF HOWL and LOW LIFE and this year's brand new children's attraction, the Great HOWL! OUT LOUD Carnival for kids of all ages. Please visit HOWLFESTIVAL.COM for details on all of the weekend's exciting programming.
THE JACKIE FACTORY is the NYC based nightclub arts collective founded by husband and wife team CHI CHI VALENTI and JOHNNY DYNELL in 1990. Most famous for the 450 themed editions of its decade-long party JACKIE 60, venue MOTHER, and annual Stevie Nicks extravaganza NIGHT OF A THOUSAND STEVIES, THE FACTORY also creates large-scale spectacles in New York and cities nationwide and worldwide, including LOW LIFE @ HOWL!
