I had the great good fortune to see Death Becomes Her from the best seat in the house: front row, dead center. It’s my favorite perch because that’s where you get to see the work. The microbeats. The breath work. The sweat, spit, and precision that make up the muscle of live performance. Yes, I…
In 1994, the editor of the quarterly magazine of the Missouri Historical Society (MHS), then called Gateway Heritage, had to push hard to bring to publication an article I had written about Rev. Carol Cureton, the Metropolitan Community Church of Greater St. Louis, and the impact the twenty-seven-year-old out lesbian and the nascent “homosexual church”…
It’s always a quiet delight when a restaurant you’d mostly written off earns a second look. I’ve been to Chez Josephine a handful of times over the years, usually coaxed by a friend who loves their lobster salad. And I’ve never been much for the bistro genre—too many steak frites, niçoise salads, and forced joie…
I didn’t expect to come out of Sunset Boulevard thinking it might be my favorite Lloyd Webber score. But here we are. In Jamie Lloyd’s stark new Broadway revival, the music is the emotional architecture. With the sets stripped down to almost nothing,just black walls, projections, and a few brutalist gestures the score becomes the…
I first met Adam Josephs in San Francisco during the summer of 2013, and I said then—and stand by it now—that he was the most cosmopolitan man I’d ever known. In my book Delusions of Grandeur, I wrote that Adam had visited more countries than most people can find on a map, and managed to…
It’s been three weeks since Jude Blackwell asked their partner, Jesse Woods, who went by Grim, to walk down to the corner store at Grand and Alberta to pick up some ice. Blackwell said the kind and affable Grim didn’t drive, and walked everywhere, often stopping to visit people along the way. On the night…
In modern spiritual practices, anger is more often than not seen as an affliction—something to be healed, avoided, or even feared. But I am of the mind that anger and rage have a rightful place in magical settings. Anger has its role in magic just as much as love, healing, and all the so-called “lighter”…
St. Louis is preparing for a vibrant ballroom weekend as newly crowned Miss Pride St. Louis, Vanessa Frost, teams up with newly deemed American Runway Legend Zodiac Balmain to present The Wicked Ball, set for May 4. Part of a blockbuster weekend, the festivities begin May 3 with the St. Louis Awards Ball, culminating in…
As a queer person who grew up in deep red rural Oklahoma, I was bombarded with the notion that my feelings and my existence were wrong. I was taught to be ashamed of my body and the pleasure it was built for. Whether it was by a sermon telling me I deserved death, or society…
“Arrive As A Star. Leave As A Star.” – Illuminating 50 Years of Melinda Ryder in Kansas City opened at the Museum of Kansas City this month. The exhibit celebrates the 50-year drag career of “Queen of Kansas City” Melinda Ryder, and includes a collection of costumes, images, and memorabilia. Curated by Ryder and husband…
