Greetings, my beloved Village People of the global village—well, the construction worker and the biker and the cowboy, anyhow. I think we can skip the cop and the racist caricature and add in a librarian and maybe a nurse (ohhh, in a cropped scrub top, yes). But anyhow: we have arrived at the last page of the calendar. Many of us are buying and baking and wrapping and anxiously eyeing the Canada border to see whether our travel plans are in danger, but between those worthy activities perhaps there will be moments to delight in some queer cultural business, and so… a list.
Felix d’Eon and Maria Rosa
These aren’t fancy gallery shows, but it’s gift-giving o’clock and perhaps you are looking for interesting gay things to send the interesting gays you like. I have loved the work of Mexican queer artist Felix d’Eon since approximately forever, and we have (mumble) pieces of his art in our house, and if you needed queer yeshiva boys (we did) or delicious fat trans mermen (also yes) then look here for many delights. Maria Rosa is new to me, and has a series of posters of Black women changemakers including bell hooks, may her memory be for a revolution. The series includes powerful women from Rosetta Tharpe to Ruby Bridges, wreathed and uplifted in a floral motif that is untidy and untamed.
Best Lesbian Erotica
I have an abiding affection for the BLE series, having written smut for several years worth along with many other queer writers of my acquaintance (some of whom I became very acquainted with through the process of giving readings and so forth; being a writer doesn’t pay well but sometimes you meet the absolute nicest people). They’re launching this year’s volume, Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year, volume 6 edited by the superlative Sinclair Sexsmith, in conjunction with venerable NYC reading series Drunken! Careening! Writers! (where I had a show sometime in the late 00s with Sexsmith and some other queer delights) online on Thursday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. ET and features Canadian leather powerhouse Jacqueline St-Urbain.
Ophelia After All by Raquel Marie
I will be honest: I am a little burnt out on difficult coming out stories, even in YA, and I have a lot of feelings about what gets acquired because an acquiring editor thinks it feels “realistic” aka sufficiently miserable. BUT I loved Ophelia After All by Raquel Marie. I read this cute queer Latino YA friendship and discovery story in one gulp. It is startlingly accurate and so nicely observed. Teenagers go teenager-ing about, having enormous feelings and making absolutely atrocious decisions about them. Reading it was sort of a shivery reminder rather than a forced march through the memory fields, or it was for me (and I would be just as likely to give it a straight kid looking for a little good modelling on being an ally).
Darcy and Jer
I love these gays, they’re so ridiculous and relaxing. Comedian Darcy Michaels and his husband Jer and their dogs and occasionally their daughter, and a lot of schtick about how Darcy is a stoner and Jer is a buttoned-down business type. But the truth is it’s the sweetness between them that keeps people coming back for more. The jokes are funny, the bits are good, but they still obviously and genuinely like one another after 15 years and, let’s be real, that’s a lot. Also Darcy Michaels is responsible for the fact that my family will forever refer to the garden centre as “the plant shelter.”
“Children” by Billy Porter
Listen. I love Billy Porter. I loved him on Broadway in Kinky Boots (for which he won the Tony; everybody loved him as Lola), I’ve loved him in all his recent projects, I think he is brilliant and talented and he has a new music video out and it’s fabulous (and also it is the single video anyone sent me news about this week that isn’t Christmas music, so G-d bless Billy Porter a little extra for that). The new video is for his song “Children,” and I didn’t need it to be brilliant, I just wanted to be able to listen to it on a loop while I did chores and had happy gay thoughts. But the song brought me back to my gay youth group days in a way I did not anticipate and found myself grateful for.
Jorian Charlton in Toronto
For Torontonians, you can take the chance to stay safely physically distanced and see amazing (and gigantic!) artwork. As part of ArtworxTO: Toronto’s Year of Public Art 2021-2022 Jorian Charlton’s 70-foot-tall portrait Untitled hangs from the exterior scaffolding at 330 Bay St. It features three people of different genders in fancy and frilly dresses looking very seriously at the camera as though they’re making a tintype, and the effect is stunning—especially at that size. You can read an interview with Charlton about the piece here, or just go and bask in the portrait’s very Edwardian-Lil-Nas-X vibes.
And there we have it, friends and other friends, a list of things to amuse and arouse and amaze you through the end of 2021, which frankly I was not a giant fan of. I hope yours was better, and I hope we all get a tremendous 2022 full of everything we want and nothing we don’t, and I hope we all get great haircuts and great sleep and at least one great and wild flight of fancy and I hope we all feel loved. As always, if you’re making something new and queer, email info@xtramagazine.com or DM me on Twitter with your news—I love to hear from you.
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