There's a story Terre
Thaemlitz, aka DJ Sprinkles, tells in a footnote to an address given
at Tate Modern a few weeks ago, and which is now published on
Thaemlitz's website. It tells how, while DJ-ing a deep house set at
the closing party of the event – a queer and trans-gender cultural
symposium - Thaermlitz was approached by a blonde-haired woman who
requested something be played by Madonna. When Thaemlitz declined to
play anything by her or any of the woman's other requests, she turned
nasty, and started calling Thaemlitz a faggot before staff moved her
away from the DJ booth.
Such an ugly incident
speaks volumes about how deep-rooted homophobia remains in society.
The fact that this was a queer and trans-gender event makes the
incident even worse. This is just one of the concerns which may be
raised in 'Episode 5: Hidden in Plain Sight', Episode 5 of Instal and
Kill Yr Timid Notion festival founders Arika's latest line of
inquiry, which gives as much discussion space to the philosophical
and political ideas behind a particular sonic form as it does to the
music itself.
Episode 4: Freedom is A
Constant Struggle, which runs this weekend, looks at the relationship
between poetry, jazz and revolution in the dissident black American
culture that grew from the 1960s civil rights movement. Following on
from this, Episode 5: Hidden in Plain Sight, which takes place next
month, looks at the gay, bi and trans-gender sub-cultures based
around the House Ballroom scene of the 1980s, which sired vogueing
and other flamboyant dance styles, as well as embracing drag and
lip-synching alongside a deep house soundtrack into what seemed from
the outside like the greatest party on the planet. Especially when it
was co-opted into the mainstream by pop cultural magpie and material
girl, Madonna. Thaemlitz, however, who chooses
to switch between gender pronouns when writing or talking about
him/herself, sees it
differently, and is almost mournful about the culture he is both
immersed in, while remaining outside of it.
“The way in which
queer club culture and trans-gender club culture is tied to ecstacy
and pleasure,” Thaemlitz says, “what that means is that people
don't always see that it is tied to a lot of social strife. This idea
that clubs are about community, and finding some kind of place where
outsiders can all be together, that helps the clubs keep their power
as a kind of fake safe space.”
The social strife
Thaemlitz is talking about, of course, is the rise of the AIDS virus
which decimated many from the House Ballroom scene. Maybe this
recognition that the party was over before anyone was prepared to
admit it is in part what's left Thaemlitz out in the cold. As a
non-op trans-gender person and an ultra-articulate polemicist and
critic of the scene, Thaemlitz's stance hasn't always gone down well
with what one might presume to be her natural constituency.
“Most of the time I'm
just ignored by them,” she says, “It's so rare to be asked to
play in the queer club scene.”
For almost twenty
years, Thaemlitz has combined a prolific musical output under
assorted names including DJ Sprinkles, with a series of public
speaking provocations that counter received orthodoxies about queer
and trans-gender culture. Now also in charge of the Comatonse
Recordings label, she remains wilfully singular in her world-views.
“It's more like I did
something in the eighties and nineties, and then stopped,” she
says, “whereas now it's more about a decline both personally and
sonically in music. For me, whatever's happening now is a critique of
the house music of the past, when, for me, what was going on in the
eighties was the most interesting time. Remermber in the eighties
when there was all this retro thing for the sixties, with all these
sixties soundtracks on Vietnam War films? That's kind of what it's
like for me now with eighties house music. It's like going to an
oldies night. I'm kind of anti-futurist in that way. I'm not a
dreamer or an anticipator. I'm still trying to catch up with the
present, and that's as much as I can hope for.”
For Hidden in Plain
Sight, Thaemlitz will take part in three events. The first two of
these will draw from Soullessness, a project which saw her put
together some thirty-two hours of music, eighty minutes of video and
150 pages of writings and images that looks at gender, spirituality
and a myriad of things besides in an epic mash-up of sound and
vision. In Glasgow, Thaemlitz will read extracts from texts followed
by a discussion, and will perform parts one through to four of
Soullessness. Then, as DJ Sprinkles, she will play at two club nights
which bring together House Ballroom stalwarts, including The
Legendary Pony Zion Garcon, who brings Vogue Evolution, a dance
troupe focusing on social concerns, to town; as well as black
transgender lipsynch artist, boychild.
While this should
capture the House Ballroom scene in all its glory, Thaemlitz for one
sees little to celebrate.
“It still goes back
to that blonde woman,” she says, “giving out all those homophobic
slurs to me and to others. It's really important to understand that
this is still happening.”
Episode 4: Freedom is A
Constant Struggle, April 18-21; Episode 5: Hidden in Plain Sight, May
24-26, Tramway, Glasgow. Hidden in Plain Sight: Club, Stereo,
Glasgow, May 24-25
The List, April 2013
ends
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