HTBAF: Joy
When: Friday June 27th, 7PM-9PM
Where: Open Source Gallery, 306 17th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215
How To Build A Fire is back with Season 11! The first HTBAF of the season is during Pride – without ignoring the fight for justice, we can play, revel, find pleasure in, and commune with our identities. We can tell playful stories that lift us up. As we fight for justice protect our siblings, push back, and stand up against hate, there is still joy – Capital J Joy – in community spaces where we are holding each other up, celebrating each other, and providing space for the multiple truths we carry. Join us for stories of play – play as resilience, play as power, play as truth, play and community, play as pride.
Storytellers:
Brendan McCall
Brendan McCall is a movement artist who most recently performed in Keith Thompson´s Love Alone Anthology Project, inspired by the writings of AIDS activist Paul Monette. He has danced and acted internationally for over 35 years, working in over 40 countries on 5 continents, and for 12 years lived in Norway, Turkey, and Australia. He has taught at conservatories, universities, and graduate programs for over 30 years, is a co-founder of the Allan Wayne Work Alliance, and is currently co-producing the US premiere of Dave & Golly from Nela Kornetová. Brendan writes for thINKingDANCE and Culturebot, directs & writes for Interzone Films, teaches at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and publishes award-winning fiction under a pseudonym.
Kate Bohl
Kate Bohl was born a very, very confused boy at the end of the middle of the last century. She tried hard (pun intended) to be a boy for almost 60 years until she found the arcane vocabulary that she’d been missing her entire life and suddenly, things made sense. Shit was harder than ever, but she understood it. She loves to write, tell stories, nerd out, cook, flirt, and explore the world she’s found herself in. Kate is a momma bear, ergo, all’s well so long as you don’t fuck with her cubs. She’s performed nationally, had her stories replayed multiple times on renowned podcasts, taught acting, met countless famous people and is a complete fuck up. Don’t sweat it—she already has a crush on you.
Sophia Pazos
Sophia Pazos, (she/ella), is a fat, sober, bisexual, Latine, Scorpio, cat lady and native New Yorker (Go Mets!). By day she exists in the giant government machinery as a social work administrator. By night, she escapes the bureaucracy in a private therapy practice and listens to an obscene amount of history and true crime podcasts. Sophia has performed several times for Queer Memoir. When she began her story telling, Sophia had dreams of being an elegant, poised, erudite performer; a Rita Hayworth of storytelling. Now in her postmenopausal stage of her life, she has accepted (begrudgingly) that she is in fact a neurodivergent Lucy Ricardo of storytelling. Que Sera Sera! Sophia is minimally active (like a good Gen X’er) on Facebook, Instagram, and Discord.
Michele Carlo is a writer, storyteller (and sometime actor) who has told stories across the U.S., on NPR (Latino USA and WNYC radio); and the WGBH-PBS series “Stories from the Stage.” She is also the author of the NYC-set memoir “Fish Out of Agua.”
