QUEER, ILL + OKAY

Description

Joseph Varisco In Association With Oracle Theater Presents
QUEER, ILL + OKAY
December 9 - 17, 2016

CHICAGO, IL (November 7, 2016) – Joseph Varisco, in association with Oracle Theater, is proud to present the fourth year of QUEER, ILL + OKAY, a multidisciplinary performance series featuring LGBTQ artists living with HIV and other chronic illnesses. QUEER, ILL + OKAY will be presented December 9 - 17, 2016 at Oracle Theater, 1802 W. Bernice Ave. in Chicago. Tickets are on sale now publicaccesstheatre.org. The press opening will be December 9, 2016 at 8pm.

The featured performers will be Avery R. Young, Angel Katz, Bea Cordelia, Dev_n and SK Kerastas, Dirty Grits and Vasilios Papapitsios, Emma Alamo, JuJu Minxx, Kay Ulanday Barrett, Lindsey Lee, Lucas Baisch, Michelle Zacarias, Morgan McNaught, Phillip Lambert X Blacknbrilliant and Tim'm West.

QUEER, ILL + OKAY is an annual multidisciplinary performance series exploring, challenging and reinventing narratives about the lives of queer individuals and their relationships to HIV and other forms of mental and chronic illness. After being diagnosed as HIV+ in 2013, Joe Varisco invited an expansive artistic community to create new work around the relationship between queerness, the body, and chronic illness.

“QUEER, ILL + OKAY has grown exponentially for our fourth annual production. This show is a powerfully personal exploration of reinventing narratives that is critically inclusive of a vast spectrum of experience. I could not be prouder to helm the production of an unrelentingly forward moving conversation with these artistic communities. This year we've doubled all efforts, bringing two weekends of new and original content with fourteen artists, in collaboration with Oracle Theatre and Art AIDS America Chicago, a national touring exhibition. QUEER, ILL + OKAY elevates conversation as a creative movement engaging arts and social justice as tools for effective change on a national scale," says Joe Varisco.

PRODUCTION DETAILS:
Title: QUEER, ILL + OKAY
Producer: Joseph Varisco
Performers: Avery R. Young, Angel Katz, Bea Cordelia, Deven Casey, Dirty Grits and Vasilios Papapitsios, Emma Alamo, JuJu Minxx, Kay Ulanday Barret, Lindsey Lee, Lucas Baisch, Michelle Zacarias, Morgan McNaught, Phillip Lambert and Tim'm West.

About the Creative Team

Joseph Varisco (Producer) performs independent production and development support to underrepresented, HIV+, and queer populations as Program Coordinator of Art AIDS America Chicago at Alphawood Foundation, co-curator at Salonathon, and Resident Curator for Poonie's Cabaret at Links Hall. Varisco is the creator of the annual performance series QUEER, ILL + OKAY, sits on the Victory Gardens Community Leadership Council, a recipient of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Chicago Community Trust, and Visual AIDS grants and Program Director of the Chicago Queer Arts Mentorship Program via High Concept Labs.

QUEER, ILL + OKAY is supported by AIDS Healthcare Foundation, AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Alphawood Foundation: Art AIDS America Chicago, Chicago Community Trust, Fred Says, Howard Brown Health, Links Hall, and Salonathon.