Ms. Blakk for President
On Wednesday I ventured to Chicago from Green Bay (four hours nonstop) with a coworker to attend the production of Ms. Blakk for President at Steppenwolf theater. Based off the real life experiences of Joan Jett Blakk in the early nineties. Joan was a drag queen who was able to get herself on to several state ballots for presidential candidates.
The creator of the play, Tina Landau held a discussion following the play. Unfortunately, few remained to take part in the discussion. Hopefully, audience members left with plenty to discuss regarding how queer history parallels current queer culture as well as other current minority groups attempting to be brought into the fold. The discussion sparked more conversation about queer identity. I enjoyed the younger and older reactions to the play.
The stage was setup like a runway adorned in hot pink and black queer history iconography. The actors were able to use the unique runway stage to it’s full advantage, making sure to turn and face the different sides of the audience. Utilizing television screens to play real historical video clips, helped validate the importance of telling Ms. Blakk’s storyline of events.
One thing that caught me was how group and individual differences for how far to take things mirrored what I had seen portrayed with Harvey Milk and The Advocate magazine. Queer Nation just wanted to be mentioned, wanted the AIDS crisis to be mentioned but Ms. Blakk wanted more. Arguably Ms. Blakk’s queer identity threatened Queer Nation’s idea of being accepted in a more mainstream way. We’ve seen these mainstream arguments about moving the needle inch by inch. The HRC trying to push through a non-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act is the first to come to mind. This began discussions in the LGBT community about whether the transgender community needed to split off and be separate. Ms. Blakk would have been placed in another realm of wanting too much for herself in the moment.
Thankfully, a knowledge of queer history is not needed to come away with a lasting impression. I looked at the play through two different lenses. One lens was what I knew about the type of environment it was back then in the Reagan years. The other lens was through an interest in one day creating a play that teaches and ignites action for change. I was taken back to the memory of a video of Dustin Lance Black talking about his playwright process, making characters really real.
As much of a pain as it was (mostly in my driving leg) to drive back to Green Bay and arrive at 1:30am, I enjoyed going to the play as well as getting out of my comfort zone. I would have never gotten an idea to drive down to Chicago on a Wednesday afternoon for a play. I’m glad we did it. Given that this Saturday is Green Bay’s annual Pride event, it was a good reminder of living our lives openly and honestly under whatever labelled identities we use to describe ourselves.
“You as an alive and functioning queer are a revolutionary.” ~Queer Nation Manifesto 1990