There were a lot of things that happened last weekend. Leora Morris opened her production of Women Beware Women at the Iseman Theater (still going on through Jan. 29!), and it was amazing. BAR kept its doors open during the blizzard — which we from Michigan would call a “dusting” — and had a crazy party come Saturday evening. There was some killer sledding at the Div. School, which ILNH’s own Chris Randall captured. And at Lyric Hall, Luis Antonio and several performers from the New Haven area presented Escapade: An Unusual Experience as a tribute to the late Sassy Saltimbocca, an outstanding drag performer who died of cancer last fall.
Kiki Lucia, Luis Antonio and Kenny Supreme
I didn’t know Sassy. Not personally. Through my reporting, I’d learned that she was extraordinary: Robin Banks had proclaimed of her cancer “if anyone could beat it, it was her,” and I’d seen that come out as energy during her performances at the Bijou theater in Bridgeport, and those that raised funds for her here, at 168 York. Escapade too was the personification of that, each movement charged with emotion, wit and warmth.
From top: Silvia Heart, Kendra Fiercex, Radio Rose
Even in New Haven, which is an amazing, amazing arts community, this kind of ingenuity and thoughtfulness is exciting and rare. According to Antonio, there’s another performance coming up later this winter: it’s something to keep us warm, if any more blizzards raise their snowy heads.
From top: Luis Antonio, Tiana Maxim Rose, Kiki Lucia