Hi!
Boy, things have been so messed up in our country and our world that it’s difficult to know which way is up. I think a lot of us have been, to quote my good friend, writer Kristin Dombek, “stalled, overloaded, or paralyzed with rage and grief,…[our] attention…captured by billionaires and warlords, and/or [we]’re feeling alone in the chaos of [our] own projects”! So in my disorienting rage, grief, and loneliness, please indulge me in introducing this brief* missive about me and my life with a few pertinent questions:
Who am I?
Where am I?
What am I doing?
Is it really October already?
Well, I just checked with my secret sources, and the answer to the last question is yes, so I will use this information to deduce answers to at least two of the others*. If it’s October, that means that I am losing my shit, because I’m in New York (answer to question #2) for only a couple weeks before I finally leave for St. Louis to do this crazy, ambitious, passion-inducing, scary, spectacular show that I’ve been obsessing over for the past several months (answer to question #3).
My performance is called “It’s in My Nature to Believe,” and it’s going to be in a circus tent. There’s probably a few of you who don’t know how much I love the circus, so I’ll tell you here: I LOVE THE CIRCUS VERY MUCH! This performance, curated by Laura Raicovich and presented by Counterpublic, St. Louis’ dreamiest non-profit, will be part of a whole evening that I’m emceeing on October 25th, which is exciting enough already, because I will get to wear my new sequined top hat AND I will be introducing two esteemed performers: writer, musician, dancer, filmmaker, and performance artist Brontez Purnell and Democracy Now! cohost Nermeen Shaikh. After that, I take over with 30 minutes of radical love, Larry-style! I cannot tell you how excited I am about all the collaborators I have brought in to be a part of this. My band includes my secret weapon, husband, and lover Jim Andralis (of course) and also on Bass, Donald Williams with whom I briefly played saxophone in his band Sinister Dane when I was still living in St. Louis thirty-six years ago, my old friend and collaborator Alex Mutrux on pedal steel guitar, and someone new to the Larry Krone and Family band, Mort Hill, who will join me on a tender duet. Mort used to be the lead singer for Country-punky band Diamond Stud (along with Alex and Alex’s wife & U. City legend Carol Crudden), and I always loved his dramatic country crooning style. Now we get to hear it in my show!
One of my greatest joys of planning this show has been working with and getting to know The Aerialas, aerialist recruits from Alison Headley’s St. Louis Aerial Collective (or SLAC)! This group of aerialists has so much talent, strength, beauty, power, and soul—I just can’t believe that they will be performing alongside me as part of my show!! They will be performing on sling, silks, lyra, and pole throughout the evening, and I just can’t wait for everybody to see what they can do. AND for everybody to see the hand-stitched aerial costumes and velvet capes I made for them!
There will also be a special appearance by the Black Tulip Chorale, St. Louis’ LGBTQIA+ chorus for all voices led by Robert Stumpf. Listen, I’m a crier, so maybe this won’t mean that much to anyone, but Kristin Fleischman-Brewer of Counterpublic and I were on a search for a queer and/or diverse St. Louis choir, and surprisingly to me, there are several of them! When I went to the Black Tulip Chorale’s YouTube page and watched their version of “The Rose” combined with the 1609 German hymn “Lo, how a Rose,” I burst into uncontrollable tears. There, now you finally know the truth—I’m a softie who loves music!
There is one other person who’s involved in the show, and it is about time she got in on the act! My best friend Becca Schock and her mother Francie Broderick are the ones who taught me about chosen family long, long ago when I didn’t think I needed one. They taught me just by being one, so it is particularly meaningful to me that Becca has a very special role in “It’s in my Nature to Believe”.
Hell, the whole thing is going to be great! And I didn’t even mention that my evening is just one part of a whole weekend’s worth of events and workshops at Counterpublic’s Circus of Life convening taking place Friday, October 24 thru Sunday, October 26 at the Circus Flora Big Top in St. Louis’ Grand Center.
The other artists and participants throughout the weekend include Roxane Gay, Bread and Puppet Theater, Chloë Bass, Hilma’s Ghost, Department of Transformation, and many more. You can register HERE to reserve your FREE tickets to my precious “It’s in my Nature to Believe” or any of the other presentations and workshops being offered.
Now, for those of you who hate reading about things, this could be the newsletter for you, because the whole Counterpublic thing has been consuming me since curator Laura Raicovich asked me to do it—partially because I’m so inspired and it is legitimately a ton of work, and partially because burying myself in this project and in my interactions with all of my wonderful collaborators has been a relatively effective way to remind myself that the world can be a good place. Whatever the reason, I’ve had hardly any time to do anything else.
Happily, though, artist & friend Roxanne Wolanczyk invited me to be her titular “plus one” for a sweet group show whose titties, I mean title is “Plus One” opening October 11 at Peep Space in Tarrytown, New York. I’ll be showing one of my sequined pieces “Then and Now (People #3)” alongside Roxanne’s beautiful ceramic piece, “I keep the knowledge that all I require is already mine. I am lucky to have this place in the world.” This is my first time showing my work in the Hudson area, so let’s just see what it’s all about, shall we?
Quick piece of fun history: I started “Then and Now (People #3)” in 2018 at MacDowell but it was unfinished until I had the chance to go to Caldera, an artists’ residency in Sisters, Oregon. That time at Caldera was frustrating for me, because I had unwisely planned to piggyback the residency with a set-design job in Portland with Hand2Mouth Theater. The design job was more work than I’d anticipated, so I brought that work to Caldera and struggled to find time there when I could focus on my own work. I got very little done on “Then and Now (People #3)” and ended my time at Caldera feeling disappointed at how little I had accomplished. A huge blizzard came into the area just as I was leaving Caldera, though, and I got stranded in Bend, Oregon for 2 days. I spent all the money I made from the set design job on the hotel in Bend where I watched the ENTIRETY of the 1977 TV mini-series “Roots” from beginning to end while I completed “Then and Now (People #3)”! How about that!
These are unprecedented times, and I have unprecedentedly little planned for myself after the big St. Louis show. This is good, because I will want to rest and ease into doing something new. Also, because it will give me time to hit it hard with Fall of Freedom!
Recently, I have been moderately involved with the powerhouse group of artists and arts administrators—led by art/activist heroes Dread Scott and Laura Raicovich among others— who have planned an artists’ revolt against the fascism we are experiencing now in this country. It feels like a revolt, but it’s actually a peaceful “moment” of solidarity scheduled for this upcoming November 21st. I’m probably saying it wrong. Here’s something directly from the Fall of Freedom website:
Fall of Freedom is an urgent call to the arts community to unite in defiance of authoritarian forces sweeping the nation. Our Democracy is under attack. Threats to free expression are rising. Dissent is being criminalized. Institutions and media have been recast as mouthpieces of propaganda.
This Fall, we are activating a nationwide wave of creative resistance. Beginning November 21–22, 2025, galleries, museums, libraries, comedy clubs, theaters, and concert halls across the country will host exhibitions, performances, and public events that channel the urgency of this moment. Fall of Freedom is an open invitation to artists, creators, and communities to take part—and to celebrate the experiences, cultures, and identities that shape the fabric of our nation.
Art matters. Artists are a threat to American fascism.
See? They’re amazing. If you want to get involved, as an organizer, an artist, or a presenting institution of any size, please visit the Fall of Freedom website and see how easy it is to become a part of this great action!
Besides Fall of Freedom, my near future seems to hold getting back to writing my multi-genre memoir “More Than You Need to Know About an Artist You’ve Never Heard Of, which I must admit has been neglected these days. Hey, who ever gave you the idea that I could create masterpieces in every discipline of the fine arts all at once?? Oh, it was me? Nevermind. All excuses and disclaimers aside, I will have a very short piece of writing published in the December issue of Artforum, which does show that I have done a little writing these days, but let’s wait until after December to talk about that!
The other thing that I’ll be doing is getting back to work in the studio—my own real one at home and also my pretend dream one that I borrow from my friend Alex Gorlizki when he’s not using it. I got some time in there at the end of this summer where I got a good chunk done on the eternal project, “Then and Now (Everybody Loves Flowers #4)”. Would you care to see some pictures of what I did there? They’re pretty pictures, so I hope you say yes!
I’m hoping to get this piece to a state where I can take it with me on my upcoming trip to Yaddo in February, and FINISH IT! Wish me luck!
Just some quick little recaps of some things that happened in the last few months, and then I promise you can put on your diapers and go to bed, as Bridget Everett likes to say. Speaking of Bridget, House of Larréon has been on a little bit of a hiatus while I have absorbed all of their resources to make the costumes for this St. Louis circus thing, but we did get some great play in a feature about Bridget in Playgirl Magazine, with a thoughtful interview by Mickey Boardman and gorgeous photographs of a Larréon-draped Bridget taken by Allison Michael Orenstein.
In other news, this past June, [Tracy MacDonald and her] I[ncredible ARTinc. team at Rhode Island PBS] got an Emmy for [ several shows including] the piece ARTinc. did about me!! See what I did there? I made it seem like I won the Emmy, but I am just as happy and proud of Tracy and her team for winning the Boston/New England Emmy for Arts/Entertainment, Long Form Content as I would have been if it was specifically for me. They so deserve it for all that they have done on that amazing show and yes, for how they treated my story when they followed me around on the day of and after my show, “What A Difference” at Joe’s Pub in 2023. If you haven’t seen that piece, please give it a watch, and then watch the other ARTinc. episodes—they are all so good and only about 10 minutes each!
One of the few other things I’ve done in these past several months besides obsess over top hats, leotards, and capes has been to write songs. September 19th, I got the chance to perform a few of the new ones at my beloved Francis Kite Club with Jim and our friend, singer/ songwriter extraordinaire, Phoebe Kreutz in our “Back to Cool” show! It turned out to be a great evening with a big crowd, and I was happy to get those fresh babies out into the world. (gross!)
One of my favorites is a little love song I wrote to Jim and the city of Rome. Last October was Jim’s & my 10 year wedding anniversary, and we celebrated by going to Italy. Jim & I have been so broke and busy throughout the entire 20 years that we’ve been together that we somehow stopped traveling. This trip was the first time we left the country together alone, and it was dreamy. Everything seemed especially romantic, and Italy doesn’t really need any help in that department, anyway, especially in Rome. I guess what I’m trying to say is please enjoy these lyrics to a song about just loving Rome, its trees, its people, and Jim.
Pino Domestico
There’s a tree, it’s a favorite of mine
A special kind of tree, a certain kind of pine
I see this tree when I close my eyes
Some people call it the umbrella pine
It’s bare on the trunk up most of the way
Like a classic palm tree you’d see in LA
But up at the top it spreads and fills out
To make an umbrella of green puffy clouds
And when there’s another of these trees nearby
They join at the top to shield from the sky
All of the people walking far below
The special kind of people you find in Rome
Rome
Rome
Rome
Rome
In the shelter of this pine canopy
The people of Rome live under the green
With dapples of sunlight brightening the scene
Two of those people are Jim and me
In closing, I would like to announce that I have pretty much mastered the aerial arts! Thank you to Lauren Weiler, Lisa Tang, and Becca Schock for the comprehensive lesson. I’m pretty sure I can take it from here.
Thanks so much for reading this. It was a little shorter than usual, right?***
Please send me updates on what you’re doing, too. I would love to know!
*Yeah, right!
** The answer to that first one, “Who am I?” miiiiight take a little longer than we have time for today.
***DON’T GET USED TO IT.
Oh, and please follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube if you are so inclined.
Thank you, and good night.