Performance Art
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Program for a 2008 performance of Scott Turner Schofield's autobiographical exploration of transgender experience, Becoming a Man in 127 Steps.
Courtesy of Georgia State University. Special Collections, 7 Stages Theatre (Atlanta, Ga.) Records.
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Publicity photo for feminist pornographic actress, sex educator, and performance artist Annie Sprinkle's Herstory of Porn: Reel to Real in 1999. Sprinkle and her wife, artist Beth Stephens, founded the ecosexual movement combining environmental activism and erotic experience.
Courtesy of Georgia State University. Special Collections, 7 Stages Theatre (Atlanta, Ga.) Records.
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An Absolution administered by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, inviting the recipient to embrace pleasure, renounce guilt, and donate to the work of the "saintly order."
Courtesy of Georgia State University. Special Collections, Andrew Wood papers.
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Postcard for Jim Chappeleux's mostly-solo show Conversations in a Bathhouse Can Be Tricky, which addresses queer sexual history and politics interwoven with humor.
Courtesy of Georgia State University. Special Collections, 7 Stages Theatre (Atlanta, Ga.) Records.
For LGBTQ+ artists in Georgia, performance art has facilitated complex and diverse explorations of queer identity and belonging. The spoken word performance art group ADODI Muse—formed by activists Duncan Teague, Tony Daniels, and Malik M.L. Williams in 1995—shared stories of Black gay history, resilience, and pride through pieces woven out of poetry and personal narrative in a historically segregated LGBTQ+ Atlantan community. Personal narrative has continued to be a powerful source of material in performance art. Transmasculine artist Scott Turner Schofield’s 2008 Becoming a Man in 127 Easy Steps, is comprised of 127 short stories tracing Schofield’s childhood, relationships, transition, and more. The live version of the show has audience members call out numbers between 1 and 127 to determine which stories are told and in what order. On the street, performers like the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, whose Atlanta Order was established in 2009, make community engagement a part of the performance: male members dressed in nuns’ habits hold charity fundraisers for local organizations, advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, and champion free expression at events like Pride.