{"id":27336,"date":"2025-10-15T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T16:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=27336"},"modified":"2025-10-09T12:38:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T19:38:59","slug":"pieces-of-performance-backstage-shade-festival-quotables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2025\/10\/15\/pieces-of-performance-backstage-shade-festival-quotables\/","title":{"rendered":"Pieces of Performance<\/em>: Backstage Shade Festival quotables"},"content":{"rendered":"

Be sure to pay attention and learn your history. That blood, sweat, and tears ended slavery. As we watch abroad, we see the desecration of soil. While millionaires live in spoil. Now we fight once again to protect our rights. Through rallies and education we hang on until light. To be part of the revolution is to speak up for others. Our sisters, mothers, fathers, and brothers. From Palestine, Sudan, Congo, and more. There will never be blood spilled that you could ignore. Protest, fight, scream, and support. It is our fight, we\u2019re all connected, like our ancestors before.<\/i><\/p>\n

Sharing the green room in the McPherson Playhouse is a memorable experience for myself as a performer; to share it with an all-BIPOC cast of incredibly talented and magical people put it over the top. Shade Burlesque Festival made its debut on September 26 and 27 with headliners Mx. Pucks A\u2019Plenty and Joy Rider. Joining the mix was the legendary Ka\u2019ena and host with the most Coco Ros\u00e9.<\/p>\n

I asked some of the performers for their thoughts on the Shade festival experience and for some words of wisdom while we waited to hit the stage and watched from behind the curtains as others captivated the audience.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The writer performing (photo by Kitty Photography).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cShade is one of the best backroom experiences of my life,\u201d said Mx. Bukuru. \u201cTo be without witness is to be free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting deep into self-love and living for yourself, Alexa Perplexa offered the best way to be in the moment and make it yours.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to define what burlesque means to you,\u201d said Perplexa. \u201cThere\u2019s no one right way. Make it work for you, your body, and abilities. And bring your own brand.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Stagehands are some of the best people to work alongside. They need to be on top of prop handling, placing, helping performers with their numbers, and tracking articles of clothing tossed on stage or into the crowd. Jasper Jinx and Oliver Clozoff were a strong team and Jinx\u2019s experience speaks volumes to how management and producing makes all the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It was] very well organized,\u201d said Jinx. \u201cAs one of the stagehands, the notes were so well kept and included so much information [to arrange the stage]. Loved the energy and love Cherry [Cheeks] put into the whole show.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The intensity of preparation for this festival may affect my grades as I drowned in 15,000 rhinestones, but being able to display my most powerful number was worth it all. Opening with my own writing (see beginning) before \u201cEmpire Now\u201d by Hozier unleashed feelings of strength, hope, and yearning. And performing this piece in front of someone I admire so much made it all the more special\u2014Mx. Pucks A\u2019Plenty is a huge inspiration for myself and I\u2019m sure many BIPOC performers as they are the most down-to-earth, well-spoken, and caring individual. The amount of care they pour into their own passion is astounding.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing part of Shade is an honour,\u201d Mx. Pucks A\u2019Plenty told me. \u201cI have been a performer for eight years and this is my first time headlining a festival. As a producer of an all-BIPOC festival in Seattle, I am excited to welcome Shade as a sibling festival and support each other with our missions to highlight and elevate performers of colour.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the best advice goes to CallMeKeeks, who said that \u201cIf you think you gotta pee, you probably do\u2026 Go pee before you put the whole outfit on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Be sure to pay attention and learn your history. That blood, sweat, and tears ended slavery. As we watch abroad, we see the desecration of soil. While millionaires live in spoil. Now we fight once again to protect our rights. Through rallies and education we hang on until light. To be part of the revolution […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-october-15-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27338,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27336\/revisions\/27338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}