Pride Week events include singer DavEnd, national LGBT advocate Salkind ’90

A drag show featuring an acclaimed singer-songwriter, a discussion about LGBT activism including the head of a national civil rights campaign and a film about homophobia in athletics are among public offerings during Pride Week at Bates taking place May 4-10.

The student group OUTfront hosts the second annual festival. Events are open to the public at no cost. For more information, please contact Jarron Brady, OUTfront coordinator, at jbrady@bates.edu.

“Through these events, OUTfront hopes to bring awareness to the Bates campus and increase the recognition of LGBT voices at the school,” says Brady, a first-year student from St. Louis.

“We welcome the participation of LGBT organizations and persons from the local community, and we strongly encourage residents of Lewiston-Auburn to attend.”

Among performers in the May 5 drag show is acoustic singer-songwriter DavEnd, a Maine native and San Francisco resident described as a “tender-hearted, genderqueer, costume-designing, accordion-wielding songwriter, performing artist and designer.”

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Related story: Bates has been named a top LGBT-friendly collegiate athletic program by Campus Pride.

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DavEnd has released two studio albums (How To Hold Your Own Hand and Fruits Commonly Mistaken For Vegetables, both on Olive Juice Music) and for the past five years has toured extensively in the U.S., performing at queer teen centers, festivals, colleges, theaters and back yards.

Between tours, DavEnd designs costumes, and most recently has been producing a new musical, designing costumes and dancing in production numbers for songwriter Kimya Dawson and appearing in Taylor Mac’s epic five-hour play, The Lily’s Revenge.

DavEnd’s current project, Fabulous Artistic Guys Get Overtly Traumatized Sometimes: The Musical!, brings together the worlds of music and radical performance art in a theatrical extravaganza, exploring the effects of heterosexism and street harassment on the development of queer identity.

Here’s the schedule of public events for Pride Week at Bates:

• 4 p.m. Friday, May 4: Drag Werkshop with DavEnd. This werkshop will include a history/gender heroes discussion, hands-on make-up tips for any sort of drag transformation, basic costume design tips, safety tips, theory, etc. DavEnd’s approach to drag focuses on body/gender/identity positivity and transformation more than a conventional “impersonation” drag model. Room G21, Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).
• 7 p.m. Saturday, May 5: “Lewistunning Dragapalooza,” drag show with student and professional performers including DavEnd. Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College Ave. $10.
• 1 p.m. Sunday, May 6: The panel discussion “Bobcats on the Front Lines: The World of Professional LGBT Activism.” Room 221-222, New Commons Building, 136 Central Ave. Panelists:  Susanne Salkind ’90, managing director for the Washington, D.C.-based Human Rights Campaign, the largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for LGBT Americans; Ali Vander Zanden ’06, political director for EqualityMaine; Stephen Engel, assistant professor of politics at Bates; and moderator Heather Lindkvist, special assistant to the president of Bates for diversity and inclusion.
• 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 8: “Does HIV Look Like Me?” by Todd Murray, president and founder of Hope’s Voice, an advocacy organization for people with HIV and AIDS. Murray will address the stigma of HIV, share his story of being diagnosed and answer questions. Benjamin Mays Center, 95 Russell St.
• 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 10: Training Rules, a 2009 documentary that uses the case of former Pennsylvania State University women’s basketball coach Rene Portland to examine homophobia in women’s sports. A panel discussion follows the hourlong film. Keck Classroom (G52), Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).