WEEKEND ROUNDUP: Sorry I’m Just Human, Attic Youth Center Drag and More
Every Friday we round up Philly’s gayest weekend must-dos. Today we start with Sorry I’m Just Human by Sebastian.
Local artist Sebastian‘s latest dance piece, Sorry I’m Just Human, combines the art of movement with the struggles within our community, and when I say “our” community. I mean our community.
The piece was actually created from 200 anonymous surveys he sent people all over the city, surveys in which folks revealed their biggest fears, worries, and insecurities. “When I got the responses I felt [I was collecting people’s prayers],” he says. “All these people were sending me all these things that you normally don’t say to anyone, and you wonder if anyone else feels the same.”
Sebastian says his motivation for the performance was to generate a sense of healing that draws from his own painful past. “I grew up on military bases, both my father and stepmother were military, and my father is Jamaican — very strict, very traditional … just very.”
They would question his behavior, and why he was so feminine. The last straw came when he signed up for a school talent show and his mom gave him this piece of advice: “There are people who were meant to be in front of the camera and there are people meant to be behind the camera. You were meant to be behind the camera.” Sebastian left graduation and never looked back.
Now with Sorry I’m Just Human, he hopes to encourage people to “ … treat others the way they want to be treated. Understand that we all have problems and worries, and if we can help each other with these problems instead of only focusing on ourselves, we can actually get somewhere.”
Art and performance was an escape from Sebastian’s painful past, and he hopes to provide that escape for anyone else who needs it. In his own words he says wants to, “Return the favor to the universe.” Sat., Feb. 22, 9 p.m., $10, The Black Box at Underground Arts. For more information click here.
FRIDAY
- Show your support for the Attic Youth Center at its fourth annual drag show, Sweethearts & Red Hots
- The fund-raising Freak Boutique is back, this time raising dough for Philippines Disaster Relief
- Craving classic burlesque? Lil’ Steph’s Rasputin’s Room will give you what you need and more
- Men of All Colors Together (MACT) come together to celebrate Black History Month with presentations, light refreshments, and more
- In need of a man break? Ladies take center stage at Stimulus’ fifth annual Red & Pink
- Head upstairs from Red & Pink and check out Sauce at Voyeur, a top-floor dance party featuring Drootrax
SATURDAY
- Interested in becoming a Philly Gryphon? Don’t miss the Rugby Boot Camp which will teach even newcomers all that they need to be a star athlete
- Lickr Girl Party strikes again — this time at Room 12
- Time to get creative with the latest Qventure — an evening painting class followed by drinks at Tabu
- William Way presents the fourth classical piano concert by Ching-Yun Hu
- See what’s under the beard at Josh Schonewolf’s Weird Beard Revue, hosted by Mistor Fahrenheit
- The Bike Shop presents Bears and Boxers, featuring Philly stud Gunnar Montana
DOWN THE ROAD: Make plans for G Philly‘s LGBT Flower Show party next Sunday, March 2nd