Lipstick Conspiracy, a transgender rock back band widely known in the Bay Area and much of the West Coast, are reuniting for a special live performance as part of West Hollywood’s WeHo Pride Arts Festival, during a screening of Riot Acts: Flaunting Gender Deviance in Music Performance. The event is taking place on Thursday, June 29, 7:30pm-9pm, at Brain Dead Studios, 611 N Fairfax Ave, in Los Angeles.
Lipstick Conspiracy formed in 2003 and generated a following until their last performance in 2010. They became known after being featured in the award-winning film Riot Acts: Flaunting Gender Deviance in Music Performance.
Band members include: Sarafina Maraschino (vocals, guitar), Tori Tait (vocals, keyboards), Shawna Love (vocals, guitar, bass), Marilyn Mitchell (vocals, guitar, bass), Emme Yarwood (drums, 2004-06), Natalie Yeh (drums, 2006)
At the time it was made (spanning 2006-2009), Angelo Madsen Minax’s Riot Acts was one of few films about trans people that was also made by trans people, and created with one specific goal in mind: to combat mainstream images of isolation and destitution, to demonstrate that the journey within a trans experience isn’t always one of tragedy, but one of creativity and joy. Documenting the multi-faceted lives of transgender and gender variant musicians, Riot Acts takes the shape of a lo-fi road movie-come-concert video to suggest that identities and bodies are undeniably political.—Angelo Madsen Minax
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Each year, the City of West Hollywood celebrates the artistic contributions of the LGBTQ community with its WeHo Pride Arts Festival (formerly known as the One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival). The festival runs for 40 days, from Harvey Milk Day on Monday, May 22, 2023 through Friday, June 30, 2023, which marks the end of Pride month.
For nearly four decades, the City of West Hollywood has been home to the largest Pride celebration in Southern California, as hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ people and allies from around the world make West Hollywood their destination for the Pride season. A complete list of this year’s WeHo Pride Arts Festival events, along with #WeHoPride Weekend events, is available by visiting www.wehopride.com.
