A night of experimental music and performance celebrating the release of Queens of the Night, the new album by Xina Xurner. Featuring performances by Xina Xurner (with guests San Cha, Sarah Gail, and White Boy Scream), Trap Girl, and The Uhuruverse, with a late night DJ set by La Disco Es Qultura.
Hosted by Human Resources, in conjunction with the exhibition All Hands on Deck at the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art Design, on view through April 22, 2018. With additional support from Commonwealth & Council.
Xina Xurner is an experimental music/performance collaboration between Marvin Astorga and Young Joon Kwak. Xina Xurner's performances combine DIY and power electronics, mutated vocals, and bad drag to manifest the rage, pain, struggle, laughter, and joy of embracing the “other” identity that you had not chosen, but was forced on you, as queer, trans, femme, POC. Their music combines a variety of genres (including happy hardcore, industrial, drone metal, noise, disco), to create sadical and sexperimental diva-dance anthems that evoke a sense of death, decay, and transformation. Queens of the Night is the second album by Xina Xurner following the release of their debut DIE in 2012. www.xinaxurner.com
Trap Girl is a hardcore punk band formed in 2014 by lead singer Drew Arriola-Sands in LA. Trap Girl creates pissed off and cathartic anthems that spit nihilistic venom and don’t hold back. This roaring diva outfit demands to be seen and heard. In 2015, Trap Girl released their debut album, From Diamonds to Dust, which featured hard-hitting anthems such as “I’m a Trap Girl” and “Dead Men Don’t Rape.” In 2017, they released their follow-up record, The Black Market. Their music addresses issues such as the violence all too frequently experienced by trans POC and womxn, and the risks involved with black market surgical procedures. Arriola-Sands created Queer Queens of LA, a year-round concert series featuring queer artists, and Transgress Fest, the first festival in Southern California to spotlight trans/gender nonconforming punk, hardcore, and rock musicians. www.trapgirl.bandcamp.com
The Uhuruverse is a Los Angeles-based PROTEST ARTIST who uses multiple mediums and performance styles, including burlesque, butoh, and drag, to speak against oppression and demand the liberation of womxn’s and gender nonconforming bodies. The artist is the electric guitarist for the band Fuck U Pay Us (a four piece Black femme punk band demanding land reparations for the African Holocaust and free self defense training for femmes). The Uhuruvese raps and sings, exploring other genres including but not limited to: Hip Hop, Punk, Funk, Disco, Vogue, Blues, Jazz, and New Jack Swing. In 2014, The Uhuruverse founded #SNATCHPOWER, a post-apocalyptic, afrofuturistic, women's liberationist artist collective. In 2016, The Uhuruverse directed the psychedelic film noir, FIGHT IN HEELS, a collaboration with #SNATCHPOWER. In 2018, The Uhuruverse released her album, THE BRIGHTEST ODDEST STRANGEST STAR U EVER DID SAW UP CLOSE AND AFAR FROM PLANET EARTH TO MARS AND BEYOND! www.soundcloud.com/theuhuruverse
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April 07, 2018
