I'm so excited to share that I was featured as an artist on the rise in The Boston Globe!

You can check out the article here: 

Hi Everyone!

I hope you're all having a great summer! Mine has been nonstop shows and I'm so excited to tell you about the one that is happening tomorrow! 

I am teaming up with my hosting partner, Smalley...again! We are thrilled to present a variety show that is stacked with local comedic, dance, and performance talent! 

Here's the details:

Ring, ring – pick up that Dream Phone, it’s your secret admirer calling. Ginny Nightshade and Will Smalley are having a sleepover and you’re invited! 

Ginny and Will are your hosts with the most…s…, bringing you a night of variety, comedy, and burlesque at the Davis Square Theatre, presented by our friends at Old School Game Show. In true sleepover fashion, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll fight with your best friend over who gets married to Bobby in a game of M*A*S*H. Ugh, GREAT, here come Will and Ginny’s dads, Michael D'Angelo and Ethan Marsh… AGAIN. How much laundry needs to done and sorted during a party?

So what does this night have in store for us? Can Sake Toomey get Will to fall in love with her? (Probably not, let’s get real.) …What is Polly Surelyeven doing?

Put on your PJs, grab your favorite sleeping bag, and don’t forget to hit *67 before you make that prank call. Get your 4th of July weekend started off right at The Sleepover with Ginny and Will, presented by Old School Game Show, July 2nd at the Davis Square Theatre! 

COMEDY ACTS:
Rob Crean
Kofi Thomas
Emily Ruskowski

BURLESQUE PERFORMANCES BY
Sammy Temper
Lucky Charming
Cheekie Devine & Tuesday Addams
Sake Toomey
Polly Surely

HOSTED BY
Ginny Nightshade & Will Smalley

PRODUCED BY
Polly Surely & Sake Toomey

PRESENTED BY
Old School Game Show

Get your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-sleepover-presented-by-old-school-game-show-tickets-25993491232

Poster design by Michael D'Angelo, photos  by Roger Gordy.

Hello! 

It's been a busy summer of performing, creating, and producing! Here's some of the fun stuff I've been up to:

1) Revenge of the Robot Battle Nuns! I'm a proud member of Boston's horror burlesque troupe The Slaughterhouse Sweethearts. In June and July, we put on the 4th staging of Revenge of the Robot Battle Nuns, a sci-fi epic created by our troupe leader, Fem Bones. One of the biggest characters in the show is Sweetheart, the President’s daughter. Throughout the show, Sweetheart travels through post-apocalyptic America while mutating, encountering all kinds of monsters, and learning a little something about friendship. For the last 3 years, the role has been portrayed by Fem Bones, but I was given the honor of playing the character this time around. It was amazing! Sweetheart begins the show as a beautiful and bratty socialite and finishes the show as a mutated sea creature. The costuming, makeup, splatter, and character work was really fun!
Check out some images of the show by Jonathan Beckley below:

2) Old School Game Show! I'm the executive producer of Old School Game Show an alt-trivia variety show filled with sketch comedy, live music, and audience interactive games. There's nothing quite like it and I'm really proud to be a part of this show. Our swinging 60s-themed season finale in June allowed me to push myself and try new things. I played several parts, including a role where I had to sing! The creator and host of the show, Mike D'Angelo, continues to push and inspire me with each new episode. I've gotten to play all sorts of wacky characters as well as facilitate a lot of the off-stage organization. We will be back on October 18th at Oberon in Cambridge with our season opener and Halloween show! You can see some shots that Roger Gordy took at June's show below!

3) I Put a Spell on You: A New Number! I sustained a significant injury in February and have been dealing with the physical limitations of that since then. Luckily things seem to be on the mend, but I refused to let it stop me. I had to modify old numbers and create new numbers to accommodate the injury to my back. One of these numbers is my classic burlesque piece (with a twist) to Jeff Beck's cover of "I Put a Spell on You."

In July I traveled to Cleveland Ohio to perform as a featured performer in the 5th Annual Ohio Burlesque Festival. It was a real honor to be sharing the stage with some of my favorite performers and to meet a bunch of new people! I love hopping on a plane, with my bat wings in tow, to visit a city I don't reside in. I was proud to represent Boston Burlesque, alongside excellent performer and friend Honey Pie, at this festival!

I Put a Spell on You Images from Sparkletown Productions Presents: Under the Covers (C:Hans Wendland & Jonathan Beckley) and Bon Appetit Burlesque (C: Ben Johnson) and Ohio Burlesque Festival: 

4) The Getaway! Last month I had the pleasure of teaming up with local comedian Will Smalley to put together a really cool show called The Getaway! We had a stacked lineup of burlesque, comedy, sideshow, and music. Will is one of my favorite people and is a staple of the Boston comedy scene. We loved combining multiple performance arts to present a show that was a fresh take on old fashioned variety shows. We both hosted and performed and our lineup of performers was SO good:

Jane Doe
Sake Toomey
Claude Kitten & Butch Sassidy
Allix Mortis
Dale Stones
Ken Reid
Nick Chambers
Andrew Mayer
The Slaughterhouse Sweethearts
and DJ Lil Mermaid




We can't wait to produce more of these shows and dates will be forthcoming! 

You can check out Will's interview with The Globe here and our interview on WEMF here

We did a really fun photo shoot on Will's motorcycle with Roger Gordy for the promo pics. Michael D'Angelo did all of the design and he's fantastic:

5) Here's a fun thing! Bon Appetit Burlesque has come out with a Burlesque coloring book featuring a ton of awesome, ready to be colored, performers! My Wolf in Peep's Clothing act is featured on one of the fabulous pages! The coloring book was created to celebrate their 5 year Anniversary and the drawings are done by artist Amy J Gardiner. You can pre-order the coloring book here. When you color me in PLEASE send me a pic! Don't worry about staying in lines, Never apologize for your art!

6) Special Announcement! I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be traveling to both The New Orleans Burlesque Festival and The New York City Burlesque Festival to perform The Slaughterhouse Sweethearts' award winning number, Chainsaw! I am so excited to be travelling with Fem Bones and Belle Gunz and hope that we don't die from too much fun. We worked really hard on this number and are so excited to be able to show it off in NOLA and NYC! 

If you've seen the number, then you know that it's fucking HOT. If you've seen it, then I know you love it and because you love it, please take a look at our GoFundMe campaign to help raise money for our mini tour!

7) What's Next!? Lots of stuff! 

You can check me out at Alternatease: New England's Neo-Burlesque Festival where I'll be performing in 3 acts:
1) A duet with Mary Widow where we will be making Christmas a little creepy & a whole lot sexier (8/13)
2) A BRAND NEW NUMBER with The Slaughterhouse Sweethearts. (oink oink- is all I'm going to say)(8/13)
3) Your last chance to see Chainsaw before we go on our mini-tour! We'll be returning as last year's winners of the Top Banana Award on Friday night! (8/14)
Check out more info about the show here.

For more upcoming shows check out my show calendar!!

What's this? Do I detect less freezing weather and SUNSHINE? Dare I say we are coming out of the darkness and into the light?! Here's hoping!

Despite the horrible winter putting a damper on shows and other events, I stayed busy by working with some of my favorite photographers. 

The first gallery is a session I did with Drew Ritter at Mass Exposure. We were working on getting photos for an article in Well Done Boston that I was interviewed for. (Coming soon!) Drew shot me with several different looks, including the Ice Queen! He dug me out my very own throne! It was freezing out and veryyy slippery.  I took a couple steps into the driveway and then it looked a little something like this:

It was totally worth the humiliation! Check out the photos in the gallery below:

I also got the opportunity to work with Hans Wendland again.  Hans is a well known photographer in the Boston Burlesque scene and shot me when I was first starting out as a performance artist. We've worked together a bunch and always have a great time.  Hans also took photos of me and Allix Mortis for the poster for The Midnight Mischief Cabaret's debut show.

 Bindle, The 3 legged wonder dog, kept trying to get into the shots! 

We took some experimental photos and are planning to do even more.  Hans had the  job of having to censor out my nipples (ridiculous but necessary for posting) in some of the photos. 

You can check out some of them (nipple free) by clicking on the gallery below: 

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is
- T.S. Elliot

Hello out there!

What the fuck, friends? What even with these past couple months of turmoil and bullshit!? Can we all just decide it's 2015 and now we can start being kind to ourselves, being supportive to our friends, and kicking ass? I can only speak for myself, but despite all the success in my life over the past year, 2014 was kind of an asshole. I went through some shit,  a lot of us did.  I've noticed that a lot of us are having a hard time. Whether it is holiday-related, personal strife, seasonal depression, whatever it may be- a lot of people seem to be in need of positivity. Fuck, I know I am. 

This isn't a place to share my super personal shit, so I'm just going to make the vague statement that in September my personal life fell apart , completely unexpectedly. September and October are a really busy time of year for me. When you're in a Horror burlesque troupe, October is a big month for shows. So, despite the personal trauma I was experiencing, I dove head first into work. I'm lucky in that my work also involves a chosen family  who held me up throughout everything. A lot of people asked me how I was doing  it all despite what I was going through. I'm not sure I can answer that, but I can try. 

- Focus on the things that you love to do. Focusing on building acts, rehearsing, and producing shows was a huge benefit for me. When I was feeling like I had very little control over my own life it really helped to take some of it back. Hard work on something I'm passionate about created fuel for self-care, even though it took me a little while to realize it. The black and white photos posted above, taken by Roger Gordy, are from a fantastic show I go-go danced at. The pictures are great, but when I look at myself I think I look sad; I mean I was sad, it was a really trying time in my life. It was also a really fun show. I got to dance with some of my burlesque idols, who are now my close friends, on a stage where I'd seen some of my favorite live musical acts. In all the other photos from the night I'm smiling, or looking fierce as fuck. I think Mr. Gordy captured me at the still point, the point right before I swung into action, before the work (the creative, awesome,  fulfilling  work of giving to a crowd) took over. It was backstage at this show, during a dance break and surrounded by my community, where I suddenly realized that amidst all the chaos of my life I'd found a place of calm. 
- Be kind to yourself. Whether you're hurting or not, you're going to make mistakes. Learn from them, and move forward knowing you've got another piece of knowledge in your repertoire. 
-Ask for help.  Ask if you need help ANY KIND OF HELP. For me this meant I ran away to DisneyLand with Allix Mortis and drank by the pool while receiving lots of pep talks.  I don't think I could have received any better care from the wonderful people in my life. I'm fighting the want to list them all here because I feel like I wouldn't be writing this without them. The list is really fucking long, too. I'm so lucky and so thankful. I have to acknowledge that sometimes you're too sad to realize how amazing you are, and how many people love you. In those instances it's even more important to ask for help, because even if you don't realize it, other people will.  It's really brave to reach out for care when you need it,  but you're going to have to put on your self-care caftan and fucking do it, ok? We all want you to. 
Click here for information on where to get help.

- Create, Create, Create- It might not be something you can use, but it feels so good to get it out there. Maybe you have another outlet that brings you joy; use it. I got to perform an act of mine that's always been a release. It's an act where my character gets good and angry and downright destructive. That act took on a whole new meaning for me this fall. I got to perform it at Bon Appetit Burlesque's Spanksgiving II, of which the theme of the show was "Messy." Shit got messy, the audience loved it, and I had one of those cathartic performance experiences that illustrated to me why I do performance art in the first place. 

"You're ass deep in frogs, but you don't need no prince (or princess)! 
You're Ginny Muthafuckin Nightshade!"
-Hors D'oeuvres

- Be there for people. You know what feels awesome? Making someone else feel awesome. Being sad can become a selfish mind suck. It can bring you into a place where you can't stop thinking about yourself and your pain. I've always found that caring for the people in my life helped bring me out of it. Everyone's in pain, we all get sad, let's all be there for each other. Let's support our goals and congratulate each other in our triumphs. 

Ok, I know I'm getting all "Positive Patty" on you and I feel like this is the list I can immediately come up with to explain my current state of getting-shit-done. 

Stay tuned for more  exciting news about my plans for 2015! There's big stuff happening and all this hard work is going to pay off.

I'm out.

Last week I experienced some bullshit! Someone said something shitty about my body. To put the rotten cherry on my shit sundae I experienced a bunch of awful street harassment. Those experiences were putting me in a bad place mentally.  But seriously, fuck that!  I decided to count some blessings:

1)  Mary Widow once told me how she saw me through a  window as I was walking by, and was like "Those are some Ginny Nightshade thighs!" Like that is some kind of superpower. I love it. 

Sometimes my life is so full of support and positivity I almost forget that I often exist in a space where people feel like it's necessary to put me down by commenting on my body. 

When someone says something awful to me, objectifying me, making me feel like I am less than; I flash to the memory, of  my "Ginny Nightshade thighs," and thank my lucky stars that I'm surrounded by so much body positivity and so many amazing, strong, women! 

2) Allix Mortis and I had a Gchat conversation about someone who, at a show, told me they found it inspiring to watch me perform because of my body type, specifically my belly:
(this is a chat conversation- hence the weird spacing etc.)

"Being called inspiring is important because it means that you're helping someone break out of their shell, but you're also helping them get over and reprogram all those things they've been told and socialized to think about bodies- Their own, other women's - it's a small step, but it's pretty revolutionary when you think about it."  

3) Last week I was having a panic attack about an event that I'm planning. I cried about sandwiches. That is a thing that actually happened and that is nuts! Sandwiches are happiness! After Slaughterhouse Sweethearts rehearsal I vented to Belle Gunz and Fem Bones who not only rallied around me, but also offered to help me plan. They both looked at me and said "Um. Duh, of course we will help!" and I just about exploded with happiness/relief/love for sandwiches. 


I'm such a lucky, super-thighed, friend-filled, lady! #bellypower 

Hello!

Last week I got to do a really fun photo shoot with my friend Drew Ritter. Drew is really into photography and was looking for a model to add to his portfolio.  I've never said "No" to having my picture taken,  so we were well matched.

Speaking of "well matched," Drew is in my life because he's going to be marrying my best friend from childhood, Jessie. We made poor Jessie hike into the woods, NATURE, GUYS!  She was fucking awesome; she kept the wine flowing and was a real sport about my flailing around making pouty faces at her fiancé.

About an hour into our shoot the sun went down and the woods got dark. NATURE, GUYS! We were just a bunch of kids hanging out in the middle of the woods by an abandoned water tower, drinking out of solo cups, and listening to country music. Not the setup for a horror movie at all! 

I like to be scared but I think Jessie was getting nervous. Which is hilarious, because most of our childhood consisted of me making Jessie scared. (Sorry,  Snugs.) 

The real fear was the giant field of poison ivy we were standing in.  Skin rashes are much worse when you spend a lot of time naked on stage. 

I've been part of a few awesome photoshoots since I started doing Burlesque and I find that I really enjoy doing them. I remember being really nervous for my first shoot and I think it's evident in some of the photos.  It's hard work being a model.  

Really?

Yes, really! Standing in weird positions, under lights, in a rashy minefield, yeah, it's hard! Why are you so judgey? You got something against fake red heads? Too bad! I will murder you!

4. I guess I should lightly touch on the subject of money.  If you're working for a professional photographer, you should get paid for your work. How you work that out is your choice, but make sure that shit is CLEAR before you go in and that you have some sort of contract. I'm not a professional model (See Example A) so I don't feel qualified to give you precise advice on this. The arrangement I have with Drew is Time for Print. Meaning that I model for him and he gives me license to use the photos he takes. Isn't that nice? Now you get to see the forest mermaid, and the awkward handjob shot! 

5. When posing I try to remember these things:
     a) Know where your light is. Tilt your face toward it and try to elongate your neck to create some contrast. At this nighttime shoot, I kept putting my face in shadow by holding my arm up over my head. Be aware of the shadows your body creates.
     b) Listen to your photographer. If they tell you that when you hold your arm like that it blocks the light from your face, then, you know, don't do that....
c) My body creates a more interesting image when I stick my hips out and create negative space between my limbs and my body, that's kind of an obvious tip...but standing stock straight is something I avoid 
d) A lot of model "tips" will advise you on tricks to appear thinner. I'm not interested in appearing thinner. That being said, I try not to squish my arms against my sides because it can create uneven "squishidge" making one arm appear larger than the other. You know when you see a photo of a bunch of girls out at the bars in Faneuil Hall and they all have their arms on their hips- that!

e) I try to be conscious of my hands and how I'm holding them. Sometimes I forget and get this weird fish-hand look, or I twist them around too sharply (see my hand in the  forest-mermaid-rock- photo above) 

f) Relax, yo. If I'm not relaxed I become mayor of Awkwardtown. I need to let go of those feelings of insecurity and just GO with it. 

g) It helps to remind yourself that you're fucking fierce !

I've posted the edited photos from the shoot here. Check them out, and remember: I was listening to Taylor Swift the whole time while they were being taken... no! Don't remember that! That's a very embarrassing secret! Shhhh!

Hey Dudes!

It's almost summer time and things have been heating up in the Boston burlesque scene.

This last weekend was jam packed with shows. On Friday I participated in the Bizarro Ball: A Fundraiser for Alternatease 2014.

Alternatease is a Neo-Burlesque festival and this will be its second year. Last year I was the administrative assistant and got to perform with The Glitterbombs in the opening show.

This year I applied and was accepted to perform in the TA-TA's which is the the Alterna-TEASE Awards Spectacular (Friday Night, August 15.)  It's not a typical awards ceremony in that the awards are tailor made.  It was an amazing show last year, and I'm preparing to BRING IT to this year's show.

Jonathan Beckley  took these badass photos of my Wolf in Peep's Clothing performance on Friday night:

Saturday night I got to perform in The Old School Game Show's John Hughes-A-Palooza and it was rad!


I was a Cubic Zirconia Dancer and had my first speaking part as the Mother of the Studio Audience. I got to send the Studio Audience to prom! It was hilarious and such a fun show.

One of our numbers was an 80's medley and included, not only the dance montage from The Breakfast Club, but also this epic move stolen from Say Anything:

The theater was decked out for prom and included a photo area manned by awesome photographer Laura Hajar

You can check out more photos from the show: HERE

Sunday night I attended MASCULINITEASE: A Burlesque with Balls. The show is put on by Sirlesque,  Boston's boylesque troupe. 
I smiled and cheered so much my face hurt. There were fantastic special guests: Allix Mortis, Fem Bones, Maggie Maraschino, Gypsy Lux, Rogue Burlesque, and more! They added some badass lady-ness to the show.

Belle Gunz and I decided to dress in drag for the show and we looked so friggin handsome.  It was the flattest my chest has been since 5th grade and pretty goddamn liberating. I think my drag persona will be making more appearances in the future.

My favorite number was Allix Mortis's.  She did a powerful piece about the verbal abuse she's faced by depicting the words on a projection screen.  It was tough to read and intense to watch her build more and more tension on the stage. She reclaimed some of those words so that they became words of power, and she honored #YesAllWomen. She got a standing ovation and brought tears to my eyes. It was a fantastic piece.

The finale of the show moved me in a different way.... jumping out of my seat because the dudes from Sirlesque did a tribute to the The Backstreet Boys that had my 90's-child-self losing my shit!

*Fun Fact: I'm fucking color blind and no one noticed my facial hair was purple until I left my apartment. It's an unintentional homage to Prince! *

As for when you can see me next:

REVENGE OF THE ROBOT BATTLE NUNS!

Guys, this show is going to be INSANE. 

We've been in rehearsal for months, we've been toiling, we've been costuming, we've been finding the perfect mixture of ingredients to create the most realistic looking vomit....don't fucking miss this!

There has been a recent media blast that has come to my attention about a high school girl who was kicked out of her prom because she "violated dress code." This is a subject matter that brings up a lot of feelings for me and I thought I'd take the time to share some of them with you.

Here is a link to the blog written by Clare, the young woman who was kicked out of her prom.

I think there are several reasons as to why to this story resonates with me. The first of which is that I'm a woman and have spent most of my life dealing with the social pressure that constantly tells me that I'm an object and not a person. Whether it's being catcalled, bullied, or a victim of violence, the history of negativity is a universal one for women and not just my own. 

This is also reminiscent of my time in high school when I was sent home for dress code violation despite the fact that I was wearing the same shirt as several other girls. I was a curvy kid and was sent home multiple times. In one instance, the male vice principal of my school came up to me in the cafeteria and informed me he could "see down my shirt." Gross.  

I have other memories, of both authority figures (parents, teachers), and other adults, making comments on my appearance that absolutely reinforced that I should be ashamed of my body. This only got worse as I became larger, gaining a good 50 pounds going from high school into college.  These comments varied from, "You can't look that way," to "Looking that way makes me want you and I can't control it," and both made me want to hide.

I think this article states it succinctly:

 "This whole thing is infuriating, particularly because it so well encapsulates the absurdity inherent in how our culture conceptualizes propriety. We're taught to think that women's bodies are by definition impure and that displaying them is automatically salacious and obscene." - Callie Beusman 


It's only fair to assume that if you're taught from a very young age that your body is something to hide because other people might want it or be offended by it, that you're going to develop some pretty fucked up views about yourself and how much control you have over your own being. It breeds insecurity and the desire to apologize for all the things society has taught you to perceive as flaws. I would bet that all the women reading this have been with a group of other women and listed off their own flaws. The reason we do this is because we've been taught to. Even when I was 15 and had never really seen anyone else naked I thought I knew what everyone else would see as "wrong" with my body. I had adults telling me that even in clothes my body was unacceptable.

I am happy to say that all of those feelings have stopped and that I owe it to burlesque. 

I'm so lucky that I've found a community that not only embraces women's bodies, but also completely illustrates that our bodies are ours to control. I bet the above mentioned haters would think it's funny that my life has taken this path. I can picture them saying, "Of course she became a stripper!" but I think the real truth is: that I became one despite them. People tell me I'm brave all the time because I get naked on stage, that they'd be too insecure to do it themselves. The truth is, I'm brave only because I'm thwarting the societal pressure to feel shame about it. I can't imagine living forever with the socially induced shame that those authority figures tried to force on me. 

Let me tell you about some of the positive things that doing burlesque has taught me about body image:
(these are my impressions in the Boston burlesque scene and I can't speak for anyone else)


1) I mentioned above the practice that many women get into of commiserating with one another about their flaws. This doesn't happen in the burlesque scene I'm part of. It took me being in the scene for a few months to realize that this practice was no longer something that came to me naturally. I was sitting in a group of very dear muggle friends and the once familiar conversation of "I shouldn't eat this because my thighs are huge" and "Ugh, your thighs? Have you seen my ass lately? Massive!" I realized, suddenly, that this type of conversation sounded utterly foreign to me and I didn't have a single thing to add to it. It made me feel sad that my friends didn't have the same realization (they are all total babes) and it made me proud that I felt no need to join in.

2) Before I started doing burlesque I had, what felt like, an ingrained reaction to seeing other women where I would compare myself to them. It used to be that if I saw a woman on TV or out at a bar I would compare (what I thought were) my flaws to hers. This did not make me feel better. It made me feel like I was grasping at something that only created animosity. It made me feel like I had to compete.  At one of my very first auditions for a burlesque troupe I met a wonderful performer named Lotta Sass.  Lotta and I struck up a friendship pretty quickly and were both trying hard to learn the audition choreography. As the audition progressed we were given the opportunity to switch positions in the lineup so we could be in the front and better seen by the people doing the casting. I continued to hang back. Lotta, noticing I was behind her, grabbed my arm and said "Get up there, girl! You rock." I can't even fucking tell you how momentous of a thing this was for me.  She gave me her spot and encouraged me to shine. How many times had that happened in my life? Not a ton. Especially in a competitive setting.  I got in the troupe and Lotta celebrated with me, and when she got into Rouge Burlesque, one of Boston's most well-known troupes, I was ecstatic for her. 

3) This one's kind of piggybacking on #2 but I just wanted to add that when I see other ladies now I naturally find the positive about them- in both appearance and personality. I have gained a wealth of awesome new friends both in the burlesque community and outside it because I have a genuine interest in connecting with other people.  At first the shift in my behavior was most apparent in regards to people's appearance. I stopped being like "My body isn't as sexy as hers" and started being like "Damn, that lady is good looking." Don't worry; I say that to myself all the time too.  In doing that, it started making it easier to connect with people on an emotional level. 

4) Ok, now let's talk about nudity. I'm into it. Maybe you are too, maybe you aren't, maybe you're a "nevernude;" do your thing. I'm just going to talk a little bit about how it pertains to me. One of the coolest things that burlesque has allowed me is the ability to see lots of people naked. And it's not for the obvious reason that being around lots of sexy naked people is the best. Lots of women don't get to see other women's bodies. You see celebrities and porn, but you very rarely get to see your peers naked. Guess what? Sometimes they look like you, sometimes they don't; but they are beautiful,  flawed, and can be all sizes, all shapes, and all gender identities. The more you see, the more you'll realize that you're doing just fine. It's a wonderful feeling to realize that you don't have to fit into the very rigid mold that society has helped to build in your brain. You get to fit into a world where everyone looks different and that's the reality of things, and that is awesome. 

5) Control! Ugh! For the longest of time I've felt like I don't have control over my own body because of my constant concern over how others perceive it.  This, my friends, is total bullshit.  However, it's a very real feeling. It's a feeling created from rape culture, from all the things I mentioned above, and more. It's a feeling that comes from being a victim and knowing so many others who have similar experiences. It's a lack of control with a layer of "I'm sorry for being here, and I'm sorry for being sorry, and I'm sorry, sorry, sorry!" You walk home late at night from the T and you're scared. You worry that if you wear this sundress some asshat is going to call to you on the street. You're thinking about your next act while waiting for a friend, and as you sit deep in thought a strange man tells you that you "should smile more." That skin crawling feeling of being emotionally violated without being able to do anything about it. All those feelings, for all the years of your life. Those feelings...plus more and more. It fucking sucks. I wish I could fix it for everyone. I wish I could fix it for my little sister and my friends. I can't. But what I can tell you is that you can find a way to combat those feelings. First, educate yourself on your rights. There aren't a ton of inspiring ways to fight back but learning them helps. Educate yourself on the tools to stay safe and encourage your loved ones to do so, too. By "tools to stay safe"  in no way do I mean that what you do or wear is to blame for abhorrent behavior. What I mean is that there are applications like Kitestring and other steps you can take to make you feel more comfortable. If it isn't too exhausting and you want to, you can also share your knowledge with others, whether they be part of the problem or a victim of it. I have actively sought out professionals: social workers, police, lawyers, and activists that have helped me to learn more. I also found burlesque. 

6) Ok, kind of a weird segue but bear with me. I probably don't need to reiterate that this is my process and I am in no way advocating that all of you become strippers to battle rape culture. Although, that would make for a pretty awesome comic. There are things in my life that have made me feel not in control of my body. Objectification, violence, bullying, the list goes on. I lost a significant amount of weight and still felt like I needed to apologize for the space I took up in the world. Simply put, burlesque changed all of that for me. I actively participate in what I do with my body, how I share it, what it looks like; it's mine. I do this on the safety of the stage.  I do it for me.  Sure, I want the audience to enjoy my piece. When I do a number I'm confident that I've spent enough time, and enough work, to make sure that it's strong. Sometimes I want them to find my number sexy, or sad, or gross, or intimidating, or fucking weird, but I get to decide. I know that some people aren't going to like it- that I'm not going to be what they wanted to see. I don't care. I've been applauded and I've been heckled (once- and they were kicked out for being drunk jerks.) It feels better to be cheered, of course, but being hated on doesn't matter as much anymore. The person I want to impress the most is me. The next people I want to impress are the amazing professionals I am honored to work with. I want to impress them because they know the hard work that goes into building a number. I also know that if I ask, they'll tell me, in a supportive way, that something in the piece didn't quite work. 


This is a rare community, and a wonderful one. There's something like that out there for you and it doesn't have to be covered in rhinestones like mine. It could be a book, a friend, a therapist, or a person that inspires you. I encourage you to find it/them, because nothing feels better than having some of the burden taken off your shoulders. 


7) You're beautiful.


8) I mean it. I know you are because I'm a burlesque dancer and that makes me an expert on this type of thing.

9) Besides a significant shift in my body image the real joy is that I do something that I love. It's a fucking insane amount of work, the things you love usually are. Finding that thing is something that you own/create/contribute to is incredibly liberating. 

So, that's it for now. I imagine I will think of more fantastic things to list about the community I'm part of and the art that I create. Maybe there will be a part two, three, and four! I learn something at every show just by watching my peers perform.  I sometimes wish I knew I would end up here; but then I realize I've always been here. It's just been bogged down with a whole lot of bullshit and I'm like a tiny sexy miner digging for the gold that is my own strength. 

I got this. 

xoxo