Performance

“JAC’s performances are fun and magnetic. He offers his whole self with humor, honesty, and beautiful passion. His energy takes a show beyond a performer and audience revealing a unique intimacy with everyone there.” – Kit Yan

JAC offers readings of prose and poetry as well as dance, drag, and musical performances to schools and performance showcases. His artistic tone, composed of a mix of childhood classical schooling and self-taught styles, has been reviewed as a “dynamic,” displaying the unique and complex facets of the trans experience. His writings have been well received in educational arenas, community spaces, and performance venues across the USA. He has shared performances with countless fellow trans artists including Ignacio Rivera, Kit Yan, Kate Bornstein, J Mase III, Julia Serano, Athens Boys Choir, Ryka Aoki, Johnny Blazes, and more…

As a storyteller, JAC ranges topics from negotiating bathrooms to negotiating relationships. He discusses his experiences as a trans activist working in conservative, often violent environments, coming out genderqueer “before it was cool,” and finding community in a region that is marked with fear and isolation.

Other topics of JAC’s writings include:

  • Negotiating transphobia and cissexism within LGB and straight communities
  • Living with physical (dis)abilities and mental health conditions
  • Addressing pathologization and health care systems
  • Race, privilege, and identity as a white-passing Native American
  • Navigating poverty, class issues, and related systems
  • Partnering, chosen family, and relationship dynamics
  • *TW* Experiences as a survivor and finding empowerment after violence and abuse
  • Interacting with systems of academia, professionalism, and human service
  • Femme identity, femininity, and androgyny

JAC has become particularly well known for his performance art and dance work. His methods have been heralded as “challenging and thought-provoking” with forms reminiscent of the dance styles of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. JAC uses movement, costuming, and dance narratives to unpack and process identity, ability, community, and more.

Many performances include selections from:JACStringer Val Hahn_UP2012

Glamboyant!

A poetic romp through Midwest memories and musings of a genderfucking femme boy, the one-human show “Glamboyant!” uses spoken word, interpretive dance, music, and genderfuck drag to address Midwestern trans, genderqueer experiences, disability, transition, survival, growing up weird, and finding home.

Bar Stories

Navigating the brightest, dim spaces of the queer community, “Bar Stories” reflects trans experiences in one of our community’s favorite places, the town gay bar.

Check out some of JAC’s performance pictures and performance videos for more impressions of his work.