the pride
ISSUE NUMBER 82, VOLUME 53 | OCTOBER 1 – OCTOBER 31, 2022 10.01.2022 – 10.31.2022
WWW.THEPRIDELA.COM
LOS ANGELES
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THE LOS ANGELES LGBT NEWSPAPER
Trans Chorus of LA Lifts Voices High in Three-Act Show First event of the fall for Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center By Susan Payne The Trans Chorus of Los Angeles lifted its voice to distill the journey of trans and nonbinary people into a recent single three-act show on September 17. VOICES: The Trans Journey in III Acts was the first event of the fall season, produced by the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Lily Tomlin/ Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center. The shows comprised a mix of songs, poetry and spoken war, giving the audience an experience to see the full emotional life of a trans person as they become their authentic self, an extension of the Trans Chorus’ broader mission, said Abdullah Rasheen Hall, the artistic director. “All of the societal pressures outwardly, we’re showing that reflection in Act I,” Hall told LGBT News Now. “Act II is becoming you, when you start to really self-actualize and affirm where you are. And then Act III is living victoriously.” Although the subtitle present singularly, VOICES in plural capital letters is the real heart of the show. The breadth and diversity of the show’s
disparate performances — which draw from the experiences of the chorus members themselves — are the key to unlocking the truth of the transgender community and presenting a new narrative to the world, Hall said. “It started off with me wanting to create a space to really showcase our vocal abilities, but as we developed the show over these last few months, it truly became Voices,” Hall told LGBT News Now, carefully emphasizing the plural. “Stories, pictures, songs — some original written songs, some songs that take on a whole new life in the context of our show. It’s stories from our oldest members who are in their 70s to our youngest members in their early 20s.” “I started out with this show being one thing, and it has transformed into something better than I could have fathomed,” Hall said. During one of the sections, featuring images of the chorus members from childhood were be shown. “They’re opening up their hearts and sharing their vulnerability,” Hall said. “It’s hard to show pictures like that to a lot of people. A lot of trans and non-binary people choose to get rid of anything that reminded them of that binary existence. But we teach each other to celebrate that part of you. That was a part of you. It was the part of you that got you here. Don’t just throw away that part of your existence in becoming who you are now.” Another section is a monologue about
growing up non-binary and Asian in a predominantly white community that was also conservative. “You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you will be triggered. You will be triggered with this,” Hall warned. “But they’re speaking their truth.” The Trans Chorus leans into the discomfort by embracing traditional vocal classifications—soprano, tenor, baritone, etc.—while staunchly rejecting the notion that the categories should be decided by gender, LGBT News Now wrote. “Every voice is a voice,” Hall said. “We have some wonderful women that are bassbaritones. We have some wonderful women
that are sopranos, even though I was told a trans woman physiologically could not be a soprano. I was like, that’s stupid … We teach our choristers to appreciate their voice where it is.” In every performance of the Trans Chorus, the singers share their trans journey. “We’ve done so many amazing things as a group, and that’s because we just keep putting ourselves out there,” Hall said, listing off appearances from music videos and a Pantene holiday commercial to CNN and the BidenHarris inauguration. “So, you better see us while we’re cheap. Before you can’t afford a ticket.”
Long Beach Police Arrest Possible Suspect in Stabbing Death Outside of a Popular Gay Bar Arrest made in connection to stabbing outside Mineshaft By Susan Payne Long Beach Police have arrested a man in connection to a murder outside of Mineshaft gay bar in the 1700 block of East Broadway. With assistance from patrol officers, the
LBPD Special Investigations Detectives identified 56-year-old Michael Smalls as a suspect in the stabbing death of 28-year-old Christopher Finley of Long Beach, according to the Los Angeles Blade. Detectives believe the murder stemmed from two altercations. During the first altercation, LBPD said the victim(s) were involved in a fight with a man who was armed with a taser in front of a business. The second, LBPD said, happened moments later when
Smalls got into a physical fight with the two victims, escalating to Smalls alleged stabbing of both victims. The man with the taser was arrested on an unrelated charge, according to the police. Smalls was booked into the Long Beach County Jail on Sept. 12 and is held on a $2,000,000 bail. The motive is under investigation, and according to police, there is no evidence of a hate or bias motivated incident.