Galas & Events

Caleb Hammons is an Obie Award-winning producer and curator. He is the senior producer at Bard College’s Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, where he facilitates Live Arts Bard and co-curates the Bard SummerScape Spiegeltent with Justin Vivian Bond.

Antonio Ramos was born and raised in Puerto Rico where he trained in jazz, salsa, and African dance. He later received a B.F.A. in Dance from Purchase College. Antonio has performed with choreographers Mark Dendy, Neil Greenberg, Kari Hooas, Luis Lara Malvacias, Jeremy Nelson, Stephen Petronio, Merian Soto, Kevin Wynn, Ori Flomin and Donna Uchizono, among others.

AORTA Films makes experimental queer and feminist porn. Led by creator-director Mahx Capacity and performer-producers Parts Authority and Ginny Woolf, AORTA Films seeks to create porn that disrupts boundaries and glitches desire.

Crimson Kitty, called a “female-on-female drag pioneer” by Time Out, takes drag culture by storm, one perfected lip-sync at a time. The drag daughter of Rebecca Glasscock (Rupaul’s Drag Race: The Lost Season), they have created a haven for other queens at LADYQUEEN, the world's first all cis, nonbinary, and trans drag collective.

Daphne Always is a New York-based cabaret performer. She is a regular hostess at Club Cumming, Alan Cumming’s East Village lounge, and at Metropolitan Bar, a staple Brooklyn dive bar. A Cancer with Gemini rising and Virgo moon, she is most known for her clever parody songs, zany cheer, and lavender hand massages.

Horrorchata is a drag queen, event producer, fashion icon, and DJ extraordinaire originally from San Antonio, Texas, and currently living and working in Brooklyn. She is the founder of Be Cute, Brooklyn’s biggest underground queer dance party and the co-founder of Bushwig Festival.

DJ Jen DM is a Los Angeles-based DJ and event producer and one-half of Hi Fashion (Everybooty 2016), who The Advocate described as “a force to be reckoned with.” Jen DM got her start as a DJ at East Bloc in London, and is now a resident DJ for several LGBTQ events in Los Angeles, including CRUISE and LEZ CROIX.

DJ Tikka Masala has been a nightclub fixture in New York City since 2004 and can currently be heard at Henrietta Hudson&rsquols or composing for Obie and Bessie Award-winning dance company LAVA. DJ Tikka performs locally and internationally and her sets blend genres that are heard everywhere from Bombay to Brooklyn.

Heather Litteer is an actress and a vital member of the downtown performance, alternative cabaret, and indie film scenes. She performs an ongoing cabaret show called Pleasure Seekers as well as a reading series called W.O.(e).R.D Woman of Experience Read Downtown at HOWL! Happening Gallery.

Lorena Russi is a comedian-actor-videographer centaur whose experience ranges from improv/sketch comedy to serving as head writer for Spotify’s web series.

Mark Balahadia is a New York City-based dancer who performs folkloric dances of the Middle East and North Africa and his own interpretation of Iraqi dance, incorporating hair work into his performances. He is well-known on social media in Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Mykal Kilgore is a singer-songwriter whose sound is a gumbo of American roots music and modern feels. He has appeared on Broadway in Motown the Musical, Book of Mormon, and Hair. His TV credits include NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar and The Wiz Live.

NIC Kay is a transdisciplinary artist currently in residence at Pioneer Works. Kay was previously in residence at the Museum of Arts and Design for the exhibition Sonic Arcade and was the recipient of a Chances Dances Mark Aguhar Memorial Grant in 2015 and named a Movement Research Van Lier Fellow in 2017. They have shown work in Europe and the US and their work lil BLK was showcased as part of American Realness 2018.

Zoe Ziegfeld is a Brooklyn-based burlesque dancer, sideshow performer, and professional mischief-maker. She is the co-producer of a monthly nightlife spectacle called the Fuck You Revue in Bushwick and a member of the award-winning queer performance collective Switch n’ Play.