An Evening from the Queer Songbook: A Conversation with Taylor Mac and Matt Ray

What would celebrating queerness sound like? How would it look and feel? With the fierce elation of a pride parade, renegade theater artists Taylor Mac, Matt Ray, and Machine Dazzle’s Bark of Millions, a four-hour rock opera—presented in its US premiere at BAM in February 2024—is a luxuriant, provocative spectacle unlike any other. Now, Mac and Ray return to BAM with An Evening from the Queer Songbook, a conversation about their new book, Bark of Millions: Queer Songs for the Living Library of the Deviant Theme.

MacArthur Fellow Mac and Obie Award-winner Ray wrote Bark of Millions to expand the repertoire of songs documenting and celebrating queer lives. Featuring two elegantly packaged, fully illustrated hardcover books—a book of lyrics and essays, and a book of music featuring lead sheets for 50 of the show’s songs—Bark of Millions creates a canon of queer music that celebrates our inherently queer, joyful world.

“Music solves 99% of the problems in the world,” says Mac. “We hope to nudge readers, listeners, movers, singers, music makers into an openhearted prayer (or spell) of ecstatic frenzy.”

Celebrate the persistent transcendence of joy over tragedy and the commonality of queerness as witnessed through the personal histories of queers with Taylor Mac and Matt Ray as they discuss their genre-defining work Bark of Millions. All tickets have an option to include a copy of the book at additional cost.