Welcome back to the Queer Arts Must Sees, our awesome round up of great Twin Cities arts events being produced, performed, or otherwise directly created by or of interest to LGBTQ+ artists and audiences in the Twin Cities. As autumn winds down and we gear up for a season of blanket piles and Netflix binges, please note the plethora of artists and creators still working to create really beautiful, inspiring, or just plain fun performances for us. The best way to combat the seasonal blues that we all feel is by avoiding isolation, and luckily, we have a community that makes that really easy.

Theatre & Film

Through November 12th, Chameleon Theatre Circle is bouncing back with their own venue in Bloomington for Lee Blessing’s Independence. There’s a couple of LGBTQ+ cast members and at least one character in this family drama.

The Video Variant, a film and video showing series hosts it’s first LGBTQ+ filmmaker community event that features short films by Sami Pfeffer and Amelia Rose among others. KT Lindemann performs before the event on Friday, November 10th.

Glowing Embers is queering Romeo and Juliet starting on November 17th at The Phoenix. While this concept has been done and done again, why am I so excited? For starters Lord and Lady Capulet are both women, a twist on the male-male pairing of the title characters that we also have. This actually stands to make this show deeply embedded in LGBTQ+ culture. Furthermore, there are actual LGBTQ+ people on the production crew this time, so it’s bound to be “good” at worst, and could actually innovate the popular queering of Shakespeare.

Visual  & Literary Arts

The Art Shanties are coming! For those who don’t know, every winter a group of amazing artists, many LGBTQ+, take over a frozen lake here in Minnesota. You can celebrate their coming with the Art Shanty Projects Kickstarter Closing Party and learn all about this great season long event on Monday, November 6th at The Future.

Revolutionary Love: Queer Voices in Diaspora is a reading event featuring all first or second generation immigrants living and writing here in Minnesota. Artists featuring include Duah Saleh and Ifrah Mansour, among others.  The event takes place at the U of M on Wednesday, November 8th at 5:30 P.M.

November 12th & 13th brings me the artisan and arts pop-up of my dreams: Support Local Hustle: a BIPOC Pop-up (read: arts and crafts sale with some baked goods/miscellaneous things for sale) at Pinwheel Arts and Movement Studio. The event is free to get into, and some vendors have CHEAP goods for you to nab.

The thing I’m most excited about this November is actually part of the Loft’s spoken word series Equilibrium: Collaborative performance and writing duo #BlackTransMagick will be sharing their work on Saturday, November 18th at 8:00 P.M., work that’s been featured on Buzzfeed, The Root, and in The New York Times.

Drag, Burlesque, and Cabaret

Looks like one of my favorite events, Daddy is becoming a staple of LGBTQ+ nightlife and entertainment! They are back on November 9th, and house favorite Marcel Michelle Mobama is being joined by Symone Smash It, Strange Relations, Doña Pepa//Pedro Pablo for entertainment.

Patrick’s Cabaret’s now-annual CabarABLE is back November 17th and 18th. This show features all artists with disabilities, and this year’s theme of “Weird” encourages those artists to embrace the weird and awkward moments of life with a disability.

The Imperial Court of Minnesota is proudly hosting Transgender Night of Celebration: Resilience, Community, & Love at Lush on November 18th. This is an all ages show featuring all trans performers, and tickets are just $5.

Recurring Events

Huge Theater has an open Queer Improv Jam for queer improv artists to come and laugh and play together on the first Sunday of the month at 5:00 P.M. No need to register, just come to 3037 Lyndale Ave S. to jam with great professional and amateur improv-ers. No cover.

You definitely don’t want to miss OutSpoken, a queer open mic hosted by Paul Canada on the second Wednesday of every month. This great event is now hosted at Lush! More information here.

Every Thursday night Can Can Wonderland puts together a variety show like none other. Six to eight acts share Can Can’s stage. Local LGBTQ+ talent and those known to the community for legitimate allyship often feature. The event is free, 21+, and starts at 9:00 P.M.

The second Thursday of the night is a special time in comedy here in the Twin Cities. Pssy Ctrl is an all female & queer comedy event happening at the Comedy Corner Underground. It’s hosted by Rana May and Shelley Paul and is just $7 unless you’re a student—then it’s free. No reservations, just show up!

Telling Queer History is a story-telling and community building event that happens on the second Sunday of every month and changes locations. Check out their Facebook page for more information and to keep up with their rotating spaces.

Another amazing storytelling event is curated and hosted by the one and only Andrea Jenkins and John Medeiros. It’s called Queer Voices: A Reading Series and takes place monthly with amazing features each month. Intermedia Arts’ website has more.

Lush’s entire nightlife entertainment line-up is incredible. Must sees include:

• Black Hearts Burlesque every Friday night at 10:00 P.M. featuring Black Hearts Founder Elektra Cute.
• #DragRevolution every Saturday at 10:00 P.M. hosted by Twin Cities legend Victoria DeVille.
• Deviance: A Transmasculine Cabaret featuring music, drag, boylesque and more every fourth Saturday at 7:00 P.M.
• Local lesbian comedy darling Sarah McPeck’s variety show The Big Fat Comedy Hour on the second Sunday of the month at 7:00 P.M.
• Drag Brunch every Sunday at 11:30 featuring an all-star line-up and always with a theme that guarantees the most fun for your money.

For tickets to events at Lush head over to their website. They’ve got an event space that seats plenty, but it does sell out regularly so grab your tickets in advance.

The Gay ’90s has a rough reputation in the LGBTQ+ community, but they’ve spent the past year or two cleaning up their act and bringing in some great new acts. Fan favorites include:

• Sweetpea and Mistress Mara hosting Kinky Friday on the first Friday of every month. This 18+ event is part performance, part kinky party, and all around great time.
• GLAM! Boylesque shows up intermittently at the Ladies of La Femme Lounge. The next one is June 9th. Don’t miss out!
• Speaking of Ladies of La Femme—there are nightly drag shows at this huge lounge for plenty of you and yours to show up and see some great drag. Many of the queens have been there for years, and those legends alone are worth seeing. The new talent that gets brought in is also absolutely wonderful.

One of the first LGBTQ+ bars I came to regularly when I first came to Minneapolis was The Townhouse in St. Paul. While the entertainment line-ups are obviously completely different now than the were almost a decade ago, they’re still diverse, entertaining, and full of solid artists. Best shows include (but are not limited too):

• Pumps and Pearls Drag Revue at 9:30 P.M. Every Wednesday night.
• Dragged Out, a cast of Drag Kings with special guests that fills up the main room on the third Friday of every month.
• A great trial run for aspiring burlesque performers and other awesome performances happens the second Friday of every month at 10:30 P.M. And the Nudie Nubie’s Show hosted by Red Bone and Foxy Tann.

Please note: we’d love to include YOU and YOUR work at TheColu.mn’s Arts Calendar. Please submit events to [email protected]. As a fun bonus, if your event is super innovative or exciting, we’re likely to reach out for a deeper feature or review.