Circa: Queer Histories Festival to Present Michael Kearns' Solo Show in October

Michael Kearns’ sixteenth solo show, It Must Be Him: A Genderful Musical Memoir, has been chosen as part of the line-up of the inaugural Circa: Queer Histories Festival with a one-night only performance on Wednesday, October 11, 2023 at 8:00pm. The festival is presented by One Institute (formerly ONE Archives Foundation), the oldest active LGBTQ+ organization in the country. The performance is co-presented with the Los Angeles LGBT Center and will be held at the center’s Davidson/Valentini Theatre on its Hollywood campus (1125 N. McCadden Place, Los Angeles, CA 90038). Tickets are $15 (including fees). For reservations, please visit the link below.

Circa: Queer Histories Festival features 70+ programs and an unprecedented line-up that honors LGBTQ+ History Month through thought-provoking exhibitions, readings, performances, panel conversations, and more. To learn more, please visit https://circafestival.org.

It Must Be Him: A Genderful Musical Memoir had its world premiere in September at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. After this Circa date, the show will make stops in other Southern California locales and beyond. The next scheduled performance is at Pasadena’s Lineage Performing Arts Center on Sunday, December 10. Additional performance dates will be announced soon. For updates, please visit https://michaelkearnswriter.com/it-must-be-him.

It Must Be Him: A Genderful Musical Memoir follows a tradition of expression that provokes, reveals, and questions, while capturing the zeitgeist of Kearns’ generation, with a unique voice defined by hope, reality, desire, tragedy, and promise. The iconic artist-activist extends his unerring commitment to self-discovery that is delicately placed within the expansive LGBTQI+ experience. It is also the first time that he has melded music into his solo performance. Kearns’ latest music memoir is directed by Ryland Shelton, with piano accompaniment by Leigh Anne Gillespie.
 

It Must Be Him: A Genderful Musical Memoir

It Must Be Him explores the role of gender from the consciousness of a community elder whose story began in 1968. Kearns and many of his peers could admit out loud—in song—that which was forbidden by expressing themselves through the lyrics and performances of emotionally-charged female singers/songwriters.

“We didn’t have a Sam Smith,” Kearns reflected, “so we changed the pronouns, substituted male names for female ones or—if  you dared—sang the song straight. The songs of longing and brokenheartedness provided a soundtrack for the hidden feelings that were waiting to come out; the exterior theatricality of Judy, Dusty or Barbra mirrored the interior emotional life of our secretive awakenings. But what It Must Be Him posits is that the stance many young gay men of my generation adopted has followed us into adulthood.”

It Must Be Him: A Genderful Musical Memoir resonates with Kearns’ sensibility that was birthed at Highways thirty-four years ago. Reacting to the tragic AIDS crisis, Kearns wrote and performed intimacies, presented by Highways on its opening weekend, in which he played a panoply of characters rarely depicted in the media in 1989. Among them were Big Red, a Black female street hooker; Patrick, a narcissistic gay boy in denial; and Phoenix, a homeless Hispanic drug addict who lives under the Hollywood Freeway. intimacies marked the beginning of a lauded solo career that found the performer touring America and abroad.

Michael Kearns

Throughout the past half century, Michael Kearns has woven his work as an artist and social activist into the fabric of Los Angeles (and beyond). It would be virtually impossible to chronicle the theatre scene in Los Angeles, the AIDS crisis that shocked Hollywood, homophobia’s insidious hold on The Industry, the artistic response to homelessness in L.A., and the teaching of underserved populations within the city without mentioning his name. Michael Kearns: trailblazer, role model, visionary, innovator, and mentor who has generated controversy, spoken openly, defied homophobia, celebrated sexuality, listened to those in peril, raised hundred of thousands of dollars to combat HIV/AIDS, explored issues surrounding the intersection of racism and homophobia, taught the homeless, represented the LGBTQ+/HIV communities in the media, and founded organizations with a mission–all with a profound love for the city he calls “home.” For more on Kearns, please visit https://michaelkearnswriter.com.

One Institute

Founded in 1952, One Institute (formerly ONE Archives Foundation) is the oldest active LGBTQ+ organization in the country, dedicated to telling LGBTQ+ history and stories through education, arts, and social justice programs. Their one-of-a-kind exhibitions and public programs connect LGBTQ+ history and contemporary culture to effect social change. As the independent community partner of One Institute at the USC Libraries, they promote the largest collection of LGBTQ+ materials in the world. The curatorial and educational choices made by One Institute are guided by their commitment to social equity and justice. The institute engages with the complexity of LGBTQ+ history and representation through highlighting the intersectional narratives of Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC), women, gender-nonconforming and transgender people, people of various abilities, youth, and elders across all socio-economic classes. Learn more at https://www.oneinstitute.org.

Circa: Queer Histories Festival

Celebrating seven decades of service to the LGBTQ+ community, One Institute presents Circa, the first and only LGBTQ+ histories festival in the United States. More than 30 venue partners across Los Angeles will be hosting events. The diversity of venues will allow Circa programs to reach audiences in neighborhoods including Downtown/MacArthur Park, East LA/San Gabriel Valley, Glendale, Hollywood, Northridge, Santa Monica/Culver City, Silverlake/Echo Park, West Adams, and West Hollywood.

Circa partnerships include 22 programs co-presented with the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ community service provider. One Institute is proud to collaborate with the staff at the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center, a staple in the Los Angeles queer community for over five decades, to present ONE Magazine at Seventy, the Institute’s anniversary exhibition celebrating seven decades of work uplifting LGBTQ+ voices and advancing queer rights and visibility. Other programs to take place at the Center’s Renberg and Davidson/Valentini Theatres and Advocate & Gochis Galleries include Celebration Theatre’s forty-year retrospective theatrical performance; the Los Angeles premiere screening of JIMMY IN SAIGON (2022); and the ACLU SoCal’s panel conversation featuring the inimitable Reverend Troy Perry.

Audiences can also join Circa for screenings and parties at a number of LA’s most beloved queer bars, including Eagle LA and Akbar, as well as several Southern California campuses, including the University of Southern California (USC), Cal State LA, and California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Sponsors in the city of West Hollywood are also hosting two events at the West Hollywood City Council Chambers and in Plummer Park. https://circafestival.org
 

Los Angeles LGBT Center

Since 1969, the Los Angeles LGBT Center has cared for, championed, and celebrated LGBT individuals and families in Los Angeles and beyond. Today the Center’s nearly 800 employees provide services for more LGBT people than any other organization in the world, offering programs, services, and global advocacy that span four broad categories: Health, Social Services and Housing, Culture and Education, and Leadership and Advocacy. The center is an unstoppable force in the fight against bigotry and the struggle to build a better world; a world in which LGBT people thrive as healthy, equal, and complete members of society.