LAXART is pleased to present TIPPING POINTS, a program of performance-based work from trans and gender nonconforming artists, organized and hosted by Page Person. About the event, Person writes: Taking its title from the May 2014 Time magazine cover story, “The Transgender Tipping Point,” this event features performers that cross genders and cross genres to open new forms of queer expression. In the Time article, trans actress and activist Laverne Cox strikes an iconic, powerful pose and proclaims, “when people have points of reference that are humanizing, that demystifies difference.” These words were spoken a year after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage; it seemed like progress was being made for securing LGBT rights. Eight years later these protections hang in peril, threatening to tip backwards to an oppressive police state that criminalizes queer bodies. TIPPING POINTS invites trans/GNC artists to create “humanizing reference points” based on their own lived experience. Taking radical control of one’s body and the narrative surrounding it is at the heart of these artists’ performance practices. Each has a unique physical reality that affects how they are seen socially, and each uses live art to expand that narrative. At a time when bodily autonomy is in crisis, it is of dire importance to give space for individuals to take control of the language surrounding their body and presence in the world. A tipping point has been crossed from which these individuals can no longer be silent. This event’s title is also a reference to tipping performers in the drag community. The artists featured here have some relationship to drag, in which gender definitions are mutable and a source of entertainment. The handing of currency from audience to performer symbolically links one body to another, creating a direct and real connection between them. Drag is a space where queer people come together to process trauma and uplift each other; the performers in TIPPING POINTS use drag as one of many forms of expression and simultaneously uphold and undermine the conventions of the genre. With LGBTQIA+—and specifically trans/GNC—rights constantly up for debate, it is more important than ever that we hold space for their stories to be told by them on their terms. FEATURING: DVVSK, XINA XURNER AND CREEPYPASTA PUTTANESCA, AND PAGE PERSON WITH REESE S. PIANIS, SIRI, TSAI-CLOPS INFINITI, BUNNY BLOODLUST, BAREBACK KUNTESSA, CARMEN DIOXIDE, KEN DAHL, CALLA FAERIA, MURIEL MARASCHINO, AND BEAU DACIOUS This event is free, with limited seating capacity, first come, first served. Proof of vaccination required, masks strongly recommended.