Mx. Pucks A’Plenty is The They Them Yas Queen of Burlesque, The Michelle Obama of Burlesque, and Seattle’s Own Mxtress of Thiccness! They have been ranked in the Top 50 of Most Influential Burlesque Industry Figure for the past three years, landing at #17 in 2023, as voted for by thousands of burlesque fans and peers worldwide by 21st Century Burlesque Magazine, named 2022 Performer of the Year by Seattle Gay News, and was one of the Seattle Pride Grand Marshals in 2023.This roguish radical is always ready to ride whether it be behind the scenes or on stage. Spreading their black queer magic wherever they go, Pucks is always in control. Pucks is also the founder and co-producer behind What the Funk?! An All BIPOC Burlesque Festival and Fatlesque Fest NW.  The Femme Daddy that your mother didn’t know to warn you about, Mx. Pucks A’Plenty.

Image Description: Mx. Pucks A’PLenty performs elegant hand gestures in water. 

Saira Barbaric (they, he, she, ze) is a nonbinary Black disabled hedonist fascinated by birth, death and rebirth. They are a maker of porn, performance art, costumes, paintings and events. Barbaric grounds their work in mediums and venues considered both high and low art with the aim at weakening the barrier between the two. After a BFA in costuming for theater, Barbaric worked in film and nightlife with an ongoing fixation on crafts and art objects. They are a co-founder of Scumtrust Productions, a nonbinary porn crew that crafts films and spaces exalting sensual magic and of Mouthwater Festival, a disabled dance project premiering its first festival in fall 2024.

Image Description: Saira holds a camera towards the camera while adorned in green. 

Vanessa Hernández Cruz (she, her, ella) is an interdependent and
interdisciplinary Chicana Disabled dance artist. She recently premiered
her new experimental contemporary dance solo titled ‘Soul Seeker’ for
the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition show ‘Abundance’ that will
premiere for the new Disabled Art’s Mouthwater Festival this fall at On
the Boards. Also slated for Fall 2024, Vanessa will premiere an evening
length at Highways Performance Space titled: Void Decryption ERROR.
Over the past few years Vanessa’s work has been shown nationally &
internationally. She is currently the recipient of the 2023 California Arts
Council x The Center of Cultural Power Artist Disruptor Award. This
year she has performed an excerpt of Jérôme Bel’s work ‘GALA’ at
REDCAT, performed with Good Troublemakers, and she has finished
her Pieter Performance Space residency with a showing of a duration
dance performance ‘Cyber Realms’. In 2023, she had two exciting dance
solos that premiered in the summer: “Metal, Plastic, Skin” debuting at
The Odyssey Theatre’s Dance Festival and “Exhale Static, Inhale
Fumes” with her debut at The REDCAT’s NOW Festival.
Her dance, visual artwork, and writings are often woven together to
generate works that have influences of dark aesthetics, horror,
abstractions, experimentation, and storytelling that merges her Chicana
Disabled experiences.
IG: GalaxiesDance
Website: galaxiesdance.info

Image Description: Vanessa stands with her walker, Pluto, in the middle of a cube made out of flourescent light in an art gallery coded space.  There are sculptures/drawings strewn about her and she wears a slick seeming, black dress.  

Introducing WillYum LaBeija – a multi-talented artist hailing from North Carolina and currently based in Seattle. WillYum has an impressive background serving in the US Army as a dance captain in the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) Soldier Show. With extensive training in both classical and urban dance styles, WillYum has developed a particular passion for vogue performance. Since 2011, he has been a proud member of the Royal House of LaBeija. WillYum has received numerous awards and recognitions for his exceptional talent, including the Dance Disability Lab Cohort UCLA 2023, 3Arts Body’s of Work UIC fellowship, National Veterans Art Summit 2019 residency, Movement Residency Brazil/Panama 2019/2020, Links Hall Co-Missions Winter Residency 2019, Physical Theatre Residency in Austria 2019/2020, New International Performing Arts Institute Residency 2020, Neighborhood Arts Entrepreneurship Project-Task force member 2020, Ways Residency 2020, Global Water Dances Choreographer/Site Lead 2019/2020, and Breaking Grounds Performance Series 2018.

Image Descriptoin: WillYum is featured in a headshot wearing a blue checkered button up in front of a brick wall.

Bringing you the kitsch and the class, Seattle’s own Ms. Kitschy Kupid* is a burlesque and go-go extraordinaire and an all-around hoot. She’s a founding member of Haus De Corvo and also a member of the BOOTS! 60’s Go-Go crew. Ms. Kitsch will give you feelings of both loving nostalgia and the heat of the unknown. With her whimsical style, need for attention, and absolute vivacious energy, this babe with classy vibes and tacky taste will keep you wrapped around her finger.

Image Description: Mx. Kitschy Kupid* performs in front of a crowd wearing golden boots and a red wig.  Kitschy points with their left hand and smiles. 

The Curiosity Paradox, Grant Miller and Jonathan Paradox Lee, are Access Artists who are queer, non-binary, Disabled people with white settler ancestry. As an artistic practice, they consider the seemingly benign aspects of gathering people together and reframe them as a fertile ground of solidarity, resistance, learning, and creativity. The Curiosity Paradox has shown work at the Vancouver Art Gallery in British Columbia, Vassar College in New York, and the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. They have been residents at New Expressive Works and Water In The Desert.  They organize the current iteration of Disability Representation (DisRep) and are co-creators of Threshold Practice, an assistive technology for theater, meetings, and any time two or more human or non-human people spend time with each other. They are currently developing a new full-length production called Grant Us An Audience, a play about Disabled theater makers trying to fund their play. It is an episodic wink to those of us who celebrate each other in a world that fails to recognize us. In Winter 2025, they will launch a cohort of access artists working on accessibility in public performance. For more information, visit TheCuriosityParadox.com

Image Description: Closeup photo of two nonbinary white people. A wavy hand is reaching out from under a gold cape to clutch a rainbow umbrella, which is also supported by a person wearing a floral mesh shirt.

Ésminà Secret is a drag artist and the Indigicunt of Seattle. She enjoys good vibes and good music. They are a community organizer and ballroom house mother in the Seattle kiki scene and has been doing makeup since they were 13 years old. She has special interests is fashion, makeup and hair. You can always find her on stage with a beat face with her iconic makeup style. If you want true talent she will show you. Gunalchéesh

Image Description: Esmina pefroms outdoors in a lavendar gown agaisnt a clowdfilled sky.

Harley Sane | Smizing his way through Seattle since 2022, this Kaleidescope King is always versatile. Sexy, silly, emotional…it just depends on the day! Harley (@harleysayne) finds his power in disability representation and is deeply passionate about providing performance spaces for Drag Kings. He is a Co-Producer and Media Manager for The Emerald City Kings Ball, the only international Festival dedicated to Drag Kings & Beings in the world! Full of charm and quick wit, Harley Sayne is sure to win his way into your heart.

Image Description: Harley performs in a rose adorned blazer, with a floral mask hield in his hands. 

Oro (She/They) creates art using her dream symbolism. She can recall dreams she’s had from her childhood. These images burned into her memory, flooded with color and rich with meaning. Oro has lived on the fringes since she can remember. Born to Borikén parents in the cold midwest. They moved to Oakland, CA as a young person to seek queer community,  harm reductionists and abolitionists. She found her family, mentors, madrina and the bravery needed to survive through storytelling. Movement, film and music have helped her to make sense of the world. They believe that the most miraculous thing one can do is share openly and unapologetically what it’s like to be you in this world. So many things inspire their creativity: learning about cycles, learning about death and birth, learning how to unlearn, dismantle, and envision. Oro moved to the PNW in 2016 bringing what they gleaned and weaving her lessons to the wisdom of the land and people here. She invites her ancestors to be with her, to help them embody what it means to steward, not only this sacred land we are on but relationships and liberation.

Image Description: Oro performs a backbend in front of a wall with what looks like water projected onto it. 

Founded in 2022 by Bee Bolino and Vera Drummond-Moore, HEARTH originated as an evening of open hearts through dance, a culmination of the founders’ artistic experience together over their past 4 years in college. HEARTH now exists as a dance company between the two, continuing to explore connection, compassion, and communication.

Image Description: Members of HEARTH cradle each other in a lush green wood, all dressed in the same grey-blue color. 

Jacqueline Boxx’s mobility aids are as enticing as her activism, and she packs an aesthetic and emotional punch, whether she brings classic tease, nerdlesque, or neo-burlesque to the stage. She is a devoted burlesque performer, instructor, show producer, and disability activist, and has taught workshops and lectured on panels about mindful movement and adaptive performance across the world. She is a founder and core instructor at the Baltimore-based burlesque teaching collective Essential Tease which regularly teaches both online and in-person classes and produces student showcases. 

Image Description: Jacqueline sits in a vintage white bathroom wearing a black lingerie ensemble.

Jacqueline has competed and been featured at the Burlesque Hall of Fame four times in total and, in 2017, she became the first performer to ever compete in a wheelchair for a title at the Burlesque Hall of Fame Weekender. She is the 2023 Monarch of Pacific Northwest Burlesque and the 1st Runner up “SupaFly” of the 2023 What the Funk Festival.  ​21st Century Burlesque Magazine named her one of the top 50 most influential burlesque performers in the world in 2022. She is: Miss Disa-burly-TEASE!