Photo credit: Tristan Crane, from their series Here Portraits.
hereportraits.com
Today, I talk with Dana Morrigan, wonderful human, wry wit, queer nonbinary transfeminine spoken word artist, writer, performer, and epic karaoke host! It’s about her quest for self-knowledge across many parts of her life: in her cultural affiliations, in her work, in her relationships, in her gender and sexuality, in finding her creative callings. And the through-line is really that the process of finding ourselves is lifelong, and, if you’re doing it right, you can help other people find themselves, too.
We talked about: growing up in the Catskills of the ‘60s and ‘70s; identifying with cultural outlaws like Tiny Tim and Harpo Marx, and identifying with genderfluid and sexually free hippie culture; we talked comedy and improv; performance; writing, both creatively and professionally; copywriting; the demands of academia; heteronormative relationship expectations; gender and sexual discovery; finding the language to better understand oneself; the lifelong project of integrating one’s sense of self and belonging; finding and creating community; queer and trans performance; queer open mic; karaoke…and so many other things!
Find Dana!
Karaoke With Dana on Facebook
@KaraokeWithDana on Instagram and
@KaraokeWithDana on Twitter
References:
Henny Youngman
wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Youngman
Tiny Tim
wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Tim_(musician)
Melville’s Bartleby, The Scrivener
wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartleby,_the_Scrivener
Walter Sobchak doesn’t roll on Shabbos
youtube.com/watch?v=KmULYr1nsZ0
Bob and Ray radio shows
wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_and_Ray
One of the main open mic events Dana performed at was The SF Queer Open Mic. They no longer hold events, but you can still find the community on Facebook
facebook.com/SFQueerOpenMic
And at the SF Queer Open Mic archive
queeropenmic.com
Dana also participated in the Fresh Meat Festival of Trans and Queer Performance
freshmeatproductions.org
El Rio in San Francisco
elriosf.com
Glen Campbell performing “Rhinestone Cowboy”
youtube.com/watch?v=8kAU3B9Pi_U
Johnny Cash performing “A Boy Named Sue,” written by the great Shel Silverstein
youtube.com/watch?v=WOHPuY88Ry4
At the very end of the episode, I referenced “Rogerian,” i.e., Carl Rogers’ psychotherapeutic approach, which informed non-directive play therapy. This was when Dana and I were talking about the therapeutic effects for queer and trans folks being in karaoke community. The history of this modality, though, preceded Rogers and was expanded later by Virginia Axline. Here’s a brief history of the modality
bapt.info/play-therapy/history-play-therapy
Thank you to ALL my patrons for making this podcast happen, and for making it better! A special shout out to all my Failure & Redemption level patrons: Lisa, Marck, Kurt, Bonita, Barry, Amy, Heather, Noah, Jeannie, and Jen, AND, to my Serendipity level patrons: Dorian, Brittany, Steve & Cyndi, Micharelle, Jodi, and Kristi!
Additional music in this episode
TRG Banks – excerpt from “Evening Journey,” used under a CC0 1.0 public domain license.
Find his music at Bandcamp
trgbanks.bandcamp.com/music
Anthem of Rain – excerpt from “Adaptation,” used under a CC BY 4.0 license.
Find their music at the Free Music Archive
freemusicarchive.org/music/anthem-of-rain
Tintamare – excerpt from “Propane,” used under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license
Find their music at Bandcamp
tintamare.bandcamp.com
And sound effects by
jackjames_tomknevItt – Zip dot Wav, used under a CC BY 3.0 license
Find their audio on FreeSound
freesound.org/people/jackjames_tomknevitt/sounds/209489
We are And The Next Thing You Know. Find all the episodes, full episode transcripts, social media links, and extries at
nextthingpodcast.com
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patreon.com/nextthingpod
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The banana peel is by Max Ronnersjö
maxronnersjo.tumblr.com
The theme and interstitial music is by Jon Schwartz
twitter.com/schwartstack
