Legendary Showgirls Mimi Marks, Sheri Payne Will Be Honored At 3rd Annual Trans Visibility Pageant
Saturday’s pageant will highlight the art and accomplishments of community members while raising money for transitional housing. Legendary Chicago stage performers Mimi Marks and Sheri Payne will be honored at the 3rd Annual Windy City Trans Visibility Pageant, which celebrates Chicago's transgender artists and activists. The event is being hosted by Life is Work, a Black, Brown-, and transgender-led community organization on the West Side. The pageant will feature 12 artists competing for over $8,000 in cash and prizes. Marks and Payne have performed for decades at the legendary Baton Show Lounge, a venue long supported transgender drag performers. All proceeds from the pageant will benefit the Life Is Work's Lois Emergency Housing initiative, which aims to provide trans women of color with short-term housing.
发表 : 4 周前 经过 Francesca Mathewes 在
AUSTIN — Two iconic Chicago stage performers will be honored this weekend at an event celebrating Chicago’s transgender artists and activists.
The third annual Windy City Trans Visibility Pageant is 6-11 p.m. Saturday at Kehrein Center for the Arts, 5628 W. Washington Blvd. The event is presented by Life is Work, a Black-, Brown-, and transgender-led community organization on the West Side.
The pageant will feature performances by 12 artists across several categories, all competing for over $8,000 in cash and prizes. The event is tied to International Day of Trans Visibility on Sunday, which is intended to uplift the lives and accomplishments of trans and gender non-conforming people while highlighting progress that needs to be made.
Tickets are available online. General admission tickets are $50, and VIP tickets are $150 with early access to the show, a cocktail social and unlimited beverages.
Mimi Marks and Sheri Payne will receive the Life is Work Icon award. Marks and Payne performed for decades at the legendary Baton Show Lounge, a venue that has long supported transgender drag performers.
“They will be honored for their decades of contributions, their visibility, their uniqueness, their talent,” said Zahara Bassett, CEO of Life is Work. “It’s a beautiful thing to see them still doing their thing, still encouraging young, trans women, who are coming up behind them doing the work. They are shouting and praising and continuing to live their lives along with their voice.”
Payne started at Baton Show Lounge in 1980, four years after her brother took her there for the first time, she told VICE in 2018. The club opened in 1969 and operated for decades in River North before moving to Uptown in 2019.
“I was already a performer,” she told VICE. “I had scholarships to Juilliard for dance, scholarships to Columbia. I could have gone all those routes. But here in Chicago, they let me dance as a girl and let me take classes as a girl, and they wouldn’t let me do that at Juilliard. I couldn’t believe it. But thank god they let me dance and transition.”
Asked about some of the most influential performers, Payne first mentioned Marks.
“Now Mimi [Marks] is the most beautiful blonde on the planet,” Payne said in the interview. “I’m sorry, I love all my blonde sisters, but … there’s only one Marilyn, right? There’s only one Mimi Marks. She’s on caliber with Marilyn Monroe to me.”
Originally from Iowa, Marks began performing at Baton when she was just 23. She did her final show in 2016.
“I worked five days per week and three shows per night,” she told the Windy City Times. “It wasn’t fun every day. There were times when I didn’t feel like being ‘on.’ When I initially started, I wasn’t making that much money at all. But I got to be a better entertainer and things improved. It’s what I do. It’s in my blood. I’ll be in this business in some form for the rest of my life.”
The event will also feature an auction, and all proceeds will go to support Life is Work’s Lois Emergency Housing initiative, which seeks to provide trans women of color with short-term housing. The program was funded initially with a grant from the Chicago Community Trust, but Bassett said that proceeds from the pageant are part of efforts to “fully anchor the program.”
In addition to competing for a cash prize, the two pageant winners will embark on an advocacy tour to speak on issues of rights for transgender people around the United States, starting at the National Trans Visibility March in New York City in October.
“We want to always uplift community,” Bassett said. “That’s within our mission, to empower and uplift.”