THISISPOPBABY moves between dance party and theatrical spaces, and brings a queer sensibility to both. Their approach to art and politics is that pleasure is also political, and political engagement can be a pleasure. RIOT is a play on words: they balance between a riotous good time and a furious insistence on the necessity of social change.
Use this study guide to learn more about the troupe, contemporary Irish politics, and the “radical possibilities of pleasure” — and get inspired to take the riotous energy out of the theatre and into the streets, with some NYC-based activist groups!
Read about THISISPOPBABY and get a glimpse of RIOT on their website. Plus, read a review of a past production of the show in the Irish Times!
RELATED EVENTS
RELATED EVENTS
J de Leon on RIOT
THE FIRST GAY PRIDE WAS A RIOT. This defiant wordplay-as-slogan, appearing with variations on stickers, pins, patches, and protest signs since at least 1989, succinctly reminds us that the Stonewall riots – and earlier riots at Cooper’s Donuts and Compton Cafeteria – were in direct response to police violence, and refutes the orderly parade routes, corporate sponsors, and cheerful rainbow ads that now gild NYC as Pride approaches.
GET INTO IT
GET INTO IT
Are You Up To Date on Pantigate?
This amazing illustrated timeline of PANTIGATE by Irish illustrator Chrissy Curtin will get you up to speed on the political importance of Ireland’s Queen of Drag
“Panti Bliss still can’t get hitched” by Emer O’Toole (2017)
“Guerrilla Glamour: The Queer Tactics of Dr. Panti Bliss” by Emer O’Toole (2017)
And a poem on the politics of everyday life by Jameson Fitzpatrick (NYU): I Woke Up
“I thought I was not a political poet and still
my imagination was political.”
The Politics of Queer Performance
The Politics of Queer Performance
- Che Gossett, Reina Gossett, and AJ Lewis, “Reclaiming Our Lineage: Organized Queer, Gender-Nonconforming, and Transgender Resistance to Police Violence,” in A New Queer Agenda, special issue of Scholar & Feminist Online, vol. 10.1-2, Fall 2011/Spring 2012.
- Audre Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury,” “The Uses of the Erotic” and “The Uses of Anger” in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Berkeley: Crossing Press, 1984).
- José Muñoz, Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity (New York: New York University Press, 2009).
- Benjamin Heim Shepard, Queer Political Performance and Protest: Play, Pleasure and Social Movement (London: Routledge, 2009).
- Dean Spade, “Dress to Kill, Fight to Win,” in LTTR Vol. 1, September 2002.
- Fintan Walsh, Queer Performance and Contemporary Ireland (2016)
Queer, Feminist, Irish
Queer, Feminist, Irish
- “Fetal Ireland: National Bodies and Political Agency,” Kathryn Conrad (2001)
- “Queer Treasons: Homosexuality and Irish National Identity,” Kathryn Conrad (2001)
- “Foucault, Bourdieu and the Field of Irish Sexuality,” Tom Inglis (1997)
- “Sexual identities, National identities: The politics of gay law reform in the republic of Ireland,” Richard Dunphy (1997)
- “Feminism and the Politics of Difference in Northern Ireland,” Adrian Little (2002)
More Ways To Change The World
More Ways To Change The World
ACT UP — still here, still queer, still working to stop HIV/AIDS
Black Lives Matter is a chapter-based, member-led organization whose mission is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes
The Center is the heart and home of NYC’s LGBT community, providing programs for health, wellness and community connection
FIERCE is a membership-based organization building the leadership and power of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth of color in New York City
Make the Road New York (MRNY) builds the power of Latino and working class communities to achieve dignity and justice through organizing, policy innovation, transformative education, and survival services
NYC Books Through Bars is an all-volunteer-run group that sends free, donated books to incarcerated people across the nation
Planned Parenthood — needs no introduction; always needs donations
Queer Nation is a direct action group dedicated to ending discrimination, violence and repression against the LGBT community
Rise and Resist was formed in response to the 2016 U.S. election and is working nonstop against #45
The Sylvia Rivera Law Project works to guarantee that all people are free to self-determine gender identity and expression, regardless of income or race, and without facing harassment, discrimination or violence
EXTRA CREDIT
EXTRA CREDIT
Make sure you’re up on your Irish slang!