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sassafras lowrey
Sassafras Lowrey is a genderqueer high femme author, artist, and activist. Ze is a militant storyteller who believes that everyone has a story to tell, and that the telling of those stories is essential in order to create social change. Sassafras works as a freelance writer for various LGBTQ publications, and hir visual art has been showcased in conferences and galleries across the United States, including the “Fresh Meat” Gallery in San Francisco, and the legendary “Southern Comfort” Conference in Atlanta.
Sassafras earned hir bachelor’s degree from Portland State University and focused on queer media studies, and storytelling of the oppressed. Ze is an accomplished zinester and storyteller and was an original member of the spoken word performance group “The Language of Paradox” founded and directed by Kate Bornstein. Sassafras is a contributing author for LGBTQ: America Today a three-volume 600,000 word encyclopedia from Greenwood Press, and hir first book GSA to Marriage: Stories of a Life Lived Queerly is scheduled for release from Homofactus Press.
As a teenager Sassafras experienced homelessness, ze was forced to leave hir mother’s home after suffering physical violence after coming out as queer and later was kicked out of the home of an adult friend when hir queerness was again discovered. During this time ze became active in queer culture, finding hir way to queer youth organizations and movements, which provided community and saved hir life. As an adult, ze has never forgotten the personal impact of those groups, and is committed to making the world a safer place for the queer youth of today. Ze lives in New York City with hir partner, two puddle cats, and a princess dog.
kestryl cael
Kestryl Cael is a performer, activist, slam poet, and gender revolutionary. When forced to choose a label, he identifies as a transgender butch. Kestryl Cael has appeared on-stage at conferences, colleges, festivals, and local theatres. He considers it his artistic duty to engage his audiences in critical thought without letting them take him (or themselves) too seriously.
XY(T), Kestryl’s solo performance debut, had it’s world premiere in Portland, Oregon, and it’s NYC premiere at UNDER St. Marks, as part of the 2008 FRIGID Fringe Festival. Critics described Kestryl Cael’s work as “provocative,” “brave,” “appealingly wry,” “heartfelt,” “profound,” and “essential.” XY(T) will next appear as part of the 2008 New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC).
Kestryl wrote his first play at age seven, an epic melodrama involving masks, unicorns, tigers, and entirely gender-neutral casting. After being cast as “The Father” in his 2nd school play, he has consistently been cast in roles that conflict with the gender of his audition—most recently, he portrayed a high-femme drag queen rendition of “The Duchess” in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Kestryl Cael was an ensemble member in “The Language of Paradox,” a performance group directed by Kate Bornstein. Having graduated from Lewis & Clark College with a degree in Theatre and Anthropology, he is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts in Performance Studies at NYU. Kestryl works as a theatre critic for stageandcinema.com.
Kestryl Cael is currently developing 348, his newest solo performance piece. 348 is a searing examination of madness and forced institutionalization in America, rooted in Kestryl’s own experiences of being held against his will in a “therapeutic boarding school” for a year as a teenager. Kestryl is also currently working with his partner, Sassafras Lowrey, to develop a performance examining the politics of passing. Traitors without (T)reason explores the themes of betrayal, privilege, invisibility, sacrifice, subversion, and loss that are inextricably tied into public passing.