Kamrah brings boundary-breaking belly-dancing to Carbondale’s Rainbow Variety Show

Posted by Christine Hawes | Feb 25, 2023 | Archives, Arts and Entertainment, Features, Home Page Lead, Illinois, Illinois Lead, LGBTQ+, Men, News, Profiles, Rainbow Cafe Pages, Southern Illinois, Topics

Kamrah is a trans-masculine belly-dancer from Chicago who defies stereotypes and will headline the Rainbow Variety Show in Carbondale tonight.

As someone who also studies microbiology and anatomy, and identifies as autistic and a “geek,” Kamrah also brings a new level to the term “intersectional.”

Read about Kamrah and other local performers who will take the Rainbow Variety Show stage tonight in Carbondale. The featured performers include author Rafael Frumkin, dancers Kimea Rhines and Darryl clark, vocalist and sound healer Pat York, and acoustic performers Shane Bruce, Jacqui, Elana Floyd-Kennett, Shane Bruce, and Curt Wilson.

The show raises money for the Rainbow Cafe LGBTQ Center and its work of LGBTQ support and social opportunities, HIV and AIDS testing, harm reduction, and more.

World AIDS Day inspires “Being & Belonging” in the Quad Cities, more events in Illinois and Iowa

Posted by Christine Hawes | Nov 28, 2022 | Health, 2022, Archives, Arts and Entertainment, BIPOC, Eastern Iowa, Iowa, LGBTQ+, Men, News, Northwest Illinois, November 2022, Topics, Women

DAVENPORT, IA — “Being & Belonging” is an international look at living with HIV and AIDS, and it’s coming to the Quad Cities Thursday courtesy of The Project of the Quad Cities, DeLaCerda House, and Figge Art Museum.

Read about the artists featured in the film, plus learn about seven other World AIDS Day events happening in Iowa and Illinois.

It features artists from Columbia, Mexico, Korea and more sharing what it’s like to live with HIV and AIDS in different cultures and countries.

This World AIDS Day commemoration, among many throughout Iowa and Illinois, also includes a reception and vigil. The Dec. 1 event starts at 5:30 p.m.

Body positivity, self-discovery through burlesque on stage in Moline at Striptease Academy Showcase

Posted by Christine Hawes | Nov 19, 2022 | Mature Content, 2022, Archives, Arts and Entertainment, Eastern Iowa, Features, Fetishes & Kink Lead, Fetishes and Kinks, Illinois, LGBTQ+, Mature Content Lead, Men, Northwest Illinois, November 2022, PG13, Profiles, Topics Lead, Women

Burlesque as therapy, self-discovery, empowerment and exploring gender will all be part of tonight’s Striptease Academy 2022 Showcase at The Spotlight Theatre in Moline. It’s one of the year’s last big events for Mary Quite Contrary’s House of Burlesque. It’s one of the year’s final events for MQC’s, a Quad Cities burlesque troupe that’s been performing and providing burlesque and striptease education for six years.

Tim Sullivan thrives despite 1965 expulsion during “gay purge” at UNI

Posted by Christine Hawes | Oct 28, 2022 | 2022, Archives, Central Iowa, Eastern Iowa, Features, Iowa, LGBTQ+, Men, News & Features Lead, October 2022, Profiles

Before Stonewall, there was the gay purge. It happened at universities across the country, mostly...

Why you should say ‘MPX’ and other timely questions, answers about monkeypox

Posted by Christine Hawes | Sep 13, 2022 | 2022, Archives, Features, Health, LGBTQ+, Men, September 2022

Read about why it’s time to rebrand monkeypox to MPX, the history of MPX, and other timely questions and answers.

‘Storyteller’ reveals regular guy Grohl

Posted by Cathy Chavez | Jul 15, 2022 | 2022, Archives, Arts and Entertainment, July 2022, Men, Opinion, Opinion Lead, Reviews, Topics

Dave Grohl never felt as though he fit in. Even around kids with which he grew up, Grohl recalls, he felt an “otherness” and wondered what was wrong with him.