We had a FABULOUS year of Fab Lab 2022 - 2023, with this season’s Queer Ancestors: Audre Lorde, Francis, and Justin Chin. With teaching artists Celeste Chan, Per Sia, and April Axé Charmaine, Fab Lab hosted three events, and produced three E-Zines in celebration of our ancestors, in collaboration with Sol Vida and Latinx Mafia.
Queer Ancestor: Audre Lorde & Playshop with April Axé Charmaine
Participants explored practices inspired by Audre Lorde through movement and dance devoted to our well-being.
“In this two-hour somatic exploration into themes of the revolution introduced by queer ancestor Audre Lorde, we will find solace in a communal activation that includes: heart-centered discussion, attuning to personal rhythm with movement and embodiment practices, and creating a collaborative manifesto devoted to our personal well-being as an act of continuous revolution.” - April Axé Charmaine
At the end of the playshop guests produced a written manifesto to be published and memorialized at the Celebration of Life June event.
Queer Ancestor: Francis & Playshop with Per Sia
Discover Your Drag Persona!
Guests had an amazing time at this empowering event celebrating the art and drag of queer ancestor Francis, the Queen of Queens.
Inspired by Francis’ talents in drag, comedy, and multi-disciplinary arts, attendees explored their multi-disciplinary artistry and develop a drag persona.
Teaching artist and San Francisco’s most beloved drag queen Per Sia led participants in this playshop. Supplemental makeup and supplies were provided by a generous donation from Kryolan and directly from Eye Zen.
Teaching Artist: Per Sia
Queer Ancestor: Francis
Francis was born José Francisco García Escalante in Campeche, Mexico in 1958. She was an actress, comedian, singer, lip-syncher and choreographer/dancer appearing in several movies, telenovelas, variety shows and broadcasts of her comedy shows. She was the first openly gay celebrity in the country and a passionate activist for gay rights when homosexuality was considered a minor crime in Mexico. She became an international hit in the 80's and 90's with her 'El Show de Francis' drag show. She was a beloved public personality and a pioneer in Mexican showbiz.
From weekly performances at the iconic Esta Noche, Per Sia’s career has gone on to include art curation, stand-up, television, and maybe a quinceañera or two. She has performed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and México. She is a regular performer in the nationally acclaimed "Drag Story Hour" as well as an educator in residence at an after school arts program in San Francisco profiled on KQED National Public Radio.”
Queer Ancestor: Justin Chin & Zine-Making Workshop with Celeste Chan
We had an evening of creativity in remembrance of recently departed queer ancestor, Justin Chin. Chin was a mainstay of queer San Francisco performance poetry, and we aimed to revive his passion and politics in this free zine-writing workshop.
Led by queer activist, artist, and sparkly-zine-revolutionary Celeste Chan, this participatory workshop provided zine-making materials for all attendees. Hosted by the amazing experimental theatre and community hub Cutting Ball Theater, this FabLab playshop is a partnership between Eye Zen Presents and Latinx Mafia.
Queer Ancestor: Justin Chin
Poet, essayist, and performance artist Justin Chin was born in Malaysia and educated in Singapore and at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. With humor and raw vulnerability, Chin’s poems interrogate the personal, political, and commercial implications of claiming a queer Asian American identity. Fiercely political, Chin stated in an interview with Frigate magazine, “Every work of art that works as art is a critique.”
Chin was the author of several collections of poetry, including Bite Hard (1997), Harmless Medicine (2001), and Gutted (2006), which won the Publishing Triangle’s Thom Gunn Award for Poetry and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. His prose collections, which weave criticism with memoir and fiction, include Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes, & Pranks (1998), Burden of Ashes (2002), Attack of the Man-Eating Lotus Blossoms (2005), and 98 Wounds (2011). He lived in San Francisco before his death in late 2015.
Teaching Artist: Celeste Chan
Celeste (she/her) is a writer and artist, schooled by Do-It-Yourself culture and immigrant parents from Malaysia and the Bronx, NY. Celeste co-founded and directed Queer Rebels, a performance project devoted to LGBTQ of color artistic histories. She was a longstanding guest curator of experimental film programs for MIX NYC and OUTsider Festival. Celeste toured with feminist literary roadshow Sister Spit, and she served on Foglifter Literary Journal’s board of directors. Her writing has appeared in Alta Journal, cream city review, Gertrude, Mixed-Race/Feminist & Queer, and The Rumpus, among others. With support from the SF Arts Commission, she’s creating a new zine about Chinese and Jewish histories of resistance. Her favorite color is glitter-leopard-rainbow, and she’s currently writing her family memoir.
Celebration of Life
For the finale of our 2023 FabLab series, we hosted: Celebration of Life, a cabaret style show. We enjoyed an afternoon full of visual art, music, poetry and performances from Bay Area’s best QTBIPOC artists hosted be Indigenous drag legend Landa Lakes.
Honoring this season's Queer Ancestors: Audre Lorde, Francis, and Justin Chin.
Featuring artists Celeste Chan, April Axé Charmaine, Landa Lakes, Persia, Hardeep Singh, Aleksej Aarsaether, Jethro Patalinghug, Tina D’Elia, and Lotus Boy.
Photos by Seth Eisen and L. Duarte
Check out our other fabulous years!
FabLab is made possible by the generous support of:
