Who’s Afraid of Cabaret? A Conversation with Dainty Smith and Golboo Amani

Abstract

Abstract:A conversation with Dainty Smith and Golboo Amani, the curators of PUSH.PULL: Intersections of QTBIPOC Cabaret and Performance Art, a six-month online series of interdisciplinary events examining emergent and intersectional developments in performance art and QTBIPOC cabaret. As the cabaret stage has traditionally held space for queer bodies to negotiate corporeal boundaries, queer performance has historically taken place on the fringes of popular culture. PUSH.PULL questioned what is considered legitimate art and what is seen as entertainment, by highlighting QTBIPOC cabaret performers as artists at the intersections of live stage performance and radical political performativity. This interview sought to address the question: what is capital P performance art afraid of? What delineates ‘fine’ art from ‘low’ art and those who have been kept at arm’s length from contemporary art?