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A Very Reasonable Price | “It’s important to be true to yourself,” says folk singer (and Loud & Queer performer) Nancy Price about her sexual identity.

LOUD & QUEER CABARET
Hosted by Darrin Hagen and Kristy Harcourt. La Cité Francophone (8627-91 St). Tickets available through TIX on the Square (420-1757/tixonthesquare.ca).

If you want the brief version, Darrin Hagen — host, director and curator of Edmonton’s annual Loud & Queer Cabaret — describes the event best: “There will be three stunning acts of variety. Every range of the queer experience in every artform we can put onstage.” That includes short plays, poetry readings, musical performances, stories, film, drag happenings, and an interview with a porn star. “Whaa?” you exclaim, monocle popping from your eye. “An interview with a porn star?”

“Well, we are part of Exposure, Edmonton’s Queer Arts & Culture Festival,” explains Hagen, “and they’re bring in Buck Angel, who is, okay, you ready for this? Born a woman, is now a man, except where it probably would count and does porn. Basically a man with a vagina. What a human being like this does is challenge almost every single level of our binary gendered society. He’s really using his body as a gender warrior.” (Curious? I bet you are! Read Trent Wilkie’s interview with Buck Angel at left for more.)

As the cabaret draws near, how we categorize ourselves is also at the forefront of folk artist Nancy Price’s mind. “If someone wants to know what your orientation is, it’s easy to say, ‘Well, I’m a lesbian’ and people sort of know what that means,” she notes as we chat about her upcoming L&Q performance — her third in as many years. “I personally am not so easily categorized and I’m being true to myself when I bring my husband to Pride events. It’s important to be true to yourself even if you can’t clearly and quickly communicate what that means to people.”

And there’s nothing like a delightful, exuberant two-night display of creativity to help sift through what gender and self means to you. Even 17 editions of Loud & Queer behind him and an 18th on its way, Hagen assures me there’s always a performance that surprises even him each year. “I look for a spark,” he says, “and a future where someone walks onto the stage and I go ‘Ah, I can see where they’re heading!’ And let’s help them get there.”