Reclaiming Our Burlesque History: Burlesque History in RI and MA: The Story
Hello from the Rhody Q Babes! Today, we’re explaining ourselves. By now you’ve hopefully heard about our exhibit at The Inspiria Collective, the Opening Night Show, and the Rhody Q mission to help boost the burlesque community in Rhode Island, because if you haven't, well, where have you been? By the time this blog is over I hope to answer any questions including, but not limited to “why are there so many colons in this title?”, to which I will directly answer now: for the bit.
Rhody Q Roots
Lopez and I (Odette) met in a way that many new Boston performers do. If you’re in the scene then you know exactly what I’m saying, and if you’re not, you can email us if you feel so inclined. ANYWAY, we were both living in Providence and regularly commuting to Boston for rehearsals and shows and carpooling solidified our bond. Despite the delightful drives filled with 2000s Hip Hop Throwbacks, it got really old driving to Boston for burlesque all the time, and we started fantasizing about having burlesque closer to home in Providence and how we could help make that happen.
Lopez La Lopez has always been an avid burlesque history collector (hoarder) who has been collecting longer than she has been performing herself. Her personal collection is seriously impressive. Her love for memorabilia and the stories behind them have fueled her dream to open a museum of burlesque of her own, giving her collection something to do other than sit in her closet. Mixing her love of burlesque history with wanting to bring more burlesque to Providence led Lopez to team up with Third House Events to open the Reclaiming Our Burlesque History: Burlesque History in RI and MA exhibit.
Odette Goode is a big history nerd that will never skip the opportunity to tell you that Paul Revere's bitch ass only rode two miles during his “ride” and 14 year old Sybil Ludington is the ACTUAL hero of that night. Go ahead, look it up. Odette’s need to know the real history behind things we “know” brought her into being the yes-woman for Lopez’s hoarding (collecting) habit, and desire to gather as much info on the past burlesque history of Boston that she was a big fan-girl of.
Why the Exhibit?
As mentioned above, Lopez La Lopez has always wanted to open a burlesque museum of her own. This exhibit is hopefully the first of many exhibits and galleries that Rhody Q will curate and contribute to in our mission to tell burlesque stories.
The name is also very near and dear to us. “Reclaiming” is a word we wanted to include because we are sick of certain people being able to tell stories from their perspective and leaving others behind. Kind of like how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was able to immortalize Paul Revere with his storytelling poem while leaving Sybil Ludington out of the history books, even though it’s an inaccurate retelling. We got really sick of men in charge “owning” all the stories and not having space to share other perspectives, so we made one. We’re reclaiming stories previously told incorrectly. We are bringing our core belief into this exhibit: We believe each performer has a story and deserves to own and tell it in their own terms.
This time around we are focusing on our local community because it's OUR community, and we could not be more in awe of the Boston and Providence Burlesque scene.
This also seems like a good time to repeat the exhibit’s mission statement, and use another colon: Our mission is to present the history of Rhode Island and Massachusetts’ burlesque community. The exhibit aims to use the lived experiences of performers to demonstrate creativity that goes into burlesque performance as well as the multiplicity of talent and performers in our community.
What to Expect at the Exhibit
For the week of February 10th-17th the Reclaiming Burlesque History: Burlesque History in RI and MA exhibit will be open for general entry. The gallery is a crowd-sourced display of local burlesque history with various elements including costumes, posters, photos, and other ephemera tied to past burlesque performances. Rhody Q has worked with local burlesque performers from past and present to collect things near and dear to their careers that tell their stories. Each piece will be displayed with information about its use, creation, and the performer who used it. Entry price is on a pay-what-you-can sliding scale of $5-$20.
Within the general exhibit we also have an Opening Night Show and a Storytime event for the closing day of the gallery. These events bookend the week on the 10th and 17th, respectively. Opening Night Show tickets are available for purchase on EventBrite here. This show will be the first that Rhody Q produces, and Lopez and I are extremely excited to step into the producer role. This show is to celebrate the career of those performing and includes a variety of types of performance, we’re seriously so thrilled to have the cast participate in our project.
Storytime is the closing time to reflect on the past week of displays, reunite with old friends, and for newer performers to hear stories and advice from experienced performers. If you are interested in participating in storytime please fill out this form.
That’s All I’ve Got
Thanks for reading through all of that! We are so excited that it’s almost showtime, and the anticipation is killing us. We hope to see you at the gallery and as always, if you have comments, questions, and/or concerns, please contact us! See ya soon!
