Tag Archives: Queer

Seasons Greetings

Posted on December 7, 2025 by dannyashkenasi

We dressed our tree. Our windows have lights. Even our trellis is dressed. I prefer to call it a Solstice Tree. And since this is a very Queer home, our tree angel is a vintage Billy doll. He’s very anatomically … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', Beginnings, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Musicabilia | Tagged angel, art, balls, Billy Boy, Brazil, Christmas, Cow, creche, disco, disco balls, dragon, frog, Gay Blade, Holiday, Hope, lights, mirror, ornament, Paul Cadmus, peace, peacock, photography, planets, Prince, Queer, Reindeer, Solstice, swan, tree, trellis, Vine, Xmas | Leave a comment

PRIDE SATURDAY at the BROOKLYN MUSEUM

Posted on June 9, 2025 by dannyashkenasi

It being June, Pride Month, the Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturday was a celebration of Queer community and art. NYC Gay Men’s Chorus performs Andra Day’s “Rise Up” The Beaux Arts Court was turned into a fair for queer figure drawing, … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Notes in the News, Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged Aimee Amour, Andra Day, Beaux Arts Court, Bertha Vanashun, brooklyn, Dev Doee, Drag History Hour, Emi Grate, Ethel Smyth, figure drawing, First Saturday, Harriet Tugsmen, I'm Baby, Langston Hughes, Lesbian Herstory Archives, LGBTQ, Marsha P. Johnson, Maya Hayuk, Moog, museum, Nathalie Clifford Barney, pop up market, Pride, Queer, Rise Up, Starmakers, Tourmaline, Wendy Carlos | Leave a comment

COLUMBUS CIRCLE HOLIDAY MARKET & Yuletide Music Quiz

Posted on December 24, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

A Photo Stroll around New York City’s biggest Holiday Market, plus a little Yuletide Music Quiz*. *answers tucked in the tags at the bottom of this post Yuletide Song Quiz 1: What is the name of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Arts-a-Poppin', LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Melodies Linger On, Two-fisted Touristing | Tagged Christmas Tree, Christmastime in the Trailerpark, Columbus Circle, Holiday, Holiday Market, I'll be Homo for Christmas, lesbian, Linus and Lucy, Madonna, Market, Montgomery Ward, ornaments, photography, Queer, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Solstice tree, Venus Envy, Vince Guaraldi Trio, vocal group, Y'All | Leave a comment

An International Smorgasbord of QUEER CINEMA for 2019/2020

Posted on November 2, 2019 by dannyashkenasi

Last weekend I dove into NewFest 2019, New York City’s LGBTQ Film Festival, enjoying 18 screenings over 5 days. Overall I did well, truly disliking only one of the 15 features and 26 shorts I saw. Here are my … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Notes in the News | Tagged A Dog Barking at the Moon, And Then We Danced, Asher Jelinsky, Billie & Emma, Bunny, Cinema, Cubby, Engaged, How to Make a Rainbow, Last Ferry, LGBTQ, Little Boy, Long Distance, Melt, movies, NewFest, Ponyboi, Queer, R u o k, Rafael Gomes, Sadeed Haddad, Seventeen, short film, Siberia and Him, Sweater, Tadpole, Tell-By Date, Temblores, The Shiny Shrimps, The True Adventures of Wolfboy, Three Months, Welcome to the Ball, Wonder, You and Me and Him and Him and Him | 2 Comments

LGBT is Thrown Around All the Time, But Where is the “B”?

Posted on November 20, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Notes from the “BiView: Bisexual Representation in Media Panel” at NewFest2017 October 21st I attended the panel discussion on Bisexuality in the Media, the first of its kind at a NewFest/Outfest film festival. Moderated by bisexual activist and journalist Eliel … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Notes in the News | Tagged 13, Alexandra Bolles, biphobia, biplus, bisexual, Bob's Burgers, Callie Torres, David J. Cork, Denarii Grace, Eliel Cruz, GLAAD, Grey's Anatomy, House, How To Get Away With Murder, Insecure, LGBT, LGBTQ, media, NewFest, Olivia Wilde, polyamory, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Queer, Sara Ramirez, Studio Responsibility Index, Taylor Behnke, The Bold Type, Wonder Woman | Leave a comment

QUEER SHORTS – The Fab and the Furious

Posted on October 28, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Highlights from “Boys Shorts”, “Beyond the Binary”, “Drawn This Way – Animated” & “Faith and Fury” film shorts programs at Newfest – New York’s LGBT Film Festival It probably plays to the stereotype of the typical NewFest attendee that … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup | Tagged Ama, Animation, Audience Award, Ballroom Scene, Beard, Ben Baur, Boys, Bryan Powers, Catherine Curtin, Dinner with Jeffrey, Dressed as Girl, Earthly Delights, Elegance Bratton, Eli Mak, Evan Dale Karg, Faith, festival, film, Fish Curry, Fishy, Gema, Half a Life, HBO, Hi It's Your Mother, Indonesia, John Hughes, Kendrick Prince, LGBT, LGBTQ, Manivald, Mrs. McCutcheon, NewFest, Noora, Paul Rudnick, Pria, Pussy, Queer, Reed Birney, Route 66, shorts, Something New, The Night Cleaner, Time is the Longest Distance, transgender, Walk For Me | 4 Comments

QUEER SHORTS – The Young and the Resistance

Posted on October 23, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Highlights from “Young, Queer and Woke” and “The Queer Resistance” film shorts programs at Newfest – New York’s LGBT Film Festival Another fall in New York City. Another NewFest festival of LGBTQ films. Last year I stuffed a dozen festival films … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup | Tagged Antiman, Cinema, Coppola, D'Onofrio, festival, film, Gavan Ramountar, Guyana, Him, Intersection, LGBT, LGBTQ, LGBTQIA, Margo & May, Morgan Kahn Nichols, My Gay Sister, NewFest, Queer, Sariwala, short films, Thomas Rivera Montes, Truth and Dare, We Forgot to Break Up, Who I Am | Leave a comment

The Young Lovers’ Path to Speak Easy

Posted on June 25, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Two Fawns in the Wood Dance into the Light Maybe it’s just a dream. Maybe it’s real. Maybe it doesn’t matter either way. For the shame and the betrayal are felt just as acutely. In the musical Speakeasy, an … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Literary Lyricism, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged 1920s, 1930s, adultery, Alice in Wonderland, Dance into the Light, Dream, Fawn, Fawn in the Wood, Gershwin, Jane Allison, John Allison, Lewis Carroll, magical realism, musical, Prohibition, Queer, same-sex, sexual identity, Speakeasy, Through the Looking Glass, Trial of the Tarts | Leave a comment

SPEAKEASY – The Irony of the Young Lovers’ Duets

Posted on June 22, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

Curious Colorful Night – It’s a Dream – Momentary Bliss Three lovers’ duets that are not what they seem to the ear Ah, young lovers’ duets. A hallmark of musicals, especially those of the 1920s and 1930s, and so of … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Literary Lyricism, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged 1920s, 1930s, Curious Colorful Night, curiouser, drag ball, duet, ingenue, irony, It's a Dream, Jane Allison, John Allison, Lewis Carroll, lovers, magical realism, Momentary Bliss, musical, Queer, Roaring Twenties, Speakeasy, Subculture, Wonderland | Leave a comment

PRIDE MONTH at Notes from a Composer

Posted on June 16, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

The White House in Rainbow Colors. That happened. Specifically that happened in June 2015, after the Supreme Court affirmed Marriage Equality for the United States. But that was the previous administration. This administration won’t even make mention of June being … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Notes in the News | Tagged 1920s, 1930s, Big Apple Corps, bisexual, Cabaret, drag ball, June, LGBT, LGBTQ, logo, March, marriage equality, Pride, Quakers, Queer, Sex addiction, sex on screen, slang, Snow White, Speakeasy, The Handmaiden | Leave a comment

Speakeasy Highlight Reel

Posted on February 19, 2017 by dannyashkenasi

It’s the one year anniversary of the workshop performances of “Speakeasy – John and Jane’s Adventures in the Wonderland“. To mark the occasion, here are some screen shots of the Speakeasy Highlight Reel, a 13 minute edit of selections from … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged 1920s, Alice in Wonderland, ball, Cheshire, Danny Ashkenasi, drag, highlight, history, LGBTQ, musical, Prohibition, Queer, reel, Speakeasy, White Rabbit | Leave a comment

A Queer Baker’s Dozen of NewFest LGBT films – Part 2

Posted on October 27, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

Akron – I Love You Both – Women Who Kill – Don’t Call Me Son – The Cult – The Nest – (and a Lazy Eye addendum) I experienced a marathon weekend of new LGBT movies from around the world … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema Scope, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup | Tagged Akron, Ann Muylaert, bisexuality, Don't Call Me Son, Doug Archibald, festival, film, Hunky Dory, I Love You Both, Ingrid Jungermann, Krystal Archibald, Lazy Eye, LGBT, Manhattan Murder Mystery, NewFest, Queer, Suicide Kale, The Cult, The Nest, Women Who Kill, Woody Allen | Leave a comment

NfaC Pride Month Repost: THE NEARLY INVISIBLE BISEXUAL MALE

Posted on June 4, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

June is Pride Month. So I thought I should make my first post of the month a post that deals heavily with LGBTQ issues. And although my many posts related to my musical Speakeasy almost invariably deal with LGBTQ issues, … Continue reading →

Posted in Beginnings, LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged Alan Cumming, Alice in Wonderland, bisexual, bisexuality, Cabaret, coming out, Gay, Kinsey Scale, lesbian, LGBT, LGBTQ, Lissa Moira, musical, omnisexual, Orange in the New Black, pansexual, Pride, Queer, Scarlet Letter, Sense8, Speakeasy, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Tim Maner, Torch Song Trilogy, transgender, trisexual | 1 Comment

SPEAKEASY – Douglas McDonnell sings “Dance into the Light”

Posted on May 31, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

The tenor Douglas McDonnell sang two songs from Speakeasy at last weekend’s Lower East Side festival at the Theater for the New City: “Dance into the Light” and “All You Are”. Unfortunately technical difficulties got in the way of recording … Continue reading →

Posted in Live! On Stage, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged 1920s, Dance into the Light, Douglas McDonnell, drag ball, Gladys Bentley, Jonathan Fox Powers, LGBT, musical, Queer, Speakeasy, Theater for the New City | 1 Comment

“SPARKLING MOMENTS OF MUSICAL THEATER” – OffOffOnline’s Speakeasy Review

Posted on March 7, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

OffOffOnline posted their Speakeasy review. Here a few highlights: “Kayleigh Shuler as Jane and Matias Polar as John are the heartbeat of the show; they are the flawless young lovers, never missing a note or a cue.” “As Jane’s best … Continue reading →

Posted in Live! On Stage, Notes in the News, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged 1920s, 1930s, Alice in Wonderland, Allie Radice, Anne Bragg, Bevin Bell-Hall, Camille Atkinson, Danny Ashkenasi, Gay, Gladys Bentley, J. Alan Hanna, Julian Eltinge, Kayleigh Shuler, LGBT, Matias Polar, musical, OffOffOnline, Queer, Speakeasy, Theater for the New City, Tim Connell, Wonderland | Leave a comment

The Inspiration for SPEAKEASY’S DUCHESS BENTLEY – Part 2 of The Terrific, Transgressive and Tragic Tale of Gladys Bentley

Posted on March 4, 2016 by dannyashkenasi

Gladys Bentley, the model for the character Duchess Bentley in Speakeasy, enjoyed a terrific career as deliberately outrageous Lesbian nightclub singer during the Roaring Twenties, but saw her prospects plummet during the far less permissive Great Depression. Almost all homosexual … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Notes in the News, The Speakeasy Chronicles | Tagged 1920s, 1930s, Ex-Gay, Gay, Gene Malin, Gladys Bentley, Julian Eltinge, LGBT, musical, Prohibition, Queer, Red Scare, Repression, Speakeasy, Womanly | 2 Comments

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