Vaginal Davis, Holly Hughes Discuss Queer Performance Art in Ribald Evening

In a bawdy show last night in Emerson Hall, controversial artists Holly Hughes and drag performer Dr. Vaginal Creme Davis spoke about their lives as queer artists and performers.

The event, called "Clitty Clitty Bang Bang," was sponsored by the Bisexual Gay, Lesbian, Trangender and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA) and Girlspot as a centerpiece for gay pride month.

Hughes, who is a visiting professor of women's studies at Harvard, performed a piece about her experience as a petitioner before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In 1990, Hughes and three other Manhattan performers were denied funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) because their sexually-themed performances were deemed indecent.

Hughes and the other three artists, famously dubbed the "NEA four," sued the federal endowment. The case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, where they lost in an 8-1 decision.

Her funding was subsequently reinstated two years later, however.

Hughes, whose most recent project was "preaching to the perverted," performed what she called a "sapphic sampler" at last night's event.

In a satiric performance that drew constant laughter from the audience of about 50 students, Hughes poked fun of formal, stringent procedural codes at the Supreme Court, and expressed frustration that she was always pigeonholed as a "lesbian" performer.

In response to the NEA's characterization of her work as a lesbian genre, Hughes exclaimed, "Who knew it was a genre?"

Davis, in a ribald drag performance, went through an abbreviated history of her work.

At 6'6", Davis towered above the audience as she described her many performances--at several points characterizing herself jokingly as a "retarded whore."

For the second half of her act, Davis, who has a Ph.D. in psychology from Columbia University, went out into the audience to "pick lovers for the evening."

Davis's presence on campus has been a matter of controversy in the past.

Michael K. T. Tan '01, co-chair of the BGLTSA, said his organization had tried to secure funding from the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations to bring Davis to campus last year for an event called "Queers of Color."

Although funding was approved by the Foundation's student advisory committee, it was rejected by its faculty advisory board. Tan said he thought the rejection was probably motivated by homophobia.

"Cultural diversity isn't just about a food fair," added Anna M. Baldwin '01. "The basic feeling was that [the Foundation] thought this was just a bunch of sexual crap."