Event

I Am A Man by Dazie Grego Rustin

Bundle of Sticks
presents...

I AM A MAN
Performance. Poetry.
Gay. Masculinity.

part of AIRspace, the Garage's residency program for queer performance.

San Francisco--Bay Area performance artist, poet, dancer, actor and activist Dazié Rustin Grego returns to the stage to offer audiences I AM A MAN, an exploration of gender expectations and masculinity. This new original work is Grego's protest response to the recent slaying of Jorge Steven Mercado, a Puerto Rican teenager whose killer solicited him for sex, believing him to be a female. When it was discovered that Mercado was, in fact male, he was murdered, decapitated, dismembered and burned.

I AM A MAN takes a unique look at masculinity from a gay male perspective. "Historically, we have been conditioned to define gender and sexuality norms from the viewpoint of the heterosexual community," Grego explains, "but maleness exists regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. I AM A MAN maintains a core identity based in manhood while bending the ideologies around what it actually means to be a man."