100 Women We Love 2015

We are thrilled to present this year’s 100 Women We Love—an incredibly diverse group of out entertainers, athletes, artists, activists, business leaders and elected officials.

MONICA PALACIOS

For more than 30 years, Monica Palacios has been engaging audiences on the intersections of Latina and lesbian identity through her pioneering theatrical performances. She stormed the world of comedy in 1982 when she became the first out Chicana lesbian comic to play San Francisco. Since then, she has toured her original theatrical works widely, and is currently performing “Queer Latina Love & Revolution,” a solo show. A playwright, screenwriter, solo performer, poet, essayist and educator, Palacios is widely respected by her peers as a “maverick” and a “visionary.” Palacios was even recognized in 2012 by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa with a day named after her. Community organizing and activism are definitive elements to her work, and Palacios says connecting with her audiences is what´s important. “People appreciate and respect artists who are real-like them,” she says. “I love when audience members come up to me after a show and tell me they could relate to my experiences.” The specificity of her life is not limiting to audiences; comedy, she has found, ties it all together. “Even though a large part of my work is about my Chicana/Latina lesbian life, the impact of my humor,” she says, “is definitely universal.” -SJ


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