The Dish: A New Lesbian Musical Uses All Avril Lavigne’s Best Songs, Sarah Shook is Queering Country

Chill out, whatcha yelling for?

Oh yay, it’s Friday! So much better than yesterday except that, oh yeah, we have to live with harmful decisions made by our government. Hope you don’t have any pre-existing conditions! (JK we all do.)

On to some lighter topics.

Jenny Lewis‘s track “Girl on Girl” is a fan favorite, and now she’s releasing a limited edition 12-by-18 print to benefit Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. But where can I get this jacket?

Halsey and Lauren Jauregui are working on a song together called “Strangers.” Strongly hoping this is a romantic duet between the two bisexual pop stars, and that they make a video, too.

Sarah Shook may be your new favorite musician. “I’m a vegan, bisexual, atheist, civil rights activist, female in a country band in the south,” she said, so you know she’s a bad ass. Sarah lives in North Carolina, where she runs Manifest, “a two-night street venue music festival in Chapel Hill, and the only requirement for each band is they must have one woman member, a member of a minority, or an LGBTQ member.” “I’m pretty involved in the local music scene trying to make spaces for women and trans folk and members of the LGBTQ community, and just get them more platforms, better visibility, and better representation,” she said. “Working in a venue, I mean it’s just straight white dudes every night in band after band. We’re not trying to do a super-flashy progressive thing, we’re just trying to say this is normal, this is the way it should be. … We’re not trying to do a super-flashy progressive thing, we’re just trying to say this is normal, this is the way it should be.” Again, BAD ASS.

If you’ve never paid a visit to the Lesbian Herstory Archives, you’re truly missing out. They have a large cardboard cutout of Gertrude Stein, a ’90s lesbian board game that’s no longer in print and so many fun articles, photos and artifacts about dyke life in the U.S. All very Instagrammable. They surely have a file on Del Martin, who would have been 96 were she alive today. A true pioneer and lover of vests.

Out lesbian baller Taylor Emery is transferring from Tulane to Virginia Tech. She made the decision after being heavily recruited by two other Southern schools (Oklahoma State and Ole Miss). So wait, are you telling me they don’t care that she’s gay and just want her to come play basketball!?!

Hulu premiered the first teaser of their new adaptation of “The Runaways,” and it looks pretty cool. Virginia Gardner (the blonde) is Karolina Dean, the show’s out lesbian character.

Photo by Hulu

Kate McKinnon can truly make anything LOL-worthy, like this week’s “SNL” promo below. She also just joined the cast of the film “Fa-m-ily” opposite Taylor Schilling and will be co-starring with Mila Kunis in “The Spy Who Dumped Me,” which sounds terrible and straight, but I’ll give it a go anyway because of Kate.

If you have dreamt of attending a queer feminist techno festival, you’ll need to buy a flight to the German city of Leipzig, stat. BALANCE “aims to scrutinize norms about gender and sexuality and address the underrepresentation of women in the local music scene by empowering those currently involved in it,” and it’s all going down May 11-13.

A new photo series, “The Families We Make,” poses LGBTQ trailblazers with young queer activists, which is really, really cool and is creating much-needed visibility for SAGE. Edie Windsor, Bamby Salcedo and Ivy Bottini are all part of the project.

A Taiwanese lesbian novel has finally been translated into English. Qiu Miaojin first published “Notes on a Crocodile” in 1994, which follows a young lesbian coming to terms with her feelings for an older classmate. Miaojin tragically committed suicide a year later at the age of 26. She’d hopefully be quite thrilled her work is being made more accessible, as she was quite progressive for her time.

A new musical at Wesleyan is lesbian-themed and uses 20 Avril Lavigne songs to tell the story of Sapphic love triangle. “Things I’ll Never Say” was written by senior Maya Herbsman who says “I was sitting in the car with a friend and we were listening to ‘Let Go,’ Avril Lavigne’s first album, and I was, like, ‘Wow, I could make a really good coming-out story out of these songs.'” This seriously is the stage play I never knew I always wanted. (At least one lesbian character wear a tie with a tank top.)

Speaking of things I’m dying to see, New York-based Caribbean queer collective RAGGA NYC is the focus of an exhibit at the New Museum now through June 25. Check it out if you can. Maybe this weekend?

See you Monday! Be safe!


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