How Much Can I Stand? Disgraced and rejected in by her family as abnormally not girl enough Gladys Bentley made her way to Harlem at 16. Hot right out the box, Langston Hughes described her as, “A perfect piece of African sculpture, animated by her own rhythm.” Gladys Bentley was a force to be reckoned with onstage. Offstage her stardom did not shield her from discrimination and persecution she put her body and safety on the line to live an authentic life of black female masculinity, also known as Bulldagger lesbian. Condemnation led her to subject herself to the medical establishment to fix her into becoming “A woman again.”

Ladies at a Gay Girls’ Bar, 1938-1969 brings audiences into the lives of working-class lesbians who fought to create space for themselves and became a powerful force for queer visibility. Maggie Cee uses dance, music, historical text and original monologues to explore her years as a teenage gay rights activist, her own identity, and fem history. The Hartford Courant called it a “major highlight” of the Hartford Fringe Festival.