THEYFRIEND

NONBINARY PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL 2022

November 16–19, 2022
San Francisco, CA

About the 2022 Festival

THEYFRIEND is the world’s first performance festival uplifting, centering, and celebrating nonbinary identity! In its second year, the festival expanded to five events over four days (November 16–19) in partnership with San Francisco arts presenters and queer nightlife venues.

Curated by Edgar Fabián Frías, KB Boyce, and Kevin Seaman, the 2022 THEYFRIEND Festival featured newly commissioned work from writer-performer Rawiyah Tariq, multimedia artist Sharmi Basu, and musician Tyler Holmes, with live performances from local nonbinary performers and video from national and international contributors. See below for the full lineup!

For more information about this event and participating artists: View Festival Program

ACCESSIBILITY: Trigger and content warnings provided for individual shows and before each performance. All videos have open captions provided. For additional accessibility inquiries, please contact kiana@diamond-wave.org.

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2022 Featured Artists

From the depths of the ocean to the reaches of space spirals can be found all around us; Tyler Holmes’ work aims to draw us to remember that whether spiraling out in exasperation, downward out of despondency or inward toward oneself that we are always in one spiral or another. The honk of a woodwind swirling around the hissing din of electronics tempered by the breeze of the human voice to create a tapestry of terror and delight. They perform with a constantly changing electro-acoustic arrangement exploring what humanity is left in electronic music and what inhumane violence is trapped in acoustic sound, always finding new ways to showcase an intimate horror. They released their first vinyl ‘Nightmare In Paradise’ in 2021 on Ratskin Records and are releasing a series of music videos and remixes in 2022. Most recently Holmes' released their music video "To Accept" via Paper Magazine.

Sharmi Basu (they/them) is a South Asian American multimedia performance artist, curator, composer, arts advocate, and organizer born and based on Ohlone Land aka Oakland, CA. They create sound and performance pieces that investigate the emotional landscape of people in struggle. They research vulnerability and accountability in the interest of creating decolonial narratives. Their performance project, Beast Nest transmutes trauma and chronic illness through vast sonic worldbuilding.They received their MFA from Mills College and host workshops internationally that center on sound healing, decolonization, conflict & accountability, as well as technical skill-shares. They have performed for SFMOMA, YBCA, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Cluster Festival, and Ableton Loop, and have exhibited work at Coaxial, Southern Exposure, SOMArts, Counterpulse, Gray Area, and the Smithsonian. Their organizational work is dedicated to mutual aid and advocating for the rights of arts workers and artists.

For over 15 years Rawiyah Tariq (mammyisdead.com) has blended the art of storytelling with song and burlesque to create performance art that is vulnerable, empowering, hilarious and intimate.
Rawiyah has danced on stages throughout the country with the award winning and internationally traveled troupe Rubenesque Burlesque as Magnoliah Black from 2009 to 2015. As a solo performer their work continues to reflect body liberation, visibility and self possession beyond the static sizest Eurocentric beauty myth. Rawiyah has performed with the world famous Hubba Hubba Revue at the DNA lounge, “SomeThing” at the Stud and is a past regular with Oakland’s Rebel Kings at one of the countries oldest gay bars The White Horse.
They have traveled internationally for their art and have been invited to speak about their multi-disciplined performances at Universities around the country. Rawiyah is also a feature in the award winning film Heavenly Brown Body.