THEYFRIEND
Performances that uplift, center, & celebrate nonbinary identity!
THEYFRIEND 2024
NONBINARY PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL
NOV. 13–17 | SF + OAKLAND
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THEYFRIEND is the world’s first performance festival uplifting, centering, and celebrating nonbinary identity. Our 2024 festival featured 35 nonbinary performers from the Bay Area and beyond, showcasing drag, music, comedy, burlesque, film, poetry, theater, and more!
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Nonbinary Cabaret Series + More!
NEW!
Diamond Wave is expanding THEYFRIEND to bring you nonbinary performance all year long! Last year, we hosted six THEYFRIEND Nonbinary Cabaret events in partnership with Brava, as well as a few other ad hoc events! Explore our recent year-round THEYFRIEND programs below, and keep an eye out for this year’s events!
WHY THEYFRIEND?
Although formal language surrounding the government recognition of nonbinary gender identity is a fairly recent phenomenon, gender variant, gender non-conforming, and third gender people have long and rich histories throughout the world (Akava’ine, Baklâ, Bissu, Fa’afafine, Hen, Hijra, Mahu, Muxe, Two-Spirit, etc.).
The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey found that, out of 27,715 participants, 31% identified as nonbinary, and a 2017 UCLA study discovered that 27% (796,000) of CA youth now identify as nonbinary. Despite such a sharp increase in nonbinary identity…
We still have few creative & artistic events that embody and uplift our perspectives, needs, and experiences as nonbinary people.
We’re building community
THEYFRIEND brings nonbinary people together! In addition to creating performing arts showcases that feature a myriad of racial, age and artistic diversity, we also seek to create connections amongst our artists and with our audiences - regardless of assigned sex at birth (ASAB).
Looking for a fun and creative way to learn about nonbinary identity? Check out Stuart Getty and Brooke Thyng’s How to They/Them: A Visual Guide to Nonbinary Pronouns and the World of Gender Fluidity
THEYFRIEND Artists have included:
Billy Dean Thomas
Dorian Wood
KB Boyce
Cassils
Kanyon Sayers-Roods
Edgar Fabián Frías
Stuart Getty
Evan Spigelman / Mz Aza Metric
Sharmi Basu
Tyler Holmes
Vin Seaman
Hennessy Williams
Kanyon Coyote-Woman Sayers-Roods
LOTUS BOY
Papi Churro
Beatrice L. Thomas / Black Benatar
The Living Altar
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Rawiyah Tariq
Syd Franz
Castle Laws of Pleeay
Criibaby
Alder Duan Hurley
DeVery Bess
Goddexx
Gothess Jasmine
Harddeep Singh
Krudas Cubensi
Ling Ling Super Bloom
mirrored fatality
Mojo Carter
Riy Mutakabbir
SNJV
TAYLOR ALXNDR
Xtra.dae
JanpiStar
Piss E Sissy
Jota Mercury
THEYFRIEND is supported by the California Arts Council, the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation and the Hormel LGBTQIA Center at San Francisco Public Library, and is presented in partnership with Brava! for Women in the Arts, the LEATHER & LGBTQ Cultural District, Oasis, the San Francisco Transgender Film Festival and the Transgender District. Diamond Wave is a fiscally sponsored project of Intersection for the Arts that is supported by Grants for the Arts, the Horizons Foundation, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, and the San Francisco Arts Commission.
THEYFRIEND Archive
