Why Burlesque? Especially as a woman of color

Taking my clothes off in public means something different because of my skin. Sometimes I wish it didn’t, but most of the time I embrace this difference, driven to communicate the complexity of my being as a brown woman expressing a sensuality that is multidimensional. I am not a primitive beauty wrapped in silence for the pleasure of the master. I create worlds with the sway and twirl of my limbs and radiate my own pleasure. I speak and dance and breathe, balancing all that the history of my skin means to me...


Last week I performed at a benefit for the LES institution ABC No Rio and it was a great night.
It began with a silent art auction, then the always incredibly funky Hungry Marching Band and then burlesque. Boobie Von Trapp, myself and Jezebel Express. It was wonderful to share the stage and dressing room with them.

I asked the host to announce me in the usual way – Miss AuroraBoobRealis, co-founder and artistic director of Brown Girls Burlesque, an all women of color burlesque troupe. Fast forward to after I performed, I was walking around talking to people and handing out my cards. I get in a conversation with this one woman and she admits that until she heard the host announce me and talk about BGB she’d never really thought about it but yeah, she hadn’t seen a lot of women of color doing burlesque. Exactly I said.

That is one of the reasons the idea of starting an all women of color troupe came to me. Because in the two years that I was going to see burlesque as an audience member, I had seen only one brown woman on the burlesque stage in NYC, one of the most diverse cities in the US. Why? I knew that they existed… Why wasn’t I seeing them? Maybe I just wasn't going to the right venues. Maybe I just wasn't in the know.

I wanted to do burlesque, but I didn’t’ want to be a token, constantly performing at venues where I was the only one, I wanted to create more of a presence of women of color on the burlesque stage. It’s ironic, I’ve often participated in conversations about the frustration of being seen as always representing our people, never being seen as an individual and suddenly I’ve found myself wanting to rep something larger then myself as a performer. Now when I perform at venues, even if I'm the only brown woman that night, when the host says I'm from BGB, it makes the audience think.

I like that.