Photo credit: Tristan Crane, from their series Here Portraits.hereportraits.com

















Today, I talk with Dana Morrigan, wonderful human, wry wit, queer nonbinary transfeminine spoken word artist, writer, performer, and epic karaoke host! It’s about her quest for self-knowledge across many parts of her life: in her cultural affiliations, in her work, in her relationships, in finding her creative callings. And the through-line is really that the process of finding ourselves is lifelong, and, if you’re doing it right, you can help other people find themselves, too.
We talked about: growing up in the Catskills of the ‘60s and ‘70s; identifying with cultural outlaws like Tiny Tim and Harpo Marx, and identifying with genderfluid and sexually free hippy culture; we talked comedy and improv; performance; writing, both creatively and professionally; copywriting; the demands of academia; heteronormative relationship expectations; gender and sexual discovery; finding the language to better understand onself; the lifelong project of integrating one’s sense of self and belonging; finding and creating community; queer and trans performance; queer open mic; karaoke…and so many other things!

















Find Dana!Karaoke With Dana on Facebook@KaraokeWithDana on Instagram and @KaraokeWithDana on Twitter

















References: 
Henny Youngmanwikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Youngman
Tiny Timwikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_Tim_(musician)
Melville’s Bartleby, The Scrivenerwikipedia.org/wiki/Bartleby,_the_Scrivener
Walter Sobchak doesn’t roll on Shabbosyoutube.com/watch?v=KmULYr1nsZ0
Bob and Ray radio showswikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_and_Ray
One of the main open mic events Dana performed at was The SF Queer Open Mic. They no longer hold events, but you can still find the community on Facebookfacebook.com/SFQueerOpenMicAnd at the SF Queer Open Mic archivequeeropenmic.com
Dana also participated in the Fresh Meat Festival of Trans and Queer Performance freshmeatproductions.org
El Rio in San Franciscoelriosf.com
Glen Campbell performing “Rhinestone Cowboy”youtube.com/watch?v=8kAU3B9Pi_U
Johnny Cash performing “A Boy Named Sue,” written by the great Shel Silversteinyoutube.com/watch?v=WOHPuY88Ry4
At the very end of the episode, I referenced “Rogerian,” i.e.,