BIPOC Burleseque with Hue Revue

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Milwaukee Pride hosted their first-ever BIPOC-only burlesque show this year, Hue Revue. Produced and hosted by Natasha Perkins AKA Liz Bee Honest, the show took place at the Summerfest Grounds’ new Intersection stage at the north end and featured over 10 acts. Perkins performed herself; her burlesque routine combines comedy, horror and storytelling

Perkins had wanted to do an event like this since her first Pride, as she explains.

“Pride is lovely; before I went, I hadn’t even known PrideFest existed since I’m from Illinois originally. Even when I went to my first one, I didn’t know quite where I was on the queer spectrum, so I thought I’d just go and have fun, but it ended up becoming like my home. I met a lot of really amazing people there, but I didn’t see anyone that looked like me on any of the stages. A lot of PrideFest is really geared towards gay males and the male gaze, and there also weren’t a lot of people that looked like me as far as being fat or BIPOC.

“At first I thought people like that Milwaukee just didn’t have a whole lot of, but as I made connections through the years and became a Brew City Bombshell, I started working with Katie Kadaver through Grindhouse Tease and through doing some of my own things I realized there’s a need for it but just no one doing it. When they were planning PrideFest this year, my friend Jessica asked if I wanted to do a BIPOC burlesque show and I said “yes, please, let’s do this!” so my goal was to help Pride realize what they were missing and would want us to come back all the time. We want to be on the main stage - that’s where we need to be.”

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On where the name Hue Revue came from, Perkins said, “I wanted a name that could give right away what it is. Not only is my passion getting more BIPOC performers but also burlesque is a huge deal to me, and that’s been missing from PrideFest. There’s boylesque and drag but the Brew City Bombshells haven’t been at Pride for like ten years and I don’t know why; we’d tried to be in the past and I think it’s been really needed to have a lot of different types of burlesque with many different types of people. But we’re changing that, and there’s going to be that all the time now.”

Perkins thought that the show went phenomenally; the acts were terrific and no one performer looked like or did the same as another. Out of the whole weekend, Hue Revue became the most attended show at PrideFest. Such a turnout affirms that folks have been looking for representation like this. “I’m hoping that that’s good news for next year,” Perkins said with a smile.

Now that it’s debuted, Perkins hopes to make Hue Revue a regular thing in Milwaukee.

“I was already talking to some of the performers after the show about how I’d like to do it biannually,” she said. “It’d be cool to do something in February for Black History Month and then PrideFest in June. I think that the amount of talent and performers we had could have easily been on the main stage, so I want to work on being able to pay everyone more; I did a dance party for fundraising last year, so I’d like to maybe do that again and get more promotion out there. We’ll also need to find a good venue for February; I want Hue Revue to keep growing and be a platform for all different types of artists. I’ve been in awe that we’ve even made this happen.”

Visit Liz Bee Honest’s Facebook page for Hue Revue updates.