COG Presents A May Day Cirque Noir

Saturday, May 1^st from 8 to 10pm, The CoG Factory, SE 1st & Salmon

May 1^st, CoG is bring you the First Queers ♥ Geeks, a fun pact vaudeville from marginalized artists. May Day Gayities are coordinated by  Robin Hood and his merry gang of clowns performed Smitty Amabilis, Jack StockLynn (Imago, Pelu' Theatre and the COG Acrobats), Tera Zarra (Imago, Do Jump!, Pelu' Theatre, Circus Artemis, Stefanefit) and Charity McKee (the Portland Opera, New York at the French Woods Festival, Ma’at Productions). Additional performances by  Carlos Alexis Cruz: (Del Arte Graduate; Imago, Milagro, Do Jump!, Pelu Theatre) and Shireen Press (Flameboyant Productions who brought you Circus Artemis), Kyoko Uchida: (Clowns without Borders, Curious Comedy). Production Crew Includes  includes Natalia Kay (Executive Director of Siren Nation), Nikki Jargon (of PDX Majesty), Jett Butterworth (DHOR: ASL Interpreter) and Sam MacKenzie (President of Sixth Street gallery.) Tickets can be purchased through our website http://collectiveofgeniuses.org

May Day occurs on May 1. In many countries, it is  synonymous with International Workers' Day, or Labour Day, a day of political demonstrations and celebrations organized by the unions, anarchist, and socialist groups. May Day is also a traditional holiday in many cultures. May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations, regardless of the locally prevalent political or religious establishment. 

An important part of the late medieval and early modern May Day festivities were "Robin Hood games" or plays. It is commonly stated as fact that Maid Marian and a jolly friar (at least partly identifiable with Friar Tuck) entered the legend through the May Games. It wasn't until the 1880s that the fight for the eight-hour work day began which we now celebrate as International Workers' Day. Although most artists don't enjoy this luxury as they work all day as teachers, doing marketing, and then several hours of training and rehearsal every day to perform yet most still live a hand to mouth existence. CoG is the Polemic to the inequity that states that only people of privilege can be professional artists and  Queers Heart Geeks is one of the answers as a circus/ vaudeville night for the marginalized performer.

May Day,  we commemorate the struggle of working people and the poor around the world for economic justice. We stand together as workers, as artists. Fighting for our future. We say  the proletariat can be an artist. We are the living examples to prove it.  We aim to stop discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Through solidarity we will reform our economic systems to meet human needs. We demand an increase in public spending, not more cuts to arts and social services. We demand living wage jobs, full employment, the right and ability to self organize. We demand respect for the hours upon hours we have spent learning our crafts.

We can achieve these goals by taxing the rich and corporations instead of bailing them out. We can stop free trade agreements that have outsourced jobs and kept wages low here while creating sweatshops and destroying resources elsewhere. We can make crafts here in the United States instead of a factory in a starving country. We can be environmentalists and advocates for Social Justice.  Solidarity Forever. Si se puede. We are Robin Hood!