Celebration: The Cockettes Opening Reception

Celebrate this fabulous exhibition's opening with co-curators Fayette Hauser and Jim Van Buskirk as we travel back to San Francisco in the late 60s to early 70s to experience the avant-garde culture of the experimental gender-bending theater troupe, The Cockettes. This event kicks off a series of exciting programs throughout 2022 that celebrate The Cockette's boundary-breaking legacy. Doors open at 5:30pm.

This opening reception inaugurates the accompanying exhibit: The Cockettes: Acid Drag & Sexual Anarchy on display March 12–August 11, 2022 in the Hormel LGBTQIA Center on the 3^rd floor of the Main Library.

Fayette Hauser grew up on the East Coast and came of age as the fertile underground of the 1960s was blossoming. She is a graduate of Boston University, College of Fine Arts with a BFA in painting and sculpture. A founding member of the pioneering, experimental theater group The Cockettes (1969–1972) in San Francisco, she recently authored the book, The Cockettes; Acid Drag & Sexual Anarchy, 1969-1972, published in 2020. In 1972, she went on to perform with Ze Whiz Kidz in Seattle, WA and continued performing in the New York Underground when she and her partner, Tomata Du Plenty went to Manhattan in the fall of 1972 and became one of the first to grace the stage of the seminal club CBGB. In 1975, she moved to Los Angeles to write for CBS Television. As a photographer, she has documented much of the scenes she has experienced and has exhibited her photography in over 10 museum shows. A multi-disciplinary artist at heart, she is also an award-winning costume designer for film and theater for which she won two Drama-Logue Awards for Costume Design. Her contributions to counterculture have been documented in 5 documentary features (3 American and 2 European feature films). Find out more at fayettehauser.com.