Revision of Rahne Alexander's portfolio from Thu, 12/19/2019 - 07:37

In the Raw

In March I released an album of solo guitar and voice songs, 50'♀ In The Raw: Live from the Magpie Cage.

To celebrate, I performed a single album release show with Lady Hatchet & Jeff Waters at Zissimo's

Performing at Zissimo's in March 2023
Poster 50'♀ In The Raw release show with Lady Hatchet & Jeff Waters at Zissimo's

New Narrative Video Work

I've recently completed a short film, No Exit 2, which is currently in submission for film festivals. No Exit 2 stars Cricket Arrison, Scott Burke, and Lucia A. Treasure. The screenplay for No Exit 2 was commissioned by Gregg Wilhelm for CityLit's 2014 FreeFall Baltimore program, entitled Geo-Poe: A Literary Geo-caching Adventure.

An other narrative comedy short, Here's To Living Alone, premiered in 2017 as a segment of Exquisite Corpse, the Melissa LaMartina-produced experimental collaborative feature film. Following digital release of the full feature, Here's To Living Alone will be made available to the public via my Vimeo channel. Pending digital release, links to my short will be made available upon request by emailing me at [email protected]

On deck for 2018 are narrative music videos for the Baltimore-based band Quattracenta, and my band Santa Librada. If awarded the Baker Artist prize, funds will go immediately towards supporting these videos, as well as furthering my multimedia memoir project mentioned elsewhere.

No Exit 2

Scott Burke and Lucia A. Treasure star as Edgar Allan Poe and Dorothy Parker in No Exit 2
Still from Here's To Living Alone

Lucia A. Treasure and Gina Denton star in a still from "Here's To Living Alone," premiered in 2017 as a segment of Exquisite Corpse, the Melissa LaMartina-produced experimental collaborative feature film. Following digital release of Exquisite Corpse, "Here's To Living Alone" will be made available to the public. Pending digital release, links to my short will be made available upon request by emailing me at [email protected]
A banner ad for the premiere of Exquisite Corpse in July 2017

A banner ad for the premiere of Exquisite Corpse in July 2017
NO EXIT 2 Production Still

A production still from NO EXIT 2, starring Cricket Arrison and Lucia A. Treasure

Additional Video & Visual Work

Selected video & exhibitions
At my October 2017 Signal Culture artist residency in Owego, NY I began to build a new body of experimental video work based around my tarot practice. This is work-in-progress and I am excited to see what is in the cards as this continues to take shape this year. Click on the thumbmail image to see the animated gif in action.

In 2016, the Baltimore Museum of Art awarded me the opportunity for a year-long collaborative installation, which became Queer Interiors/The Baltimore LGBTQI+ Home Movie Quilt (2016-17). It was an amazing and unique experience, and it was covered by Cara Ober for Hyperallergic and Kate Drabinski for the City Paper.

Highlights from my Vimeo channel

Oh Amelia (2017)
"Anticipation, I suppose, sometimes exceeds realization." - Amelia Earhart

Equal+Opposite (2009)
From the early silents of Lubitsch to The Crying Game and beyond, gender-variant characters persistently provide cinematic shock upon the revelation of their "true sex." Turning the focus away from the gender-variant body, "Equal+Opposite" instead explores the range of physical and emotional reactions by "protagonists" to transgendered bodies, from curiosity to revulsion. Premiered at MIX21 Queer Experimental Film Festival, October 2008.

Simoom (2009)
Communication breaks down in the wake of disaster. Based on “MS. Found in a Bottle” by Edgar Allan Poe. Commissioned for Baltimore Museum of Art Poe Anniversary exhibition, December 2009

Let's Get Out of Here (2006)
An homage to Hollywood's allegedly most-uttered line. Awarded "Way Cool Film Geek" Jury Prize at Microcinefest 2006. Noted in the New York Times Magazine 18 Feb 2015. ("Should We Stay Or Should We Go?", Virginia Heffernan, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/magazine/should-we-stay-or-should-we-go.html)

Work In Progress - Tarot-inspired digital video

Work-in-progress snapshot from my tarot-inspired video manipulations from my 2017 artist residency at Signal Culture. Click on the thumbmail image to see the animated gif in action.
Queer Interiors / The Baltimore LGBTQI+ Home Movie Quilt

Queer Interiors/The Baltimore LGBTQI+ Home Movie Quilt was an year-long collaborative installation at the Baltimore Museum of Art examining the breadth and depth of the Baltimore LGBTQI+ community.
BMA Opening Night of Queer Interiors / The Baltimore LGBTQI+ Home Movie Quilt
Equal+Opposite

Equal+Opposite (2009) https://vimeo.com/37226483 From the early silents of Lubitsch to The Crying Game and beyond, gender-variant characters persistently provide cinematic shock upon the revelation of their "true sex." Turning the focus away from the gender-variant body, "Equal+Opposite" instead explores the range of physical and emotional reactions by "protagonists" to transgendered bodies, from curiosity to revulsion. Premiered at MIX21 Queer Experimental Film Festival, October 2008.
Let's Get Out Of Here

Let's Get Out of Here (2006) https://vimeo.com/70873281 An homage to Hollywood's allegedly most-uttered line. Awarded "Way Cool Film Geek" Jury Prize at Microcinefest 2006. Noted in the New York Times Magazine 18 Feb 2015. ("Should We Stay Or Should We Go?", Virginia Heffernan, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/magazine/should-we-stay-or-should-we-...)
Simoom

Simoom (2009) https://vimeo.com/80080347 Communication breaks down in the wake of disaster. Based on “MS. Found in a Bottle” by Edgar Allan Poe. Commissioned for Baltimore Museum of Art Poe Anniversary exhibition, December 2009
Oh Amelia

Oh Amelia (2017) https://vimeo.com/224784530 "Anticipation, I suppose, sometimes exceeds realization." - Amelia Earhart

Spoken - Public Storytelling

An enormous part of my work as an artist/activist are the stories I tell in public. I have been featured in several editions of the Stoop Storytelling series and I've read at the Baltimore Book Festival, Normal's, CityLit's Geo-Poe events, Jen Michalski's Starts Here and Jordannah Elizabeth's Publik/Private series Strangers Become Sisters, amongst others.

In 2017, I interviewed former Guerilla Girl Donna Kaz at the Baltimore Book Festival, and I was invited by The Studio Visit to offer a talk at Nasty Women: Art Talks at the Arlington Arts Center. That talk can be read here and viewed here.

In Feb 2018, by invitation, I will offer a response to the Paulina Peavy exhibit, A Message To Paulina, at the Greater Reston Arts Center.

Stoop Storytelling, June 2017

I've told a few stories on the Stoop Storytelling series in my day. In June 2017, the "My Favorite Film: Stoop Storytelling at the Columbia Festival of the Arts" edition, I shared the story of a tale of a lost weekend in 1991 - the weekend I graduated from college and THELMA & LOUISE opened.
Rahne with Donna Kaz at Baltimore Book Festival 2017

I was introduced to Donna Kaz at the 2017 Baltimore Book Festival, interviewing her about her memoir Un/Masked: Memoirs of a Guerilla Girl On Tour. A year later, Donna invited me to teach at her annual Creative Nonfiction Writers Conference. I return to teach at this conference in 2020.
Nasty Women Art Talks

In October 2017 I was invited by The Studio Visit to join seven other women artists for a powerful afternoon of storytelling about our work at the Arlington Arts Center. The result was timely and restorative. My remarks can be viewed here: http://thestudiovisit.com/art-talks-rahne-alexander/#sthash.iBnX2M8V.gbpl

Multimedia Memoir

In 2018 I expect to finish a years-in-progress multimedia memoir project, focusing on parallels and distinctions between my own journey as a transsexual woman artist and that of my mother, a resilient autodidact artist whose capacities were progressively diminished by multiple sclerosis.

This as-yet-to-be-titled memoir which will feature several components, including a bound book, an experimental video, and an album of recorded music and spoken word. If awarded, Baker Artist funds will go directly to expedite this memoir. The album is intended to be the first piece of this project to be released, with final mixing and mastering in fall 2018 and a target album release performance in winter 2018-19.

Some pieces of this narrative memoir have already seen publication in some print and online periodicals, including the City Paper, What Weekly, and Queen Mob's Teahouse.

One essay for this memoir, "Puzzle Box," debuted in The Resilience Anthology from Heartspark Press. Said to the largest collection of writing from transwomen and AMAB non-binary people to be published to date, The Resilience Anthology was published in December 2017.

The Resilience Anthology from Heartspark Press

50'♀

50'♀is a popular music experiment by Rahne Alexander, both solo and in collaboration with other artists.

50'♀contributed a recording of "Came So Far For Beauty" to Last Year's Man, a Baltimore tribute to Leonard Cohen, in 2017. This recording, made with pianist/vocalist Christina Reitemeyer, was a featured selection in a City Paper article in the summer of 2017, and performed live for the first time at the Baltimore Transgender Alliance's Trans March of Resilience Banquet in November 2017.

Last Year's Man: A Baltimore Tribute to Leonard Cohen

I still love this track, and you can still buy it from Bandcamp and support Planned Parenthood Maryland. In 2017, 50’♀ contributed a track to this Baltimore-does-Leonard-Cohen tribute record. Proceeds benefitted Planned Parenthood of Maryland. My track, "Came So Far For Beauty," was featured in the City Paper's 2017 annual music issue as one of the "50 Song Soundtrack to Life During the Trump Regime" https://lastyearsmantribute.bandcamp.com/ http://www.citypaper.com/news/features/bcpnews-2017-big-music-issue-20170621-htmlstory.html
50'♀ performing at Joe Squared

Performance

2019 marked the beginning of a series of performances for video entitled "Standards of Care." Conceived as a series of episodic performances for video, the "Standards of Care" series examines the ordinary medical, therapeutic, and domestic treatments of trans people and their cultural anxiety byproducts. Combining aspects of slapstick and body horror, the series follows The Researcher, as she explores methods of negating and transforming a vestigial phallus. The first episode in this series premiered at New Works at Normal's in March 2019, and the second episode performed in front of live audiences in Winter 2019.

In October 2019, I also performed a live Grant Application during the annual citywide Open Studios Tour.

Standards of Care 2.0

A moment during Standards of Care 2.0 in December 2019. Photo by Kristen Anchor. Standards of Care 2.0 is the second episode of a performance series about the research and development of interventions and treatments for the alleviation of sex and gender dysphoria in the “western world.” With a run time of approximately ten minutes, Standards of Care 2.0 focuses specifically on the hormonal interventions in trans medical treatment, with a particular focus on injectable hormones for trans women. The Researcher, dressed in scrubs and protective gear, enters her study to return to her work in progress. Drawing from musty tomes of dated research, she is researching methods of endocrinological intervention for her transsexual subject. With soothing background music to help her focus, the Researcher begins to apply her studies, testing her injection technique first on fruit, and then on phalluses. As the Researcher reaches the end of her materials, she relaxes to survey her results, rewarding her work with dessert. Conceived as a series of episodic performances for video, the Standards of Care series examines the ordinary medical, therapeutic, and domestic treatments of trans people and the cultural anxiety byproducts. Combining aspects of slapstick and body horror, the series follows The Researcher, as she explores methods of negating and transforming a vestigial phallus. Each episode of Standards of Care is intended to instruct each other sequentially, as the Researcher proceeds and learns from the work, with the scope of research expanding into endocrinology, depilation, and surgery as well as domestic and cultural realms, including religious ritual, cooking, and music.
Grant Application

An experimental live Grant Application was presented during Open Studios 2019. Fun with technology and awkwardness.

Publications

2023
Publications in 2023 included:
* "VFW Hall" in Flux (forthcoming in print in 2023)
* "Making Fajitas in Manasquan" in Beach Badge #1
* "You're Never Too Old To Throw Up In A Neptune Bathroom" in Beach Badge #2
* "Twilight For Us All" in Light Ekphrastic, Feb 2022
Ongoing articles in BmoreArt, Jennifer Magazine, and UMBC Magazine

2022
My chapbook, Heretic to Housewife, continued to sell its second pressing and provided opportunities for online literary events throughout 2021.

I was invited to be on faculty at the inaugural Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference in 2021, where I presented a writing workshop entitled "Voice Exercises: Finding, Strengthening, and Refining the Writer's Voice." I also offered a reading from a cross section of my published works during the conference run.

This kicked off a number of literary events throughout 2021, including a reading and artist talk as part of Urban Ivy's anniversary celebration and a panel at OutWrite entitled "LGBQT+ Writers Reading the Apocalyptic News." I was also a guest panelist at the virtual version of Barrelhouse's annual Writers Connect conference, as part of the "Cross-Genre: Stay in Your Lane(s): Writing and Publishing in Multiple Genres" panel.

In October I joined Eleanor Whitney and Liz Flyntz at Red Emma's for a talk about issues summoned by Whitney's new book, Riot Woman: Using Feminist Values to Destroy the Patriarchy.

In November, the Enoch Pratt Free Library invited me to participate in their Book Chat with Pratt online interview series. I chatted with Lo Smith, with a focus on November as Trans Awareness Month, and the conversation was broadcast and archived on YouTube and Facebook Live.

Heretic to Housewife

My chapbook, Heretic to Housewife, continued to sell its second pressing and provided opportunities for online literary events throughout 2021.
Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference digital ad

I was invited to be on faculty at the inaugural Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference in 2021, where I presented a writing workshop entitled "Voice Exercises: Finding, Strengthening, and Refining the Writer's Voice." I also offered a reading from a cross section of my published works during the conference run.
Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference digital ad

I was invited to be on faculty at the inaugural Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference in 2021, where I presented a writing workshop entitled "Voice Exercises: Finding, Strengthening, and Refining the Writer's Voice." I also offered a reading from a cross section of my published works during the conference run.
Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference digital ad

I was invited to be on faculty at the inaugural Tulsa Glitterary Writers Conference in 2021, where I presented a writing workshop entitled "Voice Exercises: Finding, Strengthening, and Refining the Writer's Voice." I also offered a reading from a cross section of my published works during the conference run.
OutWrite panel: LGBQT+ Writers Reading the Apocalyptic News

Literary events throuh 2021 included a reading and artist talk as part of Urban Ivy's anniversary celebration and a panel at OutWrite entitled "LGBQT+ Writers Reading the Apocalyptic News."
Barrelhouse's Writers Connect conference artwork

I was also a guest panelist at the virtual version of Barrelhouse's annual Writers Connect conference, as part of the "Cross-Genre: Stay in Your Lane(s): Writing and Publishing in Multiple Genres" panel.
Digital Ad for Riot Women event at Red Emma's

In October I joined Eleanor Whitney and Liz Flyntz at Red Emma's for a talk about issues summoned by Whitney's new book, Riot Woman: Using Feminist Values to Destroy the Patriarchy.
Rahne & Liz Flyntz discuss Riot Women at Red Emma's

In October I joined Eleanor Whitney and Liz Flyntz at Red Emma's for a talk about issues summoned by Whitney's new book, Riot Woman: Using Feminist Values to Destroy the Patriarchy. Instagram story screengrab from Michael Farley.
Book Chat with Pratt digital ad

In November, the Enoch Pratt Free Library invited me to participate in their Book Chat with Pratt online interview series. I chatted with Lo Smith, with a focus on November as Trans Awareness Month, and the conversation was broadcast and archived on YouTube and Facebook Live.

Film & Video

Passed a nice milestone in 2021 in which my supercut video work was cited in Max Tohline's A Supercut of Supercuts: Aesthetics, Histories, Databases. Subsquently, Tohline published a list of the 20 Most Underrated Supercuts of All Time, and included my 2008 piece Equal+Opposite at number 11.

I also guest-hosted on several episodes of the Projection Booth podcast, including discussions of Witchhammer, The Mephisto Waltz, and Just One of the Guys. The Witchhammer episode was released as a bonus feature of the 2021 DVD release of the film, as a component of Severin Film's comprehensive box set All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror.

And, of course, two of my supercut video collages continued to be available via the BMA Screening Room.

2020
Two of my video collages, "Dude Descending a Staircase #1" (2019) and "Simoom" (2009) were invited for inclusion in the BMA Screening Room, the online video platform launched by the BMA to support the work of Baltimore artists in the wake of the pandemic.

"Dude Descending A Staircase #1" premiered in an exhibit during the International Conference of Chinese Computer Human Interaction, Xiamen, China in June 2019, and was created in direct response to the Supreme Court nomination hearings for Bret Kavanaugh in 2018. "Simoom, "which premiered at the BMA in 2009, is an interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's first story, "MS. Found In A Bottle," and was commissioned by the 48 Hour Film Festival for their celebration of Poe's anniversary in 2009.

In the days immediately prior to the quarantine shutdown, I was honored to show work in a two-person retrospective (along with Kristen Anchor) in the Microcinema series curated by Stephanie Barber at Rhizome DC.

Equal+Opposite (2008) as the 11th most Underrated Supercut of All Time

Equal+Opposite (2008) as the 11th most Underrated Supercut of All Time
My commentary on WITCHHAMMER appears on Severin Film's comprehensive box set All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror.

In 2021, I guest-hosted on several episodes of the Projection Booth podcast, including discussions of Witchhammer, The Mephisto Waltz, and Just One of the Guys. The Witchhammer episode was released as a bonus feature of the 2021 DVD release of the film, as a component of Severin Film's comprehensive box set All The Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror.
Promotion for Rhizome DC Microcinema
BMA Screening Room login screen

Past Projects

Selected Additional Past & Present Music and Performance

While these projects are currently hibernating, every project rekindles from time to time.

MUSIC
Flaming Creatures (rock & roll fun in collaboration with filmmaker Kristen Anchor)
The Degenerettes (an institution of queer feminist rock & roll music in Baltimore since 2005)
Guided By Wire (perhaps the only all-trans Neko Case/Guided by Voices cover band in the world, in collaboration with Jack Pinder of Manners Manners)

COMEDY
Standup comedy (occasional standup sets, pending booking with the 2018 Freeze Peach festival)
Everybody All The Time (live talk show with Fiona Crowley, ran intermittently at Windup Space from 2013-2015)

Guided By Wire, the Supergroup

In September 2017, Guided By Wire became a supergroup for a night, expanding beyond our traditional duo (Rahne Alexander & Jack Pinder) to include pedal steel virtuoso Susan Alcorn, bassist Mickey Dehn, drummer Sharon Santos, and keyboardist Christina Reitemeyer. Photo by Theresa Keil.
Flaming Creatures

A fun rock & roll cinema revival in collaboration with filmmaker/drummer Kristen Anchor
The Degenerettes

An institution of queer feminist rock & roll music in Baltimore since 2005
Everybody All The Time

Live talk show with Fiona Crowley, ran intermittently at Windup Space from 2013-2015 and threatens to resurrect more every passing day
Standup Comedy

At Lexie Mountain's "Vagina Havers" standup special during the Maryland Film Festival, May 2016 at the Windup Space