Outfront Kalamazoo will present a Trans Day of Visibility Concert at 7 pm on Saturday, Apr 6 at the Dormouse Theatre in Kalamazoo. Spearheaded by vocal major Syd West, a senior at Western Michigan University, it will feature a wide range of musicians and styles, including classical, jazz and pop.
"I reached out to a lot of musicians in the trans and gender nonconforming community that I knew. And there was an abundance of interest in this... I did have to do kind of a first come, first served kind of a thing," says West. He joins Cara Lieurance, along with fellow participants JD Reeves, a composer/vocalist and WMU senior, and Autumn, an organist at First Presbyterian Church in Kalamazoo, to discuss the event.
"I just happen to be a trans girl who is obsessed with Bach," says Autumn, who will play the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue at the concert. Reeves will present original songs based on the poetry of Elsa Gidlow, author of On a Grey Thread (1923), the first volume of openly lesbian love poetry published in North America.
Tickets can be reserved at this link. A donation of $10 is suggested.
