BIG FREEDIA | DJ ASSAULT | BROOKE CANDY | LADY TRAGIK | HOSTED BY HOT TUB + MORE!

Big Freedia is an accomplished ‘Bounce’ Rapper who lives in New Orleans and performs six or more times a week in various venues throughout the city. Bounce is an original urban music rising up from the intimate and fun-loving nature of the housing projects which dominate the city’s street culture. ‘Sissy Bounce’ is the informal name for a derivative of Bounce that has risen to prominence in recent years and features explicitly gay and cross-dressing musicians and themes. Big Freedia is at the forefront of this movement and has had several New Orleans hit singles such as ‘Gin in My System’ and ‘Azz Everywhere!’ from her albums ‘An Ha, Oh Yeah’ (1999) and ‘Queen Diva’ (2003). Freedia began her musical career almost 15 years ago at the Walter L. Cohen High School in New Orleans, where she was enlisted as choir director from her Sophomore to Senior years. She sees her performance as a Bounce artist as an extension of this work, often interacting in a call and response/teacher and student, fashion with her audiences. She recently developed a musical about her life entitled ‘Catch That Beat’ with producer Lucky Johnson. The sold out first run of ‘Catch That Beat’ featured cameo appearances by a who’s who of New Orleans Bounce artists alongside the story of Freedia’s upbringing in New Orleans 3rd Ward. She performs in various venues (often decorated by her own event production business) and has recently begun traveling outside the city with the encouragement and support of the New Orleans Airlift. Big Freedia has always acted as mentor for many younger artists, is currently recording her third record and recently returned from a stellar 6 show run in New York City, performing sold out shows with Spank Rock, Ninjasonik and many others at venues such as Santos Party House, Glasslands, and Sway. This year Freedia will be returning to South By Southwest, performing at multiple events including a retrospective Bounce Showcase and a historic second performance at Gay Bi Gay Gay after a short tour of the west coast with New Orleans collaborators Galactic, whom she performed with on the critically-acclaimed 2010 album ‘Ya-Ka-May’.Mixing records since 1982, Craig De Sean Adams has been indoctrinating people with his own take on Detroit dance music, (sometimes called Ghetto Tech or Booty House) which is very much an amalgam of his radio predecessors. DJ Assault is also the man behind a whole new set of beats — the man responsible for some of the most infectious hooks this side of the Mississippi, including his all-time XXX anthem, ‘Ass & Titties’.Mad folks know her as the crazy gurrrl with the braid extensions from that Grimes video… but Brooke been killing it for a minute… She evil as fuck, raps, twerks, and completely destroys minds on the regular…At 24, Lady Tragik has accomplished more than most people do in a lifetime. Born Florencia Garcia Carcagno, she emigrated with her family from Argentina to San Francisco, CA. Tragik started as a spoken word artist traveling the country, with her unique blend of political rap music. She’s also become well known for her photography and film work. Her music career kicked in to high gear when she met her latest collaborator, the acclaimed producer Stylo, who has helped Tragik hone her unique dance/electropop/hip-hop/latin style.There once was a dreamy-eyed lass and only punk rock and hardcore could make her shake her ass. One day she was walking around the block when she heard a boombox play hip hop. She started dancing and yelling YAAAAY but fell over and landed in a pile of dancehall-reggae. Reggae covered her eyes and face when she meandered into a basement playing drum and bass. This music made her dance and shake her back until she thought she’d have a heart attack. Then an unknown mysteriously deep bass sound led her into a secret room where dubstep was abound. Deciding she’d already fallen in love with enough musics in this one day, she finally went home and had dreams of getting thizz faced and riding the whip with Mac Dre.Vogue is characterized by model-like poses, inspired by Vogue Magazine, integrated with angular, linear and rigid arm, leg and body movements. The style of dance arose from Harlem ballrooms in the early 1930s. This dance style was originally called ‘performance’ and evolved into the more intricate and illusory form that is now called ‘vogue-ing’. There are six elements of Vogue-ing: hands, spins, catwalk, duck walk, dips and floor performance. The class will start with a fifteen minute warm-up where we focus on core work and isolations. After the warm up, we will transition into across the floor work and choreography. Not only will you learn the history of Vogue, but you’ll will receive an intense workout. Jocquese will break down each element from Hands to Spins, Catwalk to Duck walk, Dips to Floor Performance. Each element has specific movements that will strengthen and tone different parts of the body. The choreography will be infused with other forms of dances such as jazz, modern, ballet, hip-hop and Afro-Haitian.

Jocquese Whitfield (aka: JoQ) is a dancer/choreographer born and raised in San Francisco. Starting his career steeped in the improvisation of freestyle hip-hop, Jocquese has added modern, classical, and Diasporic dance traditions over the last several years. He has been a member of City Shock San Francisco, F.B.C. (Funk Beyond Control), and UFO Movement, J. Jun Productions and is currently dancing with M.O.M. (Mind Over Matter). Currently pursuing studies in Dance and Theater, Jocquese’s current movement vocabulary revisits the bold, rebellious statements of the 1980’s as expressed through fashion, nightlife, and a love of the abstract. A shape-shifter, Jocquese challenges assumptions of sexual identity in dance as he plays with gesture both ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’.