Sissies: Something Perfect Between Ourselves

Sissies: Something Perfect Between Ourselves is an interdisciplinary performance and archival project by co-developers Bernard Brown and J’Sun Howard. Rooted in the disco-era ballad by Black Queer Icon Sylvester and Marlon B. Ross’s Sissy Insurgencies: A Racial Anatomy of Unfit Manliness, this project reclaims and uplifts the narratives of Queer men of color, spotlighting their central role in shaping art, activism, and community across generations.

At its core, Sissies honors the Black Gay bar and club: spaces of joy, resilience, and political action from the early days of the gay liberation movement through the HIV/AIDS crisis. Eight Black and Brown men, accompanied by live DJ Defacto X, embody these histories and futures through movement—dipping and kiki-ing across disco, R&B, techno, and house. In doing so, the performance remembers the “lost generation” of artists and visionaries while celebrating the joy and care that sustain Queer life.

Sissies connects the cultural histories of Los Angeles and Chicago—two cities at the center of Black Queer creativity. As the project grows in Los Angeles, Brown and Howard are preparing to bring a full-length version to Chicago in the fall of 2026, creating space for more people to experience this vital history and future of Black Queer nightlife, art, and resilience.

With your support, Sissies: Something Perfect Between Ourselves will preserve a vital cultural legacy while sparking new visions of community, resilience, and belonging for generations to come. Your contributions will also help cover essential costs such as travel expenses and accommodations for the Los Angeles team during the Chicago premiere, as well as partial artist fees—ensuring that the work can be realized with care, integrity, and sustainability.