Brava presents
San Francisco, Mi Amor!
The 80’s: Queer Comedy, Taquerias, The Castro, The Mission, Mullets & Shoulder Pads So Wide You Can Fly!
Written & Performed by Monica Palacios
April 28 - 29, 2023 in Brava’s Cabaret
Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm
Renowned Chicana lesbian writer/performer Monica Palacios presents her solo show: San Francisco, Mi Amor!, about the start of her queer comedy career and activism in San Francisco during the 1980s. A challenging decade to be an out Chicana lesbian comic as AIDS is front page news, causing mass hysteria and shining a negative light on the LGBTQ community. Monica takes this bleak time in history and shares her triumphant story about being one of the first Chicana lesbian comics performing at the Valencia Rose Cabaret, the first gay comedy club in the nation. She’s also a Film Student at San Francisco State University trying to figure out how to take social justice courses from Angela Davis. Monica is happily living with her lesbian sister, Eleanor—double dyke familia! Palacios is enchanted by and lusts after the women making her burritos at Taqueria La Cumbre. Her day job is waitressing at a funky Mexican restaurant at the tourist trap Pier 39 and she reminisces about birthing the comedy troupe Culture Clash. Monica meets and auditions for actor Edward James Olmos on 24th Street during a Dia de Los Muertos festival and also shares stories of grooming her lesbian mullet and mucho mucho mas! Throughout the play, projected images will be shown from this time period: funky first hand-made flyers, headshots, business cards, newspaper clippings and other memorabilia.
San Francisco’s Latino Mission District was a hot spot for this blossoming lesbian comedian performing at what are now historical queer and queer friendly venues such as the Valencia Rose Cabaret, ground zero for the Queer Comedy Movement; Artemis Cafe, a lesbian restaurant and space; Amelia’s, a lesbian bar and the Galeria de La Raza, an art gallery. Monica and a handful of LGBTQ comics were bravely performing despite the homophobic atmosphere. Palacios stood out amongst her peers with her unique brand of Chicana lesbian humor focusing on nationality and sexuality in one breath.
San Francisco, Mi Amor!, is a comedic look back at a pioneering career during a remarkable time in LGBTQ and Chicana history.
ABOUT THE COMEDIAN
Monica Palacios is a Chicana lesbian playwright and solo performer living in Los Angeles, creating work promoting the LGBTQ Latinx experience. Palacios is one of the first Chicana lesbian comics to be out and proud on stage during the 80s in San Francisco when the AIDS crisis was raging and homophobia was rampant. Because of her triumphant history, national and international scholars have critically engaged her work in academic journals, books, dissertations and conference panels. Numerous undergraduate and graduate courses regularly incorporate her live, published and video archived work into their curricula. Monica is a 2024 United States Artist Fellow Nominee. She is featured in the new queer film: STAND UP, STAND OUT: The Making of a Comedy Movement, winner of Best Documentary Santa Fe Film Festival 2021, about the first gay comedy club in the nation in San Francisco during the 1980s, directed by David Pavlosky. Palacios received the Nancy Dean Lesbian Playwriting Award 2021 by Open Meadows Foundation. Monica was selected as the Lucille Geier Lakes Writer-in-Residence at Smith College, Spring 2019. Monica was granted The McKenna Guest Theater Artist Award 2019 at Holyoke Community College. Palacios received a Postdoctoral Rockefeller Fellowship from UC Santa Barbara, enabling her to write, direct and produce her play: Sweet Peace. Monica has worked with iconic playwrights: Maria Irene Fornés, Luis Alfaro, Migdalia Cruz and Paula Vogel. Palacios has received numerous awards, including from the City of Los Angeles as a Latinx LGBTQ Trailblazer 2017. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa declared October 12, 2012 “Monica Palacios Day” honoring her 30-year career as a pioneering Chicana lesbian writer/performer.
PHOTOS
TICKETS
$20 + fees
Running time: 75 minutes