The Education of Sister Sweet Epiphany

As a novice sister in the Derby City Sisters, a group of “radical fun-loving nuns whose mission is to raise funds and spread joy throughout the LGBTQ community,” Shawn Wallace was tasked with creating a project that would benefit others. “I have so many names,” Wallace laughs, when asked how to identify him. “You can just call me by my Sister name if you want, Sister Sweet Epiphany.”

“Trans Awareness: United As One” is the event he organized, happening this Friday, July 31 at 7 p.m. at the Mercury Ballroom downtown. “I’m super, super excited about it,” says Wallace.

Wallace has acted as an informal consultant for parents confused about their children who have discussed transitioning. Many have wanted to be supportive but were scared and didn’t know where to start. Wallace is one who knows where they can go to get help and education.

“Of course, once Caitlyn Jenner came out, it really put the spotlight on the trans community,” Wallace says. “People are still uneducated – I was uneducated. There’s a lot of the LGB community that is uneducated, and this is a prime opportunity that’s in our face right now. We need to educate while we can. Because otherwise, the trans community’s going to be pushed to the side again.”

“It seems like it’s always been concentrated on the L, the G and the B – now it’s time to bring the T in and unite as one.”

The night will feature Phoenix, a drag queen from Atlanta who competed on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” as well as many local drag performers, speakers – including trans youth from the Louisville Youth Group – and booths for supportive businesses. Based on early positive response, Wallace hopes to make it an annual event.

Wallace, who grew up on a tobacco farm near Elizabethtown, has a close friend, Trista Ray, who transitioned several years ago. She and her wife had a baby in 2009, and Wallace says he acted as “the dad” for a period, visiting doctors with the women sometimes because they were afraid of how they would otherwise be perceived.

We’ve grown in leaps and bounds since then, he says, noting that trans-positive and educated physicians from the University of Louisville will be among the featured guests Friday. But Wallace was inspired to put this night together when he realized that he had never seen an event like this before here.

“Education saves lives. If people aren’t educated, they’re going to continue to hate without realizing that they’re hating…as odd as that sounds, that’s really how it is.”

Wallace has always felt comfortable in his regular performance character, whom he calls a “gay sideshow zombie performer,” testing limits and confusing people gleefully. “At Forecastle, I walked around as Shawna. Everybody – straight, gay, man, woman – when I got that eye contact, they were, like, ‘What is that?’ I’d give them a big hug. ‘You’re scary but you’re beautiful!’ A lot of the straight guys shocked me. They were, like, ‘You know, my girl’s been getting hit on all day long. You’re the first person to tell me I’m beautiful.’ It was a really cool experience.”

But when he was younger, it wasn’t always so cool. Around the time of the Columbine shootings, Wallace found his name on a hit list because he was gay. He and a few others were pulled out of school for a day but then returned. Nothing much came of the incident then, but Wallace says the person he is today would make sure local news organizations were made aware of such a situation.

“This has been an amazing journey for me, to walk around and meet the community and hear stories of what the trans community has gone through…If we don’t get out there and fight for them and tell them how much they’re loved – there’s so much suicide in the trans community right now. They don’t realize that they’re loved. They don’t realize that they’re supported. They’re struggling financially because it’s hard for them to be their selves at jobs. The idea of this event is to bring all of those organizations together that support the trans community, and will educate the rest of the community.”

c. 2015 The Voice-Tribune

Fisherman’s Friends

White Reaper, one of the most famous rock bands to ever emerge from the humble backwater of Louisville, is doing it again with this week’s release of their official debut album, White Reaper Does It Again. Issued on vinyl, CD, cassette and digitally by Polyvinyl Records in the U.S. and Royal Mountain Records in Canada, its birth is being celebrated by the youthful quartet with shows at Headliners Music Hall on Saturday and the Forecastle Festival on Sunday.

In this exclusive interview, guitarist/vocalist Tony Esposito gave us an update on some of the all-male band’s recent adventures, their philosophies and the album about which NPR said, “You’ll be combing it out of your hair for weeks.”

Q: Are you taking your recent success for granted?
TE: Obviously.

Q: How much fun do you have on a Tuesday night?
TE: Is it Tuesday?

Q: Did you enjoy meeting Spongebob?
TE: You know how sometimes when you meet your idols they turn out to be pretty rude? Not the case here. You see, Sponge was a real class act, as well as his buddy Patrick. They were very nice, very down to earth, and they didn’t act like we were wasting their time. Great group of guys.

Q: You’ve spent a lot of the past couple of years on the road. What are some lessons learned from other bands? What have you learned from regular people?
TE: Greg from Deerhoof told us that when you check into a hotel, you should ask for a “late checkout.” Typically, these places want you gone by 11 a.m. or something like that, which doesn’t seem early, but we usually don’t get to check in until about 2 a.m. But if you ask for a late checkout, you can sleep in a little longer.

Q: Do you enjoy playing in small-to-midsized cities in places like Utah and Iowa?
TE: It really depends. A lot of small cities are college towns, and when you play there over the summer, no one is there because they all left school and went home. But if you play these places in the spring or fall, they can be really great. Small cities are nice, though, because parking is a piece of cake.

Q: Has Royal Mountain Records been good to you?
TE: Royal Mountain Records have been incredible so far. They came to our show the last time we played Brooklyn in May, and that’s when we met them. One of the heads of the label – his name is Menno – he gave me what’s called a “Fisherman’s Friend,” which is a Canadian throat lozenge (available for sale on Amazon.com). We gave them some beers, they gave us some beers, we hit it off instantly. We’re super excited to be working with those guys.

Q: How much immense, overwhelming pressure does the band feel about playing record release shows in their hometown that have to be THE GREATEST EVER?
TE: Crippling – no, DEVASTATING pressure. Just pulling your leg, man. We actually look forward to playing shows in Louisville more than we look forward to playing shows anywhere else because people have known us for so long that the shows are just so much fun no matter what. We actually didn’t really get to play a release show last year because we were out west when the record came out, so we’re really excited about these shows.

Q: You’ve been written about by a few “music writers” who seem dismissive of Louisville and of Kentucky, and who want to keep labeling you as representing certain genres you never defined for yourself. Is that frustrating? Is it worth it?
TE: It’s a little frustrating, I guess, but there’s just really nothing we can do about it. They can overlook Louisville if they want to, but they’re obviously wrong, and they’re not going to change our opinion. There’s a ton of great bands in town, like Jaye Jayle, Tropical Trash, Vaderbomb … and on top of that, everybody is friends with each other. If you sat down and worried about what a bunch of other people thought or what other people said, you’d probably lose a lot of sleep.

Photo by Michael Powell

c. 2015 The Voice-Tribune