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Queer slices of DIVAfest

Maura Halloran plays two lesbian lovers, their cat and their nosy landlady in “Pussy,” and Genevieve Jessee plays herself, her hippie mom and her Deep South grandmother in “Girl In, But Not Of, The ‘Hood.”  On this week’s Out in the Bay, hear Jessee and Halloran perform selections from their intriguing solo shows and talk about their work and about DIVAfest, a celebration of female power and creativity running through May 27 in San Francisco’s EXIT Theatre.

 
 
More on the shows:
In “Girl In, But Not Of, The ‘Hood," after finishing college, a young bi-racial woman reluctantly returns to her mother’s home in a gritty Oakland neighborhood. She’d almost forgotten about the bullying ‘hood rats, the astrological chart readings of her hippie mother, and the drunken storytelling of her feisty southern Big Mama. Now that she’s back, she wants out, and for good. But, getting out will prove a lot harder than moving in.
 
 
"Pussy" concerns the tangled heartaches and adventures of a lesbian couple whose love is on the rocks, their homophobic bi-curious landlady and the homicidal cat who’s determined one of them’s gotta go.  A tribute to the tribulations of trying to find your own groove when you don’t like the music.  It’s a tale of love, hate, love-sex, hate-sex, online dating, marriage, beauty, unicorns, vampires, how softball can save your life and three outsiders whose fates triangulate around one spectacular cat.

Eric Jansen is a long-time broadcaster and print journalist. A former news anchor, producer and reporter at KQED FM, San Francisco; KLIV AM, San Jose; and Minnesota Public Radio, Eric's award-winning reports have been heard on many NPR programs and PRI's Marketplace. His print work has been in The Mercury News, The Business Journal, and LGBTQ magazines Genre and The Advocate, among other publications. He co-produced the June 2007 PBS documentary Why We Sing!, about LGBTQ choruses and their role in the civil rights fight.