Defining Justin Bond’s gender is no less difficult than figuring out what makes the 47-year-old performer’s cabaret act so compelling. It can be hilarious, heart-wrenching, vulnerable, sardonic, Wiccan, and world-weary all at the same time.
— Out Magazine, May 2011.
Downtown New York music scenester and queer avant-garde singer, songwriter and performance artist Justin Bond — now named Mx. Justin Vivian Bond and “V” instead of he/she or him/her — will take to the stage at Carrboro’s ArtsCenter on June 4.
Bond, known for V’s various works in film, music and theater, released V’s first full-length album as a solo artist on April 4 and is currently on tour across the U.S.
The album, “Dendrophile,” encapsulates the various and constantly evolving dimensions of Bond’s career: sold-out audiences at New York’s Joe’s Pub, a song from John Cameron Mitchell’s “Shortbus” (in which Bond starred), a Karen Carpenter song Bond performed in the previously released “Justin Bond is Close to You” and material from Bond’s recent performance piece “Re:Galli Bonde.”
Sex, gender and sexuality are foremost themes Bond’s new album. Bond is particularly interested in queer, specifically transgender, identity, which V has embraced in V’s transition to the mixed-gender Mx. Justin Vivian Bond. In the song “American Wedding,” Bond sets to music poetry by the late queer writer-activist Essex Hemphill. “The Golden Age of Hustlers” was written by Bambi Lake, a transsexual woman Bond has known since V lived in San Francisco.
Other highlights of the album include “Crowley A La Lee,” which was inspired by an imagined meeting between Aleister Crowley and Peggy Lee, and “The New Economy” an unmistakably Bondesque commentary on the worldwide economic crisis.
Bond’s June 4 Carrboro performance opens at 7:30 p.m. at The ArtsCenter, 300 E. Main St. Tickets are $20 in advance, $22 day-of and $18 for ArtsClub members.
To purchase tickets or get more information, visit artscenterlive.org or call 919-929-2787, ext. 201. : :
— Compiled from release
I’ve seen Justin at Joe’s Pub in New York several times. V is probably best known for his lead role in the John Cameron Mitchell film, Shortbus. Justin is a fantastic performer, representing the trans community with originality and unique, raucous beauty — a world-reknowned cabaret artits who is progressive, forward thinking, out-spoken and passionate about trans issues, from identiity to gender and sexuality. Five stars, easily.