A night of transporting performances and dancing with Brooklyn writer Carley Moore and Hong Kong Cabaret and Jazz artist Vita Starkin.

The time is the 1930s gender-bending Parisian lesbian bar Le Monocle, a sensual & safe haven where we can be, present as, dance, and love whoever and whatever we want, and find joy amidst exacting times.

Travel through the portal and enter a different time and space with a mix of jazz influenced lullabies, baroque pop reimagining and Hong Kong originals from Jazz & Cabaret star Vita Starkin and readings by Carley Moore from her newly launched, wonderfully queer, sharp, and joyous book, Panpocalypse.

On the other side of the Portal, all bodies, all races, all neurotypes, all genders, all sexualities, all expressions are safe and welcomed.

Dress in whatever makes you feel comfortable, sexy, and joyous. Cross dressing is encouraged.

ABOUT CARLEY MOORE

Carley is an essayist, novelist, and poet. Her books include 16 Pills, an essay collection, The Not Wives, a novel, Portal Poem, a poetry chapbook, The Stalker Chronicles, a young adult novel, My First Queer Year, poetry, and Panpocalypse, her second novel. The Not Wives was a finalist for a LAMBDA and Firecracker Small Press Award, and received an Indie Forward Honorable Mention in Literary Fiction. Carley is a queer, disabled, single, co-parenting mom, a sex-positive intersectional feminist, #catwife, and Vans lover.

Her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Brainchild, The Brooklyn Rail, The Establishment, GUTS, The Journal of Popular Culture, The Nervous Breakdown, Public Books, Rumpus, and VIDA: Women in Literary Arts. She is a Clinical Professor of Writing and Critical Creative Production in the Global Liberal Studies Program at New York University and a Senior Associate at Bard College’s Institute for Writing and Thinking. She lives in New York City. Follow her on Instagram @fragmentedsky.

About Panpocalypse

During the coronavirus pandemic, a queer disabled woman bikes through a locked-down NYC for the ex-girlfriend who broke her heart.

It’s early summer in New York City, 2020. The city is largely shut down, and Orpheus—our queer, disabled, poly hero—is lonely, devoid of touch and community. Orpheus manages to buy a bike just before they sell out and takes to the streets looking for Eurydice, the first woman she fell in love with, who broke her heart. But then Orpheus hears mysterious news of the underground bar Le Monocle, fashioned after the 1930s Parisian lesbian club of the same name. Can she find it? Will she ever be allowed to love again?

ABOUT VITA STARKIN

Vita Starkin is a musician and creative director previously based in Hong Kong and currently on the road until further notice. Starkin was born in London and trained in piano and organ as a teenager before delving into Cabaret and Rock Music.

As a Cabaret performer and producer, Starkin is the director and founder of “The Mercury Cabaret” a show inspired by the theatre of Weimar Berlin and theatrical practitioner Antonin Artaud. The Mercury Cabaret was Hong Kong’s only regularly running Cabaret show until it was forced to shut down due to covid restrictions in Hong Kong and rising concerns of breaking the Chinese National Security Laws. This censorship law from the Chinese government has meant that politically charged Cabaret is no longer safe for performers to be involved with.

As a musician, Starkin is an active member of the Cabaret and Jazz scene, and lead singer and songwriter of “Vita Starkin & The YAB”, a baroque pop band with jazz and rock influences. They also performed on the local Hong Kong jazz circuit in a band called "The Right Guys."

They have played internationally throughout the world through Asia, Europe and Oceania.