07/01/2020
NOTICE TO OUR FRUITY FAMILY
Click the photo for the full Sundae Best Variety Show statement on our partnership with JB Lovedraft’s Micropub:
NOTICE TO OUR SUNDAE BEST FAMILY
Details on our partnership with JB Lovedraft's:
In July of 2018 we launched our monthly event, Fruit Boots, at JB Lovedraft’s Micropub. Fruit Boots aimed to provide a hub for the q***r community in local performance and nightlife scenes, focusing on live drag, variety arts, and music. In our partnership with JB’s, we found a sturdy platform for our community to showcase and share their talents, providing a regular stage and financial support for the many artists who make up our q***r family.
We’ve grown very proud of the sacred q***r space that congregates downtown each month, but if that space is not safe for everyone, it is not part of the intersectional liberation that motivates our artistic actions. The deep-seated white fragility surrounding the issue of the venue’s name is, in our opinion, reason for concern. As a diverse collective who is working to be actively anti-racist and facilitate a safe space for our community, we no longer believe that this is a healthy professional relationship for us.
Before beginning our partnership with JB’s, we initiated a conversation around the concern that had been brought up in the Harrisburg community that their namesake was an explicit racist and antisemite. Over the course of this conversation, we were assured that their name was a pun of the owner's initials combined with their love for good beer, and that, as a business and a brand, they were dedicated to reclaiming the name by facilitating an inclusive space in the city for everyone who shared their love of weird sci-fi and general nerd culture.
The focus of Sundae Best has always been to provide an outlet for a variety of q***r artists on the fringe. As we have grown, our goal has been to organically expand spaces, resources and opportunities that are inclusive to all. As three white showrunners in a small city, our priority is to maintain an open door policy for every member of our community whose weirdness resonates with ours, and to be increasingly aware of our own inherent biases and the short-sightedness that comes with our white privilege. The positive benefits and nature of our relationship with JB’s establishment encouraged us, as showrunners, to pursue further conversation about the concerns surrounding their name, with the only memorable result being the publishing of their house rules, banning hate symbols and speech.
With live shows shut down due to the pandemic, we have only hosted one Fruit Boots show at JB Lovedraft’s since the beginning of 2020. While local businesses have been struggling to survive all around the country, many are also finding ways to creatively adapt to meet new consumer demands. As community discussions around the name of the pub were reignited, we felt it was time to reapproach the conversation with management and advocate for engagement and action around these concerns. From our perspective, as we pressed this issue with the bar owner and staff, their reactions became increasingly toxic and defensive. We were collectively stunned and disappointed by their public statement on 6/18 - their resistance to criticism seems to highlight that the priority is maintaining their reputation of being a safe space, rather than actively working to create a space that is safe and welcoming for everyone. The apparent cavalier and aggressive attitude expressed throughout this dialogue serves only to center white feelings, which is something that we, as a collective and as individuals, are working to step away from.
LGBTQ+ people should never be used as a shield from further accountability. We are angry that the existence of our q***r bodies in this space has been repeatedly used to highlight how safe people feel at the bar, when not everyone is able to have the same experience. Specifically, for white people, relationships with BIPOC (and especially Black) people cannot and should not be treated as tokens to exempt us from actively partaking in dismantling systemic racism. We implore folks on all sides of this discussion to stop using their relationships with BIPOC to justify their own opinions, and to look below the surface of these issues - How can it inform the work that happens next - with your own businesses, in your own homes, and your own social circles?
We deeply miss our community and we hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this time. Your lives are too precious to us to be jeopardized by a drag show, which is why we’ve been excited to offer digital events over the course of the last three months. While we won’t be hosting live shows for the foreseeable future, we can firmly say that, when we return, it won’t be on the Lovedraft’s stage.
Everyone makes mistakes and takes missteps. It’s okay to make those mistakes, learn and grow from them, and do better. As white people, the social and emotional benefits of cancel-culture are not ours to cash in on; it is not our privilege to disengage with this issue. We wish no ill will to the staff of the pub, but sincerely hope that the establishment can begin actively working to rectify this hurt in our community. If we can be a helpful resource or partner in this learning process, we feel we have made it apparent that we are willing to do so.
Until significant actions are taken, we cannot continue to promote JB Lovedraft’s. We want and need change. We need our safe spaces to exist now more than ever. Unfortunately, unless we believe that a space is safe and inclusive of everyone, it’s not our revolution, and we won’t be dancing there.
