Roundtable Description

Continuation of discussion began in the Summer BurlyCon BurlyPod.  All are welcome to attend whether they attended the first roundtable or not.

Hire them! We all shout this when talking about burlesque legends, but how do we put that into practice? How do you invite a legend to lunch, what are other ways to interact with legends…for real. How do we involve them more within the burlesque communities they live in and not just keep them as shiny objects for adoration by neo-burlesquers? How do we contact them to invite them out to a burlesque show with us? How do we build that relationship, one that's more than sending an email asking them to perform or sending over a contract? Let's talk communication and friendship with legends.

Description from the summer Legends Roundtable:

Highlighting and caring for our Burlesque Legends is a concern of the community at large and a number of fantastic organizations focus on this work. From preservation of history and legacy to education to care and support of our living Legends, these organizations are on the ground working. Join representatives of these organizations, Legends themselves, and people on the front lines of Legend support to learn more about what work is happening and examine what more our community could do. We hope this discussion will continue into future BurlyCon and other burlesque events and natural calls to action will bloom.

In this very brief hour, the discussions will center around the following topics:

1. How do the different pillars in the Burlesque industry work with and support Burlesque legends? Example: BHOF, BurlyCon, BurlyCares, Others?

2. Based on the answers to #1, what gaps are there in supporting legends as artists and as part of our legacies/families?

3. Let's look at support in different contexts. For example, practical needs could be an escort at events such as BHOF / BurlyCon. Ongoing community support could be locally to legends between events to crisis support during illness, community resources and supporting as escorts ongoing, building alliances with already existing local legend support infrastructures, travel needs, regular contact initiatives such as holiday cards, etc. We should also consider the international complexities of support.

4. Elephant in the room...some of them have financial needs - should and can we be doing something/more to help them in their twilight years?

Attendees: 

  • Iva Handfull - Roundtable Moderator
  • Blanche DeBris - Legend assistant
  • Robyn Swing - Zoom Moderator
  • Jo Weldon
  • Joan Trinh Pham
  • Lola Martinet
  • Lottie Ellington
  • Miz Charlamay
  • Sweetpea
  • Tiffany Carter
  • Tigger!
  • Velvet Ice

BurlyCares Document: 2021_BurlyCaresOrgInfo.pdf