Emerging Artist Showcase

Becoming through the Looking Glass

Presented by Queer Cultural Center

As part of the National Queer Arts Festival, QCC presents an Emerging Artist Showcase grounded in this year’s theme, Magic Mirror: Everything is Everything. This evening centers artists whose work reflects the power of self-recognition, transformation, and collective imagination. Through sound, movement, performance, and visual media, the showcase explores the mirror as both a site of reflection and a portal to other, better worlds.

Artists in Spotlight:

Demse Faro (IG: @Demse.000)

Demse Faro is the mirrored alias of Julien Stainback, a Black bisexual guitarist and multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the tension between ego and collective liberation. Through music and performance, Demse reflects diasporic memory and the connective power of sound. Their practice is deeply informed by years of community-based production work as an AV technician, musician, and collaborator. Their EP Pride of Madeiras emerged from cross-disciplinary collaboration in 2024, and they currently serve on the AV team at Glide Memorial Church.

Lucia Brammer (IG: @ledao.studio)

Lucia Brammer brings an intuitive, process-driven approach to performance and creation, engaging themes of reflection, embodiment, and transformation. Their work explores how personal narrative and collective experience intersect, offering audiences moments of quiet resonance and emotional clarity within the broader festival landscape.

Alfredo Zapata De Jesús

Alfredo Zapata De Jesús is a Puerto Rico–born media artist whose work engages sound, video, and performance to interrogate place, symbolism, and social structures. Rooted in the landscapes of his home island, Alfredo’s practice examines how environments hold memory and meaning. Through subtle intervention and sensory exploration, his work challenges viewers to reconsider the cultural narratives embedded in everyday spaces.

XEMARA

XEMARA is a queer audio-visual artist whose work bridges live sound, songwriting, and performance. Raised in the bailes of Oaxaca, their practice draws from sound system culture and lived experience to explore identity, family, grief, and self-preservation. Blending technical precision with emotional storytelling, XEMARA creates immersive sonic environments that honor connection, resilience, and transformation.

Together, these artists embody the spirit of Magic Mirror: Everything is Everything—offering reflections of self and society that invite audiences to imagine new futures grounded in care, creativity, and collective power.

Accessibility Info:

You'll find metered parking along 24th Street. Meters are checked from 9am to 6pm, Monday through Saturday.

Garage parking is available in the San Francisco General Hospital parking garage.

Venue is ADA Accessible.

BART

The theater is a seven minute walk from the 24th Street BART Station. Exit the station and walk eight blocks east on 24th Street. Arrive at 2781 24th Street at York Street

MUNI

Bus lines 27 Bryant, 12 Folsom, 67 Bernal, and 9 San Bruno all pass within 1-2 blocks of the theater. The 48 Quintara runs right in front of the theater.

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Host or Publisher Queer Cultural Center