Cockette Tales w/ Fayette Hauser + Vau de Vire Society (SF Main Library)

This program is one of a series of public programs related to the exhilarating exhibition, The Cockettes: Acid Drag & Sexual Anarchy, on display through August 11, 2022 in the Hormel LGBTQIA Center on the 3rd floor of the Main Library. Recordings of select programs will be available at on.sfpl.org/cockettes.

Vau de Vire Society has ravaged and titillated live entertainment for more than 20 years, causing jaws to drop in awe and admiration around the world. The group has been cross-pollinating genres by collaborating with an eclectic variety of world-renowned musicians and DJs in creating original stage shows and festival productions spanning social barriers. Born in 1997 to proud parents Mike and Shannon Gaines, Vau de Vire has its origins in the vaudeville and circus performance traditions of Normandy, France, modernized with healthy doses of wild whimsy, playful irreverence, saucy sizzle and contemporary tools and technology.

Fayette Hauser grew up on the East Coast and came of age as the fertile underground of the 1960s was blossoming. She is a graduate of Boston University, College of Fine Arts with a BFA in painting and sculpture. A founding member of the pioneering, experimental theatre group The Cockettes (1969–1972) in San Francisco, she recently authored the book, The Cockettes: Acid Drag & Sexual Anarchy, 1969-1972, published in 2020. In 1972, she went on to perform with Ze Whiz Kidz in Seattle, WA and continued performing in the New York Underground when she and her partner, Tomata Du Plenty went to Manhattan in the fall of 1972 and became one of the first to grace the stage of the seminal club CBGB. In 1975, she moved to Los Angeles to write for CBS Television. As a photographer, she has documented much of the scenes she has experienced and has exhibited her photography in over 10 museum shows. A multi-disciplinary artist at heart, she is also an award-winning costume designer for film and theater for which she won two Drama-Logue Awards for Costume Design. Her contributions to counterculture have been documented in 5 documentary features (3 American and 2 European feature films).