Mx Justin Vivian Bond to Bring LOVE IS CRAZY! and MX AMERICA to Joe's Pub in 2016

Iconic performer, writer, singer and activist Mx Justin Vivian Bond will continue the yearlong celebration of v's prolific and trailblazing career at Joe's Pub at The Public in 2016. Mx Bond will perform two shows from v's repertoire - LOVE IS CRAZY! for some pure Valentine's Day fun, Sunday-Tuesday, February 14-16 at 9:00PM, and MX AMERICA, v's singular take on the beauty pageant, Saturday and Sunday, March 12 and 13 at 9:00PM. Spring 2016 will bring the long-awaited return of Mx Bond and music superpower Kenny Mellman's legendary cabaret act Kiki & Herb with a new show called SEEKING ASYLUM!

One of Mx Bond's most popular shows to date, LOVE IS CRAZY! is an evening reveling in obsession, sex, romance and all their queer and mysterious complications. Accompanied by Nath Ann Carrera on guitar, Claudia Chopek on violin, and under the musical direction of Matt Ray, Mx Bond displays v's legendarily twisted wit, along with songs from v's albums Dendrophile and Silver Wells, and numbers from v's stage and film appearances.

In MX AMERICA, Mx Bond explores "ways of seeing and being seen." As the single finalist in a pageant, v expects to be judged in such categories as presentation, economic status, mental health, family values and talent all while creating an elegantly formidable evening of beauty and delight. "My friend Billy's father once said you could measure the depth of a person's tragedy by the amount of distance between how they see themselves and how they're seen by others. As an American and as a trans-person I find this hypothesis to be really interesting," said Mx Bond. Central to this exploration is v's long-term obsession with supermodel model Karen Graham, the face of Estee Lauder cosmetics from 1972-1985.

MX AMERICA is a solo show incorporating video, spoken word, original music, plus a few cheap jokes Mx Bond bought off a drunk queen in San Francisco. In tandem, v will present a visual art component - My Model/My Self, a solo exhibition of watercolors, sculptural installation, video and performance installation - at Participant, Inc. on March 13, 2016.

Tickets are available for LOVE IS CRAZY! online, over the phone (212-967-7555) and in-person at The Public Theater's box office (425 Lafayette, NYC). Tickets for MX AMERICA will go on sale in January 2016.

This year of celebration began in September 2015 with the revival of v's cabaret debut, Dixie McCall's Patterns for Living, the show that laid the groundwork for what became Kiki and Herb, and ultimately created the blueprint for every Mx Bond show to date.

Mx Justin Vivian Bond is a writer, singer, painter, and performance artist. Mx Bond is the author of the Lambda Literary Award winning memoir TANGO: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels, published by The Feminist Press and Susie Says... a collaboration with Gina Garan (Powerhouse Books, 2012). V's debut CD Dendrophile was self-released on WhimsyMusic in 2011 and was followed by Silver Wells in 2012. In 2011, v's art exhibition The Fall of the House of Whimsy was presented at Participant Inc.

Other notable works include starring as Warhol Superstar Jackie Curtis in Scott Wittman's production of Jukebox Jackie: Snatches of Jackie Curtis as part of La Mama E.T.C.'s 50 Anniversary Season, originating the role of Herculine Barbin in Kate Bornstein's groundbreaking play Hidden: A Gender, touring with the performance troupe The Big Art Group and appearing in John Cameron Mitchell's film Shortbus. Other films include Sunset Stories (2012), Imaginary Heroes (2004), and Fanci's Persuasion (1995).

Mx Bond is a recipient of The Ethyl Eichelberger Award, The Peter Reed Foundation Grant and The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award for Performance Art/Theater, an Obie and a Bessie. Additionally, Mx Bond was nominated for a Tony for Kiki and Herb Alive On Broadway in 2007.

Named for Public Theater founder Joe Papp, Joe's Pub at The Public opened in 1998 and plays a vital role in The Public's mission of supporting young artists while providing established artists with an intimate space and superior acoustics to perform and develop new work. Joe's Pub consistently presents the best in live music and performance nightly, continuing its commitment to diversity, production values, community and artistic freedom. In addition, Joe's Pub features seasonal dinner and bar menus from acclaimed Chef Andrew Carmellini. As part of The Public's programming downtown at its Astor Place home, Joe's Pub showcases talent from all over the world, hosting approximately 800 shows and serving over 100,000 audience members annually. Joe's Pub also offers unique opportunities like New York Voices, an artist commissioning program that provides musicians (Allen Toussaint, Ethan Lipton, Toshi Reagon, Bridget Everett and more) resources and collaborators to develop new theatrical works; and PUB CLUB, the venue's new artist development program.

The Public Theater, under the leadership of Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, is the only theater in New York that produces Shakespeare, the classics, musicals, contemporary and experimental pieces in equal measure. Celebrating his 10th anniversary season at The Public, Eustis has created new community-based initiatives designed to engage audiences like Public Lab, Public Studio, Public Forum, Public Works, and a remount of the Mobile Shakespeare Unit. The Public continues the work of its visionary founder, Joe Papp, by acting as an advocate for the theater as an essential cultural force, and leading and framing dialogue on some of the most important issues of our day. Creating theater for one of the largest and most diverse audience bases in New York City for nearly 60 years, today the Company engages audiences in a variety of venues-including its landmark downtown home at Astor Place, which houses five theaters and Joe's Pub; the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, home to free Shakespeare in the Park; and the Mobile Shakespeare Unit, which tours Shakespearean productions for underserved audiences throughout New York City's five boroughs. The Public's wide range of programming includes free Shakespeare in the Park, the bedrock of the Company's dedication to making theater accessible to all; Public Works, an expanding initiative that is designed to cultivate new connections and new models of engagement with artists, audiences and the community each year; and audience and artist development initiatives that range from Emerging Writers Group and to the Public Forum series. The Public is located on property owned by the City of New York and receives annual support from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; and in October 2012 the landmark building downtown at Astor Place was revitalized to physically manifest the Company's core mission of sparking new dialogues and increasing accessibility for artists and audiences, by dramatically opening up the building to the street and community, and transforming the lobby into a public piazza for artists, students, and audiences. The Public is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning Fun Home and Lin-Manuel Miranda's acclaimed American musical Hamilton. The Public has received 47 Tony Awards, 167 Obie Awards, 52 Drama Desk Awards, 48 Lortel Awards, 31 Outer Critics Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics Awards, and four Pulitzer Prizes.

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