I have not written a blog entry in quite some time. That old adage about retired people not knowing how they had the time to work is certainly true in my case. I have been super busy with my volunteer work with LGBT Health and Wellbeing and a couple other charities, my creative pursuits (acting, singing, choir, improv, stand-up, making short social media pieces), a bit of paid work here and there, and caring responsibilities. I’ve never been happier, but I do regret not doing more blogging. 

What has really been keeping me busy over the last 6 months or so has been preparing for my first foray into putting on a one person show at the Edinburgh Festival Free Fringe…though the hard work of putting together a show really started about 16 months ago. I’ll tell you the (long) story of how this show was born and developed, and just what it means to me (and I think the people who are seeing it).

I was made homeless for the first time as a troubled LGBT university student (long story for another day perhaps) and was rescued by a rag tag group of people. They brought me into a large group of people in Atlanta I affectionately called the Island of Misfit Toys (remember the old Rudolph the Red Noise Reindeer Claymation Christmas special). The multi-cultural group consisted of radical lesbians, trans folk, drag queens, sex workers, people with histories of horrendous criminal offences putting their lives back together, recovering drug addicts and alcoholics and a range of other super queer people – they literally brought me back to life. I owe them my life and everything I have achieved in it so far. Through my career as a social worker and then as a social work academic I have touched and made better thousands of lives. The students I taught and influenced have gone on to touch thousands upon thousands of lives….and none of this would have happened if I had not been saved by a group of people who would today still be seen by many people as the dregs of society. The right wing is so wrong about queers, Global Majority people (aka PoC), and people with criminal pasts. I learned the value of family of choice and the importance of the multi-cultural queer community taking care of each other. I made sure to ensconce myself in a queer and multi-cultural community when I moved to Florida as well and I was nurtured and loved there too. 

Moving to Scotland and having increasingly larger professional roles I found myself lacking the time to really develop those close queer connections. Though I was always militantly out, no one knew me here as Mona Mae and, as I wasn’t deeply embedded in queer communities in Scotland, that identity waned. In South Florida people outside of my professional sphere didn’t know my real name…I was always either Mona or La Presidenta (I helped start an LGBTQ Volleyball league and was its first president). Mona Mae was born while I lived in Atlanta and grew to a fully formed personality in Florida…so it was really strange that she disappeared in Scotland, though she did pop out from time to time. She’s irrepressible! 

When I saw that retirement was quickly approaching, my partner and I decided to move back to Glasgow so we could be near family, some very close friends and a larger queer community. We weren’t in Glasgow for very long before I was, for the 3^rd or 4^th time in my life, adopted by a lesbian. This time the lesbian was originally from Zimbabwe and connected to a very culturally diverse and super queer community in Glasgow – and through her I found home. I immediately felt surrounded and loved by another group of amazing queer folk…goodness gracious I missed that for the previous 20 years. Through an LGBTQ+ organisation (LGBT Health and Wellbeing) I found a queer ukulele group and began to help facilitate that. I’m the lovely wrinkly assistant while an amazing young lesbian ukulele expert is the brains of the outfit and she really started the whole thing. Through this group I have found another queer family that feels like home and it is truly intergenerationally queer. I love this and we need more of these intergenerational queer spaces. It’s funny, the lesbians across my life have always been able to sprinkle fairy dust on me and change my life for the better.

So through the ‘Zimbabwean Lesbian Connection’ I got connected to queer artists and performances spaces. I went to an open mic night at Nocturnal Arts – Glasgow to hear 2 new friends read some of their poetry. This gender queer poet from India and young African-American lesbian poet blew me away. The gender queer poet felt like a little sibling to me, but they were an old soul, so also felt like an elder to me as well. We connected at a cellular level. The young lesbian reminded me of where I had come from…such a special night. This queer performance space was amazing….it was not just about scratch performances, it was about building community….and goodness, did it ever do that. While watching the other acts that night and then participating in the community building games after the performances, Mona Mae started stirring within me again – and she wanted to come out and play. I immediately applied to do a stand-up comedy routine at the next event. 

The next month I did my 10 minute slot and the young queer audience went crazy….they loved Mona Mae and wanted more of her. So I developed more stories and the producer (Hyperion Nyx – AKA Corvis Oleander) wanted to work with me to develop Mona Mae into a show.  Through working with them I realised I was not really a stand-up comic – I was a storyteller. I can do stand-up comedy and I also like doing improv comedy, but telling my stories is something special for me….and as I am discovering…. for audiences as well. 

Mona Mae basically tells stories from my long queer life and balances humour and pathos, poignancy and frivolity, dirtiness and sacredness, past and present, pain and joy, and most importantly despair and hope. But hope always wins for Mona, and that comes out in her stories. 

As I was living through experiencing long-term sexual abuse from the local parish priest, alcohol and drug abuse, homelessness, witnessing a murder of a colleague, homophobia, coming out in a period of extreme homophobia, multiple suicide attempts,  living through the initial AIDS epidemic and losing hundreds of friends, the death of a partner to AIDS, the severe mental illness of another partner, and a host of other traumas – never would I have ever imagined that silly and funny stories about such things would one day be the material for a comedy show – or that they would help other people make some meaning of the experiences of their lives. Storytelling is so powerful – especially when it involves taboo topics that are difficult to discuss and done in a way that helps remove some of the taboo. Stories can also help keep history alive and help promote social justice. We need that today – now maybe more than ever. Mona Mae loves to tell her stories. More importantly, she loves to move people and open communication so people can share their stories too. She’s always had a drive for social justice….even during her silent years. Now that she’s out of her box, she may (read as will) never go back in that box. She’s irrepressible! Once again, she is at home and feeling powerful. It’s appropriate that Mona Mae ends her show, “We’re here, we’re queer, and we are old as fuck!” 

If you read this before the 27^th of August 2023, come to the PBH Free Fringe and see Mona for yourself.

Also, there are many, many other amazing queer stories being told as part of the Free Fringe. I highly recommend Second Helping: Two Dead Lovers: Dead Funny

And if you want something that is just super fun instead of a mix of pathos and comedy, the queering of some Disney inspired stories through the medium of burlesque is an absolute joy.  Check out Naughty Ever After

The PBH Free Fringe is a fabulous collective where members work together to put on free shows across the whole month of Fringe. PBH Free Fringe Shows keep performing accessible to all (for both performers and audiences) and is a hotbed of performer development while also being loaded with already amazing established acts. It’s very different from the corporate Fringe where principles of capitalism seem to dominate. Check out all the PBH Free Fringe shows. https://freefringe.org.uk

There are also lots of other great LGBTQ performers across all the Fringe (not just the PBH Free Fringe arm of the Fringe). Check out EdFringeLGBTQ on Instagram it’s not a complete listing but it isn’t limited to just those shows with big PR budgets. And its updated all the time. 

https://www.instagram.com/edfringelgbtq/

Give other recommendations in the comments or on Mona Mae’s Instagram @missmonamae or her Facebook Page: Mona Mae Productions