First Fridays at the Fine Arts Work Center
Last month, the Fine Arts Work Center (24 Pearl St., Provincetown) held a sneak preview of a new monthly program featuring open artist studios and local food and drink.
FAWC’s next “First Friday” at 5 p.m. on Dec. 2 will be open to all, with a conversation between painter Duane Slick, a former FAWC fellow who teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design, and poet Nathan McClain, who teaches at Hampshire College.
Caribbean steelpan player Jefferey Clayton of PanNeubean Steel will perform, and food will be provided by chef Lisa Whelan’s Dancing Spoons food truck. “Part of this is sharing what we do at the center,” says Executive Director Sharon Polli. “But we also want to showcase small businesses, local artists and musicians, and restaurants.”
The evening will also include the People’s Parlor, a reading series organized by Patrick Kearns at Provincetown’s Somerset Inn. “We call it ‘reading karaoke,’ ” says Polli. “Everyone is invited to read.”
Starting in February, the events will be held twice a month and will feature exhibitions and readings by FAWC’s current visual arts and writing fellows. All the events are free. See fawc.org for a complete schedule and more information. —John D’Addario
Yule for Fuel Provides Winter Warmth
While the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater (2357 State Highway Route 6) is mainly known for its stage productions, it will become the venue for the return of a much-loved holiday event this weekend.
Yule for Fuel will take place on Friday, Dec. 3 and Friday, Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. Started by WHAT member Stephen Russell, who has hosted nearly every Yule for Fuel since they began in 2007, the evenings will showcase local talent while raising money for the Lower Cape Outreach Council’s Fuel Assistance Program, which works with local fuel companies to keep the heat on through the winter for families in need on Cape Cod.
WHAT’s Susan Blood says the event is an opportunity for people to connect with their neighbors and to meet newcomers. “It’s all about neighbors helping neighbors,” she says. “It’s a ‘this-is-why-we-live-here’ kind of event.”
This year’s Yule for Fuel boasts a wide range of performers including Billingsgate, the Bitter and Broken Men’s Chorus, Alex Brewer, Christine Rathbun Ernst, Indira Ganesan, Candy Hammond, Heyday, Gregory Hischak, Michael Holt, Fred Magee, Tia Scalcione, John Shuman, Ken Silvia, SummerTown, and Toast and Jam. (Acts were still being confirmed at this week’s deadline.)
Tickets are $27 and advance online purchases are highly encouraged. Masks must be worn inside the theater regardless of vaccination status. See what.org for more information. —Eve Samaha
Alexander Cheves Tells All
“Provincetown was a place I heard great stories about, then visited, then — after the third or fourth visit, after I’d blown off all my sexual steam and found the town’s rhythms — finally fell in love with,” says writer Alexander Cheves, who currently lives in Berlin. “It’s a gathering place. It heals.”
Cheves will be reading from his memoir My Love Is a Beast: Confessions at the AIDS Support Group of Cape Cod’s new drop-in center (301 Commercial St., Provincetown) on Saturday, Dec. 3, 3 p.m.
Among his many roles — writer, sex columnist, sex worker, and unabashed promoter of sex positivity — Cheves is perhaps best known for his work as contributing editor at The Advocate and for his “Sexy Beast” column. His writing has also been published in Out magazine, VICE, and Drummer. His “Love, Beastly” advice blog is notable for its clear, approachable answers to questions about queer sex. In 2021, he received an Excellence in Journalism award from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and was named to the Out 100, Out magazine’s list of the 100 most influential queer people.
“Reading is my favorite part of writing,” says Cheves. “It’s the part I’m best at. Reading produces a high that can last for a few days. I have had some amazing post-reading sex. When you hear someone read their memoir — something they have written, revised, edited, and meticulously worked through a hundred times for years simply to get the words of their story right — you are listening to the rawest exposing of a person possible. It is a human stripped bare in front of onlookers. It should be unsettling. I love the moments in a reading when I know I’m about to read something that will likely shock some people in the audience, not necessarily because of the content but because I’m saying it about myself.”
The event is free. See asgcc.com for more information. —James Judd
Naughty and Nice
Hung With Care, a variety show featuring burlesque artists, cabaret singers, circus acts, and dancers, will bump and grind its way into Provincetown Town Hall (260 Commercial St.) on Saturday, Dec. 3, 8:30 p.m.
Among the performers will be emerging disco diva Storm Marrero, who is the first Afro-Latina to perform as singing ringmaster at New York City’s Big Apple Circus (and only the third woman to play that role in the circus’s 42-year run). If you spend even a moment listening to her album Black Gypsy, you’ll know her powerful vocals are perfectly capable of raising the roof of old town hall.
The talent lineup also includes GoGo Gadget, who is known as “the bouncing bubble butt beefcake of burlesque.” Sugarplum fairies be damned — who needs another viewing of The Nutcracker when a peek at Pearls Daily’s YouTube videos reveals her exceptional ability to dance en pointe while stripping? Likewise, Broody Valentino’s performance set to “As If We Never Said Goodbye,” the showstopper from the musical Sunset Boulevard, is just the sort of weird and wacky sensibility that Provincetown audiences appreciate. Performers Jack Barrow, Boy Radio, and Provincetown’s own Mackenzie round out the cast.
The show, which is presented by the folks at Big Gay Hudson Valley, is a highlight of the Holly Folly weekend produced by the Provincetown Business Guild. Tickets range from $45 to $55. See hungwithcare.com and ptown.org/hollyfolly for more information. —James Judd
