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Vaginal Davis, Holly Hughes Discuss Queer Performance Art in Ribald Evening

In a bawdy show last night in Emerson Hall, controversial artists Holly Hughes and drag performer Dr. Vaginal Creme Davis spoke about their lives as queer artists and performers.

The event, called "Clitty Clitty Bang Bang," was sponsored by the Bisexual Gay, Lesbian, Trangender and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA) and Girlspot as a centerpiece for gay pride month.

Hughes, who is a visiting professor of women's studies at Harvard, performed a piece about her experience as a petitioner before the U.S. Supreme Court.

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In 1990, Hughes and three other Manhattan performers were denied funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) because their sexually-themed performances were deemed indecent.

Hughes and the other three artists, famously dubbed the "NEA four," sued the federal endowment. The case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, where they lost in an 8-1 decision.

Her funding was subsequently reinstated two years later, however.

Hughes, whose most recent project was "preaching to the perverted," performed what she called a "sapphic sampler" at last night's event.

In a satiric performance that drew constant laughter from the audience of about 50 students, Hughes poked fun of formal, stringent procedural codes at the Supreme Court, and expressed frustration that she was always pigeonholed as a "lesbian" performer.

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