Talith the Artist
More about me...
Mais sobre mim...
Talith (they/them) is a genderfluid white able-bodied neurodivergent Brazilian transdisciplinary artist living between Berlin and Brazil. They are, above anything, a storyteller and they use different media to shape their stories, being the main ones writing and performing. They grew up in a village in rural Minas Gerais, and since an early age, by the influence of an artist/educator mother, they were encouraged to explore their artistic side, acting in plays that would become part of a travelling theatre designed to educate the public about environmental issues of the region of Mantiqueira. Avid reader since childhood, Talith is an autodidact, having learned many things and skills by themself or from observing others. They studied International Relations at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, but quickly became frustrated with the academic world, which just reproduces violent structures that reinforce elitism, racism, ableism, cissexism and still value mainly knowledge produced by cis-white high/middle-class men from Europe and North America. They still managed to draw valuable knowledge from university – however not only from inside the classroom – like decolonial, feminism and queer theory, which they carried to their art, as a way of sharing the knowledge they gained from having the privilege of being in such an environment in a more accessible language than the academic one. In Berlin they started exploring drag performance through the character of Lilith the Quing, although they explore other characters as well, such as Ken Marroska, Miss Verständniss and Arthur King. Drag is as political and interdisciplinary as it gets, and that meant for Talith to merge and integrate all their passions together: art, writing, film, performance, queerness, gender (bending), music, dance, fashion, acting, crafting and activism. They use a lot of materials that would become trash, repurposing them as not only a sustainable choice, but also an anti-capitalistic one. Lilith the Quing performs regularly in venues like Silver Future, Tipsy Bear, Salon – Zur Wilden Renate, Monster Ronson’s. Lilith is a member of the collective Venus Boys, having developed with them projects such as: This is Not Wonderland, an immersive walkthrough art experience part of Overmorrow at Salon – Zur Wilden Renate with installations and performances within the Alice in Wonderland theme; Not Dead Yet, a show presented at Cabuwazi Beyond Borders as part of Festiwalla; Siren Quingdom, a nautical treasure hunt funded by Draussenstadt; performance at the art event MONDO BIZARRO by the Berlin collectives Pornceptual, Buttons and Gegen; the festivals Fusion, Whole and go drag!, and Venus Boys Fluidity Show, hosted by Lilith the Quing, as part of Fluidity, an event funded by Draussenstadt and produced by the collective fluid.vision, which Talith is also part of and continues to organise events that involve music, art and education, as well as creating an environment for queer people to feel at ease and which encourages experimentation in gender expression for everyone, it became a resident party at Re:mise. They recently co-founded a Brazilian drag collective BR.ag Kultur (Brazilian Drag Culture), with other Brazilian artists based in Berlin to share some “tupinikim” magic with this cold continent and brag about how rich their culture is. More recently he has been performing at large-scale events such as Luxemburg Pride, Dragify, Mx Kotti, and at the Psicotrópicos festival of Brazilian culture together BRag Kultur, and was even a judge at the Schwuz Drag Open Stage Finale 2023. In 2021 and 2022 they also participated in the dramaqueer project and wrote the plays Mind the Gap, which had a public reading in Salon – Zur Wilden Renate and Unconditional, which was read in Salon – Zur Wilden Renate and public parks in the Friedrischain district of Berlin. They also acted in audiovisual productions such as Boom Boom Bruno; and Dream Dwellers by TV WOW!, an anticapitalistic streaming platform. Talith is currently pursuing a MA in Interdisciplinary Latin American Studies with a focus on gender studies at Freie Universität Berlin and is developing research on how drag can be a tool to explore non-binarity, queer/healthy masculinities and queer utopias in Brazil from a queer and de/anti-colonial perspective, recognising their whiteness and being critical about it.
Talith (elu/ile/ele/ela) é ume artista transdisciplinar brasileiro residindo entre Berlim e Brasil. Elu é, acima de tudo, um contador de histórias e utiliza diferentes mídias para moldar suas histórias, atuando mais frequentemente como drag performer, mestre de cerimônias, club kid, escritore e educadore. Ela cresceu em uma vila no interior de Minas Gerais, e desde cedo, por influência de uma mãe artista/educadora, foi encorajade a explorar seu lado artístico, atuando em peças que foram parte de um teatro itinerante destinado a educar o público sobre as questões ambientais da região da Mantiqueira. Leitor ávide desde a infância, Talith é uma autodidata, tendo aprendido muitas coisas e habilidades por si mesme ou observando os outros. Ele estudou Relações Internacionais na Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, mas rapidamente se frustrou com o mundo acadêmico, que só reproduz estruturas violentas que reforçam o elitismo, o racismo, o cissexismo, o capacitismo e ainda valorizam principalmente os conhecimentos produzidos por homens cis de classe média/alta da Europa e da América do Norte. Elu ainda conseguiu extrair conhecimentos valiosos da universidade – mas não apenas de dentro da sala de aula – como o decolonialismo, o feminismo e a teoria do queer, que ele trouxe para dentro da sua arte, como forma de compartilhar os conhecimentos adquiridos por ter tido o privilégio de estar em tal ambiente, só que em uma linguagem mais acessível do que a acadêmica. Em Berlim, elu começou a explorar o drag através das personagens de Lilith the Quing, Ken Marroska e mais algumas que aparecem eventualmente. O drag é tão político e interdisciplinar, e isto significou para Talith fundir e integrar todas as suas paixões: arte, escrita, cinema, performance, queerness, gender(bending), música, dança, moda, atuação, artesanato e ativismo. Elu utiliza muitos materiais que se tornariam lixo ou um desperdício, reutilizando-os não apenas como uma escolha sustentável, mas também como uma escolha anticapitalista. Lilith the Quing se apresenta regularmente em locais como Silver Future, Tipsy Bear, Salon – Zur Wilden Renate, Monster Ronson’s. Lilith é membro do coletivo Venus Boys, tendo desenvolvido projetos com eles, como por exemplo: This is not Wonderland, uma experiência artística imersiva que faz parte de Overmorrow no Salon – Zur Wilden Renate com instalações e apresentações dentro do tema Alice no País das Maravilhas; Not Dead Yet, um show apresentado no circo Cabuwazi Beyond Borders como parte do Festiwalla; Siren Quingdom, uma caça ao tesouro náutica financiada pela Draussenstadt; performance no evento de arte MONDO BIZARRO pelos coletivos Pornceptual, Buttons e Gegen de Berlim e Venus Boys Fluidity Show, apresentado por Lilith the Quing, como parte do Fluidity, um evento financiado pela Draussenstadt produzido pelo coletivo fluid.vision, do qual Talith também faz parte e segue organizando eventos que envolvem música, arte e educação, além de criar um ambiente para pessoas queer se sentirem à vontade e que incentiva a experimentação na expressão de gênero a todes. Em 2023, elu co-fundou o coletivo de drags brasileires BR.ag Kultur (Brazilian Drag Culture), com outres artistas brasileiros baseades em Berlim, para compartilhar um pouco da magia tupinikim com este continente frio e se gabar da riqueza da cultura brasileira. Mais recentemente ele vem performando em eventos de grande escala como Luxemburg Pride, Dragify, Mx Kotti, e no festival Psicotrópicos de cultura brasileira conjunto com BRag Kultur, e chegou a ser jurado no Schwuz Drag Open Stage Finale 2023. Em 2021 e 2022 elu também participar do projeto dramaqueer e escreveu as peças Mind the Gap, que teve uma leitura pública no Salon – Zur Wilden Renate e Unconditional, que foi lida em Salon – Zur Wilden Renate e parques públicos no bairro de Friedrischain em Berlim. Elu hoje em dia está cursando um mestrado em Estudos Interdisciplinares Latino Americanos, com o foco em estudos de gênero na Freie Universität Berlin e está desenvolvendo uma pesquisa sobre como a drag pode ser uma ferramenta para explorar a não-binaridade, masculinidades kuir/saudáveis e utopias queer no Brasil a partir de uma perspectiva queer e de/anti-colonial, reconhecendo sua branquitude e tendo uma visão crítica em relação a ela.
Drag Personas
Lilith the Quing
My main drag persona is Lilith the Quing – a creature of chaos with a touch of drama, camp, provocative personality and a pinch of fairy tale and magic.
Lilith the Quing is the sweetest demon you’ll ever meet. They ran away from the garden of Eden to explore what they weren’t allowed to be and now they come to extinguish the patriarchy, celebrate queerness and make you eat that forbidden fruit of knowledge and make you question what is good and evil and all other binaries.
Ken Marroska
Ken Marroska is a Brazilian sensation, a classic carioca fuckboi who loves to dance with malemolência and to seduce everyone with his malice and easygoing style of someone who grew up near the beach.
Talith the Host
There’s a lot of responsibility on hosting a room, having a microphone means having a platform and I try to use mine to not only cheer up and warm the crowd for the shows, but also to remind people of their own responsibilities on making the event safer and creating a better environment, which everyone can do by being kind and taking care of each other.
I started hosting shows in 2021 during the lockdown, on an online livestream with the Venus Boys. My first live show with an audience was the Venus Boys Fluidity Show, which was a project uniting my two collectives at the time, my passion for drag, raving and queer celebration, it was truly a dream come true, because it was also free entry, as it was funded by draussenstadt. Since then I’ve hosted shows like:
- Showstoppers and König (together with Buba Sababa) at Tipsy Bear;
- POPPERS (together with Bleach) and Lesbos at Monster Ronson’s Ichiban Karaoke;
- Gender Euphoria (produced together with Kaputino), Visible Queers, and Border Ctrl (together with Angelo Dynamo) all of them at Silverfuture;
- kept going with Fluidity at Re:mise and we also had a collab with GEGEN at RSO Berlin;
- No Homo, a drag king show I started producing at Pepsi Boston Bar and Tipsy Bear;
- BRag Kultur at SilverFuture and Tipsy Bear;
- and had the most absolute honour of hosting a part of the Internationalist Queer Pride Berlin 2023 together with La Papi Patacón.
- have also hosted events other than drag shows, like PATCHWERK Launch Party at 90mil.
My passion for hosting came from an early age, I used to participate with my parents in events regarding environmental issues of the Serra da Mantiqueira (the region where I grew up in Brazil) and since I’m a child I’ve been taking the microphone and using my voice to share, educate, inspire and learn together with different groups of people.
Collectives & Groups
BRAG Kultur
Brasilianische Drags involving in/auf/em Berlin
fluid.vision
fluid.vision is a queer collective creating new rave experiences in Berlin.
Magic Dyke*
Magic Dyke* is a masc stripping group based in Berlin by and for lesbians, queer women, non-binary, trans and intersex people. We strive to show masculine stripping or “Magic Mike” dancing from non-cis masculinities.
Venus Boys (inactive)
A collective of Berlin based Drag performers who paint from the palette of performative masculinity.
Kings, dads, lords, lads, fags, dykes and gods.