Q-LAB
fEATURING OAKLASH
JULY 11 & 12, 2025 @ 7:30pm
The Chan National Queer Arts Center is located at 170 Valencia Street - SF, CA - 94103
Q-LAB: oAKLASH’S OBSURDITIES
An Experimental Drag Cabaret
Buckle up for a wild night as performers from the queer non-profit Oaklash take over the Chan for an immersive cabaret experience that combines live music with alternative and experimental drag performance. Oaklash co-founder and DJ Mama Celeste emcees as a cast of queer and trans performers, including drag artist and violist Obsidienne Obsurd and cellist Peekaboo Salinas, shock and delight you from locations around the room. With spontaneous dance breaks and a spectacular drag finale, you’ll be energized by the kind of boundary-pushing queer evening that speaks to the unique sensibility of Oakland and the Bay Area.
Mama Celeste (Left) - Photo by Marcel Pardo Ariza; Obsidienne Obsurd (Right) - Photo by Vita Hewitt
WHY SEE THIS AT THE CHAN?
This performance will take place in the Chan’s multi-stage layout with premium tables and general admission seating. A live DJ will spin before and post-event (ending at 9pm).
IMPORTANT TICKET AND VENUE INFO
Tickets for this event are $75 for Premium Seating (Table Seating Closest to the Stage) and $35 for Standard Seating (General Admission).
The event will be presented in a proscenium format with rows of seating facing the stage.
Pansy’s at The Chan (our bar and lounge) will be open one hour prior to showtime and during intermission.
Q-LAB presenting sponsor
Terrence D. Chan + Edward Sell
Additional support made possible by these sponsors:
Janet Cluff
Steve Gallagher/Coldwell Banker
Nick Harper
Bios
about oaklash
Photos by Sloane Kanter
Oaklash is an Oakland-based arts nonprofit that produces large scale Drag performance events, facilitates mutual aid, and provides mentorship to emerging queer and trans leaders in nightlife.
Founded by Beatrix LaHaine and Mama Celeste in 2018, Oaklash has provided a stage to over 600 queer and trans performers from all around the world and raised over half a million dollars to support queer and trans art here in Huchiun and Yelamu, also known as the Bay Area.
Our flagship program, The Oaklash Festival of Drag and Queer Performance, is part of our mission to create opportunities that showcase, elevate, and resource local queer and trans talent. Our year-round programming aims to create safe and accessible environments that celebrate the diversity of intersectional identities held within our community, especially queer and trans Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color. Our organization was founded to showcase performances that are boundary-pushing, underrepresented, and unique to the sensibility of the Bay Area. We aim to stay true to the history of Oakland as a home to creative renaissance rooted in diversity. We hope that by amplifying and supporting the queer art community in the Bay Area, we illuminate the need for investment in the arts in the face of systemic racism, growing economic disparities, and the Bay Area housing crisis.
Mama Celeste - (they/them) Lead Producer & Emcee
In 2018, Mama Celeste co-founded Oaklash, the Bay Area’s first and only festival of drag and queer performance. Since then, they have helped grow this one-day event into a sustainable nonprofit arts organization that provides opportunities, resources, and mentorship to emerging queer and trans artists year-round. Celeste is an Oakland-based drag performer, DJ, and event producer who has performed nationally at venues in New York, Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, Nevada, and all across California.
www.instagram.com/mamacelestefanclub
Photo by Marcel Pardo Ariza
OBSIDIENNE OBSURD - (they/she) Lead Artist
OBSIDIENNE OBSURD is a Chinese-American genderless drag performance artist working in San Francisco. In 2022, they won the 2022 GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance Runway Pageant, becoming the organization's first Mx.GAPA. OBSIDIENNE frequently moonlights as her human counterpart, 明聖 Ezra Costanza, who is an award-winning classical violist freelancing all across the Bay.
Photo by Vita Hewitt
Peekaboo - (they/them) Collaborating Artist
Peekaboo under the appellation transcriptions01 is an experimental cellist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and youth educator. Their compositions are rooted in honoring the essence and spirit of Filipinx/Latinx past, present and future Queer ancestors, prioritizing sonic exploration practices towards the decolonization of Euro-centric structures embedded in youth and adult music education and performance. Their “expressions” dive into drag, theater and improvisational soundscaping.
www.instagram.com/transcriptions01
Photo by Kegan Marling
FEATURED ARTISTS
Mama Celeste - Oaklash co-founder and Emcee
Obsidienne Obsurd - Drag artist and Violist
Peekaboo Salinas - Cellist
A cast of queer and trans performers
