Luci Speaks: A Trans Life Illuminated
Luci Speaks; A Trans Life Illuminated is a spoken word performance of poetry by Rosendale resident, Luci Aprilwine Windsong-Rain. Accompanied by musician Alison Damrath performing improv music on her bass-run-effects apparatus she calls “The Beast.” The two hour show is a fundraiser to support Luci’s pre- and post-op sex reassignment surgery. Luci invites the Hudson Valley community and friends to come and support her as she shares her life and talents.
Luci’s performance is based on her own life experiences. She was born in San Francisco, California in 1949 and grew up in the Bay Area. At a very young age she knew she was a different gender than the body she was born in. As a result she grew up in turmoil, in an indifferent, dysfunctional, fatherless, home. She left at the early age of 15 and landed in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco by 1965. It was there that she became part of the Family Dog Commune, founded by Chet Helms, who gave her a job as a stage hand at the Avalon Ballroom. She was known then as Lukie. During the mid to late sixties she worked all the San Francisco ballrooms as well as the trips festivals, the free concerts in Golden Gate Park, the infamous Monterey Pop and Altamont festivals. By the late sixties, Luci had learned to operate sound systems from Osley Stanley, and was given a job as a professional sound tech on the Bob McClure road crew division of Alempic Sound Company, founded by Stanley and Rey Wasserman. She spent the next twenty years, through the 1970’s and 80’s, on the road, working tours with big named bands. Luci left the road and landed in the Hudson Valley in the early 1990’s.
If you’ve joined Big Gay Hudson Valley for events at the Rosendale Theatre, you’ve likely met our very good friend Luci as she volunteers there regularly. Luci is also active in the volunteer community with the Hudson Valley LGBTQ Center in Kingston, and at Bethel Woods (near the site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival). A long-standing organizer of the Hudson Valley Pride March and Festival in New Paltz she is very involved with the Trans Art Therapy Coalition. Luci also plays tambourine with the Rosendale Improvement Association Brass Band and Social Club and Tin Horn Uprising activist band.
