a live music video experience
celebrating the work of trans musicians in texas
Premiering January 28, GIRLS LIKE US is a live music video experience by Texas pop sensation, p1nkstar, celebrating the work of trans artists in Texas. The feature-length special, features starring live music performances by Texas-based Lorelei K, Belladonna and Quentin Arispe, as well as special appearances by national talent like Gavilán Rayna Russom, Ariel Zetina and more.
During the cinematic special p1nkstar and friends perform live music and choreographies through futuristic custom-built sets and light installations created by Austin-based artist Y2K, making Girls Like Us unlike any other livestream concert.
Girls Like Us is presented by Hotel Free TV, directed and produced by p1nkstar and Y2K.
from trans talent for trans talent
Conceptualized by a team of Texas nightlife stars GIRLS LIKE US is designed to bring together different creative communities to center, celebrate and pay trans and queer talent. Our team aims to amplify the work of a community of underrepresented artists, as well as to produce beautiful visuals to document our community. Trans and queer talent is represented across all aspects of this project, from our artists and directors, to our producers, camera & sound crew, to our choreographers, dancers and production design and styling teams – all trans and queer talent.
starring
p1nkstar creates a world far removed from this dimensions binaries through music and conceptual shows. She has been described as “early Aughts Paris Hilton on Hello Kitty steroids” by The Austin Chronicle, who recently crowned her as their Queer Pop Princess and has presented her as the future of nightlife.
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Belladonna is a young up-and-coming superstar on the road to fame, success, and total world domination. Her music is raw and unapologetic, and her performances are guaranteed to leave her audiences captivated and wanting more.
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Lorelei K is an artist and musician from Dallas, Texas, known for composing and performing avant-garde darkwave music with arresting vocals.
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Quentin Arispe is a queer singer/songwriter from Corpus Christi Texas. Their discography varies from simple organic folk to RnB Pop.
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Gavilán Rayna Russom is an interdisciplinary artist based in New York City. Over the past two decades she has produced a complex and compelling body of creative output that fuses theory with expression, nightlife with academia and spirituality with everyday life.
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Ariel Zetina is a Chicago based artist, focusing in music production and deejaying. She takes inspiration from Chicago house, Belizean genres punta and brukdown, and the queer club scene worldwide.
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Y2K is a performance, music, and installation artist, whose work moves freely through different realms of club theatre, pop music and multimedia performance art.
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BabiBoi is a rapper based in the United States and part of a queer art collective called House of Lepore. In May 2020 Billboard featured BabiBoi in Billboard Pride.
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Natalie Sanders is the founding Mother of the “House of Lepore”, talented ballroom dancer and community leader advocating for the young trans community of Texas.
Dancer, aerialist, performer and problematic fave Jordan Harris is excited to bring choreography and queerness to Girls Like Us everywhere.
Charlie AB is a dancer, kinetic painter, and performance based artist born and raised in Austin, Texas. They take passion in expanding the boundaries of somatic practice outside of traditional movement modalities, harm reduction work, and in holding space for LGBTQIA+ identity in industrial spaces.
Katherine Vaughn is an active Austin-based performer: contemporary/improvisational/pole dancer and performance artist with numerous solo pieces and transmedia collaborations in the US and abroad. www.katherine-vaughn.com
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LB Flett is a dancer choreographer and dance educator based in Austin, TX. She is cofounder and dancer in the local performance collective/band, TC Superstar.
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HOTEL FREE TV is a DIY life support machine for the local music scene, created to plug the hole in our hearts where live music used to be. It’s a safe space for free expression, where the creative community can share, discover and collaborate. Our virtual residency program gives artists a platform to showcase new music that would otherwise be confined to their practice spaces, promote each other by selecting different support acts each week, and reach a global audience.
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p1nkstar has rapidly become an emblematic figure in the Texas arts and nightlife scenes by opening inclusive spaces that center the work of queer and trans artists of color in a city that is rapidly becoming whiter and straighter. She has received two Best of Austin awards for her space-making work in the arts and nightlife & has been presented as the future of nightlife in The Austin Chronicle’s 2018 Pride Cover. Her work has been exhibited at Blanton Museum of Art, The Visual Art and more.
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Y2K operates under the name Y2K Technologies to create dynamic, nightlife. experiences centering queer creatives in Texas amplifying the work of queer artists. They were presented as the caretaker of nightlife by on the cover of The Austin Chronicle in 2018 & have received two Best Of Austin awards.
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Hannah Varnell is an ATX-based photographer and cinematographer born among the sweet gumtrees of North Carolina. She has worked with brands such as Al Jazeera, New York Times, Travel Channel, Food Network, Southwest Airlines, and Capital One - in addition to ATX musicians and festivals.
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our partners
This production has been generously funded by The Creative Fund's Q Rental Subsidy Grant program. The Creative Fund is a funding mechanism that provides much-needed support to local performing artists enabling them to further their creative endeavors.