Featured Leaders

Vanessa Brooke Agnes is the education program manager for Guthrie Theater and the founding artistic director of Dark Muse Performing Arts. In 2020, Vanessa founded Dark Muse Performing Arts, a Black woman-owned arts organization whose mission is to unapologetically amplify BIPOC & Queer voices and heal through bold storytelling.

Apocalypse Theatre (also known as Apox) has been around since the early 90s, but Apox has changed sounds and members from song to song, season to season. They continuously meld styles, genres and attitudes. Apox has reinvented itself dozens of times.

Darcie has played an essential role in Twin Cities Pride for the last twelve years and is a former board chair, 2016-2020. Darcie is a tech-savvy, out-of-the-box problem solver with a passion for facilitating respectful and inclusive work environments.

Shannon Blowtorch is an award-winning DJ, promoter, professional party thrower, sound engineer, businessperson and entertainment consultant. Shannon is known for her professionalism, eclectic music collections and her incredible ability to read a crowd to keep the party bumping.

Rebekkah Brunson is an American basketball assistant coach with the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Rebekkah established and currently manages the 32 Foundation, and Rebekkah and her wife own and operate Sweet TrooVī.

Kathleen Clifford was an American Vaudeville and Broadway stage and film actress of the early twentieth century. Kathleen was known for her skills as a male impersonator and initially built her acting career on the vaudeville stages as a comedian.

Eli Coleman, Ph.D., is a professor and director of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Health. Dr. Coleman holds the first endowed academic chair in sexual health.

Tempest Crane is a Twin Cities-based transgender model, actor, performer, musician and activist. Tempest co-founded the band "Harsh Reality," is a member of Apocalypse Theatre and serves as minister and reverend mother for Universal Life Church Ministries.

Venus DeMars is a Minneapolis-based transgender musician, visual artist, writer, activist and performer. Venus has been performing locally, nationally and internationally since the 1980s, notably with the long-running glam-punk band, All the Pretty Horses.

Lori Dokken has performed at every major venue in the Twin Cities for over four decades, including Dakota Jazz Club, Guthrie Theater and Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. Lori is a sought-after accompanist and a successful concert producer, educator, vocal coach, arranger and vocalist.

Jendeen Forberg is a Minneapolis-based transgender drummer for Wolverines Classic Jazz Orchestra Inc., drummer for Apocalypse Theater, and co-founder of "Harsh Reality".

Tom Hoch's professional experience includes working for the Minneapolis Community Development Agency and the Historic Theatre Group. Tom has also served as the founding president and CEO of Hennepin Theatre Trust, deputy executive director for the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, and a Minneapolis Public School District teacher.

For more than fifty years, Fred Krohn has been a leader in the performing arts industry. Fred played a pivotal role in preserving the Hennepin Avenue theaters and continued spearheading the effort to save and restore the State Theatre.

Andrea Jenkins made history in 2017 as the first African American openly trans woman to be elected to office in the United States. Now serving as Council President, Andrea is also a writer, performance artist, poet and transgender activist.

Robert Lilligren is president and CEO of the Native American Community Development Institute and previously served as the Little Earth United Tribes CEO. Robert has experience in local government, specifically in housing, transportation, community development and community engagement.

Scott founded the local Ivey Awards for Theater and the Charlies to highlight local restaurant excellence. Scott and husband, John Zeches, produced the Hollywood AIDS Fundraiser, which began as a fun night watching the Oscars at home and evolved into a yearly fundraising gala at the historic State Theatre.

Miss Richfield is a Midwestern maven who wins over theater audiences around the country with an interactive format that combines homespun warmth and edgy improv, leaving audiences in hysterics. Miss Richfield's national appeal includes riotous appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," "Today" on NBC, "Cake Boss" on TLC and "Watch What Happens Live" on Bravo.

The Saloon Minneapolis is a gay bar located at 830 Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. It is one of the oldest operating gay bars in Minneapolis, initially founded in 1977.

Patrick Scully is a Minneapolis-based theater and dance artist, playwright and choreographer. Patrick is well known for work ranging from large-scale group works to solo work, including a 'Ballet for Boats' for fifty boats, done to great critical acclaim in Minneapolis (2015) and Potsdam, Germany (2010).

John was a founding member of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Business Council in 1997 and served as its co-chair from 2001 to 2003. HRC is the nation's leading civil rights organization working on behalf of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.

Jean-Nickolaus Tretter is an American activist, LGBT archivist, and historian whose legacy is the Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies at the University of Minnesota.

Stewart Van Cleve is the associate library director for Augsburg University. Stewart is the author of Land of 10,000 Loves, which explores the history of queer Minnesota.

Amazon Bookstore Cooperative was a feminist bookstore located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that operated from 1970 to 2012. It was the first lesbian and feminist bookstore in the U.S.

Historically, LGBTQIA+ bars tended to cover windows and restrict the ability of passersby to look inside, a relic of times when the secrecy of going to a gay bar was important for its closeted patrons. With floor-to-ceiling windows, Boom! broke that mold in the Twin Cities.

In the 1940s and 1950s, The Dugout Bar attracted gay and bisexual men after dark.

The Gay 90s has become an internationally known location and continues to offer dancing, live entertainment, food and drinks.

TC Pride's mission is to empower every LGBTQ+ person to live as their true self. It envisions a future where all LGBTQIA+ people are valued and celebrated for who they are.

Wingspan provides services to over 100 people with developmental disabilities in 26 residential homes throughout the Twin Cities.