A live broadcast from the intimate Torpedo Theater in Amsterdam, where New-York based poet, performer and visual artist Pamela Sneed performs a musical tribute to Big Mama Thornton, together with Mara Rosenbloom, Michael Vatcher and Jasper Stadhouders.

This is ACT IX of Playbill, a series of experimental language and text-based events curated by Martha Jager and Isabelle Sully.

Pamela Sneed’s genre-defying work is rooted in her commitment to activism and intersectional modes of thinking, from the 1990s AIDS crisis to the Black lesbian working class experience. An example of this is her most recent and widely celebrated book, 'Funeral Diva' (2020)—a poetic memoir about coming-of-age in the AIDS era, and its effects on life and art.

Often working from an autobiographical impulse, Sneed’s contribution to ACT IX is no different. For the occasion, she brings her recently developed performance project project 'A Tribute to Big Mama Thornton' to Amsterdam for the first time. Premiering in New York at the beginning of 2023 and brought to life in the style of a juke joint—a term within African American vernacular to refer to an establishment featuring music, dancing and drinking—'A Tribute to Big Mama Thornton' honours singer and songwriter Big Mama Thornton (1926-1984). Until her recent induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024, Big Mama Thornton was an unsung pioneer of rock and roll known for her gender-expansive style. Through bringing her hits to life on stage, Sneed locates the legacy of Big Mama Thornton within the queer canon through an examination of her presence as a Black and transgender performer.

In a prose poem-cum-newsletter for the Poetry Project in 2020, Sneed writes:

‘Like Big Mama Thornton, I too was raised in the church. My grandfather was a baptist preacher. My grandmother sang spirituals. I credit the Black church for my love and introduction to poetry, the music and art I was surrounded by, and through the lyricism of preachers and women’s testimonies I learned poetry. Through this upbringing I identified with Big Mama Thornton and how she came to music.’

Sneed will be joined on stage at Torpedo Theater by Mara Rosenbloom on keys, Michael Vatcher on drums and Jasper Stadhouders on guitar. For the evening, Torpedo Theater will open its doors under the name of Juke Joint, and its stage will be dedicated to the coalescence of voices raring to be heard—ones joyously singing their refusal to adhere to what could be understood as normative femininity.

For those who can't join in person, the radio broadcast offers a bootleg-style recording capturing the live gathering of performers and audience, to welcome listeners far and wide.

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Note: the recording was offered during July 2024, and is now offline again, but might be released in a physical format in the future.