‘Queer Classics’ Reinterprets Traditional Love Songs, Gender Roles Be Damned

Growing up, Baruch Porras-Hernandez — the Mexico-born, San Francisco-based comedian, poet and entertainer — used to adapt his favorite love songs in secret. As a queer Mexican, he would change the words in traditional ballads to reflect his romantic interest in other boys.

“I changed the gender to make them gay,” Porras-Hernandez remembers. “I was terrified I would get caught. [But] I never had feelings like that for a girl. Why do I want to sing a song to a girl and not some guy I just met?”

The idea of serenading your crush — regardless of sexuality — is what inspired Porras-Hernandez’s latest show, “Queer Classics.”

Premiering at San Francisco’s Oasis on Sunday, May 19 at 7 p.m., the one-night-only serenade will feature Porras-Hernandez, Nuyorican multimedia extraordinaire and heavy metal vocalist Dizzy Jenkins, Mexican guitarist and songwriter Diana Gameros and Indian American drag performer SNJV. Manny Baltazar, an emerging Latino musician from the local band Cat Behavior, will open up the evening with songs that he was once told he couldn’t sing.

“When I told [Manny Baltazar] about the show, he said he used to sing songs about being queer,” Porras-Hernandez says. “He had a crush on another boy and sang the song to him, and the teacher in his class scolded him.”

The event is meant to highlight not only each artist’s talents, but their diverse, diasporic reinterpretations of classic love songs from their respective cultures: Stripped-down Latin pop. Bollywood as drag. Flamboyant rancheras.

Lyrics will be altered. Gendered expectations will be throttled. Hearts may or may not be broken. With each rendition, the performers intend to reclaim a part of their queerness that hasn’t always been openly accepted by others.

Produced in conjunction with Queer Rebels — an organization founded by KB Boyce, a trans nonbinary event producer and performer — the show was designed with intergenerational representation and accessibility in mind; an ASL interpreter will be present throughout the evening.

Porras-Hernandez is a true entertainer: I laughed harder than I have in years while watching him on stage in San Francisco earlier this year. And he’s adamant about delivering a memorable experience.

“I gravitate towards performers who want that connection and spark with the audience,” he says. “I really like performers who can light a fire under an audience. [The audience] paid, so I want them to have a good time. I want to make them laugh, cry and turn them on a little bit, or a lot. This show is about that. These artists are all similar to me and uniquely themselves. They are all deeply connected to their cultural upbringing and identity.”

Though this will be the first full production that Porras-Hernandez is orchestrating, he’s no stranger to the scene. He has previously collaborated with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Poetry Festival, LitQuake, Beast Crawl and the Berkeley Poetry Festival, in addition to juggling his active career as a standup comedian. Nurturing his sense of identity through performance — and inviting others to join in — is part of what makes the Bay Area such a special place to be, he says, particularly as a queer person of color.

“It’s stressful here and it’s getting tougher and tougher if you’re not a rich white tech person,” he says. “But if I see a good art show, it just breathes life right back into me. It replenishes me to keep going. If it’s not going to excite me, why should I stay awake?”

‘Queer Classics’ is a one-night event that will take place at Oasis (298 11th St. SF) on Sunday, May 19 at 7 p.m. Tickets available here.