Barbra Herr
A veteran transgender artist/activist named Lifetime Achievement Honoree of the 59th Annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade. After 45 years in showgirl biz, life becomes a bit of a drag for one of the Big Apple’s oldest living — and working — lip-synch legends. That’s why Bronx-born drag star Barbra Herr claimed her own voice.
“It’s really important to me, at this stage in my life, to use my own voice in a venue,” says the 60-year-old entertainer. “Bottom line: This is what I was born to do. I’m doing it as a tribute for my mom — and for myself.”
What’s up with Herr most recently? Barbara was named a Lifetime Achievement Honoree of the 59th Annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade on June 12, 2016 in New York City. She also performed her one-woman show on May 22 as the closing event of the FUERZAFest: LGBTQ Arts Festival at Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center in El Barrio, NYC.
I’m Still Herr: A One Woman Show, directed by Helen Hayes, award nominee Luis Caballero (“DC-7: The Roberto Clemente Story”), tells the true tale of Bobby Hernandez, a little bullied Boricua boy from the Bronx who grew up to be the woman of her own dreams. This alternately hilarious/heart-tugging story of struggle and survival (from Stonewall to DOMA) is told through the memories and musical stylings of the transgender artist/activist recently seen in HBO's "Habla: Men.” A stripped down intimate touring production starring Barbra and a baby grand, I’m Still Herr bears the tagline: “All singing, no synching.”
Make no mistake, Barbra is very proud of her hard-earned “Drag Queen” status. Lady Bunny once declared that Herr was a “hysterical and great old-school Latina lip-synch artiste.” Nevertheless, she actually broke into show business as an 8-year-old nightclub singer, circa 1963. Armed with a beloved Puerto Rican “stage mom” who refused to let her son bow to the prejudices of the time, Bobby Hernandez fought his way onto stages from the Bronx to San Juan at a time when being effeminate just wasn’t mainstream. But his voice was silenced at 17 when Mama Mona died in 1973. Soon after, Bobby Herr, a gay underground alter ego, was born after she returned to her native Puerto Rico for 16 years.
After more than two decades of channeling other divas in NYC, this transgender trailblazer aims to take back her own voice on the live stage. “Without her realizing it, Barbra was an inspiration for a generation of artists,” says Caballero, her director, who first encountered Herr’s stage persona when he was a teenager in P.R. “This production is just a way for me to give back to her for what she did for me.”
A veteran transgender artist/activist named Lifetime Achievement Honoree of the 59th Annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade. After 45 years in showgirl biz, life becomes a bit of a drag for one of the Big Apple’s oldest living — and working — lip-synch legends. That’s why Bronx-born drag star Barbra Herr claimed her own voice.
“It’s really important to me, at this stage in my life, to use my own voice in a venue,” says the 60-year-old entertainer. “Bottom line: This is what I was born to do. I’m doing it as a tribute for my mom — and for myself.”
What’s up with Herr most recently? Barbara was named a Lifetime Achievement Honoree of the 59th Annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade on June 12, 2016 in New York City. She also performed her one-woman show on May 22 as the closing event of the FUERZAFest: LGBTQ Arts Festival at Julia de Burgos Latino Cultural Center in El Barrio, NYC.
I’m Still Herr: A One Woman Show, directed by Helen Hayes, award nominee Luis Caballero (“DC-7: The Roberto Clemente Story”), tells the true tale of Bobby Hernandez, a little bullied Boricua boy from the Bronx who grew up to be the woman of her own dreams. This alternately hilarious/heart-tugging story of struggle and survival (from Stonewall to DOMA) is told through the memories and musical stylings of the transgender artist/activist recently seen in HBO's "Habla: Men.” A stripped down intimate touring production starring Barbra and a baby grand, I’m Still Herr bears the tagline: “All singing, no synching.”
Make no mistake, Barbra is very proud of her hard-earned “Drag Queen” status. Lady Bunny once declared that Herr was a “hysterical and great old-school Latina lip-synch artiste.” Nevertheless, she actually broke into show business as an 8-year-old nightclub singer, circa 1963. Armed with a beloved Puerto Rican “stage mom” who refused to let her son bow to the prejudices of the time, Bobby Hernandez fought his way onto stages from the Bronx to San Juan at a time when being effeminate just wasn’t mainstream. But his voice was silenced at 17 when Mama Mona died in 1973. Soon after, Bobby Herr, a gay underground alter ego, was born after she returned to her native Puerto Rico for 16 years.
After more than two decades of channeling other divas in NYC, this transgender trailblazer aims to take back her own voice on the live stage. “Without her realizing it, Barbra was an inspiration for a generation of artists,” says Caballero, her director, who first encountered Herr’s stage persona when he was a teenager in P.R. “This production is just a way for me to give back to her for what she did for me.”