A crowd of local celebrities, including Nancy Pelosi and Willie Brown gather to honor the memory of their dear friend Jo, an AIDs activist in the SF community and back up singer for the androgynous disco icon and falsetto crooner Sylvester who made dancers feel “mighty real” across queer night clubs. Amid the colorful crowd of characters socialising around Mang Demi’s sculptures stood the towering Donna Sachet, a San Francisco drag queen. Her tightly bound blonde wig whipping around as she stepped on to the open lawn of the playground in bright pink heels that could have elevated her well above 6’5. Suddenly it looked like Ms. Sachet’s wig was inch-ing lower and lower into the crowd. Donna Sachet’s elongated heels were sinking into the lawn like quick sand as everyone rushed to her aid.1 The outrageous thought of a drag queen sinking into the earth, a fantastical and a riot in imagery, is also a powerful symbol of the apocalyptic nature of Mang Demi’s garden; the earth swallowing up Ms. Sachet at the end of the world along the San Andreas Fault. (Full essay coming soon)
