#phags 4

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instagram.com/potionsella

GUEST PHAG: phi <3

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PHAGS #4: PHAGGOT ARCHIVE

THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATING WORK and having conversations in our physical and immediate lives is something that has been on all of our minds recently. The personalized, algorithmic nature of our current main social media feeds can be exhausting, never-ending, and slightly sinister, with apps that analyze your everyday impulses so they can send you “better” ads in between AI garbage and purposefully inflammatory identity discourse. Being Gen Z queers, the internet has been important socially and developmentally for all four of us, and I would never illegitimize the very real and formative experiences I have had and continue to have online.

BUT THERE IS SOMETHING TO BE SAID about creating something that you can feel or hold or listen to and experience with your five senses without some sort of digital shield in between. There is something to be said about going outside and talking to gay people in real life and seeing what kinds of queer spaces and communities are being created and celebrated in a material way. We wanted to honor these experiences with this edition.

THIS EDITION STARTED WITH A QUESTION: "What are your hopes for the future of queer Rochester?"

We intended to compile answers and thoughts and feelings around this idea by floating it around our queer network and seeing where it would take us. We spent the last few months collecting material in different ways: interviewing queer figures we look up to, putting up posters with our big question in public spaces and at queer events as a sort of public poll, reaching out to queer creatives whose work we felt embodied this inquiry, and looking inwards and attempting to answer this question for ourselves.

THIS PHAGGOT ARCHIVE synthesizes queer ephemera and perspectives to provide different angles from which to view this question. It is in no way a comprehensive guide to the present or future happenings of queer Rochester. Our observations are grounded in our personal experiences, and we aimed to engage in dialogues and invite contributors in ways that were organic and authentic to us. In looking at what we collected, we did notice that this edition does tip towards experiences in queer nightlife and party culture. PHAGS did start as a party project after all, and this influence is threaded throughout our work. We find ourselves drawn to parties as community gatherings and social exchanges of music, movement, and culture because of our personal preferences, and as studies of curation from a creative standpoint---what intentional elements come together to influence the collective effervescence we experience at such gatherings. I wanted to point out this bias because we recognize that nightlife is not an all-encompassing queer experience, and we do not claim to generalize our relationships with queer Rochester as universal.

WE HOPE FOR THIS ZINE to be passed around, shared, and a conversation starter for what futures we can dream of. Take notes, annotate your copy, and pass it on. This project is our most rewarding so far, and we look forward to continuing to ask this question and hopefully see some of these answers come true as time goes on.

THANK YOU FOR READING, AS ALWAYS.

-ABBY

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P.H.A.G.S - THE PROJECT

For context, here is a little introduction to the world of PHAGS, featuring excerpts PHAGS submitted for a book documenting the following project:

“Queer Stories Now is an after school arts program for queer teens. Students explore themes of identity, LGBTQ+ history, and self expression through zines. A book documenting this project will be released in the late summer or early fall of 2025, including work by the students and writing by members of the community. This book and these first sessions of QSN were made possible by ArtsBloom, funded through the City of Rochester Percent for the Arts Program.”

P is for Party, Physicality, Process, and Praxis

As queer people, it’s important that we mark our existence on the world. Our experiences, our stories, our love, our art—they are all so important in reminding those after us that we were here and will always be here, as those before us have done as well.

The process of physical creation grounds us in our roots, our community. To create art is to reflect your lived experience outside of yourself. Exchanging zines is an interpersonal and direct action in which you share your experience with someone else. It’s vulnerable—it opens you to conversation and community. A shared headspace is created in this exchange, even if only for a few moments, and in the physical world, you are connected through the exchange of art.

H is for Home

Anything created with the goal of it being a home can be a home.

It feels intimidating to want to start something, but you can start small! PHAGS was founded by a few friends in college as a party project, and then it expanded into a creative art collective. PHAGS is a way for us to stay engaged with our creativity as we navigate the workforce and young adulthood, and a way for us to encourage others to connect with their creativity as well.

A is for Accessibility, Actualization, Artists

You may consider yourself the “capital A” Artist, or the “lowercase a” artist; the former being the career creative who sees art as their life’s purpose and passion; the latter, being someone who may more amateurly (for the lack of a better word) play in the artistic realm at their leisure. Either way, art is something you can just do. It is for everybody. You have to make it accessible for yourself—or better yet, for others too.

G is for Graph

S is for Synthesis

Synthesis is not about agreeing about everything, and neither is community. Synthesis simply encourages us to take a look at ourselves and our work in a greater context. Putting two pieces next to one another may highlight unexpected moments of contrast or commonality between them, and illuminate a completely new, broader meaning. This process occurs socially as well. Our words may come off differently to different listeners. Other people’s minds more readily latch onto different phrasings or ideas. We may change our minds, or form different opinions after hearing other people’s perspectives. Or, rather than changing our minds, we may discover a new perspective we didn’t know we had, or re-affirm our strong feelings towards a particular subject. It is only through supportive collaboration and discussion with others that we can fully self-actualize.

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To all of the immortalized souls on the dance floor; still dancing.

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a talk with Tom Deblase

Tom can be found on Instagram @/tomdeblase

Sole Rehab @/solerehabroc

Flora @/florabarrochester

Flora website

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Queer Ephemera

Found in Rochester, NY (2025)

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Debut "Pre-Ki Manifesto"

by Ethan Beckwith-Cohen

For Discovering the Party

Two days after graduation, I moved back to Rochester to begin my career as a professional dancer. Moving back to Rochester was not something I expected to do at this point of my life. Having grown up in here, I assumed I knew Rochester front and back. I thought I had experienced all that there was to experience here.

9 months later I found myself working through a shift in my relationship with dance. I found myself less eager to interact with the art form off the clock. That plus the familiarity of Rochester made me feel uneasy and stuck.

I was craving adventure and newness.

I started to see one of my neighbors about 5 months after moving home. At first infrequently but as the visits increased in an exponential I found myself developing a special place in my heart for him.

One of the times I saw Zaire, he told me about this underground dance party he once attended. He could only describe it as a “gay free for all”. I love house music, queer people, and dancing. I was intrigued. We got a few people together and go to the next function.

And so we went to Sole Rehab.

Discovering the party is a special feeling. My eyes opened upon entering the space. The energy was ecstatic. It was liberating, it was sexy, it was tender, it was communal. It was here that I would learn things about myself, find a confidence I didn’t know I had, and feel alive in a new way.

For Community

I wanted others to feel the same. I would invite old friends from high school, Grindr dates, strangers from Lux, and any queer person that (after a vibe check) I felt needed this kind of community and the love surrounding it. Connections formed and were expanded upon. Community building in real time.

As I brought people to the party, the party brought people to me. People that I would grow to love so much.

I cannot express my love for this beautiful queer family. We dance together, hug , laugh together, support one another, grieve together, and hold each other in times of loss.

For Will Paturzo

I met Will Paturzo at Lux about two years ago. I sat down at a table with him and Dano and told Will he looked like a character from “Perks of Being a Wallflower”. I then asked him his favorite band and he says… “The Smiths”. We instantly bonded over our love for Björk, rotted humor, awkward comedy, and our love for dance music. We’ve spent our time since then queening out on dance floors all over Rochester (and under that one bridge in Brooklyn), talking each others ear off and dancing. . We would eventually learn how to mix together.

For Mixing, Music, and Movement

Mixing is a form of curation. Turning a space into a common ground where people feel free to move with one another. When music is felt, we free ourselves to dance, and when we dance we feel free!

When I was given an old controller… it was like my next endeavor falling into my lap. With support from local DJs and with Will as a practice buddy, I began to mix. Since I was 10 I’ve always found pleasure in making playlists for those I love. A mix is simply a playlist with lashes. Pretty quickly I realized it was something I wanted to commit time and energy towards. I approach mixing through the lens of a dancer. Every song I play tonight has a physical effect on me. I can also predict how it will affect others. As I prepare a crate I imagine what my friends will look like moving to specific songs. Whether or not these visions are correct is to be determined but it’s a really fun image to hold as I practice.

For Feelings of Gratitude

Growing up, I always believed in Rochester, New York. To know that others do too warms my heart. I cannot fully express how much love I have for everyone who is putting in the work to make our little queer lives here in Rochester better. To those who commit to growing roots in the rust belt. To folks like Mickey and Jordan who inspire us to build up the city we live in to be a place that people want to move to and not from.

Every Rochesterian that moves with community as a priority. Everyone who continues to show up and indulge in what Rochester and especially queer Rochester has to offer.

To everyone that put aside the time, changed their schedule, and shifted plans to come dance tonight. I feel so held.

HUGE thank you to Tom, as none of this would be possible without all he has poured into Rochester’s queer scene. Thank you for taking a chance on Will and I, trusting us, and giving us this opportunity.

Tonight is an ode to Radical Belonging, and to those who bring me to it.

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PHAGS ASKED YOU:

What are your hopes for the future of queer Rochester?