More than 150 people gathered on the Crooked Tooth Brewing Co. patio in September for a burlesque show that raised about $500 in donations for Amphi Liberation Mutual Aid.

The nonprofit, known as ALMA, serves around 100 people a week in the Amphi neighborhood. The second annual Sweet Harvest show was part of the Seasonal Burlesque Benefit series, started by Lacy O’Ceans, a burlesque performer and technical director of the Tucson Libertine League.

The series follows the seasons, and the September show centered on the fall equinox.

Performers Taryn Garter, Ida Banger, Tiffany Sweetkinx, Lady Larkin Lamarr and Erick Shunn turned Crooked Tooth’s patio into a stage, with each performance centering on a food-related theme. Garter wore a costume resembling a can of biscuits, while Lamarr wore a Turkish delight costume.

“The fall equinox, we kind of try to celebrate gathering abundance, and connecting a community,” O’Ceans told Tucson Spotlight. “In Tucson, we’re not preparing for the cold months necessarily, right? But like in the framework of the changing seasons, that’s what we do.”

O’Ceans started the series to celebrate Pride, but it eventually turned into a seasonal event with each show supporting a different mutual aid organization. Since then, mutual aid has been the series’ main focus.

ALMA was selected as this show’s beneficiary because of its work to fight food insecurity and help people meet their basic needs.

ALMA’s Xavier Martinez tabled at the event to spread awareness about the organization and sell merchandise as an additional fundraiser.

Martinez and O’Ceans’ shared work in the community led to the collaboration on the Sweet Harvest fundraiser.

“I think we just lucked out,” Martinez said. “Tucson is such a tight knit community when it comes to all of the work that’s being done to support all different facets of needs and stuff. And I think we were just really fortunate enough for like Lacy O’Ceans for wanting to support us for this event because I know she’s been doing this for some time now.”

ALMA has been around for two years. It started with a small group of volunteers who wanted to provide resources to people in need, serving 50 to 60 people at first. It now serves around 100 people a week, with 40 volunteers in rotation.

“Amphi Liberation Mutual Aid, I think it defines resiliency and solidarity on a hyper local level,” Martinez said. “Originally when we started, it was just about maybe eight people who were just getting to know each other doing this work, but they just really wanted to provide support for people in need in that community, in the Amphi area and the surrounding area.”

Martinez spoke to attendees about ALMA and the broader need for mutual aid, saying that supporting local mutual aid organizations promotes communal harmony.

“Finding ways to also find a sense of power within themselves, within the skills that they are able to provide, to work together, to just do this work every single week,” Martinez said. “We have someone who does haircuts, we have somebody who does acupuncture when they can, we have a wound care service happening now. It’s just become a bit of a block party of sorts.”

Miss Demeanor, a close friend and burlesque peer of O’Ceans, hosted the show and also knows Martinez through their community work.

O’Ceans asked Demeanor to host the first show in the series, and she has helped spread awareness at every show since. The two connected through burlesque but also share a passion for advocacy and community awareness.

“She does such an amazing job of educating folks around mutual aid,” O’Ceans said. “I think for most of us, or at least I’ll just speak for myself, mutual aid was not necessarily a concept I grew up understanding.”

Demeanor kept the mood fun and witty while educating the audience between performances about mutual aid, its history and how people can get involved.

“I like to bring a little bit of the background, history, like, what are we fighting for? What’s the policy? What’s the politics of the movement?” Demeanor said. “I don’t mind holding an audience captive to talk about politics before they’re allowed to get to the tits and ass.”

The crowd cheered loudly for the performers and the lessons in between. The performances were playful, with frequent audience interaction, and one showgoer even caught a peach tossed by a performer.

Keeping with the fall equinox and harvest theme, a consensual pie in the face ended the night.

In addition to donations, ALMA received 20% of the profits from Desert Dweller Dough Company and Uniquely Made Cookies sales.

“We’ve found this really lovely intersection of art and community,” O’Ceans said. “I just feel very grateful that people continue to want to be a part of it. Whether as an organization, as a beneficiary, or as a performer, or just here in the audience.”

O’Ceans said she plans to continue putting on shows every four months, with an upcoming winter solstice show in the works.

She also plans to keep pairing each season with a specific cause or issue.

“The summer show will always benefit a queer and LGBTQ charity, cause, org of some sorts. I do intend to keep the fall shows, Sweet Harvest, try to focus on food insecurity,” O’Ceans said. “Spring, I think we’ll probably float around between border migration and environments. The winter solstice is a little bit more of a wildcard. My vision for this winter solstice is just, women, aren’t they great?”

ALMA shares updates on its Instagram page, @alma520az, and can be reached by email at alma520az@gmail.com.

Follow O’Ceans on Instagram at @lacyoceans to stay up to date on future burlesque mutual aid events.

Katlyn Vargas is a University of Arizona student and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at katlynvargas@arizona.edu.

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