Why I’ve Been Producing New York Cabaret Fundraising Shows for Dems Since 2018

Posted on September 25, 2024 by Stephen Hanks in Playing Around

This Saturday, September 28 (at 4 pm at Don’t Tell Mama), I’ll be hosting passionate All-Star women cabaret performers who’ll be singing their hearts out for Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, and Democrats.

Next to my father, mother, and brother all dying before their 65th birthdays, January 20, 2017 was probably the saddest and most depressing day of my life. About a month before, I had ended the life-support for a very good friend who had been in a coma for days from a massive stroke. As his healthcare proxy, I had been pretty much been taking care of him for a year since his first accident caused by developing dementia. 

Now, I was in the final stages of cleaning out his small apartment in the West Village in New York, a task I was handling over that entire year because my friend lived like a packrat on steroids. While I was packing up the remnants of my friend’s place, against my better judgement—probably because I’ve always a history and political science junkie—I kept the television on in the background while Donald Trump was making his Presidential Inaugural Address. That’s if you want to call it that.

I could barely contain my anger with every word that horrendous individual spoke, but when I heard him refer to our country as being an “American Carnage,” I almost put my foot through the screen of the large television I had purchased for my friend a few months before. It was at that moment I decided that I would do whatever I could do to help make sure that not only Democrats would win as many elections as possible, but that Donald Trump would never win a second term in the White House. 

Stephen Hanks (Photo Credit: Steve Friedman)

To me, the issue of voting rights has always been the most important, especially since Republicans began engaging in massive voter suppression, voter nullification, and gerrymandering efforts going back to the 1980s. So it was bad enough that Trump won the 2016 election, but even more infuriating that he did it through the appalling Electoral College system. 

All through 2017, I agonized trying to figure what I could do. Getting involved with voting rights organizations was a goal, but the major ones were based outside of New York—Stacy Abrams’ in Georgia and former Attorney General Eric Holder’s in Washington, DC.

Then one night, around Christmas 2017, I was at a cabaret club in the East Village in Manhattan attending the show of one of my clients Jeff Macauley (who has designed all the “Blue Wave” promotional materials since we started the series). After the show, I was hanging at the bar with my friend Sandra Bargman (who would become one of the regular “Blue Wave” performers) thinking out loud about what I could do—when finally it hit me. I was a cabaret show producer who knew all these fantastic performers who I also knew were politically engaged and so CABARET CAMPAIGNS: RIDE THE BLUE WAVE fundraising series for Democrats and Voting Rights organizations was born. 

In all the Blue Wave shows I hosted, I told audiences that these issues—in addition to protecting voting rights—are the biggest threats to American Democracy. And they are all related because as is painfully obvious, the entire Republican Party/Right Wing agenda is motivated by one factor, which President Biden articulated many times in his speeches—White Supremacy. In spite of how depressed I’ve been since the day Donald Trump was elected, I’m still optimistic good will triumph over evil. In 2018, after we did the five Blue Wave shows, Democrats flipped 40 seats in Congress and won some important Governorships and Senate races. In spite of massive voter suppression and gerrymandering in the states, Joe Biden was still able to win the Presidency in 2020. I want to believe—I HAVE TO BELIEVE—that we will win in 2024. If not, I may be producing cabaret shows in Amsterdam. 

When we take the stage again at Don’t Tell Mama on September 28 at 4 pm, it will all be for the next President of the United States, Kamala Harris. For reservations, go to: https://shows.donttellmamanyc.com/8515-campaign-for-kamala-fundraising-show-9-28-25

Top photo: June 29, 2019 at Urban Stages Theater in New York City after the BLUE WAVE’S GREATEST HITS SHOW. Photo Credit: Steve Friedman

About Stephen Hanks (16 Articles)
During four decades as a magazine publisher/editor/writer for a variety of national magazines and websites, Stephen Hanks has written about sports, politics, the media, health and nutrition, and most recently, cabaret and theater. In 1999, Stephen created and edited the multiple award-winning Archaeology magazine for children called DIG. Between 2004-06, Stephen was Publisher and Editorial Director of Energy Times, an award-winning health and nutrition publication. From 2012-2016, Stephen was the lead New York Cabaret Editor and Writer for BroadwayWorld.com, and was cited by the website in 2013 as “Most Creative Male Editor.” Since entering the world of Cabaret in 2010 as a reviewer for Cabaret Scenes Magazine, Stephen has also been a producer, promoter, publicist, and performer. During that time he produced seven critically acclaimed shows for the Urban Stages “Winter Rhythms” Cabaret Series. In 2018, Stephen produced the five-show series “Cabaret Campaigns: Ride the Blue Wave: 2018,” which were fundraisers for Democratic candidates in the 2018 Midterm elections. In 2021, this life-long New York moved from Brooklyn, NY with his wife Bea to Sedona, AZ, where he now works with the Sedona International Film Festival, is a Board Member of The Democrats of the Red Rocks PAC, and is planning to launch "Red Rocks Writer," an independent copy writing, copy editing, and publicity service for Sedona-area businesses. Stephen's daughter Jean Louise, a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, is also a Contributed Writer for Woman Around Town. You can contact Stephen with your comments and questions at: stephenhanks41@gmail.com.

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