Ragan Fox
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ragan Fox (Ph.D., Arizona State University) is a queer performance artist who currently resides in the Los Angeles. Fox received his B.S. and M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin. He began writing poetry and solo productions after attending poetry slams in Austin, Texas. In January of 2005, his first full-length book, Heterophobia, was published by Lethe Press.
Fox is also something of a celebrity in the world of podcasting; his podcast, Fox and the City, is a pioneering show, especially among members of the LGBTQ population. Bits of his podcast were heard weekly on Sirius Radio, 103. Along with Fox and the City, he participated in Eat this Hot Show, a collaborative podcast that features Fox, Madge Weinstein (Richard Bluestein) of Yeast Radio and Wanda Wisdom of Lucky Bitch Radio.
Fox's work has been featured in Out magazine and Genre magazine, Text and Performance Quarterly, Theatre Topics, Journal of Homosexuality, The Phoenix New Times, Cyber Socket, The Bottom Line, VelvetMafia.com, GetUnderground.com, LodestarQuarterly.com, the Austin-American Statesman, Echo magazine, and on Air America's Harrison on the Edge.
[edit] Biography
Ragan Fox (born May 9, 1976 in Houston, Texas) is the son of business and acquisitions entrepreneur Leonard Martin Fox and Houston socialite Laura Henson (born Gay Stover). Fox’s parents divorced months after his birth; Len Fox took custody of him soon thereafter.
Fox had a difficult time growing up. The public schools in Cypress, Texas, a conservative stronghold, proved trying for Fox, an outspoken youth who had a difficult time hiding his homosexual inclinations from his peers. His schoolmates ridiculed him for his high-pitched voice and eccentric style of dress. In high school, he turned to theatre, speech, and debate to combat feelings of inadequacy. A number of his artistic endeavors chronicle the painful encounters he experienced as a gay adolescent.
In 1994, Fox moved to Austin, Texas, where he attended the University of Texas at Austin. After performing a poetry program about spoken word poetry for a graduate class at UT, Fox was invited to feature at the Austin Poetry Slam. Soon after, he became a local favorite in Austin’s diverse and nationally recognized poetry slam scene. Fox eventually represented the city at three National Poetry Slams (2000, 2001, and 2002) and quickly received national notoriety. He and his poetry have been featured in multiple venues spanning the United States, including the Nuyorican Poets Café and the Bowery Poetry Club. Fox is also one of the original members of the Bullhorn Collective, an exclusive group that performs poetry at colleges and various events around the globe.
In July of 2002, Fox moved to Phoenix, Arizona to attend the doctoral program in Human Communication at Arizona State University. Throughout doctoral study, Fox continued to write poetry. Lethe Press published Heterophobia, his first full-length collection of poetry, in January of 2005. The collection chronicles Fox’s upbringing, history as a sexual abuse survivor, and unique take on heterosexual and homosexual interpersonal communication. In August of 2005, he advanced to the individual finals of the National Poetry Slam, where he finished third in the nation—the highest placement of an LGBTQ-identified individual poet in the tournament’s history.
In the summer of 2005, Fox started a podcast, Fox and the City (FatC). Originally created to showcase work he intended to stage, the program eventually morphed into an unscripted hodgepodge of personal narrative, pop culture rants, agitprop, and acerbic political commentary. Typical FatC episodes include Fox's unique and queer-influenced readings of pop culture events, politics, and personal struggles. Never one to shy away from controversy, the podcaster is a self-proclaimed "equal opportunity offender." In one episode of the popular show, for example, Fox attempts to create a word that describes a group of lesbians. "'Toolbox,'" he explains, "is what you call a gang of lesbians. They're also known as a 'flannel' of lesbians, a 'muff' of lesbians, and a 'butch' of dykes."
Genre magazine calls FatC a "huge hit," and Out suggests that Fox is one of the "gays leading the way in online media's next big thing." Fox went on to collaborate with Richard Bluestein, Brad Traynor, Fausto Fernos, and Marc Felion on a group podcast called Eat this Hot Show. Creative differences resulted in Felion’s and Fernos’s eventual departure from the program. Fox and the City and Eat this Hot Show continue to be popular LGBTQ-oriented podcasts and “featured comedy” podcasts on iTunes. Fox also produced a podcast titled Eat Bird with his friend and poetic collaborator, Rachel Kann. Currently, Fox only participates in his flagship show, FatC.
Throughout the spring of 2006, Fox and the City was featured on Sirius Stars. Fox decided to remove his program from the lineup after “podfather” and Sirius host Adam Curry was a guest on an episode of Eat this Hot Show and the two podcasters (Fox and Curry) bickered.
[edit] Bibliography of Fox's Published Works
Fox, Ragan C. “Attack of the Ribbon Magnets.” High Desert Voices: The 2005 National Poetry Slam Anthology. Whitmore Lake, MI: The Wordsmith Press, 2006. 91-92.
Fox, Ragan C. “Faggot: For Gay Boys Who Have Considered Rainbows When Suicide Wasn’t Enough.” Freedom to Speak. Whitmore Lake, MI: The Wordsmith Press, 2003. 45-47.
Fox, Ragan C. “Gay Grows Up: An Interpretive Study of Aging Metaphors and Queer Identity.” Journal of Homosexuality 52 (2007).
Fox, Ragan C. Heterophobia. Maple Shade, NJ: Lethe. 2005. ISBN 1-59021-019-0
Fox, Ragan C. “If I Were a Woman.” In Our Own Words, Volume 3. Raleigh, NC: MWE Press, 2000. 51-52.
Fox, Ragan C. “Negative: Using Performative Interventions to Explore HIV-Negativity.” Theatre Topics 16 (2006): 47-64.
Fox, Ragan C. “Raging Against Rage: Telling Tales of Taboo, Molestation, and Anger.” Text and Performance Quarterly 26 (2006): 98-107.
Fox, Ragan C. “Skinny Bones #126-774-835-29: Thin Gay Bodies Signifying a Modern Plague.” Text and Performance Quarterly 27 (2007): 3-19.
Fox, Ragan C. "Sober Drag Queens, Digital Forests, and Bloated 'Lesbians' (Oh, My!): Performing Gay Identities Online." Qualitative Inquiry (In Press.)
