Miss AuroraBoobRealis lights up the stage with her unique mixture of raw and earthy, wild and fearless burlesque! She is an interdisciplinary performing artist creating in the intersections of burlesque, dance, theater and poetry. Central to her existence is the fact that Aurora cannot and will not separate herself from her art, race, or political beliefs. She has a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College with a focus on 20th Century Black Radical Artists and the intersections of dance, poetry, and theater. She is the co-founder of brASS: Brown RadicalAss Burlesque and Brown Girls Burlesque. brASS Burlesque’s show in Brooklyn, Compost Bin: A RadicalASS Cabaret to Deal with the World, was featured in the New York Times and  in Teen Vogue! She is currently the BurlyCon Board President.

A raconteur with a journalistic background, Leslie Cunningham is an artist, writer, documentary filmmaker, and owner of TRIBES Entertainment. Her collection of engaging documentary film have screened on public television, online and at film festivals in the U.S. and internationally. Leslie is a graduate of the documentary arts program at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Her feature documentary films include M.I., A Different Kind of Girl (2012) and JIG SHOW | Leon Claxton’s Harlem in Havana (2022), a three-part documentary about her grandfather’s popular traveling revue that significantly impacted Black entertainment in the mid-20th century. Visit lesliecunninghamfilms.com to learn more.