Fresh Meat Festival builds on "legacy of our trancestors"

What's happening: Fresh Meat will feature 18 artists and ensembles performing genres including Afro-Latin dance, opera, stand-up comedy, music and more.

What they're saying: "There is nothing like being in a building with a bunch of excited and joyful trans and queer folks just sharing space and heart and energy and fashion and, of course, the stunning artistry of these amazing artists," Sean Dorsey, the founding artistic director of Fresh Meat, told Axios.

Flashback: Fresh Meat hosted its first-ever festival back in 2002, at a time when "almost no one would put trans artists on stage," Dorsey said. While he said he didn't plan to create an organization or annual event, "the community and audience rose up and said, 'We need this, we want more of this.'"

• "We have built on a legacy of our trancestors who made our work possible, and we're proud to have now been part of the legacy of that cultural transformation," Dorsey said.

Between the lines: Trans activism and resistance has a long history in San Francisco.

• In 1966, a trans woman, fed up with harassment, threw a cup of coffee in a police officer's face, sparking a riot at Gene Compton's Cafeteria in the Tenderloin, according to the San Francisco LGBT Center.
• The riot marked "the first known instance of collective militant queer resistance to police harassment" in the country, according to historian Susan Stryker.
• In 2017, three Black trans women founded Compton's Transgender Cultural District, now known as The Transgender District, in San Francisco.

What's next: The 22nd annual Fresh Meat Festival kicks off next Wednesday and runs through June 18 at Z Space in the Mission.

• Of note: There's a lot happening this month in San Francisco for Pride Month. Be sure to check out our guide.