A new collection of poetry and song lyrics by transgender punk icon Bambi Lake is coming to Denver.
On September 21, Colorado performers and writers will gather at the Denver Art Society for a reading celebrating Devour Me, Again. Featured readers include August Bernadicou, Mitchel David Ring, Aerik Francis, Lolita, MXXX, J. Rajiv Mohabir, and more.
The event begins at 7 p.m. at 734 Santa Fe Drive, near West 7th Avenue. Admission is Free, but guests are encouraged to RSVP by scanning the QR code on the event flyer or visiting lgbtqhp.org/denver.
Bambi Lake was a transgender poet, chanteuse, actress, and punk performer who made her mark on San Francisco’s underground arts scene. Born in 1950, she attended school with future choreographer and filmmaker Kenny Ortega before joining the Angels of Light, a community-based free theater troupe, in 1971.
Lake moved through the outer edges of the Cockettes scene and built a life around poetry, music, acting, and performance. She was also a sex worker and wrote openly about the lives of people often pushed to society’s margins. Her best-known song, “The Golden Age of Hustlers,” reflected on San Francisco’s street hustlers and the friends she watched become consumed by drugs and prostitution.
Her work mixed sharp humor, rhyme, glamour, heartbreak, and rage. However, her life was equally complicated. Lake experienced addiction, homelessness, and mental illness, and her struggles damaged some of her relationships within the community. She later began rebuilding her stage career and once again performed for sold-out audiences before her death in 2020.
Although Lake never achieved the level of fame she wanted during her lifetime, those who knew her believed she was simply ahead of her time. August Bernadicou, who became close with Lake and helped reconnect her with audiences, told 48 Hills that she was “too early” and “too hardcore” for a world that was not yet ready for her.
The Denver Art Society provides an especially fitting home for the reading. Located in Denver’s Art District on Santa Fe, the volunteer-run cooperative works to create an open, affordable, and inclusive community where artists, musicians, performers, and members of the public can create, collaborate, and connect.
Its public gallery allows artists to display their work without censorship or commission, giving space to voices that may not always fit within traditional art institutions. That mission closely reflects Lake’s own life as an artist who created outside the mainstream and refused to be easily defined.
Bringing Devour Me, Again to the Denver Art Society places Lake’s words inside a community built around accessibility, creative freedom, and art in all its forms, making it a natural setting to celebrate an artist who spent her life pushing boundaries.
For those who never had the chance to see Lake perform, the evening offers something special: an opportunity to hear her words leave the page and come alive once again. Whether you already know the Queen of Polk Street or are meeting her for the first time, expect an evening filled with poetry, punk, heartbreak, humor, and the unapologetic spirit that made Bambi Lake unforgettable.
The celebration of Devour Me, Again begins at 7 p.m. on September 21 at the Denver Art Society, 734 Santa Fe Drive, near West 7th Avenue. Admission is free, so come discover the transgender trailblazer who was creating on the cutting edge long before the world was ready for her.
Photos courtesy of the LGBTQ History Project
