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Fri, Oct 24, 2025 7:00pm–10:00pm

Feel Good Friday: Queer Night Halloween Edition

A performer on stage during UMMA's Feel Good Friday Queer Night in February 2025.

Photo by Mark Gjukich

It’s Finally Friday and You Deserve to Feel Good!

This Halloween season, step into a night of queer magic, creativity, and community at UMMA’s Feel Good Friday. Whether you’re rolling solo, arriving with your boo, or a crew, expect an unforgettable celebration of joy, self-expression, and spooky delight.

Sink your fangs into live performances by Na Bonsai and Cherriel, catch a special film screening hosted by Kris McKinney, and score a mini portrait from artists Ruby Flwrs, Miranda Kyle, Miriam Uhura, and Yhasmin Wilder.

Feeling bold? Come dressed in your fiercest Halloween look—be it glam, ghoulish, or ghostly—and strut your stuff in a costume contest* hosted by Baddie Brooks. Don’t forget to strike a pose at the themed photobooth!

Free and open to the public. All galleries open late.

Special thanks to Detroit-based artist Venusloc for their partnership in curating performances for this night.

*Please note that masks and fake weapons are not permitted in the museum

SCHEDULE Of EVENTS:

7:00PM

Film screening with Kris McKinney
Performance by Baddie Brooks

8:00PM

Film screening with Kris McKinney
Performance by Cherriel

8:30PM

Costume Contest with Baddie Brooks
- No masks or fake weapons permitted in the Museum

9:00PM

Performance by Na Bonsai

THROUGHOUT:

Projections by Venusloc
Mini Portraits with Ruby Flwrs + Miranda Kyle + Miriam Uhura + Yhasmin Wilder
Photo booth with the UMMA Student Advisory Board
Costume booth with the UMMA SAB
Community Tables

Special Guests & Performers

Na Bonsai

Na Bonsai is a guitarist, composer, and experimental vocalist from Detroit. As a sonic artist, they move fluidly through the worlds of sound, performance, and composition, crafting boundary-pushing experiences that blur the line between electronic and acoustic. Growing up immersed in music, Na Bonsai first honed their voice and guitar playing before expanding into experimental practices and live electronics. Drawing inspiration from avant-garde traditions, underground scenes, and contemporary innovators, they weave together layered textures, improvisation, and emotional intensity to create performances that are both intimate and expansive.

Learn More

Baddie Brooks is a powerhouse multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter, champions empowerment for queer and transgender communities through her electrifying music. From headlining major festivals to going viral on TikTok with her rendition of “Feeling Good,” she's a force to be reckoned with! As a fellow for the Amplify Project and recipient of the Louis Armstrong jazz award, her debut album "Reclamation" uplifts LGBTQIA+ voices. Don’t forget to stream her new single “Game Over”!

Baddie Brooks

Socials: @baddiebrooksofficial

Vanessa Reynolds (Venusloc) is a self-taught musician and interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. Their work is equally at home on music streaming platforms as it is in contemporary art museums. Drawing influence from over ten years of performing music in Detroit as guitarist and lead vocalist of Avant garde trio, River Spirit, their current practice is focused on creating video art, and producing music under the moniker Venusloc as well as Detroit based Alternative duo, VRLG (Very Large).

Venusloc

Socials: @venusloc

Kris is a video installation artist using both digital and analog tools to shape their practice as an experimental filmmaker. Their work explores virtual tropes of identity, landscape, and movement- rendering pixelated bodies through overlapping sequence, texture and color. Kris creates interactive, sculptural arrangements of screen-based imagery. These evolving towers of media invite viewers into a layered visual experience, emphasizing the relationship between technology, perception, and presence.

Kris McKinney

Socials: @kdot__m

Cherriel, a performing artist and deejay, fuses estrogenal modulations with the glitches of machinery. Found within the depths of Detroit's queer underground scene, her arcane toolkit creates a high octane experience blending together club constructions, pop ballads , electrosexual and industrial moments. Autotune cuts like glass, EBM pounds with twisted nostalgia for the synthetic 2010s web, and memories of blowing out speakers on her green boombox blasting MP3s from P2P hosts.

Cherriel

Socials: @cherrielonline

Miriam Uhura is a self-taught painter from Highland Park, MI, whose work explores themes of cultural significance, family, community, and futurism. Her pieces often capture poignant, intimate moments, inviting viewers to engage with the layered meanings embedded within each image. Outside of fine art, Miriam is also a body artist working as a piercer at Bloodline Dynasty! Whether on canvas or skin, Miriam’s creations serve as a powerful testament to her belief in the transformative power of self-expression.

Miriam Uhura

Instagram: miriamuhura

Tiktok: @theartistmir

Ruby Flwrs is a Detroit-based multidisciplinary artist creating autobiographical portraiture through symbolic storytelling. Her work explores memory, matriarchal influence, and inner transformation. In 2023, her paintings toured Europe with We Are Culture Creators, followed by notable Detroit group exhibitions. In 2024, she was featured at Black Women Rock and debuted her first solo, To The Ones I Love. In 2025, she presented her second solo, INCUBATION, created during pregnancy.

Ruby Flwrs

Socials: @rubyflwrs

Yhasmin Wilder is a self-taught comic artist and illustrator from the Metro-Detroit area who is passionate about sharing the stories and uplifting the voices of their LGBTQIA2+ family while creating safe queer spaces for networking and community. Primarily a self-published zine artist, Yhasmin works digitally and creates work centered around their experience as a black, queer, nonbinary trans person. Yhasmin is passionate about zines and organizes Detroit Zine Fest.

Yhasmin Wilder

Socials: @boymonsta

Miranda Kyle is a watercolor painter who also creates murals, often centering people of color in her work. Born and raised in Detroit, Kyle earned her BFA in Illustration with a minor in Art History from the College for Creative Studies in 2021. In 2023, she was awarded a Kresge Artist Fellowship, recognizing her contributions to the visual arts in Detroit.

Miranda Kyle

Socials: @Mirandakyleart

More About This Event Series

Visitors fill Museum galleries to look at exhibitions and public performances