WINDHAM-Rev. Yolanda and The Circle of Love offered a benefit concert for the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont in early November at the First Congregational Church in Dummerston.
A moving, upbeat show of originals and covers, a wide range of sound and intentions, it was the first local appearance of the Windham-based trans femme genderqueer singer/songwriter/performance artist/interfaith minister.
Word is she’ll be back there in February, again with her band: Freddy Freeman, Jay Freeman, and Tyler Wansley.
Before then, audiences can see Rev. Yolanda in the Rock River Players’ (RRP) No Kings Cabaret this weekend when she’ll perform “I Pledge Allegiance to My Self,” 10 minutes of music and spoken word, about the “power of loving oneself completely.”
The new performance piece “shares personal stories of my life starting in fourth grade in Alabama where I came out of the closet; learned about slavery and about the genocide of Native Americans; was bullied by the principal and students at school; and decided to pledge allegiance to My Self.”
That commitment “has carried me through a life of joy and grief that includes becoming HIV positive in 1980s New York City, finding the love of my life in Rev. Glen Morton Ganaway, and enduring the extreme grief of his passing in 2024,” she said.
“I’m sharing these stories now as we deal with a threat to our country and world that I have never seen in my lifetime,” Rev. Yolanda continued. “My hope is that we will connect with compassion for each other’s stories/lives, as we move forward together in creating a society based on liberty and justice for all.”
* * *
Rev. Yolanda, formerly of Burlington and New York City, has been making music/theater/TV/film/performance art for well over 40 years. With nine CDs of originals to her name, she’s won a host of awards and honors from OutMusician of the Year to induction into both the New York Blues and StoneWall Society LGBTQIA+ Halls of Fame.
From Muscle Shoals, Alabama, “the hit recording capital of the world” where luminaries like Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones created iconic albums, Rev. Yolanda recalls that her father, who worked in radio and television, associated with such recording artists. “So I grew up learning to sing and play instruments.”
After college in Alabama, Rev. Yolanda spent time in New York City in the 1980s. Growing up “a pretty wild kid,” she “tried to get my thing going there. And that was quite a ride.”
She soon met a New York-based group, the Radical Faeries, which was starting a commune in Vermont, and she eventually migrated to Burlington, where, in 1994, she came out as transgender.
There she soon grew a following, becoming deeply involved in queer communities and in the Burlington music scene with her band, Yolanda and the Plastic Family. She started a drag ball, too, “which is still going on — a 30-year fundraiser for Vermont Cares.”
“At that time in Vermont — the ’90s, you know — the LGBTQIA+ community was becoming visible, very out,” she said.
She and drag queen Cherie Tartt started a public access cable TV show that was “wildly popular and affected a whole bunch of folks — a generation of young folks who grew up watching us.”
It was in that stage of her life that Rev. Yolanda, already holding an M.A. in theater, specializing in the oral interpretation of literature, earned an MFA in performance art at Vermont College of Norwich University in 1995.
In 2001, after roughly eight years in Burlington, Rev. Yolanda returned to New York City, where she developed her original musical blend of rock, pop, country, and jazz with her band.
The band, she recalls, “became so popular that I was getting invites from CBGB,” the iconic music club.
The band would go back and forth between Burlington and New York City and to play those gigs, “but then I decided I’m just going to move back to New York and see what I could do as Yolanda, because when I lived there before, I wasn’t Yolanda.”
She met Glen Ganaway the year she returned, and he would soon become her husband.
“He was a real grounding influence on me,” she said. “And literally he was the son of a preacher man. Glen was a guru, a teacher. He was an incredible spiritual being.”
She described his influence as “wonderful.”
“I really loved church when I was growing up and I always felt a connection to spirit,” Yolanda said. “When I was young, my goal was to be a music minister. That’s what I wanted to do when I was 16.
“But then life took over and all these other things happened. But Glen and I both had always wanted to be in ministry. So we decided to go to One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York.”
Ordained in 2011, the duo started a church in the New York City club scene.
“We called it ‘Church with a Two Drink Minimum.’ That was the way to do it because so many, especially LGBTQIA+ folks, have been damaged by religion. So this is not a religious thing that I’m doing. It’s an inward spiritual thing. It’s really about finding authenticity in you and in your own personal connection to what you may call spirit or God — or whatever.”
When Covid hit in 2020, Ganaway and Rev. Yolanda joined Awakening Together, which had already established an online presence.
“It was built as an online church. We knew those folks, we knew the founder, and we had a really great relationship. So we just merged our ministries,” she said.
“But again, it’s not a religion. It’s not Christian, Jewish, Muslim. What we talk about are truth principles. It’s what we call non-dual or interfaith: all are welcome. It’s not just an LGBTQIA+ following. No, no. We wanted to focus at the beginning on LGBTQIA+ because folks have been so damaged, but it’s much, much broader than that. People join in from all over. It’s very inclusive.”
* * *
Yolanda and Ganaway had shared a love of Vermont, too, and so they decided to buy property in Windham in 2020.
“And then my husband unfortunately passed away in 2024,” she said.
The couple had previously planned to move that summer up to the lot they’d bought, “and so I went ahead and did that,” Yolanda said.
“He died in March, and I moved up here in July. I’ve always loved the Brattleboro area. I’m close enough that I consider this the Brattleboro area, and I’ve always loved it around here, so that’s why I’m here,” she said. “I want to spend the rest of my life in Vermont. I think of Vermont as really my home.”
On the board of the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont, Rev. Yolanda seeks deeper community engagement and thus reached out to Rock River Players about performing in their annual winter cabaret. She embraces the RRP standard that the lively arts are essential in all times, especially in the tough ones.
“I really feel that standing strong with each other and connecting with each other is so incredibly important. And we will get through this. I’ve lived for — whatever — 69 years. And I grew up around redneck bullies in Alabama, so I’ve been dealing with this all my life.
“I know it’s really horrible right now. This is probably the worst I’ve ever seen it be.
“However, I have a positive feeling as we’re moving through this, that most of America does not want to live this way. And most people do not care who you love or who you’re married to.”
* * *
“Being human is a divine experience. That’s how I see it,” Rev. Yolanda reflected. “And the ego can certainly cloud our experience, as we’re seeing right now in the world.”
For her, that’s “a perspective of ego way out of control. So what is important to me is to make sure I’m grounded, and centered, and know that the truth of my being really is joy. And then that expression comes out in my music.”
In talking with Rev. Yolanda, one couldn’t help notice the complicated and intriguing paintings behind her.
She has been a painter of fine art, too, “since I was about 5 years old,” she explained. “That was my first expression.” She grew up “wanting to be a famous artist.”
Rev. Yolanda endorses the essential value of finding a vehicle for personal expression. With a brother who was a star athlete, she sought her own route, and her parents encouraged her: “When I wanted to start taking art classes, my parents were so on board, and I really appreciate that.”
* * *
Rev. Yolanda is also a guest star in Beauty, a new feature television series from prolific creator Ryan Murphy that will premiere this month on Hulu.
It’ll be a sci-fi drama — “my favorite genre,” Yolanda said.
“I don’t show up until episode six, which is a little bit into it,” she said. “But my role actually is pivotal to the plot, which is really cool. I’m playing a trans woman, and it was so beautifully written, and I’m really, really, really proud to have this opportunity.”
She noted that she has worked in TV and film, “but not in this big of a feature role, especially not in prime time: it’s really upbeat and really fabulous. So I’m pretty excited.”
Rev. Yolanda will also release a new album single by Jan. 26, titledDid Ya Know.
* * *
For more info and to get her music, visit yolanda.net. For information and/or tickets for this weekend’s Rock River Players cabaret, in which Rev. Yolanda will close act one, visit rockriverplayers.org.
Annie Landenberger is an arts writer and columnist for The Commons. She also is one half of the musical duo Bard Owl, with partner T. Breeze Verdant.
This Arts column by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.