Noveltease Arouses, Enlightens with Intersectional Literary Burlesque

Cast of Noveltease’s Rhythm & Rhyme, February 2026. Carson St. Clair, Isabella Von Ghoul, Solangerié, Ms. Kitschy Kupid, Lavish The Jewel, Ava D'Jor, Cheeky Diamondz, Onyx Asili (Host), Miz Floes

Tout D'Lou / Courtesy of Noveltease

On a Sunday night out in Seattle, you might be at a show and a beautiful performer gestures to you, beckoning you forward even after you look behind yourself in the universal “me?” way. Then as your performance anxiety kicks in, you’ll find yourself kneeling at the foot of a stage, unbuckling a shoe that seems unduly complex. Just moments before, when a different body kneeled before the stage, you thought, “I wonder if they’re nervous,” as red tinged their cheeks and the back of their neck either from nerves or excitement. Maybe you thought you could do it faster and found yourself immediately humbled by a dainty strap and clasp. 

Shoe unbuckled you scurry—yes, scurry—back to your seat, heart racing as more clothes come off. This might sound intimidating, but with enthusiastic consent in mind, you can rest assured that this and many other unique opportunities might present themselves if you chose to attend a Noveltease Show. I experienced this and many other shocking, delightful moments when I had the opportunity to attend the February Rhythm & Rhyme that featured sultry jazz and select readings from the Harlem Renaissance. 

Onyx Asili, the host of the evening, kicked off the night by quizzing the audience via a show of hands on literary figures of the Harlem Renaissance and prepping us for the evening to come. As a former “pleasure to have in class” kid, I love learning and I love all the ways that educational content can be added to your daily life. After attending my first Noveltease show I can safely say that I’m partial to whatever educational medium involves jazz, poetry, history, and the delicious art of striptease. 

Ava D'Jor performing with feather fans

Tout D'Lou / Courtesy of Noveltease

Asili’s orientation to the night (the context and rules given prior to most burlesque shows) explained this iteration of Rhythm & Rhyme, which was a cabaret that fuses poetry, burlesque, and live music. In February they were celebrating the Harlem Renaissance for Black History Month. A prudent reminder in our current sociopolitical time that the Black creative-led movement during the Great Migration shaped art, politics, music, and fashion while discussing politics, sexuality, and gender issues in an undeniable cultural shift in which Black Americans fought for—and continue to fight for—the rights to exist and express themselves. This shift inevitably laid the foundation for the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s-1960s. 

The performers took turns reading selections from Claude Mckay, Helen Johnson, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and a modern poem from Miz Floes, the featured poet of the night. The poetry was combined with dancing to the musical stylings of Miz Floes and Her Soul Boys. 

If you believe burlesque isn’t for you or you’ve never attended a show before, Noveltease offers an experience that highlights the intersection of literature, dance, music, and history in a small venue, creating an intimacy that provides multisensory entertainment. I left feeling good, emboldened, and creative. And though glamorous clothes were shed, the message of the evening—particularly within the selected poems—was that of reclamation, self-affirmation, and pleasure without shame or exploitation. It reminded me that as we fight this generation's battles of inequity, joy, pleasure, music, and dance are some of the parts of life worth fighting for. 

In addition to the numerous fun facts and the stunning poetry, which I believe is best experienced aloud, the femme Black and Brown bodies moved with rebellious self-assuredness, grace, and skilled technical control, embodying the presence that so many have fought and suffered to achieve. Another sway in the continuous fight for the right to exist and belong wholly to yourself. 

Solangerié

Tout D'Lou / Courtesy of Noveltease

Asili’s efforts to share the personal projects and skills of the performers brought forward the multifaceted existence of artists, who, in addition to burlesque, were poets, artists, podcasters, filmmakers, and creatives teaching and producing art and style in the greater Seattle area. Following the Harlem Renaissance, Black creatives are still shaping the arts scenes of various cities all around the world and especially in our gray hub of Seattle.

Noveltease is producing a full-length literary burlesque play as an adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando in May.