Sage has been recognized by Billboard, American Songwriter, The Bluegrass Situation, Earmilk, PopMatters and Music Connection and her single “Blue Sky Days” made it into Billboard’s Top 40 Indicator Chart. Over the years, she toured with artists like Judy Collins and Ani DiFranco, founded the label MPress Records and released 15 albums — all while using her platform to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, mental health and inclusivity.

A former ballet dancer with the New York City Ballet and an accomplished visual artist, Sage is also a six-time Independent Music Award winner and a John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize recipient. Her performances have spanned stages from SXSW to the Edinburgh Fringe, and her commitment to social justice has led her to raise funds for causes ranging from women’s cancer research to refugee support.

This stop in Binghamton marks a return to familiar ground for Sage, who frequently performed at the now-closed CyberCafe West. Audiences at Atomic Tom’s can expect an evening of original music, spontaneous storytelling and live collaborations with her band, The Sequins, and singer-songwriter Kristen Ford.

Ahead of the show, Pipe Dream interviewed Sage about how her music has evolved, what inspired the “Joy=Resistance” tour and why Binghamton continues to hold a special place in her heart. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

How did your music career begin and how have you evolved since then?

“My first paid gig was performing at the coffeehouse at Stanford University — I made $100 and was amazed they wanted me to keep playing every week, even though I didn’t play covers. Whoever made that decision really encouraged me to keep going, to experiment with different kinds of arrangements — I invited a violinist and a guitarist to sit in sometimes — and eventually I made my way to the East Village in NYC where I began playing places like The Bitter End and Café Sin-é, where I regularly performed before Jeff Buckley, which seems pretty surreal looking back!

“I like to think that my music has evolved from being strictly about myself, my feelings, and beliefs, into more of a hybrid of many sources of inspiration including more journalistic observation, and certainly a desire to encourage listeners to be more accepting of themselves and others, and to hopefully be encouraged to be their most liberated, expressive selves!”

What inspired the name of the “Joy=Resistance” tour?

“Kristen Ford and I were having a chat at the beginning of our tour planning and it just seemed like every day we were witnessing more bad news, more political division and oppression, more stripping away of LGBTQ+ and immigrants’ rights and a general sense of erosion of our democracy.

“What better way to resist, than to continue to try to spread as much joy and be as visible as possible, sharing our unique perspectives and welcoming diverse audiences to our traveling musical circus — a place where we can laugh, reflect and hopefully reinvigorate ourselves with hope and empathy, the best fuel for any form of resistance!”

How did the collaboration with The Sequins and Kristen Ford come together?

“Believe it or not, Kristen tells me that she saw my poster hanging in a bathroom at Kulak’s music venue in Los Angeles, and something about it prompted her to reach out to me to see if I wanted to do some shows together. Stranger things have happened, but it was an unexpected burst of energy and excitement, because I instantly fell in love with her work and we were laughing so much on our first tour-planning meeting, I knew we would really ‘click’ musically, on and off stage.

“And here we are, doing it! It’s been a fantastic week so far and so many more shows to come.”

Why was Binghamton a stop you wanted to include on this tour?

“I’ve been coming to Binghamton for many years now, ever since I first performed there with Judy Collins years back. I used to play Cybercafe West at least once a year — I miss that place, and of course, Jeff the owner, who sadly passed away but was such a champion of indie artists. He was all heart and always made me feel so welcome. I’ve continued to have a very special relationship with the town and am so excited to return to Atomic Tom’s!”

What should attendees expect from your live performance?

“As the saying goes: ‘expect the unexpected!’ Both Kristen Ford and I are very apt to write a new song on the spot, informed by the day’s current events or wild happenings from life on the road.

“That said, we’re also both practiced musicians who take our craft very seriously and truly love being entertainers, so hopefully we’ll get you singing along, laughing, feeling just a little more human, and a lot less alone! I’ll be joined by Nashville-based violinist Sarah Jean, who’s the newest member of my band ‘The Sequins.’”

How are you weaving themes from your newly released songs “Canopy” and “Just Enough” into your performance?

“Since earlier this year — before venturing out with Kristen — I’ve been playing shows under the title ‘The Under My Canopy Tour,’ and in a lot of ways this is a continuation of that for me because the themes of most of my new tunes are inclusivity, safety, and peace. Of course I include these new tunes, but also the thread of the show is the idea that we should be ok letting all voices be heard, not just the loudest ones.

“I’ve chosen repertoire for this tour that will hopefully encourage people with different viewpoints and beliefs to actually be able to listen to or at least respect one another, and ultimately to celebrate one another’s differences.”

What has been your favorite aspect of this tour?

“It’s been wonderful to collaborate directly with Kristen during her set, and her in mine. I’ve been playing piano on some of her material, and she’s been generously beatboxing on some of mine. I’m not a ‘session’ player by any means, so this is a bit outside my comfort zone, which is always an exhilarating feeling — doing new things and growing as a musician and performer is what it’s all about!”

As someone who prioritizes themes of inclusivity and compassion, how have your experiences shaped your music and performances?

“My music is inevitably an extension of everything I experience and prioritize! My experience as a cancer survivor — or as I like to say, a cancer thriver — has endowed me with a renewed sense of gratitude and appreciation for ‘the helpers’ — the doctors, nurses and frontline workers whose roles are inherently inclusive and, ideally, compassionate by nature. ‘First, do no harm’ is a creed I wish everyone could adopt and the next best thing would be: ‘Second, do some good!’

“Now more than ever, I am so appreciative of my musical collective The Sequins because they are not only some of the best musicians I’ve ever encountered but also some of the kindest and most thoughtful human beings I’ve ever met.”

What do you hope attendees will take away from the performance?

“I hope folks who join us at this performance will come away with the sense that they’ve been deeply, undeniably loved, seen and accepted for exactly who they are just by being present and safe under our musical canopy — a joy that everyone deserves! We also hope they’ll feel especially good about supporting live music and their local ‘scene,’ which needs that engagement now more than ever!”

What should our readers know about you and Hotbox if they’ve never been (they totally should btw)? 

“Readers should know that I am Class of 2018 — double major in Graphic Design and English Rhetoric & that I won the Rainbow Pride Union drag show in 2016! I also served as Photo Editor for Pipe Dream from 2016-2017.”

Q: How did your career in drag begin and what was that experience like? 

“When I moved here for school in 2014, I sought the New York City drag energy I had at home. From sneaking into shows at the local gay bar Merlins, to winning Binghamton University’s Drag competition to 2016, to becoming club kid at Tranquil’s Trash Tuesday, to working as house photographer for The Cave, Rosalind, and Chatterbox shows; Drag has inevitably become part of my identity. Working both the technical part of nightlife and now more recently the performance aspect of it; I feel I have a well rounded perspective.

I’m grateful for the community it builds and the space it creates where Queer people can live their authentic selves free of judgement. There was a period of over one year without a regular drag show/gay social night in Downtown Binghamton, so I created one! I’ve dabbled in drag for the aesthetic sense but never regularly performed. I basically started performing when HOTBOX began January 25, 2024. It’s been a labor of love for sure and I’m learning every day.”

What’s the best experience you’ve had as a performer?

“Best experience I have as a performer is when people tell me how important HOTBOX is to them and how they see it as a safe, Queer-prioritized nightlife experience. Truly, my only wish for the show was to be a safe haven for our Queer community to mingle, have fun, and boogie on the regular. So when people tell me that’s how they experience it, I get all warm inside. It’s all I’ve ever wanted!”

What is essential for a good drag show as a performer? 

“As a performer, HAVING THE NERVE is essential for a good drag show! I love getting in peoples faces; good drag captivates the audience and keeps them on their toes!”

What is essential for a good drag show as an audience member? 

“As an audience member, being able to scream, shout, hoot, & holler is essential for a good drag show. Performers ride the energy of the audience, so essentially a good audience gets a better performer.”

What drag essential for you is way too underrated?

“Redness relief eyedrops! In the midst of doing makeup and wearing enlarging contacts, my eyes tend to get red before showtime. Redness relief really helps my eyes pop — it’s the small things that help elevate the fantasy.”

If you only had one song to perform for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? 

“Burning Up by Madonna. That was the first song I performed to open HOTBOX so it’ll always hold a special place. I know that song like the back of my hand. Plus, Sativa … Burning Up?! It just makes sense.”

What piece of art has made the most impact on you? 

“The robot suit by French fashion designer Thierry Mugler from his Fall/Winter 1995 fashion show. It’s so gobsmackingly outer-worldly. If you look like a femme superhero goddess in drag, I love you.”

What’s your dream drag show?

“My dream drag show would be one where a cast individually performs each track from Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor (the Non-Stop Edition).”

What would your three wishes be?

“1. Bring back 24-hour Walmart

2. Have a body double

3. Unlimited supply of broccoli”

What trends in queer culture do you love?

“I love that we’ve been accepting sexuality as fluid rather than binary.”

What trends in queer culture do you hate? 

“Thinking drag is always a competition.”

How do you define camp?

“Over the top, larger than life, ridiculousness that is theatrical and exaggeratingly playful.”

What does your ideal day look like?

“Show day for me consists of getting out of bed by 1-ish, preparing my luggage for the evening, printing out the setlist and writing out my show notes. A shower later, it’s 5 p.m. and I’m sitting down at my vanity. Painting the mug until about 8 then it’s time to get to the gig. Change into costume, take the pictures for social media, then host a damn show for the town of Binghamton!”

What else do you think our readers should know? 

“Drag is fun. Drag should be fun. If you’re not having fun, either doing drag or watching drag, you’re doing it wrong.”

What do you want people to take away from your shows and the HOTBOX experience? 

“Life is stupid. So just have fun with it all. I love being unserious. The world is already so painful that if I can look like a million dollar fantasy or land a joke for someone to smile a little and escape the cruelty of reality, then I did my job.”

What does drag culture mean to you, as queer person? 

“Just existing as a community and uplifting one another. And having fun!”

This coming May will mark two years since the president of the Binghamton University Abortion Advocacy Coalition (BAAC), Abbey Scherer, a senior majoring in social work, founded the organization. Scherer and most of BAAC’s E-Board are graduating this semester with hopes that future members will continue to build where they left off.

Pipe Dream interviewed Scherer to discuss BAAC’s current goals and operations.

The interview has been edited for both length and clarity.

Q: What are the BAAC’s main goals and what are some ways that you work toward this goal?

A: Our goal when we first started was destigmatizing and opening up the conversation about abortion access and abortion in general on campus. Of course we have PPGen [Planned Parenthood Generation] and FemCo [Feminist Collective] which are amazing organizations, but they cover a wide range of things and I decided that we should have something that focuses on abortion. We now have a relationship with Southern Tier Women’s Health Services, which is the abortion clinic in the area, and BU administration to blend the communities as much as possible. This looks like giving the clinic abortion [after care] kits (which we have ourselves) and we, along with PPGen and FemCo worked with [Decker Student Health Services Center] administration to set up an uber business account so they can pay for students’ transportation if they get referred.

… We talk about abortion through the lens of reproductive justice, which includes applying the theory of intersectionality to our work. For example, BAAC is collaborating with the Q Center to talk about abortion as gender-affirming care, we encourage support for Palestine by advertising and showing up for rallies and marches, we teach Reproductive Justice as Black history in our RJ 101 Training and talk about climate justice at the Earth Day festival.

Q: How has the overturning of Roe v. Wade specifically affected reproductive rights throughout the country?

A: Roe being overturned was not a shock but did a lot of damage in terms of legality — really people say Roe was the floor, not the ceiling. Though access goes so much further in terms of transportation expenses, people being afraid of protestors, insurance coverage and wait times. There are states now where you can’t get an abortion at all. It’s worse than before but those same problems were always there, just not for everybody. Communities of color and low-income communities always had access issues. Now there are cases where the Supreme Court is looking to ban Mifepristone — one of the pills used for medication abortion. Even in New York state, where we’re generally protected in terms of reproductive health, a federal decision would impact us as well. But I think by educating people about these things through advocacy and policy work, all things that BAAC encourages, are really important for preventing these things in the future.

Q: Can you discuss various statewide abortion bans and their impacts on people with uteruses?

A: There [are] a wide range of bans. Some states have full bans where you can’t get an abortion at all and some states have six-week bans where most people don’t even know that they’re pregnant by six weeks. Even states where they ban abortions past the second trimester, like later term bans — those really confuse practitioners and in states where you see that, even when you have an exception for the life of the mother, doctors are so afraid that they might lose their license and not practice anymore that they will wait until someone is about to die before they give them an abortion. Bans like that create a lot of gray areas that keep people from getting life saving procedures that they need. That’s really the problem with these bans.

Q: What would you say to someone who is against abortion rights?

A: It really depends on their reasoning for it, because some people feel that way from a religious perspective. For other people it’s not religious, it’s just they have been told a lot of lies that they think are facts. I would approach the conversation by asking, “Why do you feel that way?” We actually did a meeting where we talked about how to talk to antis [people who are anti-abortion] and we made a spreadsheet of their reasons and what you can respond with. But it just comes down to bodily autonomy. People should be able to make their own choices about their body and I’m sure people who are against abortion wouldn’t want other people making decisions about their body when it comes to other areas. If they can understand that concept then you can work from there.

Q: What are some ways that students at BU can become involved in the BAAC?

A: Our E-Board right now has a lot of seniors and there’s going to be a lot of gaps to fill on the [E-Board], so we’re looking for younger people but we also have other opportunities for people to get involved. Southern Tier Women’s Health Services is currently looking for clinic escorts — students who will help protect patients from protestors and make sure that they get to their appointments. You can bring your information to us, and we can set you up with them. We’ve also done volunteer days for Family Planning, which is downtown. They don’t do abortions, but they do abortion referrals and options counseling. We also do a monthly newsletter where we encourage students to write in, and we’ll feature their writing pieces in our newsletter.

Q: What are your hopes for the future of BAAC?

A: I really hope that younger students can help us continue our work and expand. We just submitted our chartering application and that would really help us maintain a presence in our community. I’m hoping to expand outside of campus as well, and I would love to see it become more of a Binghamton community organization than just a BU organization.