Booking and details
Dates Sat, Mar 28, 2026 at 4pm
Venue Reading Room
Tickets Free; registration required
Transformer DC and the Folger Shakespeare Library present a special performance event in conjunction with Something Wicked, an exhibition at Transformer by Folger Artistic Research Fellow Alexander D’Agostino.
This performance is held in conjunction with Contemporary Art at the Folger, a rotating series that showcases the work of Folger Artist Fellows.
During this burlesque performance, D’Agostino will invite audiences into a living ritual: a queer spirit invocation drawn directly from Folger Manuscript V.b.26, a 16th-century book of magic at the heart of The Fairy King’s Grimoire project. Somewhere between Early Modern Ceremonial Magic and Glitterwitch Burlesque, the performance is interactive, embodied, and transformative. Provocative and playful, D’Agostino will transform into his performance persona of the Glitterwitch through dance and disrobing from his daily attire.
This program is recommended for adult audiences.
About the Artist
Alexander D'Agostino
Alexander D’Agostino is an interdisciplinary artist based in Baltimore, Maryland.
He graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2009 with a BFA in painting. He investigates the queer and otherworldly through dance, ritual, teaching, and visual art. His work has been presented at Vox Populi in Philadelphia, VisArts in Rockville, the Center for Contemporary Art of Afghanistan In Kabul, Chashama’s summer performance series in Manhattan, Itinerant Performance ArtFestival at the Queens Museum, the Walters Art Museum, Transformer DC, the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington Spring 2022 Solo Exhibitions, Siren Arts Summer Performance Series, A Solo Exhibition at the Target Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia, and currently a solo exhibition at the Bromo Artist Tower in Baltimore and one at Visarts in Rockville, MD. He is also an artistic research fellow at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC.
Alexander’s current project at the Folger uses tarot divination, embodied performance, and an LGBTQ+ lens to converse with the enigmatic Folger Manuscript V.b.26, also known as the “Book of Oberon.” He is available for similar tarot-based collections consultation and can be contacted through his website, Instagram, or at charmcitygnome@gmail.com.
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