SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14th PALM SPRINGS CULTURAL CENTER
Pride on the Page is a FREE full day festival featuring LGBTQIA+ and affirming authors and allies in conversation about their books and dynamic topics, book signings, a local authors table, LGBTQIA+ presses, updates about the Palm Springs Public Library Renovation, and much more!
”Showbiz! My Life as a Middle Aged Man”
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Murray Hill, the self-proclaimed hardest-working middle-aged man in show business, is a one-man entertainment machine: comedian, host, actor, writer, producer, and walking time capsule of classic showbiz charm. With razor-sharp wit, quickfire ad-libs, and a wink that could light up any stage, Murray has spent decades turning every stage he steps on into his own personal variety show. He played the lovable Fred Rococo on HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, the Peabody-winning, AFI-honored comedy that also earned a Critics’ Choice LGBT+ Ensemble Award. He’s popped up everywhere from Life & Beth and Drag Me To Dinner (Hulu) to Elsbeth (CBS), Welcome to Flatch (FOX), and King of Drag (Revry). On the big screen, he starred in Paul Feig’s Jackpot! with John Cena and Awkwafina, and will share holiday cheer with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the upcoming movie Man With The Bag.
Murray’s talents extend beyond performance. He’s served as a guest correspondent for ABC News and Hulu’s Pride Across America, reporting live from the nation’s biggest Pride celebrations. NBC News named him one of the “30 Most Iconic and Influential Drag Performers in Modern History.” His debut memoir, Showbiz! My Life as a Middle-Aged Man will be published by Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books October 6, 2026.
His work spans theater, television, and international touring, solidifying his reputation as a singular voice in comedy and a champion of inclusive, joy-driven performance. Murray Hill brings an old-school showbiz sensibility to a new generation, proving that quick wit, big heart, and a well-timed rimshot never go out of style. IG: @MurrayHill
“His ability to effortlessly cast a warm, festive glow about him feels akin to a superpower.” – The Hollywood Reporter
PHILL BRANCH in conversation with GEOFFREY NEWMAN
Photo Credit: SHAN Wallace-
Phill Branch is a writer, live performance storyteller, and regional Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. He is a 2025 recipient of the Maryland State Arts Council’s Creativity Grant and received the Council's highest honor, the Individual Artist Award, for Theater (Solo Performance) in 2019. He was the GrandSLAM Champion of The Moth in D.C. in 2018 and has since traveled all over the country and overseas to tell stories with the organization. Branch was a 2014 Lambda Literary Nonfiction Emerging Voices Fellow and is the founder and Creative Director of Baltimore Story Fest, a showcase for live, personal storytelling. An alumnus of the American Film Institute, Branch has an MFA in Screenwriting. He earned his BA in Mass Media Arts at Hampton University and later returned as a professor in the English department to teach writing and develop the Film Studies program. Currently, Branch is a Resident Artist at the Howard County Center for the Arts in Maryland.
”The Double Dutch Fuss”
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Geoffrey Newman, is the award winning author of Better To Cry Now: Shaping the Flow of a Gay Black Man (2024 Nonfiction Book Award Silver Medallion, National Indie Excellence Award), teacher (American College Theatre Festival Award of Excellence, John F. Kennedy Center For the Performing Arts, presented by the AMOCO Companies), and scholar (Owen Duston Distinguished Professor, Emeritus Dean and Professor). He has accomplished 43 years in higher education as a Professor, Department Chair and Dean. He spearheaded the creation of the College of Arts at Montclair State University, served for two terms as the Secretary/Treasurer for the International Council of Fine Arts Deans and provided consultancies for numerous colleges and universities. He provided artistic direction for Wabash College, Kalamazoo College, Howard University, George Washington University, Montgomery College, University of Texas San Antonio, Denton Woman's Univeristy, New York University, and many others. He is widely traveled throughout the United States, Eastern and Western Europe, Canada, China, Australia, and New Zealand. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Howard University, a Master of Arts degree from Wayne State University, and a Ph.D. degree from Howard University. He is available for personal appearances, book readings and signings and conference presentations.
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Sandra Butler is a Jewish lesbian-feminist, mother, lifelong activist, and the author of six books. Each is centered on the need to document what had been considered unsayable. She has written about violence against women, death abbreviating the life of a lesbian couple, mothering middle-aged daughters, and three books spanning the decade of her eighties. Those represent the first 88 years of her life and are captured at sandrabutler.net. What's ahead remains to be seen.
“Now What? From the Frontline of Old Age”
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Daniel M. Jaffe is an award-winning writer whose short stories, articles, and personal essays have been published in over half a dozen countries. He initially worked in Boston as a corporate/securities attorney, then left law to pursue life as a writer. After earning a masters degree at Vermont College of Fine Arts, he taught creative writing at The Cambridge Center for Adult Education where he pioneered a les-bi-gay writing workshop that ran for eight years. In 2001, his partner (and future husband), Leo Cabranes-Grant, accepted a university teaching position in Santa Barbara, so Daniel moved to California with him and taught for 20 years in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program.
Daniel's life experience led him to write his newest and tenth published book, Russian Silhouette: A Memoir of Activism and Identity. While at Princeton University in the 1970s, he concentrated in Russian Studies, volunteered as interpreter for newly arriving Soviet-Jewish immigrants, received a fellowship for language study in the USSR, and wrote an award-winning thesis about the Soviet Jewish emigration movement. Then, at Harvard Law School, Daniel studied Soviet law, translated and publicized Soviet dissident trial transcripts smuggled out to him, and chaired the International Affairs Division of the Harvard Jewish Law Students Association. He also engaged in domestic civil rights activism through the law school's Committee on Gay and Lesbian Legal Issues. Russian Silhouette explores how different aspects of Daniel’s life braided together, especially how his activism in support of endangered Soviet dissidents and oppressed Soviet Jews inspired him to come out as a gay man and work for his own civil rights in the US.
”Russian Silhouette: A Memoir of Activism and Identity”
