On a recent trip, the artist Tourmaline told her friend Colin Self about meeting the artist Agosto Machado. Colin was talking about writing a record in reverence to their dead community—various queer and trans people who had passed away who continue to deeply impact Colin’s life. “Colin,” Toumaline softly suggested, “you have got to meet Agosto! The two of you are kindred spirits, doing the same work across generations.”

With Colin in Berlin and Agosto in New York, the two began to have sprawling phone calls about what Agosto calls “the ensemble of life”—the vibrant and dynamic figures of the New York counterculture. Soon enough, Colin began describing Agosto as a mentor and spiritual guidance counselor.
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Earlier this year, Colin released the record, and it's called respite ∞ levity for the nameless ghost in crisis (RVNG Intl, 2025).

This new theatrical performance, conceived by both artists, is a celebration of Agosto's legacy as a crucial figure in the New York counter-cultural theater and drag scene, and an homage to the countless named and unnamed deceased figures Agosto and Colin make art in reverence to.

While the new record plays, the two artists respond to one another onstage through lip-syncing, dance, and improvisation with make-up, costumes, objects, and music.

Colin also performs “Voice of a Shadow,” a lecture, interspersed with a capella singing, about their research, their deceased friends and their legacies, and Agosto.