Indigiqueer singer Roger Kuhn returns to Fargo with new song – InForum

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth story in a series of profiles about LGBTQIA+ artists in the community during Pride Month, celebrated each June.

FARGO – The West Fargo High School graduating class of 1994 is celebrating its 30-year reunion this weekend at the West Fargo VFW, but Roger Kuhn will not be celebrating with his classmates.

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Instead, he will spend Saturday night singing and dancing in downtown Fargo, first at Dempsey’s Public House and then above at the Aquarium, where he will perform songs from his new album, “Running With This Dream.”

The dance album represents a departure from his previous work as a more traditional rock singer/songwriter and is an expression of his personality: a gay aboriginal man.

“This is what I’ve been doing my whole life, chasing a dream,” Kuhn said last month from his home in Guerneville, California, 75 miles north of San Francisco.

The singer/songwriter hasn’t played in Fargo in nearly 20 years, and his mother will be traveling from out of town to attend.

“It will be a wonderful homecoming,” Kuhn said. “Fargo has always lifted me up and celebrated me.”

Kuhn was born in Fargo and the family moved to Napoleon, North Dakota, where he grew up.

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It was not an easy childhood. Kuhn describes his white father as a drunkard and said other children teased him because his mother was a Poarch Band of Creek Indian and he was gay.

“Growing up in Napoleon, I realized I was different in ways that people didn’t think I should be proud of, but it made me stronger,” he said.

Kuhn moved to West Fargo as a teenager and attended West Fargo High School during the school year and Trollwood Performing Arts School during the summer.

“It was a place where we all had a safe space as artistic, creative youth to express ourselves,” Kuhn said. “I always looked forward to it. It was a gateway to my perspective as a performer. I felt like Michael (Walling, artistic director of Trollwood mainstage musicals) saw something in me.”

Kuhn appeared in “The Music Man,” “Peter Pan” and “Oklahoma,” but his biggest experience was playing the role of Simeon, singing “Those Canaan Days,” in 1994’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

“Community is something you create, and eventually I found people who helped me do that,” he said.

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“Just because I’m from a small town in North Dakota doesn’t mean I can’t create magic. Growing up, I didn’t have anyone around me telling me to stop singing, stop acting. That inspired me to sing because nobody told me I couldn’t do it.”

After high school, Kuhn retired from musicals to focus more on his own songwriting. He moved to New York City and made a name for himself with his songs. In 2006, he released the album “Proof” and had a modest hit with the Springsteen-esque “What’s Your Name.”

Just as Kuhn’s music career was taking off, he put down his guitar to pursue a doctorate in human sexuality and become a psychotherapist.

As a therapist, he works to help people get in touch with their feelings.

“The more I help others heal, the more I heal myself,” he said.

Although Kuhn knew he was gay, he didn’t hear the term “two-spirit” until he moved to New York in the early 2000s, a term for indigenous North Americans who suffer from gender variance.

Although Kuhn also identifies as gay, he has adopted the term “Indigiqueer” for himself over the past decade.

He served as both a therapist and a musician, eventually founding the label So Fierce, founded by musician Velvet Code as a safe space for LGBTQ artists.

Kuhn collaborated with Velvet Code on “Running With This Dream” and they are both responsible for all 11 songs as songwriters.

While his previous albums were a bit more rock and Americana, this is a dance album.

“It’s my favorite piece of creative expression,” Kuhn said. “Music is a transformative expression.”

His friend from West Fargo High School, Brooks West, followed Kuhn’s career and was happy to see him play at the Lipstick Lounge in Nashville, Tennessee last fall.

“It was really positive, very energetic and very emotional,” said West, who will open the show on Saturday night.

The first single “Kaleidoscope” is about having different perspectives.

“There are so many people in the world who are suffering. What does it mean to be free when I know that others are suffering?” Kuhn said. “My album is about centering, joy, liberation and freedom, and that’s what I took with me from my childhood.”

He is currently taking a break from his work as a psychotherapist to devote himself to his music and promote it on tours.

“Music is just another way to help people heal. I hope the album helps people heal,” he said.

What: Roger Kuhn & Brooks West
When: 7pm, Saturday, June 29
Where: Photo by: Dempsey’s Public House
The information: Free, only with ID

What: Stonewall Riots Tribute Pride Dance Party with Roger Kuhn
When: 10pm, Saturday, June 29
Where: The Aquarium (via Dempsey’s)
The information: Free, only with ID