Cooper Lee Bombardier hails from Abington, Massachusetts, but has called San Francisco home since 1993. Cooper Lee has read, performed, sung and shown visual art extensively in the bay area, including venues like

848 Community Space
The Lab
New College
SomArts
Build
The Women’s Building
Luna Sea
Red Dora’s Bearded Lady
Artists’ Television Access
University Of Santa Cruz
Glama-Rama Salon
The Cell
The Paradise Lounge

...not to mention lots of bars and nightclubs. Lots.

In 1997, Cooper Lee was on a panel of artists at the International Foundation for Gender Education’s annual conference, in Long Beach, CA. Also in 1997 Cooper was part of the first infamous Sister Spit’s Ramblin’ Roadshow, a cross-country spoken-word tour that performed in 25 cities across the US of A, including a sold-out show at New York’s legendary P.S. 122. Cooper appears on Sister Spit’s two CDs, I Spit On Your Country, on Mercury Records, and Greatest Spits, on Mr. Lady Records, as well as creating the cover art for both recordings. Cooper has performed music around town, as the frontman for the punk band Dirt Bike Gang and frontman/curator for the revolving cast of characters/musicians in the off-country band Whiskey Dick. Since then Cooper has continued to perform around the Bay Area and beyond both solo and with Sister Spit.

Cooper appears on the covers of Pat Califia’s collection of poetry — Diesel Fuel; and The Drag King Book, By Judith Halberstam And Del LaGrace Volcano; and has appeared on the Maury Povich Show, Strange Universe, and Sex and the City. Cooper has starred in several independent films produced locally, including Blue Yodel by Abigail Severence, and The Ride by Bill Basquin, which won a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

In February, 2000 Cooper was a panelist at Hampshire College’s Art and Social Change Conference, as well as a guest at Hampshire’s Women’s Center’s weekly speakers series.

In 2001, Cooper was a featured visual artist at SomArts as part of the National Queer Arts Festival, as well as showing paintings at the groundbreaking “Trans-Art 2001” show, exhibited concurrently at the GLBT Historical Society of Northern California and San Francisco Public Librarty, and curated by Jordy Jones.

Cooper has taught art and creative writing to young people in San Francisco through Writer’s Corps and at Synergy School, but currently pays the rent as a union builder.

Photo Credit: Cooper Lee Bombardier