Brandon Kyle Goodman preaches about pleasure and gets personal in the pulpit (with 3 puppet friends)

 

[This review, like the show it describes, contains explicit descriptions of sex, sexual acts, sexual fluids, sex positions, and body parts.] 

 

When Kirk Franklin came clean about his pornography addiction in 2005 on Oprah, I didn’t feel as let down as I probably should’ve. Up until his disclosure, I’d spent my childhood listening to Kirk Franklin CDs in the car with my parents on the way to school, team sports, or most often to church for choir practice, bible study, and Sunday school. The Nu Nation Project (1998) was the closest I was allowed to secular (aka pop) music. The Rebirth… (2002), which starts with a skit about Baby Kirk being dropped off by his mother at his adopted guardian’s house earned him my total empathy from the near beginning. “Silver and Gold”, “Now Behold The Lamb”, and his role in propelling Tamela Mann from his singing group called ‘The Family’ to her star turn as “Cora” in Tyler Perry’s Madea plays — which were being sold on DVD in church parking lots — meant Kirk Franklin was Black Church royalty. 

 

Finding out that Mr. Franklin had a weakness just like the rest of us didn’t shock me as much as it probably should’ve; it kind of made sense. Kirk had always led with honesty and shared his doubts about faith. (I kept his rap-duet “911” with Bishop T.D. Jakes on repeat as I questioned my own belief in God.) Here I was an imperfect person and the person making the gospel music I enjoyed most was big enough to admit that he was imperfect, too. The question that piqued my curiosity most — and I’m not talking about gospel here — was What genre was he into? 

 

 

Sharing what turns us on and gets us off can feel as revealing as stripping naked in a crowded room and in HEAUX CHURCH, Brandon Kyle Goodman (they/them) does both. Goodman described the guilt they felt the first time they encountered pornographic material and masturbated, the immediate heat of the shame that overtook them, and the inclination to grab their walkman and listen to Kirk Franklin for absolution. The cringe and relatable specifics bust any remaining privacy wide open: the material was a photo of Dino the Italian Stallion on the family computer via AOL, the absolution theme song was Nu Nation track 9 “Hold Me Now”. In that scene alone, Goodman’s performance was easily the boldest I’ve seen on stage all year.  

 

HEAUX CHURCH is a milestone in the evolution of Goodman’s writing and performance art more than 10 years in the making. Their “Messy Mondays” Instagram series which became the “Tell Me Something Messy!” podcast planted the seeds for this 2025 Ars Nova production, which included a development timeline in the playbill. The result combines the vulnerability of “The Moth Radio Hour”’s open-mic storytelling format and the absurdity of Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers, an early 2000s puppet show for adults. Goodman shares the stage with DJ Ari Grooves and three anthropomorphic puppets: a thick-lipped penis named Floppy, a gilded labia with lush eyelashes, and a glittery purple taint who squeals enthusiastic gibberish which the labia translates. The puppets lend a spirit of whimsy, like if the cast and creative team at Sesame Street dropped acid before filming, and the trio gives Goodman someone (or something) to play off of (and with).  

 

HEAUX CHURCH contains even more vivid stories than that one about Dino along with songs, acronyms, and facilitated discussion. Brandon led the congregants in exploring their desires: what body parts do you like touched, what’s your ideal environment, what’s the mood, what are your preferred accoutrements. The show is billed as the Sex Ed class you never got to take. I think the billing is accurate; I damn sure didn’t take this class or any useful prerequisite. Floppy (the penis) prepped us with a song “uncomfy’s more comfy when you talk to a friend” but I still squirmed in my seat when the woman behind me called out that she likes her nipples bitten and clamped by candlelight on her couch. Brandon, however, was encouraging, non-judgmental, and made a list of all of the crowd-sourced answers. Their rationale is that we don’t talk about sex enough, even as adults. And if we can’t talk about it, then “how can school and home prepare kids for sex”? Goodman’s proselytizing reminded me of Dr. King sharing his dream to crowds at the Washington Monument. Imagine: a world where no child is left behind, and each feels fully equipped to participate in consensual sex, where no one is judged on the quirkiness of their kinks, but on their capacity for erotic generosity!  

 

 

If I thought I was unprepared for the Body-Environment-Mood-Accoutrement discussion, I was certainly humbled by the donut activity. On Brandon’s cue, ushers distributed individually wrapped Krispy Kreme donuts and hand wipes then directed us to follow along with Brandon’s instructions. We were to lick the donut around its hole, gently tongue the opening, and get messy. According to Brandon, there’s lack of education about foreplay and how to please a partner orally. My donut was gone almost as soon as I opened the wrapper; I couldn’t delay biting after I’d licked the glaze. 

 

Maybe I’m a selfish, impatient lover and that’s why I’m single, I thought.

 

…Or maybe it’s because I’m avoidant. 

 

I ate that donut as an escape. 

 

I can be more honest in retrospect than I could’ve been at the time. I couldn’t relax into talking about sex and cunniling-ing donuts in an interracial room of strangers. Especially not in a space designed to look like a church (scenic design by Lawrence E. Moten III). There were stained glass windows and a pulpit. Mini tambourines had been distributed. I can’t be a heaux in the house of the Lord!, my conscience yelled. So I made the donut disappear. 

 

Brandon did this on purpose, no secret. They’re a PK just like me. Brandon’s grandmother was the first Black woman to be ordained in her denomination worldwide. After their grandmother’s passing, Brandon’s mother denied them as her son because of their sexuality and that denial is ongoing. There was no heartwarming reconciliation between Brandon and their mother at the end as is often the case in other plays like Saturday Church, Black Girl Therapy, or Purpose; the resolution is Brandon’s charge to become their own guardian. The combination of the sanctuary setting and the subject matter are intentional. As the show details, there’s something very specific that growing up in church can do to one’s sex life — dial up those negative impacts if you’re queer in an unsupportive family. 

 

 

I think it starts with the way we describe the relationship between the body and the spirit, or the way we’re told to be “of the world but not in the world”. This splits us from ourselves. We aspire to be like Christ and fight the will of the flesh, but so much of human nature requires that we respond to urges. If you’re hungry, you should eat. If you’re thirsty, you should drink. If you’re scared, you should run. 

 

If you’re worried, you should pray. If you want to comfort a friend with a hug, let God lead you. But if you feel like you want more than a hug, suppress it. And if you feel attracted to someone who is the same gender as you, you should spend even more time on your knees…praying, of course…for deliverance.

 

I was raised to believe that any sexual act outside of marriage is distasteful, sinful, and shameful and that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. God is love, but God is not lust or romance. My Christian school community recited the quizzical Song of Solomon adage, ‘do not awaken love before it is desired’ and encouraged us to wait; all would be revealed when we had husbands. I wanted love, I desired sex, and I was afraid of both. In my teens, the part I feared most about getting pregnant was not carrying, delivery, or raising an entire child, but the fact that my parents would know that I’d had sex and was no longer a virgin! I thought about this as everyone around me licked their donut down to the white meat while I had chewed my donut like a prude. I am still detangling the knot of feelings I have about being both a grown unmarried woman and a sexual being; the Bible doesn’t offer any satisfying role models for this particular state of affairs. 

 

Goodman has offered us a tender kindness by doing their own detangling — of realizations, traumas, and doubts — in front of audiences. Between the sharing and the stripping there was nowhere left to hide, and why should they? When they removed their embroidered choir robe and revealed a strappy tangerine playsuit the abdominal definition was giving ripped Jesus on the cross. (I shook my tambourine in total praise!) Why should any of us be hiding our bodies, our preferences, or our desire to experience pleasure? Brandon’s soft honesty, charming allure, and willingness to lead by example would’ve been a blessing as a preacher (or more likely a pigeonholed praise and worship leader), but I’m glad they chose instead to be a heaux. 

 

blacklove 🖤 and starlight 🌟 

 

HEAUX CHURCH ran at Ars Nova from October 8 – November 21, 2025. The play was written and performed by Brandon Kyle Goodman, directed by Lisa Owaki Bierman, and featured DJ Ari Grooves and Greg Corbino. I attended this performance on October 24th. I purchased my own ticket for this performance.