Announcing 2022 Mermaid Parade Royalty: Queen Mermaid- Mx Justin Vivian Bond, King Neptune- Dr. Dave A. Chokski
Mx Justin Vivian Bond has appeared on stage (Broadway and Off-Broadway, London's West End), screen (Shortbus, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Sunset Stories, television (High Maintenance, Difficult People, The Get Down), nightclub stages (most notably a decades long residency at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater in NYC), and in concert halls worldwide (Carnegie Hall, The Sydney Opera House).
Their visual art and installations have been seen in museums and galleries in the US (Participant, Inc, The New Museum) and abroad (Vitrine, London).
Their memoir Tango: My Childhood Backwards and in High Heels (Feminist Press) won the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction.
They are the recipient of an Obie, a Bessie, and a Tony nomination, an Ethyl Eichelberger Award, The Peter Reed Foundation Grant, The Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant for Artists, and The Art Matters Grant.
They have self-released several full length recordings: most notably Dendrophile, and Silver Wells. As one half of the legendary punk cabaret duo Kiki & Herb they toured the world and released two cds: Do You Hear What We Hear? and Kiki and Herb Will Die For You at Carnegie Hall.
Mx Bond has been at the forefront of Trans visibility and activism since the early 1990s.
They have a Masters Degree in Live Art from Central Saint Martins College in London and have taught performance composition and Live Art Installation at NYU and Bard College.
Currently Viv divides their time between residences in New York City's East Village and the Hudson Valley.
In December of 2019 they made their debut at The Vienna Staatsoper in the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth's Orlando as Orlando's child.
Mx Justin Vivian Bond photo by Lia Clay.
The Mermaid Parade is Saturday, June 18, 1pm!
Dave A. Chokshi, MD, MSc, FACP was the 43rd Commissioner at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, one of the leading health agencies in the world. He led the City’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including its historic campaign to vaccinate over 6 million New Yorkers, saving tens of thousands of lives. Dr. Chokshi architected treatment strategies, navigated school and economic reopenings, and served as principal public spokesperson. Under his tenure, the Health Department’s budget grew to its highest-ever level, reflecting investment in signature initiatives such as the Public Health Corps, Pandemic Response Institute, and New Family Home Visiting program. In 2021, the Department also stewarded the launch of the nation’s first publicly-authorized overdose prevention centers—as well as a landmark Board of Health resolution on racism as a public health crisis.
From 2014-2020, Dr. Chokshi served in leadership roles at NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H), including as its inaugural Chief Population Health Officer, where he built an award-winning team dedicated to transforming the largest public health care system in the country. He was also Chief Executive Officer of the H+H Accountable Care Organization (ACO), one of the few ACOs in the nation to achieve high quality and cost performance for eight consecutive years. He has been a practicing primary care internist at Bellevue Hospital since 2014 and is also Clinical Professor of Population Health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Previously, Dr. Chokshi served as a White House Fellow at the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, where he was the principal health advisor in the Office of the Secretary. His prior work experience spans the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Dr. Chokshi has written on medicine and public health in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, The Lancet, Health Affairs, Science, The Atlantic, Harvard Business Review, and Scientific American. In 2016, President Obama appointed him to the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health.
He trained in internal medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital, where he received the Dunne Award for Compassionate Care, and was a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School. During his training, he did clinical work in Guatemala, Peru, Botswana, Ghana, and India. He received his M.D. with Alpha Omega Alpha distinction from Penn. He also earned an MSc in global public health as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and graduated summa cum laude from Duke.