Kalup Linzy, 30, Video Artist
In “Conversations Wit de Churen,” Linzy is doing to daytime soaps what John Waters did to his Baltimore childhood. Part Richard Pryor, part RuPaul, Linzy writes, directs, and stars (wigged, heeled, and often scantily clad) in this series of shorts that are tender and vulgar, hilarious and heartfelt. “It’s a real homage to the comic geniuses within the African-American community,” says Thelma Golden of the Studio Museum in Harlem, where Linzy’s work was the sleeper hit of the 2005 show “Frequency.” With new YouTube video stars popping regularly, Linzy (who received a Guggenheim fellowship this year) has been pegged as a key figure in a new generation of “queer video artists.”