Curated by: SD Holman
July 23 – August 7, 2015
QAF celebrates the 25th anniversary of a landmark work of queer heritage with this year’s theme Trigger: Drawing the Line in 2015.
We draw our lines today very differently than in 1990. As “trigger warnings” placed before art to alert viewers about potentially traumatizing material become increasingly common, QAF 2015 questions what we are sacrificing for safety’s sake. As Jeannette Winterson wrote: “Art has deep and difficult eyes and for many the gaze is too insistent… We avoid painful encounters with art by trivializing it, or by familiarizing it… Every day, in countless ways, you and I convince ourselves about ourselves. True art, when it happens to us, challenges the “I” that we are… Art objects. The nouns become an active force not a collector’s item. Art objects.”
2015 Events
Lifedrawing with HIM
Life Drawing with HIM is an informal, drop-in drawing and sketching social group for men. For one night only, Life Drawing with HIM is collaborating with the Queer Arts Festival to bring this popular drop-in session to the queer arts community. All skill levels, orientations, and genders welcome. This group...
TRIGGER: Drawing the Line in 2015 Curator Tour
Queer Arts Festival: Curator tour and Salon Join festival Artistic Director and Curator of this year's exhibition SD Holman for an informal tour of this year’s Drawing the Line exhibition, followed by a salon co-hosted by Daily Xtra managing editor Robin Perelle, who will ask participants where they draw the...
Cor Flammae: FALLEN ANGELS
QAF's Pre-festival Fluffer! Back for their second incendiary season, Cor Flammae presents FALLEN ANGELS: sacred + profane choral works by historical and modern queer composers. The rich religious traditions of choral music mean a participant must confront sacred spaces which have historically defined the queer body as profane, obscene and unholy....
Genderfest Introvert Chill Mingler
An introvert's way to kick off the rowdy weekend. This event is scent-reduced, and fully wheelchair accessible. For more information on how to support a scent-reduced event, please visit PeggyMunson.com For a full accessibility audit of the space, visit Radical Access Mapping Project . ...
I am ME
Wed Jul 29 & Aug 5 | 6pm Explore your identity through movement in this Dance Out Loud workshop with Kinesis Dance somatheatro . This workshop is for all those who wish to share and celebrate who they are! Explore your identity through movement in a comfortable, fun and supportive...
PROX:IMITY RE:MIX & Night
Co-presented with Kinesis Dance somatheatro and MACHiNENOiSY Queer contemporary dance with Kinesis Dance somatheatro and MACHiNENOiSY's youth dance intensive. PROX:IMITY RE:MIX & NIGHT Two dance companies two dance shows PROX:IMITY RE:MIX is the culmination of a 2-week process in which contemporary dance company MACHiNENOiSY offers skill building in dance, theatre...
Tough Language, Tender Wisdoms: Crafting the Personal Essay
Workshop (2 days): Saturday and Sunday, July 25 and 26 10:30 am to 1:30 pm A Writing Workshop for transgressive voices led by author Amber Dawn, Tough Language, Tender Wisdoms invites participants to write under-told and boundary-pushing stories from their personal experience, and to develop strategies to creating safe and...
QSONG Performance
Co-presented with Access to Music Foundation Prepare to be dazzled by the extraordinary talent of young queer and allied singer/songwriters from our fabulous QSONG workshop . With mentors Sarah Wheeler and Ellen Marple. Buy Tickets / Reserve Seats Coming with a friend or 3? Get a QAF Flex-Pass . Go...
TRIGGER: Drawing the Line in 2015
Gallery hours: 12PM - 9PM weekdays; 11AM - 4PM weekends QAF's curated exhibition honours the 25th anniversary of Kiss & Tell's legendary exhibition, Drawing the Line. 19 participating artists challenge, provoke and push boundaries. What sets you off? Curated by SD Holman Artists - Kiss & Tell: Lizard Jones, Persimmon...
Salon des Refusés
Co-presented with Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium Little Sister's exhibits explicit art by artists in our queer communities. Artists: Alex Winter Jane Eaton Hamilton jackson photografix Rebecca Blankert robin Ron Kearse SD Holman Shakti Sama Coming with a friend or 3? Get a QAF Flex-Pass . Go to 4...
Pride in Art community Show
An open visual art exhibition celebrating queer artists from our communities. Gallery hours: 12pm - 9pam weekdays; 11am - 4pm weekends Known as the Pride in Art Community Show, it is a Queer Arts Festival tradition. This longstanding event showcases the talents of emerging and established visual and media artists...
Queerotica
Community Partner Little Sister's Book & Art Emporium Literary readings to tantalize and titillate - aka Catherine and Jim's dirty porn night . Curated by Ray Hsu. Queerotica started in '99, when SD (Shaira) Holman approached Janine Fuller at Little Sister's Bookstore saying - hey you wanna do some queer porn...
Kiss & Tell
Co-presented with Kickstart Disability Arts & Culture Notorious Vancouver collective Kiss & Tell’s first public appearance together in 13 years. Videos by Lorna Boschman, with talkback moderated by Janine Fuller of Little Sister’s book Store. Kiss & Tell: Persimmon Blackbridge, Lizard Jones, Susan Stewart By donation - Please support art...
TRIGGER WARNING: a video curation by Coral short
An evening of fearless queer video art curated by international curator Coral Short. Followed by an open dialogue with artists and curator. Buy Tickets Coming with a friend or 3? Get a QAF Flex-Pass . Go to 4 shows, take a friend to two shows, bring a group to one...
Cosmophony
Co-presented with the Powell Street Festival Eleven composers share their inner reflections on outer space in Cosmophony , Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa’s solo piano project inspired by the beauty and mystery of the cosmos. Praised in the Vancouver Sun as “brilliant” and “unforgettable,” the program opens with Denis Gougeon's fiercely virtuosic...
Sister Mary’s A Dyke?! (ASL / PWYC)
Co-Produced with the frank theatre Sister Mary’s a Dyke?! is a new play by Toronto-based playwright Flerida Peña. It follows Abby, a Catholic school girl who discovers that not everything is at it seems at Crown of Thorns Academy. After falling in love for the first time, Abby is sent...
A Queen’s Music: Reginald Mobley in Recital
A collaboration with Early Music Vancouver Reginald Mobley, countertenor Alexander Weimann, harpsichord and piano As was with people of colour, the contribution of gay composers and musicians throughout history has been largely forgotten, hidden, or ignored. And in this “Age of Grindr”, where the “woof” of an app is stronger...
Song
Meet Singer/Songwriter, SARAH WHEELER, QSONG Head Mentor and sign up for Access to Music Foundation's Queer Songwriters of a New Generation a FREE 9-week songwriting workshop for queer, trans* and allied youth in the Lower Mainland. Interested participants can attend a demo of the program, meet our head mentor and...
