Pride in Art in the Scotiabank Vancouver 5K & Half-Marathon

Pride in Art is a registered charity in the Scotiabank 5K and Half-Marathon on Sunday June 26! Sponsor a runner or walker, and proceeds go towards producing the Queer Arts Festival. We are running for our lives. 

You can sponsor:

TILDA BERRY MOO BRAVEHEART SWINTON, WONDER DOG OF LITTLE DOG NATION, running with her person, QAF Artistic Director SD Holman
JAMES COOMBER
KARI GUNDERSEN
RACHEL IWAASA
RENEE SIMMONS

All sponsors receive a tax receipt for the full amount donated. 

Are you a cardio contender who wants to raise money for a good cause? 

There’s still time to sign up to walk or run for the Pride in Art Society in the Scotiabank Vancouver 5K & Half-Marathon!

Walkers and runners who register with our code (16VPRIDE) receive a discount on the race feean all-access rush pass to the Queer Arts Festival 2016 and a QAF 2016 T-shirt ($200 total value). Participants who raise $100 or more will have the option to have their registration fee reimbursed. Plus, Pride in Art board member Thierry Gudel is generously donating a bottle of bubbly to the team member who raises the most money!

Runners and athletes with racing chairs will begin the half-marathon at 7:30 am. The 5K begins at 9:30 am and is open to runners, walkers, those in wheelchairs, and those with strollers. Dogs are also welcome in the 5K!

To register

  1. Right-click HERE and select Pride in Art Society from the Charity Challenge drop-down menu.
  2. Enter 16VPRIDE on the initial application form (not the coupon box on the payment screen) to receive a discount on the entry fee.
  3. When you receive your confirmation email, follow the instructions to set up your fundraising profile.
  4. Invite friends and family to sponsor you! 

Having trouble navigating Scotiabank’s online system? You’re not alone… Please email or phone our Director of Development Rachel Iwaasa for assistance — 604.816.0218.

QAF needs you | Call for poets and composers

As 2015 comes to an end, I’d like to give a great big Thank You to all the amazing Queer Arts Family who have answered our 2015 fundraising call. It’s been an overwhelming outpouring of support in the past month, which has brought us to 92% of our $25,000 goal for the year.
Today, I am reaching out to you personally to ask your support. As a friend of QAF, you know how unique our festival is. But that uniqueness is precious and often makes it hard for us to raise funds traditionally. We are asking for your help by making a donation today, or if you’ve already given, to please share this final 2015 call.     This year is a critical turning point for the festival, as we change our dates to June 21-30, marking the Stonewall anniversary. Audiences have been asking for this for a very long time, and we are excited to be able to finally make the move. But change always comes with risk – and we have only 10 months between festivals to plan,  our most compressed festival schedule ever (packed into only 10 days!), and thousands of QAFeurs we need to tell to come a month early.     We are calling on you, our Queer Arts Family, to help us through this exciting but challenging transition. QAF is a charitable organization, and every last dollar goes back into the festival. Ticket prices only cover 5% of what it takes to put on the event. Your donation will help us to:bring queer art luminary Jonathan D. Katz to curate the 2016 visual arts exhibition. We are thrilled to bring his profound curatorial vision to Vancouver audiences, and to introduce him to new voices among out city’s tremendously talented artists.keep our festival financially accessible for all, and continue our pay what you can events, and free access to workshops for youthcontinue our practice of ASL translation or captioning for our language-based showsspread the word, making sure the festival faithful hear about the date change, and the rest of Vancouver hear about the creative capital of queer communitieskeep taking risks on challenging programming, exposing the voices of the full rage of queer artists, of diverse cultural backgrounds, varying abilities, all ages, emerging and established     When our federal funding was withdrawn in 2013, queers stood up and said loud and clear how important this festival is to our communities – YOU got that crucial grant restored. We needed your help then, and we need it again now.     It is up to all of us to make the festival possible. Thank you for being a part of QAF, for building with us an engaged, reflective and participatory creative queer community in Vancouver. Inspiration and dedication can only take us so far. Without you, we wouldn’t have what’s needed to realize this lovingly curated sensory experience, or bring our audience the fabulous queer space we all deserve.Wishing you and yours Happy Holigays and a Merry New Year,

SD Holman
QAF Artistic DirectorImage Credit: Bon and Monica take in Emilio Rojas’s “The Glory.” Photo by belle ancell photographyCall for Poets and ComposersQAF is thrilled to be presenting the 6th edition of the Art Song Lab program. #ASL2016 will be an amazing opportunity for emerging and established composers and poets to have their work rehearsed and developed by world class art-song performers, receive a world premiere (and archival recording) at QAF, attend workshops and receive mentorship with composer Jeffrey Ryan and poet Rachel Rose, and more!Application deadline is Jan. 15, 2016.

MACHiNENOiSY Dance Society is looking for performers for a performance project

PROX:IMITY RE:MIX is a 2 week process that offers skill building in dance, theatre and new media and highlights the unique identities and talents of local queer and allied youth (ages 15-24). No previous performance training is necessary. The content is created from a series of discussions with the youth group around issues of identity, trust, self-respect, self-confidence and touch. The youth will then participate in the creation of the performance along with MACHiNENOiSY artistic Directors Delia Brett & Daelik, and professional dancers.

PROX:IMITY RE:MIX establishes new dance as a positive tool for education and liberation. The youth participants needn’t be previously trained in dance or theatre. Participants will learn the skills they need in physical awareness, and communication through improvisational scores, peer-peer mentorship and by training in Contact Dance. The process engages young and developing queer and non-queer community in an exciting and informative physical dialogue on, performance, identity and collaboration.

Participants will need to be available to rehearse and perform July 20 – Aug 4, 2015
Participants will be paid an honorarium for their time

The performance will take place at the Roundhouse Community Centre as part of the Queer Arts Festival, on Aug 4, 2015. Click HERE for more details.

ALIEN SEX LIFTS OFF AT 7:30 Jul 31

New start time for Alien Sex

We met with the team on Sunday, and we’re excited to report that their creative juices have been flowing freely. They’ve spawned so much more material than we anticipated for this point in the workshopping process, that we realized the 8:30 start time for the performance was going to run indecently late. 

So we’re announcing a new format for the evening. Rather than hosting the gala in advance, we’ve moved showtime up to 7:30pm. This allows the artists to take their time for some sweet, unhurried Alien Sex, lots of time for post-show talk-back in the afterglow, with the party to follow. All patrons are invited to come dressed as their planet of origin – Earthlings welcome. Capture it all in the mobile photo booth by fabulous festival photographer belle ancell. 

To repeat: the Alien Sex show begins at 7:30PM, not 8:30 as previously advertised.

WE Vancouver | Three Must-See Queer Arts Fest Events

By Robert Mangelsdorf – Published July 30, 2014, WE Vancouver

Throughout history, tyrants have banned “degenerate” artists or artworks under the argument that they posed an imminent danger to the social fabric. The theme of Queer Arts Festival is a defiant response to that.

ReGenerations, which opened July 23 and runs until Aug. 9, embraces the premise that art can be dangerous, even revolutionary. In the intimate act of sharing, both artists and audiences find meaning, transformation, and the strength to enact change.

This year’s festival brings together artists from over 20 countries navigating queer identity across the international diaspora, speaks to healing and renewal by addressing topics such as addiction, and provides solidarity for those struggling for queer rights.

The festival’s remaining highlights include:

Alien Sex

Tentacles wrestle the sexual status quo; secret identity exposes itself; and the Empire is challenged by authentic expression in a work that mixes whimsy, savage poetry, heartbreaking vulnerability and B-movie joy.

Get your alien on in this transdisciplinary evening, featuring the work-in-progress presentation of Alien Sex. Come dressed in an outfit original to your planet of origin. Prizes will be awarded to the best-dressed queer aliens.

Actor/director and Alien Sex instigator David Bloom brings together an exciting team in a multi-genre, multi-generational feast. The all-star cast features Vancouver genderqueer creators Olivia B (performance poet/tap dancer) and Floyd VB (performance poet/visual artist), propelled by the visceral and immutable life force of taiko drummer Eileen Kage, composer/dancer/video artist Sammy Chien, actor/dancer/visual and performance artist Robert Leveroos, and photo-based artist/actor SD Holman (of BUTCH: Not like the other girls).

Drawing upon energetic interpretations of the transgressive BDSM poet Linda Smukler/Samuel Ace and the divisive heterosexual playwright David Mamet, gay, lesbian, bi, queer, straight, vanilla, kinky and yet-to-be-named perspectives collide in a speculative fiction that explores the beautiful, and sometimes inexplicable territory of human sexuality.

July 31 at 7:30-9:30 pm; $20 (all funds raised go to support the Pride in Art Society); 181 Roundhouse Mews 

I Sing The Body Electric: Walt Whitman and The Beat Generation

Just in time for Pride weekend, Erato Ensemble’s I Sing the Body Electric celebrates the queer spirit of Walt Whitman and the Beat Generation, who dared to express an individual language and lifestyle in the midst of the conservative social mores of their times, changing our culture forever.

Walt Whitman’s poetry is the basis for an emotional love story of two men – from meeting, to falling in love, to separation by war and death. Music by Kurt Weill, Charles Naginski, William George and world premieres by Lloyd Burritt and Ben Schuman. The Beat poets Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Diane Di Prima inspire new works by David Del Tredici, David Sisco, Jerome Kitzke, Steven Ebel, Anthony Ocaña, a “Beat Madrigal,” and a world premiere by Catherine Laub.

Aug. 1, 7:30-9:30 pm; $30 General Admission; $15 Youth/Seniors/Underemployed; 181 Roundhouse Mews

Queering the International 

QAF’s signature visual arts exhibition, Queering the International, features a lineup of established and emerging artists from around the globe who are immigrant, indigenous, undocumented, displaced.

Recent homophobic events in Russia, India, Uganda, and elsewhere have made it timely to highlight artists who address queer identity on an international scale, and whose work celebrates the complex human condition. 

Queering the International asks the artists, “What is queer, what is international, what is your diaspora, and what is identity?”

Brought together by the curatorial talents of Zimbabwe-born Laiwan and curatorial assistant Anne Riley, who is of Dene/Cree ancestry, it features artists from a range of nations including Brazil, Canada, the Cree Nation, Guatemala, Guyana, the Haudenosaunee Territories, Hawaii, Hong Kong, India, Iran, Russia, South Africa, Trinidad, the United States, and more, covering a breadth of viewpoints and perspectives from queers near and far.

Until Aug. 9; by donation, gallery hours 10:30am-10pm weekdays; 10:30am-4:30pm weekends; 181 Roundhouse Mews © Copyright (c) WE Vancouver

New start time for Alien Sex

We met with the team on Sunday, and we’re excited to report that their creative juices have been flowing freely. They’ve spawned so much more material than we anticipated for this point in the workshopping process, that we realized the 8:30 start time for the performance was going to run indecently late. 

So we’re announcing a new format for the evening. Rather than hosting the gala in advance, we’ve moved showtime up to 7:30pm. This allows the artists to take their time for some sweet, unhurried Alien Sex, lots of time for post-show talk-back in the afterglow, with the party to follow. All patrons are invited to come dressed as their planet of origin – Earthlings welcome. Capture it all in the mobile photo booth by fabulous festival photographer belle ancell. 

To repeat: the Alien Sex show begins at 7:30PM, not 8:30 as previously advertised.

Message from the Artistic Director, January 2014

Dear Queer Arts Family,

Happy New Year! 2014 is a year of big changes at QAF.

QAF offices have moved – from our East Van basement headquarters to a bright top floor loft in Gordon Neighbourhood House at Broughton and Comox. As we relocate from one Vancouver gaybourhood to the other, we are happy to have found offices that are more accessible in every way – easy to find, more public, and much easier to move around in for people who are either mobility challenged or tall. A big thanks to Paul M. Taylor and the whole team at GNH for inviting us into their space, and to QAF all-star volunteers Kathy, Jayden, Marnie and Laurie and all our staff for making the relocation a smooth and painless process. If you’re in the neighbourhood, swing by and say hello, or come spend a little longer and volunteer.

We have big changes on our staffing front too. I’d like to welcome Theo Jakob, joining the QAF team as our new Managing Director, a position created thanks to a Capacity Building Grant from the BC Arts Council. Many of you may know Theo from his work with the Vancouver Queer Film Festival and the All Bodies Swim. Our Director of Operations, Rachel Iwaasa, will be taking the helm as Acting Artistic Director, while I take a one-year sabbatical for 2014. It’s been an intense 7 years developing from the all-volunteer Pride in Art exhibition into the 3-week transdisciplinary festival QAF has become. An awful lot has happened along the way, and it’s time for me to step back to take time for some quiet contemplation and professional development – working on my MFA, touring my show BUTCH: not like the other girls, and developing it into a book. I will also be delving into two other projects on grief around my beautiful wife Catherine and her death: Still Life, portraits of absence, and Pazapapilgrimage variations, a transdisciplinary piece about the journey of grieving through my walk across Canada. Ok, so maybe not so much time for quiet contemplation. Rest assured, I’ll miss the festival too much to disappear. My commitment to the work remains as strong as ever, and I’ll still be available to the team as consultant and volunteer – in the meantime, our programming is all set for2014, and I know I’m leaving the festival in very capable hands. Warmest thanks to the whole Queer Arts Family for all your support of the festival over the years. It’s been a rewarding and challenging learning cliff, and I look forward to returning in a year.

SD Holman,QAF Artistic Director


Photo credit: belle ancell

Theo Jakob joins the Pride in Art in January 2014 in the position as Managing Director, created with the generous assistance of a BC Arts Council Capacity Building grant. Theo comes to us with nine years experience in program management and administration of multi-stakeholder programs, especially focused on community empowerment and engagement with queer and trans communities, and seven years experience in volunteer coordination and human resource management. Theo has worked since 2010 as Festival Program Coordinator at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival, where he assisted with coordinating Festival production, including 2011’s Celebrate Queer Vancouver activities, and spearheaded their accessibility initiatives. Theo’s particular expertise is as a consultant and community programmer whose work often centres around policy, organizational development, sustainability, anti-oppression and accessibility. We are excited to welcome this brilliant young arts administrator to our team, as part of our commitment to nurturing and cultivating queer arts talent in Vancouver.

Flamers, Sunny Drake, and Playing for Our Team!

By SD Holman Queer Arts Festival |  March 17, 2014Whats new at QAF? We’ve got some exciting news and changes this month, including a job posting, new staff, and exciting upcoming projects. Here’s what we have to share with you.

Art changes people; people change the world

Become a Pride in Art patron. Imagine a world without homophobia — then help make that world a reality. Whether you make a one-time gift, or commit to sustain the festival with a monthly contribution, your tax-deductible donation helps QAF commission and incubate cutting-edge new queer work, nurture the next generation of queer talent, and to celebrate with the wider world the best our communities have to offer.

QSONG

QAF is partnering with Qmunity Gab Youth and the Access to Music Foundation to bring you a 16-week songwriting workshop for queer and allied youth ages 14-24.  All levels of experience are welcome!Led by queer singer/songwriters Sarah Wheeler and Melissa Endean, QSONG incorporates recording, broadcasting, and mentorship opportunities, plus a live appearance at QAF2014!Funded in part by:

Initial drop-in Workshops Mar 26, and Apr 30 4-6 pmWeekly workshops May 16 – Aug 9Located at our QAF offices: Gordon Neighbourhood House, 1019 Broughton St. Room 2

SUNNY DRAKE

QAF is incredibly excited to announce Sunny Drake as one of the performers in our upcoming festival season.Sunny has created his own unique style of multi-genre theatre, which he has been evolving since he was a teenaged girl. Sunny has performed in theatres, festivals, living rooms, streets, work places, deserts, schools, universities, basements, backyards & conferences in Australia, the USA, Canada, and Europe.  He recently won the Arts Professional Award in the SummerWorks Performance Festival (2013) as well as being named by NOW Magazine for “Outstanding Performance” and “Outstanding Design”. Watch for details when the full QAF line-up is announced later this spring, and visit his website here!“Sunny Drake…is a force of nature. A real-life cartoon. He bounds, jumps, fizzes and cranks his way across the stage, full of pluck and charisma–and we can’t look away.”– Mike Anderson, Mooney on Theatre

 

COR FLAMMAE – CALL FOR AUDITIONS

Warm up those lovely pink vocal folds and audition for Canada’s first queer classical chorus! Cor Flammae will be holding auditions for classically-trained Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass singers on March 15 and 16th in Vancouver. See www.corflammae.com/auditions for more info, and sign up to reserve your audition time. Cor Flammae is Vancouver’s budding chamber chorus of classically trained, queer singers, performing historical and modern queer content. Composed from the ranks of Vancouver’s top-flight choral ensembles and singers, the choir seeks to reveal the hidden queer heritage often ignored in the conservative world of classical music. Cor Flammae is looking for your support: your donations are needed, and will go towards paying highly-trained musicians, purchasing sheet music, and rental fees for venues and rehearsal spaces. To help Canada’s first classical queer chorus continue to perform queer content, click the button below!

 

New Communications Coordinator at QAF

Kenneth Yuen joins the team at QAF this month as the new Communications Coordinator.  Over the past 5 years, he has worked with various local artist-run organizations including Access Gallery and On Main Gallery.Kenneth comes from a visual arts background and has worked as a project assistant on many projects with video artist Paul Wong – highlights include the ‘5’ project, commissioned by The City of Vancouver through its Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program, as part of Mapping and Marking Artist-Initiated Projects for Vancouver 2010.  Most recently, he was the Kickstarter campaign manager for On Main Gallery’s MIMMiC Project, and SD Holman’sBUTCH: Not like the other girls.We are excited to welcome Kenneth as part of our team, and look forward to the upcoming festival season with him  – feel free to contact him at kenneth@prideinart.ca

ROOM MAGAZINE Call for Submissions

Room Magazine, Canada’s oldest literary journal by and about women*, is having an open call for polished unpublished fiction, poetry, and non-fiction on any theme for their upcoming issue edited by Christina Cooke and Taryn Hubbard. Deadline: Wednesday, April 30, 2014

To learn more about page limits and how to submit, please refer to the Submission Guidelines listed on their website at http://www.roommagazine.com/submit.*Room accepts submissions from cisgender, trans and genderqueer authors written from a feminine perspective, regardless of sexual orientation or current identification. Room is presently in the midst of re-branding the journal to reflect that reality. So long as your work features feminine perspectives, they’d love to read it!

 Here’s to 2014!

How do I transgress thee? Let me count the ways… One more week!

We are now 7 days away from the opening night of the 2013 Queer Arts Festival: TransgressionNow.

Hope y’all are coming down to our Art Party! Wednesday July 24, from 7-10pm at the Roundhouse, because it’s gonna be a blast. The opening night gala is always a queer-tastic, inclusive, all-ages event for everyone to see some art and build community. Proudly sponsored by Health Initiative for Men(HIM).

And the Art Party! is just the tip of the iceberg. For almost three weeks, we are presenting an incredible array of shows, workshops and outreach activities. Check out all our events on our website or on our Facebook page.
 
Reflection/Refraction

If you like the weird and the wonderful, the unexpected and fresh, then make sure you come to this evening of transdisciplinary performance art inspired by short queer films. queerartsfestival.com/event/reflection-refraction

Reflection/Refraction flips the gaze of the artist. Cellist Cris Derksen drapes her layers of sound around the flirty awkwardness of Narissa Lee’s The Bus Pass. David C. Jones develops gender musings through physical theatre with a tip of the heel to The Hawker by Elisha Lim and Coco Riot. Mette Bach evokes complex personal histories in contrast to Kent Monkman’s playful cultural critique Dance to Miss Chief.

Dancer Ralph Escamillan holds Clark Nikolai’s Galactic Docking Company gently and pushes far beyond the reaches of space. Mr Cobalt 2013, Tran ÀPus Rex, challenges the dragged-up Herr by John Greyson with choreography by Vancouver’s Joe Laughlin.

Reflection/Refraction is curated by Kristina Lemieux, Artistic Producer of Brief Encounters, and Jen Crothers, artist and filmmaker (Butch Tits), who share a love of queer interdisciplinary arts.
Buy tickets now: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/407953
Queer Migration and Homing:
A g/local world cafe dialogue

To broaden the impact of our commissioned opera When the Sun Comes Out, QAF is partnering with Rainbow Refugee to engage in community outreach programs; giving voice to a wide range of true-life stories surrounding the issues raised by the opera: homophobic violence, migration, and the search for community and home. We invite you to come and just listen or share your own story.

Speakers: Tehseen A. (Rainbow Refugee), Chris Morrissey (Rainbow Refugee), Dai Kojima (UBC, Liu Institute), Fatima Jaffer (Trikone, UBC)

Dialogue Facilitators: members of Our City of Colours, My Circle, Queer Migration Collective, Rainbow Refugee, and cast and creators of When the Sun Comes Out

Sunday July 28, 5-7pm, at the Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre, 2nd Flr, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 West Hastings Street.

————————–
Pride Legacy Awards
We are PROUD to announce that two of our 2013 curated artists, Joe Average and SD Holman, are finalists for a a Pride Legacy Award, for their contributions to Art in Vancouver.

Presented by Vancouver Pride Society and TELUS, the awards ceremony will take place this Sat. July 20 at the Imperial, and will be hosted by Fred Lee. See Facebook event

View our TransgressionNow Curated Visual Art Exhibition, showing July 24 – Aug 9 in the Roundhouse Exhibition Hall, to see their work.

Congrats and good luck!

————————–
GayVancouver.Net is yet another homo-fabulous new Media Partner this year, and we just loooove all the twitter buzz and editorial they’ve been providing this year!

GayVancouver.Net (Gay Vancouver Online) is Vancouver’s LGBTQ online guide. Check it out: gayvancouver.net

————————–

Become a Pride in Art Patron
Imagine a world without homophobia — then help make that world a reality.

Whether you make a one-time gift, or commit to sustain the festival with a monthly contribution, your tax-deductible donation helps QAF commission and incubate cutting-edge new queer work, nurture the next generation of queer talent, and to celebrate with the wider world the best our communities have to offer.

Donate Now Through CanadaHelps.org!

————————–

How do I buy tickets?
Buy in-person at Little Sister’s Book & Art Emporium, 1238 Davie St.

Purchase online through Brown Paper Tickets!

Or, take your chances and purchase from Box Office the night of the show. Opens 30 minutes before showtime, accepts cash only.

Festival passes
A screamin’ deal – 4 shows for $69 (excluding the Big Gay Sing, surcharges apply to Kinnie Starr/Cris Derksen, and When the Sun Comes Out). To assure seating, QAF passholders can book available shows online up to 72 hours in advance. Or live dangerously and come with your pass when the box office opens.

$5 youth tickets
(24 and under)
Available for select shows, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the TD Come Out for Art youth ticket program.

Two weeks until 2012 Queer Arts Festival!

RaNDoM acTS oF QueeRnNeSS,
July 31 – August 18.

 

What are you most excited to see?

The Visual Art Exhibits? Queer Theatre? Contemporary Dance? Cutting-edge musical premieres? Or off-the-wall variety shows?! Maybe you want to take in a workshop or two…

Whatever your fancy, make sure you get your tickets- on sale at Little Sister’s Bookstore, through brownpapertickets.com, or at the door 30 minutes before showtime (subject to availability)

And don’t miss the Art Party! Opening Night Gala, Tuesday July 31st! Be there, or be… well, square.
 

Read the complete e-newsletter (with images) HERE

2 weeks until opening night! Yamantaka//Sonic Titan is coming…

Holy guacamole, TransgressionNow opens in two weeks!! Tickets are already selling fast, so don’t wait or it might be too late.
We have something for everyone: quirky contemporary dance, comic theatre, indie rock, gay sing-alongs, dramatic opera, and cutting-edge visual and new media art the likes of which even NYC hasn’t seen! (well maybe, but not exactly. Y’know what I’m sayin’?)
So mark your calendars and buy your tickets — you won’t want to miss anything!

Yamantaka//Sonic Titan

Presented in partnership with the Powell Street Festival

“One of the most exciting bands on the planet.” – NOW Magazine (Toronto)

Founded in late 2007 by performance artists Alaska B and Ruby Kato Attwood, YT//ST is an Asian, Indigenous and Diasporic experimental Art and Music Collective. Aesthetically, they blend the diverse styles of Noh, Chinese Opera, Chinese, Japanese and First Nations Mythology, Black & White Television, Psychedelia and Rock Operatics into a sensory feast. One thing’s for sure — this performance will be out of this world!

About their 2011 album, YT//ST:
“This is the kind of record that happens when city dwellers in two of the most multicultural urban areas of the world mix up gender, culture and genre with a sense of urgency. This sounds like the birth of a new culture.” – David Dacks, Exclaim!

Roundhouse Performance Centre, Sat. August 3
Tickets: $5 youth, $20 advance, $25 at door.
Youth tickets made available through the TD ‘Come Out For Art’ Youth Ticket Program.

Buy your tickets now:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/414781
Get your dance on with George Stamos

This workshop environment will be a safe, mature, and queer place to learn skills and strengthen abilities. The way Stamos teaches is designed to develop the critical eye and awareness of methods for creating spontaneous, mindful movement in performance.

The class includes contemporary interpretations of African dance principles and somatic principles Stamos uses to choreograph/dance. Participants should be able to walk vigorously, be adults, open to improvising, and be in relatively good shape. Dancers and non-dancers equally welcome. Cost: $10.

Stamos is performing his critically acclaimed duo Liklik Pik at QAF on July 26; this workshop gives audience members inspired by the show the opportunity to dance with him the following day.

————————–

East Side Re-Rides
We wanna heap some love sauce on another one of our fantabulous sponsors, East Side Re-Rides!

East Side Re-Rides is the only dedicated second-hand leather store in Metro Vancouver. Re-Rides sells and consigns new and used leather clothing and motorcycle gear.

😉

Oh ya, and the owner is HAWT. 

————————–

Volunteer Orientations
Come on down to the Roundhouse Community Centre for the first orientation tonight, Wed Jul 10, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm.

Second orientation meeting is Sat Jul 13 from 2:30 – 4:40 pm.

It’s a great way to help make the festival magic happen, meet some new peeps, and enjoy a few other perks.

Visit: queerartsfestival.com/volunteer for more info

————————–

We are also thrilled to give a shout out to the Westender, who has come on as a Media sponsor this year.

Happy to be working with you! www.wevancouver.com

————————–

Become a Pride in Art Patron

Imagine a world without homophobia — then help make that world a reality.

Whether you make a one-time gift, or commit to sustain the festival with a monthly contribution, your tax-deductible donation helps QAF commission and incubate cutting-edge new queer work, nurture the next generation of queer talent, and to celebrate with the wider world the best our communities have to offer.

queerartsfestival.com/donate

One month ’til we unleash our queer art on Vancouver!

Check out the complete QAF line-up online
at queerartsfestival.com

Cutting-edge new media art, a gay pig-boy dance duet, gender bending performance art and the world premiere of a lesbian opera… where else can you find this spectrum of culture and entertainment but at the 6th annual Queer Arts Festival in Vancouver, BC!

Don’t miss our Art Party! Opening night gala, Wednesday July 24 from 7 – 11pm in the Roundhouse Exhibition Hall. This is your chance to view TransgressionNow, the curated visual art exhibit, the Pride in Art Community Art Show, and mingle with the Vancouver queer arts community. With live performances, life drawing, decadent delectables and effervescent bevvies, let’s see how gay it gets…!
Proudly sponsored by Health Initiative for Men.Online ticket sales begin atmidnight tonight (June 21) at brownpapertickets. Just go to queerartsfestival.com and click on your favourite events to buy tickets.

Kinnie Starr’s official album launch concert!

Kinnie Starr is one of Canada’s most adored and critically acclaimed underground musicians, heralded for her authentic voice. Starr relies on “raw feral talent” (Globe and Mail), solid groove, and a love for wordplay whether performing sensual and literate hip-hop, heartfelt guitar songs or spoken word. She has been blazing trails since 1996 with her beat slamming recordings, outspoken race and gender politics, intelligent and edgy visual art and striking looks.

Starr is now releasing her 6th album ‘Kiss It‘. Entirely self-produced, the record is based on sparse, fresh, new wave electro hip hop beats created by Kinnie herself. Since hip hop tends to cater exclusively to homogenized male sexuality, Starr has chosen to base her new album on positive female sexuality. A sense of inquiry about what ‘home’ is dominates the album content as a reflection of our globally minded thinking. And of course, Starr’s signature, sensual, singspeak rap style is the backbone of everything. Concert ticket price includes CD!

A rising star on the Canadian world / classical / folk / electronica scenes, award-winning cellist Cris Derksen is known for building layers of sound into captivating performances. Her music braids the traditional and contemporary in multiple dimensions, weaving her traditional classical training and her aboriginal ancestry with new school electronics, creating genre defying music. Derksen recently released a new album, ‘The Collapse‘ – “an evocative and highly atmospheric album that taps into everything from classical music history to environmental issues.” (CBC Music)

Sharing a strong interest in landscape and heritage both physically and sonically, they are a perfect match for exploration and creative discovery. This performance will also include their new collaborative project, BEAMS.

At the Roundhouse Performance Centre, Friday August 2.
Tickets: $5 youth, $20 advance, $25 at door.
Ticket price includes CD!
Youth tickets made available through the TD ‘Come Out For Art’ Youth Ticket Program.Tickets go on sale tonight at midnight! (June 21):
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/e/407960

As our Community Partner, together with the Vancouver Pride Society we are also offering a combination ticket for $30 that gets you into the Davie Street Party after the concert!For complete event listings on all our performances and workshops, visitqueerartsfestival.com

Let’s be Social

Facebook
Twitter

We know you already love us. So Like and Follow us too!—————————–

‘Come Out for Art’
TD Bank Group has come on board to generously sponsor our youth tickets.

This inaugural youth ticket program, ‘Come Out for Art’, will provide affordable $5 tickets to select QAF shows for youth under age 24.—————————–

We want to thank everyone SO MUCH who voted for belle ancell’s photo submission in the TELUS Give Where We Live contest.

Her photo, taken at last year’s Art Party, made it into the Top 5 of the popular vote. We are still waiting to hear the results, but if belle wins, she will donate the $10,000 prize to the Pride in Art Society!!

belle has been a volunteer photographer for QAF since 2011, and a featured artist in the PiA Community Art Show as well.

This year, her evocative photographs are a part of TransgressionNow, our visual art exhibition curated by Paul Wong and Glenn Alteen.

We love you belle!
belleancellphotography.com—————————-

Our esteemed Artistic Director, Shaira Holman, has been nominated for a Pride Legacy Award, for her contribution to Art in Vancouver.

These awards are meant to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Rainbow Flag, with each colour representing a different meaning.

Presented by TELUS, the awards ceremony will take place July 20 at the Imperial, and will be hosted by Fred Lee.

Congrats and good luck, SD!————————–

QAF would like to spread some love to our homo-tastic media sponsor, Xtra!

Now in its 20th year of publishing, Xtra is Vancouver’s premier gay and lesbian newspaper.

Every year they provide excellent coverage of the festival, and have supported our efforts from the beginning. Thank you!!

Artful indeterminacy

Vancouver’s Queer Arts Festival is anything but random

The Queer Arts Festival (QAF) may be only five years old in its current incarnation, but it’s throwing a centenary birthday bash.

The birthday boy, free-form experimental artist John Cage, will make a posthumous appearance along with his more structured contemporary Pierre Boulez in QAF’s Boulez Contra Cage, adapted from correspondence between the two queer composers.

A fusion of theatre and musical performance, the piece, subtitledInterdisciplinary Argument for Two Musicians and Two Actors, mines the friendship and artistic debate Cage and Boulez engaged in between 1949 and 1954. Those unfamiliar with the composers’ music can expect to be pushed in new directions.

In further tribute to Cage’s penchant for what he called indeterminacy in art, QAF entitled this year’s artistic showcase Random Acts of Queerness.

“We often do a play on words,” artistic director SD Holman points out. “People can go with it in the literal sense, whether it’s the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence skating down Davie St . . . or Kelowna, to interpreting it in a formal sense and using it as a way of breaking free of habit and risking the effects of something random.”

It’s a challenge to artists to look at their work through a different lens, whether their work is on canvas, on stage, in music or any other media. “The artists are really excited by it. All of the artists are taking very different tacks on the theme,” Holman says.

Vancouver’s three-week celebration of queer art, which was recently granted charitable status, showcases 150 artists, featured in visual art shows, workshops and performances.

Unless otherwise noted, all performances take place at the Roundhouse Performance Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews. For more information, go to queerartsfestival.com.

***

Thanks, but no thanks

Thank You, You’re Not Welcome is a simpler, edgier, more personal reconfiguration of Noam Gagnon’s 2010 dance piece 10 Things You’ll Hate About Me.

“It’s more like a Brothers Grimm fairytale now,” says the dancer and choreographer.

Distilled from the thick, seam-broken journals filled with Gagnon’s musings and artwork, Thank You is part autobiography, part fantasy-merging-with-life story about a Quebec youth struggling with poverty, incest, alcoholism and his coming of age.

“There’s the moment of awareness, the moment of facing the demons, facing the reality of what you’re made of, and also where you came from,” Gagnon says.

“The thing I find fascinating about this is that it doesn’t matter if it happened 30 years ago. It happened 100 years ago, and it still happens today. Some stories just keep repeating themselves,” he says. “It’s about saying, ‘I’m grateful for what happened, but this needs to stop. It’s almost like saying, ‘Fuck you.’”

It’s a cycle Gagnon manages to arrest through dance. “There’s a moment of transcending. His desire to dream really leads him to believe that there’s something more, and the possibility of survival is great.

“I’m playing a character that is beyond me, that hopefully has an element that is about everyone else,” he adds.

“It’s the kind of work that brings you right into your guts and right into your imagination. It’s not an intellectual story.”

Thank You, You’re Not Welcome will be performed Fri, Aug 3 at 7:30pm.

***

Law of Proximity is an attempt to explore, through contact dance, issues of intimacy, touch, safety, communication and identity, say MACHiNENOiSY’s co-artistic directors, Delia Brett and Daelik.

For Daelik, contact dance, with its emphasis on shared physicality and improvised movement, opens avenues for sensual, intimate communication, without being sexual.

“When I got involved in theatre and dance, touching took on a whole new meaning for me,” Daelik explains. “As a teen, touching can be a volatile subject. For kids who are not straight, it’s doubly difficult because there is taboo sexuality associated with it.”

Conceived three years ago, Law of Proximity is a collaboration between queer youth and professional artists within a workshop setting to create a performance that is youth-driven.

Mostly in their 20s, participants have been pulled from Qmunity’s GAB Youth, Capilano University, Purple Thistle and previous workshops.

“We want it to come from the youth. Whatever we do, whatever we create, that queerness is going to come from them,” Brett says.

“The themes that have been coming up are identifiers, the names we call ourselves and the names that people call us,” Brett says.

“We asked about positive, negative or neutral labels that we associate with either being gay, being queer or being an outsider,” Daelik adds.

“Another issue has been homophobia, what that looks like nowadays — this subtle non-violent communication that communicates homophobia,” Brett says.

“They’re going to use the skills of contact to embody whatever it is that we end up creating and maybe improvise some of the moments within that.”

Law of Proximity runs Wed, Aug 15 to Sat, Aug 18 at 7:30pm, at the Scotiabank Dance Centre, 677 Davie St.

***

Lesbian drama humour

Lesbian relationships “are great fodder for humour,” says Jan Derbyshire. “I think we have our own way of doing things.”

Derbyshire’s new play, workshopped at the Queer Arts Festival two years ago, premieres on Aug 9 and stars local comedian Morgan Brayton.

“I wanted to look at a couple who had been together for a long time but still had to deal with the question of marriage, now that we’re allowed to follow a more linear progression in our relationships,” Derbyshire explains.

What about those people who don’t want to get hitched, she wondered. Is that a commitment issue or just how some queers roll?

Out came Turkey in the Woods, in which one half of a long-term lesbian couple is always threatening to leave, while the other half has a driving need to tie the knot traditionally.

The comedy lies in the conflict, Derbyshire says, “and how long we stay in therapy, how long we stay connected to our past, how we’re allowed to repeat the same pattern over and over again,” she adds.

“I wanted to look at all the myths but also the jokes around the myths,” she says, such as serial monogamy, relationships with roughly three-year life spans, the we-all-know-each-other and we’ve-all-slept-together scenarios. Oh . . . and don’t forget the less-than-reputable therapists who hang on to their patients, co-dependent-style.

There’s some truth in all of that, Derbyshire says, but the missing pieces are the relationships that do work.

Turkey in the Woods runs Thurs, Aug 9–Wed, Aug 15, various showtimes.

***

Fundamentalia’s limited freedom

Billed as Canada’s first lesbian opera, Rachel Rose’s When the Sun Comes Out follows three people trying to fully be themselves in Fundamentalia, a constrictive cultural landscape that doesn’t allow them that freedom.

As they search for limited opportunities to express themselves, two of the characters — the married couple, Lilah and Javan — are immersed in the lies they believe they have to tell to survive. The surprise is they’re hiding behind the same lie, director Robert McQueen says.

“They have betrayed the oath that they have taken with each other in their marriage, and by force, they have lived in fear of what they feel and what they have experienced.”

In part, disruption enters in the form of the tomboyish Solana, a young woman implicitly from “the West” whose teacher-student relationship with Lilah evolves into an intimate one. Having tasted the forbidden, Lilah and her marriage are left in a state of chaos. “The obvious choice would be for the women to leave,” McQueen points out.

With her ingrained sense of personal and sexual freedom, Solana is accustomed to packing up and leaving when things get tough in her world. Except she has bonded with Lilah.

“By the end, the three realize their strength is in forming a community and living within that,” McQueen says.

Still, there are no guarantees.

A workshop performance of When the Sun Comes Out will take place on Thurs, Aug 2 at 7:30pm.

Victory for queer artists and lesbian opera world premiere!

Canadian Heritage funding victory!
Most of you will be aware that the last month has been a roller coaster ride for us at QAF. In April, we received word from Canadian Heritage that they were withdrawing their funding of the 2013 festival. This came as a shock, without warning or explanation, after a very successful three-year partnership with them. So we turned to you for help.

We launched our publicity campaign via social media, online petition, and mail on May 1st. The public outcry was incredible! Two days later, on May 3rd, the Ministry contacted Artistic Director Shaira Holman and informed her that 75% of our funding would be restored. This quick turnaround is very rare; of the dozens of arts organizations that have lost their federal funding, we know of only ONE other festival that has had their funding cut and reinstated in the same year.

So basically, this is a huge victory for QAF and all queer artists, and we have YOU to thank for this positive outcome!

Thank you for all the Tweets, Posts, Shares, Likes, and signatures on the online petition. This groundswell of support proves the importance of QAF’s programming and artistic vision, and the social impact of our outreach activities.

This turn of events however, still leaves us with a $10,000 shortfall. We need your support now more than ever.  Please become a monthly donor to the Pride in Art Society, or make a one-time donation to our Legacy Fund.

Donations of ALL sizes are gratefully accepted and deeply appreciated.

Pride in Art is a registered charity, and issues tax deductible receipts for all donation $20 or more. Haven’t claimed a charitable donation since 2007, or never? Then you may be eligible for the First Time Donor’s Super Credit!  See more info on our Donate webpage. https://queerartsfestival.com/donate
Lesbian opera marks world premiere

Our flagship show this year is the staged premiere of composer Leslie Uyeda and poet Rachel Rose’s opera When the Sun Comes Out. Commissioned by QAF, this ground-breaking new work makes history as Canada’s first lesbian opera, that is, by lesbians writing about love between women. This piece was met with great enthusiasm at last year’s sold-out workshop performance.

A story of forbidden love, divided loyalties and culture clash, the opera sensitively explores the oppression that queers face, and the risks they take, in nations where homosexuality is illegal.  When the Sun Comes Out is being brought to life by director James Fagan Tait, rising star soprano Teiya Kasahara, mezzo-soprano Julia Morgan, and baritone Aaron Durand.

We are partnering with Rainbow Refugee in outreach programs that will engage diverse communities by sharing real-life stories that echo the opera’s themes. We would also like to thank our other community partners: Vancouver Opera, Powell Street Festival, Vancouver Foundation, Hamber Foundation, and the Martha Lou Henley Charitable Foundation.
Festival Lineup June 1st
OMG, we are only two weeks away from announcing the full festival line up on our website!

So watch out for the launch notice on our social media portals, and then check out queerartsfestival.com
HiM sponsors Art Party!

We are tickled pink to partner with HiM as the official sponsor of our opening night Art Party! July 24, 2013.

HiM is a community- based organization dedicated to strengthening the health and well-being of gay men.  Their approach includes physical, sexual, social and mental health.

checkhimout.ca

As one of the best-attended visual arts events in Vancouver, Art Party! celebrates the premiere evening of the Visual Arts Exhibit and the PiA Community Art Show, and the opening of the Queer Arts Festival.

Featuring live performances, life drawing, decadent delectables and effervescent bevies… let’s see how gay it gets!

Deadline for PiA Community Art Show extended!
Due to all the distractions in the past few weeks, we have decided to extend the deadline to submit to the Community Art Show to June 15.

This show will exhibit visual art works by queer artists in any medium for the duration of the festival, July 24 – August 9, in the main hall at the Roundhouse Community Centre.

QAFs East Van
East Van Graphics, that is! Once again we are partnering with EVG for all our festival print material.

Soon our sexy posters and programs will be unleashed upon the city for your public and private enjoyment.

Keeping it queer and local, yo. eastvangraphics.ca

QAF’s federal funding cut by $44,000: How you can help

QAF’s federal funding was cut by $44,000, without warning or explanation, just 3 months before the festival is due to start. We have asked the Minister of Canadian Heritage through a twitter campaign to restore our funding  – and it seems to be working! He’s promised to take a second look at our file. We urgently need support on twitter, showing the minister that there is public support for queer arts.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

1. URGENT: Help our Twitter campaign reach far and wide.
Our tweets have already started to have an effect. The Minister has responded with a tweet: “to get my staff to take a second look at the file and see why it was not approved”

So, we now have a less then 24-hr window to get out as much twitter support as possible. If you’re on twitter, please tweet something like:

@JamesMoore_org- please restore @CdnHeritage funding to @QAFVancouver! #artsfunding

or

@JamesMoore_org- rétablir s.v.p. le financement @Patrimoinecdn de @QAFVancouver! #artsfunding

Follow us @ twitter.com/qafvancouver

2. Mail a letter.
Yes, snail mail. Actual hand-written letters from concerned constituents get more traction than online “armchair advocacy”- and you don’t have to pay for a stamp if you’re in Canada! Address:

Hon. James Moore
Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6

3. Like and share our posts on Facebook.
Connect with us @ facebook.com/qafvancouver

4. Donate.
We need your support now more than ever. Please become a monthly donor to the Pride in Art Society. 333 new monthly $10 donors could completely replace the funds lost in Heritage’s decision, and lay a strong, sustainable foundation for QAF’s future.

Pride in Art is a registered charity, and issues tax deductible receipts for all donations $20 or more. Haven’t claimed a charitable donation since 2007, or never? Then you may be eligible for the First Time Donor’s Super Credit! See more info on our Donate webpage. https://queerartsfestival.com/donate

5. Sign our online petition.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/please-restore-canadian-heritage-funding-to-pride-in-art-society.html

This is also posted all over our social media. Please share widely.

Thank you for your help in rallying against this funding cut. We are determined to go ahead with our 2013 festival, TransgressionNow. With the support of our audiences and artists, the queer communities and the public at large in the Vancouver and beyond, we will rise to this challenge!

Share