Queer Arts Festival

About Kathleen Mullen

Kathleen Mullen (she/her) has contributed to the planning of film festivals nationally and internationally as curator, programmer, and festival director. Kathleen enjoys watching different genres and styles of films and is currently programming for Seattle International Film Festival, Vancouver Latin American Film Festival, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Frameline: San Francisco LGBTQ+ Film Festival, and others. She teaches two student-led festivals, Skoden Indigenous Film Festival at Simon Fraser University and Lesley University Independent Film Festival. For 9 years, she led the programming and operations as Festival Director of the Seattle Queer Film Festival.

Artists

KJ Edwards 

Dinaly Tran

Rylan Friday

James Cooper with writers Izad Etemadi and Lauren Holfeuer

Jess X. Snow

Lauren Marsden

Alexandra Caprara
Allison Kiernan
Ava Katz 
Brie Watson
D Feakes
Dana Ayotte
Edzi’u
Jack Page
Kaila Bhullar

Maya U Schueller Elmes
Pedram Penhan
Rachel Warwick & A. Branch
Sam Kaplan
Sus Cho – Bear Barnetson 
Suze Shore
Vee CR (@v.chorabik) & Lily Flanjak
Wilson S. Wilson
Daniela Guerrero-Rodriguez

Brought to you by Elle Barbara, avant-garde creator and Mother of Montreal’s Idiosyncratic House of Barbara, Ayibobo III: Little Dollhouse on the Prairie is a work of high-octane performance art, merging dance with experimental soundscapes. Drawing audiences into a kinetic and spiritual vortex of pop culture and Haitian Voodoo, Ayibobo III explores the intersections of Black and queer identity. Ballroom performers embody a dizzying range of figures, from Tyra Banks to loas from Haitian spirituality, bridging contemporary and ancestral understandings of gender and sexuality and gender.

Ayibobo III: Little Dollhouse on the Prairie is a co-production between the frank theatre, Danse Cité, and House of Barbara, presented by Queer Arts Festival. 

Directed by Elle Barbara 

Starring – Christen M. Barbara, Syana O. Barbara

Special guests – Kim Ninkuru, Rony F. 007

Jon Cleveland – Lighting design + Technical direction 

Markus Lake – Sound design 

Marilène Bastien – Costumes 

Micaela Alleyne – Makeup 

Emile Pineault – Production 

About Elle Barbara 

Elle Barbara is a Montréal-based avant-garde singer-songwriter, song selector (TS Ellise), pinup, speaker, writer, director, curator, performance artist and intervention worker whose musical output combines elements of soul, psychedelia, jazz, and underground. A lover of the odd, dark, or overlooked elements in pop music, Elle rose from artist-run spaces at the turn of the 2010s and has seen their work soar to enduring acclaim. In recent years, Elle Barbara has centred efforts around trans and queer community organizing, including contributions in Montréal’s emerging ballroom scene as the Iconic Mother of the Idiosyncratic Meta House of Barbara. The House of Barbara, in addition to throwing balls, is a collective whose transdisciplinary practice encompasses performance, activism and DJing. Elle’s current musical incarnation (Elle Barbara’s Black Space) aims to centre intersectional Blackness and reject anti-Black tropes within the city’s art and music spaces.

QAF’s first-ever podcast, In Our Gaybourhood is a journey through the communities of BC, meeting our neighbours who work towards a world where everyone can be proud of who they are. In its first season, we get to know some of the 2SLGBTQIA+ advocates, educators, and students who help our schools grow into spaces where everyone can belong. Just like our neighbourhoods, each podcast episode is filled with the spirit of care, the energy of activism, and the warmth of community. Hosted by artist, activist and educator JC Fung 思慧, In Our Gaybourhood premieres online on June 14.

About Angelic Goldsky 

Angelic Goldsky [t(he?)y] is a queer trans multi-disciplinary artist working at the crossroads of  spoken word, media art, music, and magic for transmuting complex trauma into rhythm, release, and ultimately, permanent liberation. Grounded in poetry and truth-telling, their work transcends discipline and medium, fostering exploration beyond binaries with playfulness and ritual. Formerly the Poet in Residence at the Roundhouse Community Centre (2021), they have performed and shared their cine-poems internationally and across Turtle Island alongside fellow clowns, members of the LGBTQ+ community, low femme priestesses, rabbis, and politicians.

QAF invites the Flavourcel animation collective out of the basement and into the CRAWL SPACE as both curators and exhibiting artists of the festival’s signature Curated Visual Art Exhibition at the Roundhouse Exhibition Hall. CRAWL SPACE reflects on the festival theme of “The Ties that Bind” by queering the physical framework most emblematic of domesticity—the family home. Combining projection, experimental animation techniques, and interactive installation, visitors are invited to tour the rooms of Flavourcel’s “house” built upon a foundation of community-care and collective art-making.

Artist Statement

This is our family home. Our ancestors built this house — this is our inheritance.

May we direct your attention to wood floors made of fir with a fine red stain. 

Feel free to browse our collection of aged spirits and fermented treats. 

Look here — a crack in the foundation. That breeze you feel is our collective breath building moisture in the drywall. 

About Flavourcel

Flavourcel consists of 10 artists and animators originally brought together on the  Unceded Coast Salish territories that work collaboratively to make short-form experimental animations that entertain the contemporary narrative of what animation is and can be, including GIFs, music videos, installations, print media, and more. Flavourcel is heavily settled in collective decision-making structures and aims to keep the collaborative spirit at the core of what they do. In other words; democratizing resources and prioritizing voices that are not so often heard. Many members are institutionally-trained animators who felt that the path often laid out for many emerging animators exists in the following binary: to be an independent auteur making animations alone in your basement or to join the animation industry. Both of these routes are limiting in their own ways. Flavourcel feels that it is important to re-introduce play into animation; the act of making doesn’t have to be so serious or so solitary, it’s always better when you bring your friends along!

Flavourcel is:

Alia Hijaab
Chhaya Naran
Chris Strickler
gil goletski
Harlo Martens
Josh Neu
Julia Song
Kat G Morris
Lana Connors
Laurel Pucker

Nothing says “We Are Family” like our annual ArtParty! We kick off our presence at the Roundhouse Community Centre with art, conviviality, and a celebration of our 17th Queer Arts Festival! This evening also sees the launch of our visual art exhibition, CRAWL SPACE, by the 10-member animation collective Flavourcel. Fabulous food, refreshing sips, do-it-yourself-printmaking, and irresistible spins by the one and only DJ O Show will have you feeling the feels with all your fellow Queerdos! 

This must-see exhibition showcases photography from over 60 2SLGBTQIA+ youth who participated in UBC research studies on drug use. These young artists, aged 14 – 29, have created a body of work that largely centres around identity, substance use, housing, and mental health – the results are powerful and challenging, providing a visual snapshot of how 2SLGBTQIA+ youth grapple with these issues. Participation in these research studies was confidential and the artists consented to these photographs being shared, with many adopting pseudonyms or fake names. Coordinated by university researchers Christian Barborini and Trevor Goodyear, together with the Substance Use Beyond the Binary Youth Action Committee, Queer Eyes, Queer Lives offers a visual reflection of how 2SLGBTQIA+ youth in Vancouver are building homes and lives of substance for themselves despite overlapping injustices faced. Queer Eyes, Queer Lives is generously supported by the University of British Columbia, Cannapix, the Canadian Institute of Health Research, and British Columbia Centre on Substance Use.

Visit us at SUM gallery for the exhibition opening on June 10 from 7 – 10pm – with special guest DJ O Show!  – CLICK TO REGISTER

Join us for an Artist Talk with Barborini, Goodyear, and a number of participating artists on Jun 19 at 5:30pm at SUM gallery. CLICK TO REGISTER

Exhibition Opening:
June 1, 6 – 10pm

Taking its title from the printmaking technique where an artist alters individual prints within a greater edition to create a series of similar, but uniquely distinct artworks, “Varied Editions” brings together a collection of Queer printmakers showcasing the ever-evolving diversity and queerness of the printmaking community. Curated by Cheryl Hamilton and Edward Fu-Chen Juan, this show features the work of 12 artists, reflecting the remarkable breadth and diversity of practices within the medium. With roots planted in artist-to-artist collaboration and collective knowledge sharing as well as a significant historical connection to progressive movements and activism, printmaking provides a fertile ground to explore the festival theme of Queer family. Presented in partnership with Malaspina Printmakers.

Join us for the exhibition opening at Malaspina Printmakers, Granville Island location, on
June 1 from 6 – 10pm.

FEATURING

Moozhan Ahmadzadegan 
Eloisa Aquino 
Jenie Gao 
Chêne Gladu
Brent Haddow
Tajliya Jamal
Jenny Lin
Terra Poirier
Luca Cara Seccafien
Carrielynn Victor (Xémontalot)
Cheryl Hamilton 
Edward Fu-Chen Juan

June 29 | 10am – 2pm

Queer Activism: Screenprint and Zine Workshop 

With Cheryl Hamilton