Queer Arts Festival
Georgia Straight | July 16, 2020
free or by donation
Virtual/Online, FestivalsBUY TICKETSWEBSITE
QAF’s opening: Luxuriate in a cinq-à-sept afternoon delight to come together with visual art curator Jonny Sopotiuk, Wicked Visual Art tour w/ guest artists, and a gallery of intimate friends old and new. Wonderfully Wicked
Vancouver Sun, Dana Gee | Jul 14, 2020
When: July 16-26, 2020
Where: Online and some public art
Tickets and info: Register for events and pay by donation at queerartsfestival.com
Like many artists these days, acclaimed dancer/choreographer Noam Gagnonhas had to take a different approach to his work as the novel coronavirus pandemic has, for the most part, put the brakes on performing in front of live audiences.
Gagnon is one of many contributors to the annual artist-run, multidisciplinary Queer Arts Festival (QAF) that runs this year from July 16 to 26. His work The Crazy Show will be filmed at The Cultch without an audience and streamed July 25 and 26 as part of the 12th annual festival.
The last time the veteran contemporary dance artist did this show was four years ago. It’s safe to say what a difference time and a pandemic make. The artist is now playing to the camera, not the crowd.
Gagnon said the challenge to reshape his work has been “difficult but welcomed” as he said it pressed him to be more efficient with his time and body.
“The show is so tight and feels very strong and direct because now it is being performed for camera,” said Gagnon, a Montreal native who has called Vancouver home for 30 years.
“There is a 2D that creates a coldness and because we don’t have the budget of TV to create this amazing editing I had to really reconceptualize the idea of the images and how this character was pushing through. I am really happy about the changes.
“It’s about the negative space and the positive space, and the timing between. You realize there is something that is transmuted between you and your audience, but it is truly a 2D experience,” added Gagnon. “It was almost like creating pictures.”
The 50-minute solo show Gagnon explains is about a boy who uses his imagination a lot.
“It is the traditional journey of the hero on some level,” said Gagnon. “It is about finding yourself. I don’t know if we advance ultimately but you find your truth.”
Gagnon is one of about 40 artists who are contributing to this year’s QAF.
“First of all I think it is a great fit for the festival because the main thing about this show, This Crazy Show, is truly about the power of imagination as a source for survival.”
Those words ring true when you look at how so many live art events have had to figure out how to keep going during these physical-distancing times.
The QAF seems to have shifted to an impressive mixture of an online and live event. A dozen performances will be recorded at The Cultch and then streamed online.
This year called Wicked, QAF is celebrating “queer traditions of scandal and excess” with visual art, performance art, theatre, music, dance and literary events. Also the usual event program has been replaced bya spanking new 60-page, art-filled hard copy ’zine.
The festival’s artistic director SD Holman says artwork instead of usual advertising has been posted in bus shelters, on billboards and community projection screens.
“There will be some surprises in public art out and about town. And there will be mail art. We’re doing some other mail art aside from the ‘zine,” said Holman.
The multidisciplinary festival’s wide reaching net offers plenty of opportunity for artists to work and for their art to connect and support those 2SLGBTQ+ people who may be isolated by the COVID-19 outbreak without much of a support system.
“From the very beginning, for me closing or shutting down was not an option,” said Holman who is also a visual artist. “Personally, I would like nothing better then shutting down and being in my backyard for a few months, but I have staff I want to take care of and artists who need work.
“What I saw right away is that artists were losing work all over the place and, because where I come from, I think art is really, really important. Art changes people and people change the world.”
While having to reconfigure and remount, work has been tough on every level possible for the long-running festival. Holman points out that out of this weird self-isolating time there have been many moments to build more connections.
“That is the plus side. That is what I talked to my staff about from the very beginning. We’re all very sad, but this is an opportunity to reach a much broader audience and go more international,” said Holman, adding she has wanted to improve the festival’s online presence for some time.
“It really opens things up,” added Holman, who has had the idea for a virtual gallery in her strategic plan for some time. “There are people who wouldn’t necessarily come because they can’t get out of their homes for whatever reasons. So now they are able to do this.”
For the artists like Gagnon this new reality has also delivered some new-world positives and even excellent PR.
“People who wouldn’t be able to come here will still be able to see the show,” said Gagnon. “I think it is brilliant that it has opened the world to my performance.
“This whole COVID (pandemic) for me is filled and filled and filled with silver linings,” added Gagnon, who does weekly online sessions with friends and colleagues around the globe.
“I feel closer to the people in my life, but also with a culture and with a community around the world. The world has become closer.”
The Bulletin | BY JOHN ENDO GREENAWAY | JULY 13, 2020
#dailyquarantinecomic from March 27, 2020 by Erica Isomura (@ericahiroko)
ERICA There is much about my identity that has taken me years to unpack and articulate. There is something about the act of writing that enables me to share my experiences in a way that I am not always comfortable doing with people in person or at the workplace, wherever. It feels safer on the page somehow.
Back in 2016, I submitted an article for The Bulletin titled, “Reflecting on racism: why race still matters in 2016,” co-written with my sister Kayla and my friends Lucas Wright, Kendall Yamagishi, Elena, and Ren Ito. These were not necessarily comfortable conversations for each of us to have over Thanksgiving dinner with our families, but they were ideas that we wanted to express as young people who saw the way our community had been historically displaced/discriminated against and made connections to the way Black and brown communities were (and are) still being targeted. I could probably re-write that same article today in the context of ongoing police brutality, resource extraction on unceded Indigenous territories, etc.
These days, my writing is more literary than journalistic, but the work comes from a similar place of wanting to use creative tools to connect with peoples’ emotions to uncover truths that are difficult to face head on. The stories that live within me and my lineage as a fourth gen JC and Chinese Canadian aren’t always pretty, but writing can make them accessible and easier to share with others.
How have you been coping with the quarantine? Have you begun the process of emerging into this fraught new world?
ERICA When the pandemic first began, I started creating poetry installations in my living room window, facing the street. Every week or two, I would use various materials in my house (butcher paper, tissue paper, packaging from online orders, pages from the March issue of The Bulletin, actually!) to create a new line of poetry, which was also a “found poem.” Funnily, a lot of those lines were drawn from a phone conversation that Hiromi and I had when the pandemic first began while we were discussing the uncertainties of the coronavirus.
I found it incredibly difficult to write when the pandemic began and I first began working at my job from home. I just had no energy to put into writing about what was happening for the first month, as least, but I began drawing comics in my journal to reflect my strange day-to-day life and this bizarre “new normal.” I’ve eased up on drawing diary comics as I’ve begun to work on writing projects again, but from time-to-time I am still drawing and documenting in that way. I call the series my #dailyquarantinecomic and one of them will be printed in the art zine that Queer Art Festival is printing for this year’s festival. I believe they will be mailing copies to their members and donors.
HIROMI It’s been a struggle to write consistently for quite some time for me. I’m trying to become more comfortable with these periods of fallow. The pandemic has had a dampening effect upon any kind of creative dreaming. Thoughts would jump, it was hard to focus. I feel scattered. But Erica and I arrange writing dates on Facetime. We’d be at our desks in our own homes, and just write at the same time. This helped to tether us into a form of writing. Holding each other accountable made it easier to actually work on something.
Are there any positives that have come out of this upside-down-world for you personally? Have you discovered anything about yourself or the world that has surprised you?
HIROMI In some ways the pandemic has made me and my ex-husband better parents to our adult children?? (You’ll have to talk to them to confirm!) The children are both grown and I think we as parents had grown rather comfortable assuming they were okay living separate adult lives. But the children were both laid off and had more spare time. Their father and I made greater efforts to be in more regular touch, take them grocery shopping and out for walks. This has been a surprising renewal of bonds.
ERICA I was also temporarily laid off from my job in April because of COVID, which means I have had more time to write and live in my creative process, which to be honest, has been pretty great. Although my social circle is much smaller, I’ve become closer to the people I talk with regularly. I talk to my parents and my Popo (my mom’s mom) over the phone more often and my extended family chats on zoom every two weeks. A friend who lives within walking distance of me has become my pandemic bestie, which is really sweet to have. Last year, I faced some difficult personal challenges and so I’m extremely grateful for the people and relationships in my life at this moment.
Do you see the COVID19 crisis and the subsequent lockdown impacting your writing? If so, how?
HIROMI I’m trying to integrate the kind of fragmented state of my mind with some of the photos I’ve been taking. My tech-savvy partner Dana Putnam showed me how I could add text into the photos so I’ve been working some visual poems. There’s something about the materiality of this form that is very satisfying, especially when the long-form ideas are not taking shape. There is always some way to find a shape of creativity. This is good for our mind and spirit.
ERICA There is a folder saved on my laptop named “coronavirus” where I have saved various fragments of writing that have come to me since the lockdown. The piece I am currently working on is about distance, both what we lose and what we gain from having it.
TANYA COMMISSO | SAD MAG | JULY 13, 2020
Shane Sable wasn’t intending to form Canada’s first Indigenous burlesque collective while on a hiatus from her performance career. Yet in May 2016, that’s exactly what she started to do. Virago Nation was born when Sable reached out to fellow members of the burlesque community—Ruthe Ordare, RainbowGlitz, Sparkle Plenty, Scarlet Delirium, Manda Stroyer—seeking connection with Indigenous creatives.
“I was looking for motivation and meaning in the work I was creating, says Sable. “One of the barriers I was facing was not being able to integrate my performance self with my Indigenous self, so we talked about why that was – why none of us represented our full selves as Indigenous performers in that space.”
Though each member has their own diverse story, they connected over their experiences with Indigeneity and colonization as performance artists. Quickly realizing the need for explicit representation in the burlesque community, Virago announced their official formation as an all-indigenous collective in December 2016.
This year, they will be performing for the first time at the Queer Arts Festival (QAF) as part of WICKED 2020, with special guests Monday Blues and Lynx Chase.
Sable says audiences can expect a bombastic show, celebrating the multifaceted nature of Indigenous beauty and sexuality. On July 17, their performance will be streamed on queerartsfestival.com, making it one of Virago’s most accessible performances to date.
“Something that we are positioned to do that other [burlesque] groups aren’t is to open up avenues of accessibility for underserved communities, like Indigenous folks, like people in more rural areas,” Sable says. “The nature of our work is fundamentally political in a way that can only be communicated by folks with lived experience.”
As a happy coincidence, most of the members of Virago Nation also identify along the LGBTQ2+ spectrum, making QAF an apt venue for their work.
“It’s not just that we’re providing representation for Indigenous people, it’s that we’re further providing representation for Indigenous people who don’t identify with the colonial binary of sexual identity.”
QAF has a history of Indigenous representation and inclusion, beginning with festival co-founder Robbie Hong, who identifies as Two-Spirit. It is this history that makes Sable not only proud to perform as part of the festival, but also to serve as the Two-Spirit programming coordinator for the organization.
The Queer Arts Festival’s move to digital in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic has inspired the festival to rethink ticket prices and instead offer admission to all shows by donation. It’s a move that Virago welcomes as they continue to find ways to make their shows more accessible to the audiences who need them the most.
by BROADWAY WORLD VANCOUVER News Desk Jul. 13, 2020
The stage is set, the glitter is dusted and the 12th Queer Arts Festival – WICKED (rated one of the top 3 festivals of its kind in the world) is ready to showcase the best of queer art (digitally-ish) to the world over 11 days July 16 – 26, 2020.
With many special events curtailed or downright cancelled around the globe due to the COVID crisis, this always cutting edge organization upped their on-line game with a re-imagined festival celebrating queer art, culture and history.
The organizers felt it vital that in presenting the WICKED programming online, it should provide the audience as close an actual theatre/stage experience as possible. By registering for tickets on the Eventbrite page and accessing the QAF Online HUB at showtime, the audience can expect to feel in the thick of the action from their own personal “front and centre” seat, wherever that may be worldwide.
From “zines to screens”, #QAF2020 promises a queerly-digital-visual experience across varied platforms ensuring everyone the opportunity to participate in this year’s Queer Arts Festival. WICKED features streaming art tours, on-line presentations of the performances, installations throughout the city, and a hard copy QAF free Zine that encompasses the entire festival with artist and programming notes, behind the scenes commentary and additional art content for the reader. Keep your eyes peeled for the Two-Spirit Public Art Project, Shift a series of posters in transit shelters across Vancouver, and in The Sun Wah lobby, created by interdisciplinary artist Kinnie Starr as well as the Flash Collective out on the Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen Presented in partnership with grunt gallery.
Highlights include the official QAF opening this Thursday July 16th at 5pm showcasing the Visual Art Exhibition: enjoy the visual art tour and artist panel with Curator Jonny Sopotiuk and guest artists as they take the audience through the featured exhibition at The Cultch. Then a new link awaits to take you to the artparty! hosted by Continental Breakfast for an online mingle and closing set by DJ Softieshan, featuring a gallery of intimate friends old and new.
Abandon your alliance to nation and gender borders! After the tour apply online for a stateless and genderless passport designed by Brooklyn artist Elektra KB that will be mailed to the first 500 lucky participants. Enjoy the rest of the festival with your limited-edition passport in hand!
An internationally acclaimed dancer, a minimalist stage and 16 (disco) balls… prepare to trip the queer light fantastic with Noam Gagnon as he presents his swan song performance of the raucously vulnerable This Crazy Show.
QAF proudly welcomes Vancouver faves, avant-drag collective The Darlings with a new performance created around the festival theme of “wickedness”. Expect the unexpected with a show titled “UNCENSORED…”
Virago Nation’s Too Spirited; bombastic burlesque from the badass babes of Virago Nation. Tit-illatingly queer and proudly indigenous!
A Night of Storytelling and A Conversation on Queer Mentorship offer up award winning LGBTTQ+ writers and storytellers. Media Nights with VIVO features back-to-back screenings starting with Rupture Probe sampling queer shorts that rupture normative notions of gender, pleasure and activism and then Return To Sodom North – 90’s queer video out and uncensored (in partnership with VIVO Media Arts Centre). Experience speculative theatre with Underground Absolute Fiction: an immersive play-meets-punk-concert inspired by the apartment theatre of 1980’s Poland; a co-production between QAF and the frank theatre company.
And for our finale, join QAF’s Glitter is Forever Pajama Party Closing Binge-fest; get your best dress-jammies on, grab popcorn and bevvies and feast your senses on the entire line up of festival programs, with plenty of additional surprises and prizes! Interact with friends on the QAF online HUB while gorging on the fabulous showcase of our 2020 queer art and artists!
It is recommended to register in advance for festival programming at the Queer Arts Festival website, ticket prices are by donation.
QAF’s Wicked reimagines identity politics, exposing the implications of homonormativity as erasure. This past decade has seen the mainstreaming of gay; sexual difference wins approval so long as it is palatable, marketable, and doesn’t stray too far from bourgeois notions of taste and morality. QAF revels in the quintessentially queer traditions of scandal and excess with visual art, performance, theatre, music, dance, and literary events!
Events at a Glance: (all times are pacific standard)
About the Queer Arts Festival (queerartsfestival.com)
Homoculture. | July 13th, 2020
Taking place between July 16-26th, ‘Wicked’ includes 11 days of events that exposes the implications of homonormativity as erasure and reimagines the current status quo of identity politics
Even with the current social distancing taking place throughout the world, the one thing that will connect all mankind is art, a cornerstone of humanity that transfixes us all, no matter where and how we live. Queer Arts Festival has planned a production that will surprise everyone and serve as the perfect springboard for the rest of the artistic world to indulge in.
Serving as the visual arts component of 2020’s Queer Arts Festival, Wicked includes the Curated Visual Arts Exhibition and Pride in Art Community Exhibition from Thursday July 16th through Sunday July 26th. The curator of the event, Jonny Sopotiuk, described what spectators can expect over the course of the week and a half:
“Wicked brings together a multigenerational group of artists living and producing work across Canada and the United States as they explore the body, community, and architecture of homonormativity. In 2020 we’re learning to live through a new form of containment during a global health pandemic. Our long fight for recognition and the foundations of community infrastructures that we created to sustain us are being fundamentally questioned. With new connections and intimacy now mediated by requirements to shelter in place, artists critically examine our communities’ oppression and expose implications of complicity in the homonormative systems created to contain us.”
‘Wicked’ unapologetically celebrates queer traditions of the decadent and scandalous via visual art, theatre, performance, dance, music, and literary events in a digital venue. There is a lot to be explored during this extravaganza, with highlights including the visual arts curation of Jonny Sopotiuk, Noam Gagnon’s outrageous piece Swan Song, Indigenous Burlesque with Virago Nation’s Too Spirited, This Crazy Show, and the inimitable offerings of drag divas The Darlings.
What is the Queer Arts Festival all about?
QAF, as one of the top festivals in the world, is organized by professional multi-disciplinary artists in Vancouver, B.C. each year. Known for producing artwork that titillates and pushes against traditional boundaries, Queer Arts Festival weaves in themes that are tied together through a lineup that includes performing arts series, artist workshops, curated visual arts exhibitions, media screenings, and much more. Over the last few years, QAF has achieved substantial acclaim, voted ‘Best LGBTQ Event Event’ in Vancouver in 2019.
The following are three events during the week and a half that visitors should definitely check out:
Art Party! Cinq-à-Sept Festival Opening: It all kicks off on July 16th,, and lasts from 5 to 7pm. Expect a visual art tour that features several surprise guest stars and is headlined by Jonny Sopotiuk.
Too Spirited: On Friday, July 17th, Virago Nation – a troupe of indigenous burlesque performers – puts on a show that explores pop culture, humor, politics, and few other surprises that will dazzle and excite spectators.
Glitter Is Forever – Pajama Party: Get comfortable and cozy at this pajama party that starts at 4am and runs very late, making it the perfect time to enjoy those fancy martinis. The wardrobe suggestions include silk robes, beautiful lingerie, and expect the evening to serve up jaw-dropping performances and visual art that captivates.
Promising to serve up a wild and delicious raucous presentation that is second to none, this year’s ‘Wicked’ is destined to be the uniquely queer multi-dimensional digital experience that leaves visitors thirsty for more.
Curiocity Magazine | Jul 9, 2020
Looking for a fun way to spend an evening next week? Then we suggest tuning in for some of the amazing programming coming out for the Queer Arts Festival. The annual event has gone online this year and has created a great lineup of things to watch and even participate in.
The guiding concept for this year’s fest is ‘Wicked’. Rather than focus on Dorothy, the QAF is using a quote from Oscar Wilde to draw inspiration:
So, this year’s programming includes visual art, theatre, literature, and more that looks to explore how queerness is moralized in society. In other words, how queer artists and folks, in general, are perceived by the rest of their culture or even around the world.
And finally, all of the events are free to check out! Basically, this year’s festival will be as interesting as it is visually stunning, so we highly recommend checking it out.
Posted by MUSKRAT Magazine Date: July 02, 2020
Vancouver, BC—The COVID crisis and elevated racist violence has created an unprecedented situation which has seen many 2SLGBTQ+ people isolated without vital support structures. Queer art has helped keep our community connected during the age of social distancing.
To ensure that this audience can continue to get their queer arts fix, the 12th annual Queer Arts Festival (QAF) has been re-imagined as a festival to be experienced online, from a safe-ish distance.
Not all of this year’s QAF will be digital however, as the Artistic Director of the Festival SD Holman explains: “We are all hard at work developing how our programming delivery is going to look because it’s not all digital. One of the things that was vitally important to us is that not all people have computers, not all people have access to Wi-Fi, free internet at public libraries isn’t available as they are closed… if they don’t have a computer, how do we make the Festival accessible? How do we deliver a festival to everyone?”
Welcome to our WICKEDness! From “zines to screens”, #QAF2020 promises a queerly-digital-visual experience across varied platforms ensuring everyone the opportunity to participate in this year’s Queer Arts Festival. WICKED features streaming art tours, on-line presentations of the performances, installations throughout the city, and a hard copy QAF free Zine that encompasses the entire festival with artist and programming notes, behind the scenes commentary and extra art surprises for the reader!
From a digital standpoint, our 11 days of featured programming, which includes the opening visual arts exhibit/celebration/tour, theatre, dance, workshops and even burlesque, will bring our audiences into the heart of the action with a simple click of the mouse (or tap of the screen). Audience members will be able to interact with each other online while enjoying the show.
QAF’s Wicked revels in the quintessentially queer traditions of scandal and excess with visual art, performance, theatre, music, dance, and literary events and runs 11 days (July 16th – 26th 2020) via our digital hub. Event highlights and tickets (by donation) on our website at (www.queerartsfestival.com).
The Queer Arts Festival (QAF) is an annual artist-run professional multi-disciplinary arts festival in Vancouver, BC., that is recognized as one of the top 3 festivals of its kind worldwide. QAF produces, presents and exhibits with a curatorial vision favouring challenging, thought-provoking work that pushes boundaries and initiates dialogue. Each year, the festival theme ties together a curated visual art exhibition, performing arts series, workshops, artist talks, panels, and media art screenings. QAF’s programming has garnered wide acclaim as “concise, brilliant and moving” (Georgia Straight), “easily one of the best exhibitions of the year in Vancouver” (Vancouver Sun) and QAF was voted Vancouver’s “Best LGBTQ Event” in the 24th Annual Georgia Straight Best of Vancouver Readers Poll (2019).
By Alyssa Hirose / Vancouver Magazine, Jul 10, 2020
“There’s a joke about giving an Indigenous person a microphone, and you can’t get them to stop talking,” laughs Sparkle Plenty, a burlesque performer in Virago Nation. “That’s very true, in my case—I really like that mic.” Plenty has been sharing her sexy, funny, and radical acts on stage for eleven years, and moving into an emcee role was a natural fit for her. She’ll be hosting and performing in Virago Nation’s all-Indigenous burlesque performance, called Too Spirited, in the upcoming Queer Arts Festival. Like all our local faves, the show goes on, online—and for burlesque, that’s actually a really cool thing.
“Dancing in front of your laptop or phone gives you more options in terms of your creativity, and how you engage with the camera,” says Plenty. Recently, she designed a livestreamed act that took place in her kitchen and focused on the very important topic of wanting a snack. “I was able to use my sink, and tease with my fridge door,” she says. “There’s a really interesting dynamic that you wouldn’t be able to do on stage.” Personal environments also mean personal rules: “You can make a big ol’ mess. Because who’s cleaning it up? You are.”
Other performers include Rainbow Glitz, Shane Sable, Scarlet Delirium, Monday Blues and Lynx Chase. They’ve been investing in smart bulbs and light strips to upgrade their home lighting (“It’s like a club in here, why didn’t I do this before?” jokes Plenty) in preparation for the show. After all, every seat is front row in a virtual performance. The Too Spirited audience can expect a vibrant, rainbow-themed spectacle centred around Virago Nation’s classic celebration of multifaceted Indigenous sexuality.
“We want people to enjoy themselves,” says Plenty. “This isn’t a Ted Talk—we are so used to talking about trauma, which is very much a part of being Indigenous, but we also want to celebrate our resilience and our joy and our art.” While there’s some very important and serious points brought up throughout the show (for example, how feeling secure enough to perform at all is a privilege) it’s overall uplifting, informing, and most importantly, fun. “Indigenous sexuality is sacred but also silly; it can be raunchy, it can be dirty,” says Plenty. She explains that Indigenous identity and queer identity are equally multifaceted. “And this is a pandemic—we’re all trying to get through this in the ways that we know how.”
The Queer Arts Festival runs online from July 16-26, 2020. Too Spirited, Virago Nation’s Burlesque show, is on July 17 at 7:00p.m.
by Janet Smith, Georgia Straight, on July 8th, 2020 at 4:39 PM
From the outset of pandemic lockdown, the Queer Arts Festival’s SD Holman decided that cancelling the event was not an option, and neither was laying off staff.
“I’m used to fighting. The whole queer community’s used to fighting,” the event’s artistic director tells the Straight. “If I had given up, it [the festival’s launch] wouldn’t have happened 12 years ago. And we’re nimble because of all that.”
The result is a 12th-annual multidisciplinary celebration that includes everything from streamed art tours and online performances to real-world art installations and a free zine.
The team flew into action to come up with a fest that could adhere to social-distancing measures in its own unique ways.
Jumping online was not straightforward for a festival in which some of the performers (including the nonbinary drag troupe the Darlings) have recently come up against censorship on streaming channels like Facebook.
“We’re always flagged right away, because queer is right in our name,” Holman says.
Instead, the fest has taken the huge leap of building its own streaming platform from its website (as well as broadcasting via traditional channels like Facebook). Programming like The Darlings, Uncensored and Too Spirited, by the Indigenous burlesquers of Virago Nation, will hit the airwaves.
So will Vancouver’s Vision Impure dance legend Noam Gagnon, with a retooled version at his gender-playing This Crazy Show (July 25 and 26)—a solo that the Holy Body Tattoo member has said will be his “swan song”.
Originally intended to be performed live, the audacious, identity-shifting work now converts to video, complete with its wild, flailing platinum wig and high heels. Holman says the show plays well into QAF’s “Wicked” theme this year, a topic that pushes back against the mainstreaming of LGBTQ existence and homonormativity as both erasure and commodification.
“Queers have reached this place where it’s okay if it’s palatable,” Holman explains. “ ‘Wicked’ is all about that: when we get this acceptance, who is accepting us? And what is it contingent upon?”
Holman, a photographer, felt strongly the fest should have some tactile elements as well. Enter art installations everywhere from bus shelters to community arts screens, as well as an artful zine program guide that will go out to festivalgoers.
On opening night (next Thursday [July 16] from 5 to 7 p.m.), visual-arts curator Jonny Sopotiuk will head up an artists’ discussion and virtual tour of an art exhibit that will live on QAF’s digital hub for the run of the festival. He’ll be joined by participating local artists Tom Hsu and Tajliya Jamal and New York City forces Avram Finkelstein and Elektra KB.
Colombian-born Brooklynite Elektra KB brings their interactive “stateless, genderless passports” to the fest, converting its usual gallery installation “checkpoint” to a digital rendition.
Sopotiuk tells the Straight that people can go online and remove associations with any nation states and the art, i.e. the physical ‘passports’, will be mailed to them. “This is a physical object that requires people to truly engage with our own complicity within these systems, and bringing this checkpoint online is really starting to tease out where is public space and how are systems of oppression taking place there now, especially online.”
Sopotiuk is equally excited about Finkelstein’s piece in the exhibit, a drawing he was working on when Sopotiuk went on a scouting trip to New York and met with him.
“He had had a stroke and was learning how to draw again,” he recalls of the renowned artist and AIDS activist who was a founding member of the Silence=Death and Gran Fury collectives, and who has work in the permanent collections of MoMA and the Whitney. “It’s a huge wall-sized piece, and Avram was in tears when he made it because he was in so much pain. Avram has been defined by his work with collectives, and to see him return to his personal art practice is so important on an individual and community level. I love that piece—it’s one of my favourite pieces ever.”
Finkelstein is also convening one of his “Flash Collectives” here—political interventions in public places he’s overseen around the world. For this COVID-ready rendition, he’s been bringing together his first-ever digital collective of nine local artists, meeting online; Sopotiuk hints the final work will take the form of an animation that aims to “recode the word queer”.
For the opening art party, Sopotiuk looks forward to talking more about their works and connecting QAF artists and audiences despite the enforced isolation of the pandemic. “I’m excited to be able to have a conversation with the four artists and talk about the world we’re living in,” he says, “We’ll look at work, talk about work, and really share those intimate pieces about their practice.”
The Queer Arts Festival runs from next Thursday (July 16) to July 26. For more information, visit the website.
Georgia Straight : posted on July 9th, 2020 at 10:00 AM
(This story is sponsored by the Pride in Art Society.)
Noam Gagnon intended to dance for only one year after his completion of art school at Concordia University but life never goes as planned. Instead, he’s spent the last 39 years travelling the world with dance companies and teaching others how to express themselves through movement.
Gagnon will be performing his latest piece, This Crazy Show, at this year’s virtual Queer Arts Festival (QAF), which takes place from July 16 to 26. The inclusive festival features thought-provoking visual and performance art, workshops, panels, artist talks, and screenings, and will be accessible online this year because of the pandemic. Festival attendees have two opportunities to view his fascinating performance: July 25 at 7 p.m. and July 26 at 2 p.m. All events at the QAF are by donation and people can RSVP through Eventbrite.
This will be Gagnon’s second time performing at QAF with his dance company, though the story told through This Crazy Show differs greatly from his previous performances. “This show is about using the power of imagination as a source of survival,” says Gagnon. “This Crazy Show tells a story about the past in order to understand the present and I feel that the male character in this story uses his imagination in a way to survive.”
Within the emotionally charged show that he choreographed himself, Gagnon will explore different gender roles and how the imaginations of children go on to shape their identities. According to him, this childlike curiosity and gender exploration is something that needs to be better accepted within our society.
“Through This Crazy Show, I wanted to create an experience for the viewer that will help them use their imagination to travel with me in this wild world that I find completely compelling and entertaining—it has many colours,” says Gagnon. Those who tune into the livestream performance can expect unique gender-bending costumes, lively music, and an impressive 16 disco balls.
During a phone interview with Gagnon, it became remarkably clear that he grows as an artist by thinking outside of the box and challenging himself in new ways. He attributed his fiery motivation behind This Crazy Show to a quote by Albert Einstein:
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
Through exploring his emotions, physicality, and inner psyche, Gagnon was able to create dance sequences that encourage viewers to challenge their pre-existing beliefs and feelings. “I find that as we get older, we have this black and white preconceived idea of right and wrong, and how the world should be,” says Gagnon. “But what we really remember are the experiences we’ve had that sparked emotion and sensation, and who we shared those experiences with.”
He hopes that viewers will leave the livestream feeling emotionally charged, inspired, and eager to discuss the storyline of the show with others. This social discussion can help people challenge their traditional beliefs and values, which will ultimately foster a more accepting and inclusive society. “There are many young people who were just like me at one point and they need to see themselves represented in a way that is positive and possible for them,” says Gagnon. “I am constantly pushing to create an element of visibility and I feel blessed that I’m able to educate others and challenge their strong preconceptions of what they think the world should look like.”
Despite his passion for performing, Gagnon believes that it’s time for younger generations of talented dancers to shine, which is why he will be taking a step back from the spotlight. “The last few pieces that I’ve done were created with 10 young phenomenal dancers,” he says. “Being able to use my 35 years of knowledge and share it with newer generations of dancers is incredibly exciting and perhaps even more rewarding than performing.”
But he refuses to call his QAF performance his “swan song” as he can’t promise that an enticing opportunity won’t arise in the future.
Gagnon chose the QAF livestream for what could be his last public performance for a multitude of reasons. “I feel that the QAF and Pride in Art Society fight such powerful battles for all of us, queer or not,” he says. “The organization works to make all of our lives a better place, a place where love exists.”
All festival events can be experienced online through www.queerartsfestival.com/. To RSVP to This Crazy Show by donation to improve accessibility, click here.
For updates, follow the Queer Arts Festival on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
By Rebecca Bollwitt, Miss 604.com, Tuesday July 7th, 2020
The Queer Arts Festival WICKED takes place July 16-26, 2020 online, with 11 days of events, which are all by donation. WICKED reimagines identity politics, exposing the implications of homonormativity as erasure.
I had the opportunity to speak with acclaimed dance artist Noam Gagnon, who over the course of his career, has helped push Canadian dance into the forefront of the international stage. Now during this time of COVID-19 and an evolving arts media landscape, artists like Noam are looking at their mediums and methods in a new light.
Get tickets here for July 25 at 7:00pm / July 26 at 2:00pm
(RSVP by donation)
My Zoom experience will never be the same. I logged on and met Noam for a chat to talk about his rehearsal, his show, and the Queer Arts Festival.
“It’s been a very productive period for me,” Noam told me right off the bat. “I feel lucky that I am working on a solo because the last piece I was working on was with 10 amazing young dancers. So, to be able to work on a solo right now is a perfect opportunity.” In This Crazy Show he says he will be dancing with “me, myself and I” … and about 16 disco balls.
The Show was originally produced in 2016 as Noam’s swan song, and it was the last time he danced. The extremely fit 50-something who dances like a 30-something, thanks to his pilates practice and choreography career (see: photo above), said that getting his body back into the groove for dance was a process in itself.
“It felt like a long time. The floor seemed so far away. ‘How do I do this again?’ There was a lot of trial and error, a lot of humour. I had a fun process I have to say, but not without difficulty because the work in itself is quite challenging — quite demanding physically and emotionally.”
The Queer Arts Festival had asked Noam to perform for a few seasons and the timing just didn’t line up. For 2020 he says everything came together. “The theme of the whole festival – WICKED – is just perfect for This Crazy Show. [QAF] creates an image from a certain point of view with each of their festivals and I think this one is just the perfect fit.”
Noam has danced and toured all his life and since starting the next chapter of his career, he feels he’s passing on information to the next generation to help them grow.
“I wanted to create something bigger than myself… I’m 57, I see things a certain way, I perform a certain way, yet as an artist and as a human being I still want to find a way to keep an evolution.”
Noam described his physical, mental, and emotional struggles, throwing himself to the floor, retraining his body with these movements and asking himself how to accomplish a task in a new way, a way he hadn’t done it before. “How do I bring myself back to who I am? Literally after four years I was all in.”
“It’s what we can do as artists, as human beings above all, it’s the power of creating a space for people to travel, to invite them to be part of something that is bigger than them, where they can feel safe and that they can belong for an hour.”
“I had to allow myself to play…It doesn’t matter how old you are, it doesn’t matter who you are, the process is a process and it’s part of anything we do, anything of value, and anything of value requires effort. Then it’s just a question of putting in your time, pulling up your sleeves, and being patient, and playing.”
During our conversation I was inspired by his passion and work ethic – I also had never laughed or cried so much during an interview. Humour is a huge part of Noam’s personality but as he admits, it is slightly askew which is in itself a metaphor for life’s duality; He balances life’s lighter and darker moments.
“Do what you do, don’t hold back, give what you can, share what you can, you’re designed for it. You can’t please everyone just be. Just be. Give from your heart. That’s my strength – and sweating. Now that’s my superpower!” he said with a charming chuckle.
There won’t be a live audience for This Crazy Show, which is another challenge, but the thought of the show reaching far beyond the walls of a theatre, is an exciting one for Noam.
“This show will have even more opportunities because not everyone can be at the theatre, it’s a 200 seat theatre and who knows, there may be someone in a small town somewhere that will see it — a kid would not have been in the theatre.”
That prospect is exhilarating, but it’s balanced by the feeling of trepidation, the thought of not having that crowd to play off of. Noam says that it’s hard not to have that instant feedback, that symbiotic relationship with a live audience, because as a performer he can feel it and he knows instantly when something falls flat.
This Crazy Show is inspired by the film Léolo (1992) from Montreal, where imagination is more than an escape. Noam describes it “like a magpie stealing stories from others in order to create a vortex where it makes its power more powerful.” He says it’s about the power of imagination as a source of survival, but also a power for creating change – he often thinks about the moment he understood that.
“For me my dance career, my artistic life, internally, mentally, it has made me a better human being. It has allowed me to transcend.” He quoted Albert Einstein:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
In a world of darkness, we have to fight for light. That’s another one of Noam’s quotes. There were so many insights packed into one Zoom call, I can only imagine how moving the actual dance performance will be July 25 & 26. I imagined Noam throwing himself to the floor. I imagined the disco balls.
I thought of the magpie.
“I feel blessed, I feel lucky, and I feel I’ve been given this opportunity and I hope that I can move, that this can have the power that it has had on me through this process, to understand the power of imagination.”
He looked into the camera and said ‘you are loved’. I’m not sure he was telling me that or just saying that in a general sense, but I felt it. I think it was for everyone, even himself.
“Know that you are loved for who you are, and be who you are, and love who you are. No one else is there to do it for you. The representation of what you give yourself is going to be represented outwardly, it doesn’t work any other way. It’s easier said than done and it’s a whole journey of trial and errors but you’ve got to do it. Better doing that than living on the other side.”
It was one of the best Zoom calls I’ve had throughout all of this COVID isolation. We started to sign off, I thanked him for taking time out of his rehearsal schedule to talk to me.
He said, “There is love out there and to me, it is all.”
Miss604 is a proud sponsor of the 2020 Queer Arts Festival.
by Janet Smith, Georgia Straight. May 29th, 2020 at 4:28 PM
With theatres, galleries, stores, and restaurants shuttered to flatten the COVID-19 curve, the Isolation Diaries reach out to Vancouver’s creative sector to find out what they’re watching, how they’re coping, and where they’re finding inspiration.
The Darlings are a multidisciplinary, nonbinary drag performance collective based in Vancouver, BC. Their work challenges the boundaries of conventional drag, and explores genderqueer, nonbinary, and transgender experience through the use of movement, poetry, performance art, theatre, and immersive/interactive installation. The Darlings are: Continental Breakfast (Chris Reed), PM (Desi Rekrut), Rose Butch (Rae Takei), and Maiden China (Kendell Yan). As an emerging collective, they have mounted four full-length installations in September 2018, October 2018, and April 2019 as well as features at 2018’s Here For Now Volume 2 dance showcase, the 2019 PuSh International Performing Arts Festiva), and full-length feature at the Transform Cabaret Festival. They created two quarantine-specific, digital shows during the 2020 COVID-19 social distancing measures, which has garnered more than 10,000 views to date; you can find those via Facebook and Vimeo.
MC: “I’ve been ruminating on the resilience of the queer community pushing their art forms through new mediums and making it WERK and that excites me beyond belief. Seeing folks like Kendall Gender and Boss create beautiful, high-calibre drag videos that rival the multibillion-dollar music industry fills me with pride I can’t describe. Also, mothering my house plants and shaving my eyebrows off.”
CB: “I’ve been listening to music constantly, I find monotony in TV and film sometimes because I struggle to see the representation I’m looking for in my art intake. Things outside are stressful right now and keeping calm is a big focus for me. Down-tempo music with minimal vocals stays emotionally gentle.”
RB: “Ugh, the dalgona coffee trend got me and I love it. I’ve been really enjoying fermented things – eating a lot of kimchi, enjoying sourdough baked by pals, and I went full throttle East Van and brewed and bottled my own kombucha for the first time!
“Every once in a while I like to get a takeout treat from some of my favourite Mount Pleasant spots – poutine from The Black Lodge and the tuna poké bowl from Carp. And Earnest Ice Cream, obviously. Specifically, the vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Pretzel.”
PM: 1 cup milk.
2 bananas .
3/4 cup Chia.
1 spoonful of Nutella / Peanut Butter.
Blend, and put in the fridge, 30 minutes.
STIR / SHAKE mixture.
leave for 30 MORE minutes.
” A yummy, pudding-like fantasy should be achieved.”
PM: “Isolation – Kali Uchis (title is very fitting for this time; but this music washes over and just makes me so happy. It is light and bubbly, and very well written)
“Quarantine has also given me a chance to create playlists. I used to use YouTube, but with Spotify, the tables have turned. I have been curating playlists for different parts of the city, that would suit each area (in my opinion)–English Bay, Commercial Drive, Trout Lake.”
MC: “For an emotional joyride I turn to pretty much everything by Anohni and the Johnsons, or Hopelessness by ANOHNI. Queer dance party simulations to Raise me up by Hercules and the Love Affair. Also Austra’s new album is very fresh and exhilarating and a general all around mood lifter.”
RB: “Podcasts are my number one medium to consume, and usually it’s something related to true crime but I just got hooked on Making Gay History. It’s a gorgeous oral history podcast of interviews recorded in the ’70s and ’80s with movers and shakers of the LGBTQ+ rights movements in the US from the 40s to the 90s. I highly recommend, especially to queer folks from my generation.”
MC: “I’ve been really into Midnight Gospel; it’s like a visual podcast set to a millennial psychedelic sci-fi trip with philosophical ramblings and cute characters. Sasha Velour’sNightgowns on Quibi, and also Terrace house because I love reality TV that isn’t centered around conflict and abuse.”
PM: “I’ve been dancing a lot more than I have in the past couple of years. I always held my movement to a high standard, and gave up the desire to make it my full-time profession because doubt crept in. For whatever reason, research feels more poignant during this time. I’ve been improving, filming and learning from myself without judgement from teachers or other people. It has been beautiful to be able to watch, learn, and edit.”
MC: “I did a 40-day quarantine drag look series on Instagram and that provided me so much solace for the beginning of this wild experience- sitting down without the news or instagram/FB and just focusing on the art. I learned a lot about texture, unconventional materials, and makeup for camera vs. the stage. I’m also slowly practicing my mandarin and plan to start sewing soon!”
RB: “Stay connected with folks that you love, drink water, be kind to one another.”
PM: “Do what you need to do to survive during this time. Although everyone is in this “thing” together, each Quarantine will look different. Just because you’re not “doing” or “practicing” in quarantine doesn’t make the work you’ve done any less. Each person is in this, grieving, together. Don’t try and replicate others to try and feel fulfilled. You can sit, and be content during this time.”
MC: “In relative terms I’m very lucky to be in a country that is providing social assistance during a time of mass unemployment, so I think being mindful of what privileges I have in my position has been keeping me somewhat level through all of this. I live with high anxiety and depression and the best thing I’ve been able to do is take every day as it comes by listening critically and thoughtfully to my needs as a means of being conscious of what I want my life to look like. Stay inspired, establish your boundaries, cultivate change.”
CB: “Stay informed on what is happening in the news but try to focus on ways of keeping the people in your life safe. Past a certain point, scrolling through the news will only cause anxiety and you need to provide yourself with things that you enjoy. Pornh*b Premium is free right now.”
By Kristi Alexandra @kristialexandra | Looselips Magazine | June 23, 2020
Feature photo by Noam Gagnon
“Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others,” Oscar Wilde famously said.
It points to a quandary of human judgement–who is wicked, and who gets to say so? Is it a given label, or does one get to righteously claim it?
It’s on this premise that the 2020 Vancouver Queer Arts Festival is built, and artistic director SD Holman has curated a lineup of transdisciplinary art and artists that embody the meaning of the word.
Starting off on July 16, the 10-day festival will include drag and burlesque performances, literary readings, speculative theatre and more–all in celebration of queer identity.
“I think it’s so apropos that wicked came up right now at this moment,” Holman tells Loose Lips Mag. “I think artists are outlaws, and queers are the ones that I’m interested in.”
Holman draws a parallel between the theme of the 12th annual Queer Arts Festival and the current state of the world.
“There’s many layers to it, right now, especially, with the pandemic and with the killings and the police brutality. [What’s] coming to my mind is inclusion. Inclusion at what cost? Inclusion for who? Our inclusion is contingent on a set of rules,” they speculate.
“Years ago, they wanted to get rid of the drag queens and leather dykes at the pride parade. Inclusion depends on us being palatable. I want to see good art that can fall outside of that palatability.”
And this year’s lineup of performers does just that.
Take for example, all-Indigenous burlesque group Virago Nation, who will perform Too Spirited on July 17. The group bucks colonial interpretations of beauty in what they call sexual rematriation.
Also on the docket is The Darlings, a non-binary drag collective whose performances have been repeatedly censored by Facebook. As a nod, their July 24 performance is aptly called The Darlings, Uncensored.
Other acts include contemporary dance legend Noam Gagnon and queer writers Hiromi Goto and Erica Isomura.
“I like to highlight local, but I also love to bring in folks from away, so people can talk to each other across the disciplines and across time and across space,” says Holman. “I wanted to bring art into the world and into Vancouver that I wasn’t seeing.”
As with every year, Queer Arts Festival has made a big effort to be accessible, both with ASL interpretations and with by-donation events.
“Accessibility is really high up on our list and mandate,” Holman affirms, noting that ASL interpretations have always been part of the festival.
What’s entirely different this year, however, is 2020’s QAF is “going remote.” For the festival’s team, it came with its own unique challenges, but also with wins and determination.
“We were able to partner with The Cultch and do filming there, and we’re managing how to do that in a safe way. We have a safety plan, they have their safety plan,” Holman reveals. “It was our opportunity to say ‘Let’s re-envision this as something completely different.’”
And different is exactly what Queer Arts Festival is all about. One might dare say, it’s about to get “wicked.”
Queer Arts Festival runs online from July 16 – 26. Check out the schedule, lineup and get tickets here.
Kristi Alexandra is an unabashed wino and wannabe musician. Her talents include drinking an entire bottle of cabernet sauvignon, singing in the bathtub, and falling asleep
Georgia Straight: posted on June 25th, 2020 at 9:00 AM
(This story is sponsored by the Pride in Art Society.)
Art holds the ability to connect people despite their race, culture, gender, or sexuality. As we find ourselves in midst of a global pandemic, feeling connected is now more important than ever.
The 12th annual Queer Arts Festival (QAF) takes place from July 16 to 26, and features a curated lineup of visual art, performing arts, workshops, artist talks, panels, and media art screenings. To follow suggested social distancing guidelines, this year’s entertaining and thought-provoking festival will be easily accessible to all through an online platform.
As noted in the festival’s press release, QAF’s 2020 theme, Wicked, “reimagines identity politics, exposing the implications of homonormativity as erasure”. It will also explore the commodification of the queer experience, which is sure to spark discussion among those who attend the virtual festival.
All of the brilliant multidisciplinary events at the online festival will evoke emotion and wonder. Here are five highlights not to be missed:
Art Party! Cinq-à-Sept festival opening
The QAF kick-off is happening on Thursday, July 16 from 5 to 7 p.m. This will feature a visual art tour curated by Jonny Sopotiuk and other guest artists.
Too Spirited
At 7 p.m. on Friday, July 17, an Indigenous burlesque show that is performed by Virago Nation will dazzle viewers who tune in. The performers will explore Indigenous sexuality through humor, pop culture, and politics.
Rupture Probe: Queer Inquiries & Remediations
On Saturday, July 18 at 7 p.m., QAF attendees can stream the screenings of queer short films that rupture normative notions of gender, activism, and pleasure. This media art event is curated in partnership with VIVO Media Arts Centre.
The Darlings, Uncensored
On Friday, July 24 at 7 p.m., The Darlings will perform a genre-bending, non-binary drag show with a new performance created around the festival theme of “wickedness”. The Darlings have taken the local drag scene by storm and are comprised of talented drag performers: Continental Breakfast, PM, Rose Butch, and Maiden China.
Glitter is Forever: Pyjama Party
If you had to miss some of the previous events, you can curl up on the couch and binge-watch the entire QAF on Sunday, July 26. The closing pyjama party will start at 4 p.m. and run until late so this is the perfect opportunity to make fancy espresso martinis. Wear your favourite silk robe and expect an evening filled with surprises, special prizes, attention-grabbing performances and remarkable visual art.
For the full festival lineup, visit www.queerartsfestival.com/events/. To RSVP to the QAF, click here.
The Pride in Art Society is always accepting donations that go toward the festival, programs for adults and youth, and much more. To make a donation to the community-based nonprofit, visit its CanadaHelps page.
See original article here.