Festivities Feature More Than a Dozen Exhibitions, Performances, Parties, and Panels, Giving Platform to Often Unheard Voices and Stories
Vancouver, BC – Queer Arts Festival (QAF) marks its landmark tenth anniversary with the multidisciplinary summer celebration DECADEnce, running June 16 to 28, 2018 at Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre. The annual festival, which also commemorates Pride in Art’s 20th year as an artist-led collective, features a boundary-pushing, dialogue-igniting array of creators that amplify artistic risktaking and incite creative collaboration and experimentation. The 2018 QAF will include the world premiere of Lesley Ewen’s work Camera Obscura; a 30-year retrospective concert honouring Barry Truax’s trailblazing work titled Skin & Metal: Homoerotic Music Theatre Works by Barry Truax. Operatic tenor Jeremy Dutcher’s performance of traditional Wolastoqiyik songs from his debut release Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa (Maliseet Songs); performances from local art disruptors Su-Feh Lee, MACHiNENOiSY, and Erato Ensemble; and the always popular Queeraoke closing night blowout, among others.
“In a settler colonial society, we have a very solidified perception of what ‘counts’ as worthy of commemorating. And all too often, the voices and lives that are articulated at QAF not only fall outside of this – but are obscured or erased by this HIStory,” says SD Holman, Artistic Director. “For 20 years, we have championed the voices and visions of fearless artists to challenge normative misconceptions in both art spaces and the greater society. Still today, we are living with the burden of an uncertain future and a precarious present that denies freedom, the self-governance of our bodies, minds, and artistic visions. At ten years in, the importance of having a Queer Arts Festival has only grown more palpable.”
The 2018 Queer Arts Festival will mark the monumental milestone with a varied and provocative array of visual art, performance, and special programming:
Art Party! Gala Opening Reception | June 16 | 7pm | pay what you can Art and conviviality converge at the grand opening celebrating 10 years of the Queer Arts Festival.
DECADEnce: Curated Visual Art Exhibition | June 16-27 | pay what you can Curated by Valérie d. Walker, Afro-Futurist, Trans-Atlantic diasporic Femme, Indigenous Hawai’ian, AfricanCaribbean, Jewish, Latina, and Japanese Artists, DECADEnce remembers the Other marks and interrogates what we collectively choose to celebrate.
Transfixed | June 18 | 7pm | with VIMAF | $12 / $10 Media art program. Works by Trans, non-binary, and gender non-confirming artists curated by Fallon Simard with VIMAF.
Lay of the Land | June 19 | 7pm | pay what you can An annual soirée of erotic literary readings, curated this year by Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee), UBC Indigenous Professor and co-editor of Sovereign Erotics, the first and only published collection of Two-Spirit literary erotic writing.
Camera Obscura (hungry ghosts) | Preview June 19 | | June 20-23 | 7pm | June 23 | 2pm | with the frank theatre company | $30 / $20 The world premiere of Lesley Ewen’s new work is a fantastic imagining of trail-blazing multi-media provocateur Paul Wong’s early years, haunted by the project that launched his career, “Murder Research,” and its dark, unexpected consequences.
Skin & Metal : Homoerotic Music Theatre Works by Barry Truax | June 24 | 7pm | $30 / $20 Performed by Erato Ensemble with Jerry Pergolesi, percussion, this concert honours seminal electroacoustic composer Barry Truax in a 30-year retrospective concert of his trailblazing work, breaking down barriers of gender, sexuality, and technology through music.
PROX:IMITY RE:MIX | June 25-26 | 7pm | with MACHiNENOiSY | pay what you can The culmination of MACHiNENOiSY and Sammy Chien’s dance, theatre, and new media skill-building for queer and allied youth.
Everything | June 26 | 8:30pm | pay what you can Dancer Lee Su-Feh negotiates an environment of smoke and numbers, flying objects. The complicated dialogue as Asian diaspora encounters colonized indigeneity.
Jeremy Dutcher : Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa (Maliseet Songs) | June 27 | 7pm | $30 / $20 Operatic tenor Jeremy Dutcher performs traditional songs of his Wolastoqiyik ancestors, in duet with recordings that he rediscovered, transcribed from century-old archival wax cylinder recordings, and arranged for voice, electronics and piano.
Glitter is Forever : Queeraoke Closing Party | June 28 | 7pm | The Junction | pay what you can QAF’s final blowout—revel in community, effervescent refreshments, and karaoke with glitter.
THE SATELLITE ACADEMY: dialogues discourse community
Pride In Art Exhibition | June 16-27 | pay what you can This open visual art show honours our founder, Two-Spirit artist Robbie Hong, and 20 years of Pride in Art.
Curator Panel | June 17 | 2pm | pay what you can Valérie d. Walker and visual artists discuss their art and the curated exhibition.
Youth Curator Tour | June 19 | 4 pm | with Broadway Youth Resource Centre & Directions Youth Services | free Curator Valérie d. Walker’s tour of the visual art exhibition for youth.
PROX:IMITY RE:MIX
| June 9-24 | with MACHiNENOiSY | This 2-week process led by contemporary dance company MACHiNENOiSY and new media artist Sammy Chien draws content from participant’s own stories, empowering them through art and technology.
All events at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre except where noted.
Dates: June 16 to 28, 2018
Venue: Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre 181 Roundhouse Mews Vancouver, BC
Flex Passes + Tickets: Regular 4-Show Flex Passes ($79) and single tickets on sale Box Office:
www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/22139
Brown Paper Tickets Customer Service: 1-800-838-3006
Website:
QueerArtsFestival.com
