Meow Mix pour Projet 10 le 7 août, August 7 Meow Mix for Project 10

The Meow Mix for Project 10 will be a lady-queer-cabaret event to remember! Hosted by Boston’s Heywood Wakefield, and featuring Brooklyn queer performance artist Damien Luxe, the night is gonna shake up the Mix and leave you wanting to break out your inner queer performer. Musical innovators Edges Blast and No Homo round out the programme of diva-led shenanigans by internationally renowned performer 2Fik,and local alt-dragster Peaches Lepage.
HEADLINER: RAE SPOON, followed by DJ Like the Wolf
Sala Rosa, 4848 St-Laurent Sunday, August 7, doors 9pm, show at 9:30pm. $10 PWYC
To celebrate Montréal’s favorite alt-pride event Pervers/cité, the Meow Mix for Project 10 brings together an awesome line-up of lady-loved artists including headliner Rae Spooon and Boston’s drag king extraordinaire Heywood Wakefield. This unmissable event is brought to you by MIM Productions and thedutymyth, with most proceeds going to Project 10, a Montréal org that works to promote the personal, social, sexual and mental well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, intersexed and questioning youth and adults 14-25.

www.perverscite.org / www.p10.qc.ca / www.mimproductions.org www.truthserum.org/heywoodwakefield / www.axondluxe.com www.2fikornot2fik.com / www.raespoon.com

Le Meow Mix pour Projet 10 met à l'affiche Heywood Wakefield, drag king extraordinaire de Boston, en compagnie de Damien Luxe, superbe artiste queer de Brooklyn, en compagnie des bands Edges Blast et No Homo, avec prestations drag de la star internationale 2Fik et la diva de l’underground Peaches Lepage! Programme fantastiquement alterno avec dance-party lesbienne et queer à partir de 23h30 avec DJ Like The Wolf!
TÊTE D’AFFICHE : RAE SPOON
Sala Rosa, 4848 St-Laurent
Dimanche, le 7 août, portes 21h, show à 21h30. $10 contribution volontaire
Pour l’occasion de Pervers/cité, festival LGBT des marges de la fierté, thedutymyth et Meow Mix présentent la soirée Meow Mix pour Projet 10! Mettant à l’affiche l’incontournable interprète et musicien queer de renom Rae Spoon, animé par le rigolo Heywood Wakefield de Boston, ce cabaret hors-bornes est un événement à ne pas manquer pour les membres de la communauté lesbienne et queer qui souhaitent fêter la fierté autrement, avec tous les éléments du célèbre Meow Mix de MIM Productions.
La grande portion des recettes ira à Projet 10, organisme montréalais qui travaille à promouvoir le bien-être personnel, social, sexuel et mental des jeunes et adultes lesbiennes, gais, bisexuel(le)s, transgenres, transsexuel(le)s, bispirituel(le)s, intersexués et en questionnement âgé(e)s entre 14 et 25 ans.

Success for Let Alvaro Stay! Campaign

As of 7pm today, Alvaro's Humanitarian and Compassionate appeal has been accepted and he will no longer be deported.

The LGBT community and refugee solidarity groups are rallying in person and online this week to prevent the deportation of Toronto-based queer artist Alvaro Orozco. Orozco was arrested May 13 and is threatened with immediate deportation, even though his application for refugee status on humanitarian grounds is still in process.

“An accomplished artist and dedicated advocate for queer and newcomer youth, Alvaro’s love for art and commitment to community has captured the appreciation and respect of thousands of people in Toronto,” said campaign organizers Edward Lee and Suhail Abualsameed in a press release. Orozco’s photo work was recently featured in the exhibit Migration Expressions Montréal’s Ste-Émilie Skillshare.

In 2010, Orozco received a Toronto Youth Cabinet Impact Award for his community involvement, and the immanent deportation scare has resulted In a wave of support from across the country. “Alvaro has been in Canada since 2004, and is an integral member of Toronto’s queer community,” says Suhail Abualsameed, Coordinator, Newcomer/Immigrant Youth Program at Sherbourne Health Centre, where Alvaro works with queer newcomer youth.

Alvaro first rose to national prominence in 2007 when his refugee claim was denied on the basis that he did not look “gay enough” for the adjudicator hearing his case via video -conferencing in Calgary. This story was picked up by the largest newspapers in Nicaragua, effectively “outing” him to the entire country he left at age 12 due to severe physical abuse by a father who threatened to “kill any child of his that was homosexual”. “I’m an artist, a youth worker, and a volunteer in Toronto,” Alvaro Orozco said from the detention centre yesterday. “I’ve got a strong Humanitarian and Compassionate Application case and am hoping that I can get back to the life I’ve built in the city for the past 7 years.”

The Let Alvaro Stay campaign urgently requests his release from detention and a stay on his deportation proceedings until his Humanitarian and Compassionate application has been heard. Amongst the many supporters of the campaign, MP Olivia Chow, EGALE Canada’s Helen Kennedy, and renowned AIDS activist Tim McCaskell have voiced their support.

You can view one of dozens of supportive youtube videos here:

And sign the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/let-alvaro-stay-in-canada



The Let Alvaro Stay Campaign is a highly organized group, with reps in Montréal and Toronto, and they handily provide the phone numbers and e-mail addresses of the new Minister of Immigration, Jason Kenney, urging supporters to call, text, or Twitter-blitz him.

Jason Kenney at 403-225-3480 or e-mail at Kenney.J@parl.gc.ca or Twitter: @kenneyjason

Call or text Vic Toews at 204-326-9889 or e-mail at Toews.V@parl.gc.ca

The campaigners also urge petitioners to cc their local MP:

http://www.parl.gc.ca/parlinfo/compilations/houseofcommons/memberbypostalcode.aspx?menu=hoc

And to mention the following points to the Minister and your MP:

* Alvaro has established ties in Canada and specifically in Toronto and this has been his home all of his adult life

* That Alvaro has a pending Humanitarian and Compassionate Grounds Permit (H&C) application that shows his commitment to the queer community, the arts community and Toronto in general and that he had close personal ties here in Toronto

* Alvaro’s deportation date of June 2nd should be deferred until his H & C application is decided

* We want Alvaro’s H&C application to be looked at as soon as possible or for the Minister himself to intervene in this case.

Join the many activists, journalists, and community members in signing the petition to Let Alvaro Stay:

http://www.change.org/petitions/let-alvaro-stay-in-canada

For Mile Enders, cc Thomas Mulclair mulcat@parl.gc.ca and for Plateau people, cc helenelaverdiere@npd.ca -- Here's a sample text of what you can write to Jason Kenney:

Dear Minister Kenney,

I am writing to you as a resident of the Outremont riding in Montreal, to ask you please intervene to stay the deportation of artist and community member Alvaro Orozco, who has resided in Toronto for many years.

Alvaro's deportation to Nicaragua would put him in danger of physical violence or death, as he was outed there in 2007 as a person belonging to the LGBT community, a particularly vulnerable group in that country.

Mr. Orozco has established ties in Canada and specifically in Toronto and this has been his home all of his adult life

Mr. Orozco has a pending Humanitarian and Compassionate Grounds Permit (H&C) application that shows his commitment to the queer community, the arts community and Toronto in general and that he had close personal ties here in Toronto

Therefore, I believe strongly that Alvaro Orozco’s deportation date of June 2nd should be deferred until his H & C application is decided.

I join over 9,000 other Canadians in urging you as Minister of Citizenship and Immigration to halt this deportation until a decision is made on Alvaro Orozco's application for residency permit on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

With sincere thanks for considering this request,

Your name, address, riding.

How to Build a Fire Queer Sans Fin Convergence Performance schedule

Dear friends and participants,

This is a reminder that tomorrow night's Convergence culminates in a performance evening with engaging work by Heather Ács, Silas Howard, Laura Boo MacDonald and Damien Luxe. Entrance is $10, but we have 10 half price spots available for those who contact us in advance!

There will be a Q&A after the performances (around 10:30pm) hosted by Jordan Arseneault.

9pm:
Heather Ács’ piece “what the brain forgets and the heart denies, the body remembers…” explores illness, death, grieving and loss refracted through working class Appalachian and Mexican cultural imagery, creating a nonlinear world layered with movement, gesture, storytelling, soundscape, video, and installation. In this multi-media solo performance piece, time and testimonies loop, break apart, burrow, reemerge, and cross over. Breath taking, glass breaking, gifts are bestowed. Sparrows descend, tortillas and tears sizzle on the comal, a river flows with dirt and glitter. Lesley Gore croons cotton candy lyrics laced with razor blades while dust gathers in an empty house. Stitch it all together with string theory and skeleton keys, stuff into a mason jar, shake until your heart might break, check your pulse, make a wish, and see what rises to the surface.


Silas Howard's “Thank you for Being Urgent” is a textured tale of a transman coming up in the queer punk world of San Francisco and spilling into the crappy and exalted glitter of Hollywood. Silas Howard searches for true tales of fierce outsiders and re-imagines the mainstream, never loosening his grip on the underground. Our hero begs sanity from mystery man Mr. Hollywood through playful and plaintive letters, ruminating on desire, shame, and the infinite loopholes in the American Dream. Traversing serendipitous heights and punishing ironies, Thank you for Being Urgent chronicles burlesque dancers with dementia, tranny jazzmen and film executives, using archival photos, monologues and charm.

Intermission (9:45-10)

Laura Boo MacDonald (aka Douche La Douche)'s "Throw Myself" is a full body memory of a childhood spent taking vicious tantrums. Tantrums (and the children who take them) are seen as shaming themselves and their parents with their ill behaviour that does not conform to socially accepted norms for emotional expression. As an adult who has learned that one is expected to deal with stress, trauma, loss, anger, sadness, panic and grief while remaining outwardly composed and unaffected, memories of childhood tantrums become a dream of release and relief. This performance raises questions about self-care practices, mental health and the tragedy of adulthood while simultaneously testing the boundaries between public and private.

Damien Luxe is presenting the Hot Pink Mass, a performative church service for freaks, perverts, weirdos and magical creatures. Drawing from five different religious traditions, the piece combines humor, acknowledgement of desire and a vision of social justice to inspire. Honoring feminine hero/ines and instigating our individual and collective power to manifest change, the Mass asks participants: what do you deserve, and how can you make it happen?

10:30pm: Q&A
Stick around for a round table Q&A with all four artists. Hosted by Jordan Arseneault (aka Peaches Lepage, Tooloose Letrick, Aïda Cökenbalz)

How to Build a Fire Queer Sans Fin Convergence

How to Build a Fire Queer Sans Fin Convergence

When: Saturday Jan 8, 2011 -- Workshops [Free] 12noon-6pm, Performance [$10] 9-11p

Where: Mise au Jeu, 90 de la Gauchetière Est. Montrèal

Who: Damien Luxe and Heather Ács [New York], Silas Howard [Los Angeles], Jordan Arseneault and Laura Boo [Montréal]

12noon: Heather Ács: Creative Strategies for Resistance:
Exploring Educational Theatre Techniques
Educational Theatre practitioners use theatre as a tool to explore issues, incite dialogue, and practice strategies in classrooms and communities of all kinds. In this workshop, participants will get on their feet as the facilitator guides them through a series of exercises that include movement, improvisation, writing, image theatre, and performance composition. Educators, community organizers, artists, and students interested in leadership will all find relevant material in this workshop and walk away with a practical set of tools and techniques they can use in a variety of educational and creative settings.

2-4pm: Silas Howard: Reality in Flight: A DIY story workshop focusing on using personal stories and metaphor to tell stories.
This workshop/practicum examines the relationships between voice, style and language along with issues of memory and identity. Through hands-on scene study, writing activities, and examining model films, participants will come away with story telling strategies for approaching the different phases of film and other narrative forms. In particular, the workshop will explore the representation of outsider stories, new voices, and transgressive narratives in stories and film. Participants of all levels are encouraged to attend, but no previous experience is necessary.

2-4pm: Laura Boo: DIY event technical skillshare:
When tiny budgets and unconventional performance spaces combine with a great desire to get on stage and do something amazing, something has got to give. Often, it is personal ingenuity and craftiness that can make the difference between a show that takes place without sound and in the dark and a great event where the tech is smooth enough to be invisible. This workshop / skillshare will be an opportunity for those involved in performance and various types of event production to learn some of the basic skills required tech your own shows. From the basics of understanding what each piece of equipment does and how it interacts with other equipment to troubleshooting tech nightmares, this session will de-mystify the technical side of event production. We'll be talking about amps, mixers, mics, speakers, subs, lights, cables, computers, video projectors and all the ways to get them to work together.

4-6pm: Damien Luxe: Building the Gay Bomb: Open Source media skillshare for performance.
The goal of this presentation is to up the multimedia skills of live performers; we'll do this by providing performers with an overview some of the open-source software currently available for audio and web production, and to relay vital, “how-to” media and tech strategies for people with medium/moderate computer and internet experience and zero to moderate capital. We will focus on utilizing shareware and freeware to ensure that access to programs is as economically obstacle-free as possible. All participants will leave the presentation with a knowledge bank and insight of how to utilize free software to add to the multimedia of their performances

4-6pm: Jordan Arseneault: Fear Drag: Wear other participants' fears in a role-play workshop to discover what yours are, and open your performance heart. Workshop participants will write down the obstacles, ideas, and worries that make them afraid in real life. We switch and act them out. In the second part, we write down our performance-related fears, switch, and act them out as well. See your peers enact your fears, help ourselves move beyond them. Beginners very welcome.

The How to Build a Fire Queer Sans Fin Convergence is a full-day Performance Art extravaganza in which 5 artists from activist, literary, video, theatre and multimedia backgrounds will present free, empowering, knowledge-sharing workshops on their practices with the Montreal community, followed by an evening of queer performance-based art work.

How To Build A Fire is a performance and teaching artist group from the US who travel queer landscapes to create legacies while telling tales of desire and survival. Through freak church services for magical creatures, fragmented memory, movement and costuming, and unraveling narratives, these escape artists trespass loopholes in the American dream. Queer Sans Fin is the moniker for Laura Boo MacDonald's Cabaret Faux Pas, who along with Jordan Arseneault will represent Montreal's queer underbelly spectacular in free workshops. Silas Howard, Heather Àcs, and Damien Luxe are the visiting artists presenting workshops and performances.

The Convergence brings together queer artists from across Canada and the US; from across gender lines and languages; from across performance disciplines and backgrounds, responding to the growing need for community building approaches to the performance art medium so often relegated to brief exposures in bars, cabarets, and professionalized art spaces.

We invite you to join the convergence, the conversation, and the events with us on January 8, 2011.

Co-Sponsors: Concordia's Fine Art Student Association, The Chair in Human Sexuality at Concordia, The Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University, Queer Concordia, The Boxcutter Collective, The Teaching Artist Tour, The Duty Myth and Le Coeur est une Pompe.

Site: www.teachingartisttour.com

Facebook: "How to Build a Fire Queer Sans Fin Convergence"

Brunching with Big Freedia – Monday, October 4th, 2010

Brunching with Big Freedia – At Last, the Article from the Magical Lost Interview

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the Bounce Hip-Hop phenomenon was already alive and well in the Big Easy. Bounce emerged from a particular set of beats and claps in which NOLA hip-hop deejays were defining their own sound centered in an ass-shaking beat and fierce emceeing. In the aftermath of the catastrophe, the first club to open up on the West Bank of the flood-ravaged city became meeting place for one of Bounce music's emerging starlets, Big Freedia and her now collaborators DJ Rusty Lazer and Altercation, Big Freedia's dance enthusiast stage partner. Big Freedia has been put on the Montreal map and on the North American and European musical maps, both by infectious danceability and breathtaking lyrics, and by recent associations with Montreal's own Lesbians on Ecstasy, who were the trio's hostesses for this year's Pop Montreal Festival, which programmed both a Bounce dance workshop and late-night loft party show at Espace Réunion on Oct. 3rd.

An unexpected and unforgettable third venue for their 36-hour stop was a brunch appearance at the home of yours truly. Lured by promises of bacon, low-maintenance interview questions— and somewhere to while away the four hours between their checkout and flight times— Big Freedia and her collaborators shared breakfast, pink champagne and a whole lot of themselves with myself and Hochelaga Goddamn collaborator CeeTee Horné. For reasons I shall spare the reader, we do not have a transcript of the profound sharing that took place that day, and instead will try and tell you as much as we can about Freedia the performer, Freedia the poet, Freedia the queer person: Freedia the Big.

“Do you eat meat?” Rusty, Big Freedia's DJ and roadie pal asked me in reply to my breakfast invitation at the Bounce workshop; “Hell Yeah!” I said, promising more bacon than he'd know what to do with. The scruffy, wiry, cutie with the smiling eyes immediately brightened up saying that they would try and make it, especially given how rare it was to be offered a home-cooked meal on the road. Hours later, bathed in the melancholic undulations of Scout Niblett, I found myself too tired to make it to Big Freedia's 2am show, and was tersely warned by a Pop Montreal veteran that there was no chance of them accepting my brunch invitation if I failed to attend this much anticipated Bounce event. At 11:45am the next morning, a voice only slightly less groggy than my own was asking me if the breakfast invitation was still on the table. With CeeTee Horné on speed-dial and pink champagne shoved in the freezer, the bacon was frying and the danishes and cantaloupe lain out when the weary trio were deposited in my front yard by an ebullient Lynne T and the always charming Bernie, from Lezzies on X. As my guests gradually woke up, I received a short but valuable lesson on the importance of a person's chosen name sometimes being the same as their stage name, as is the case for Altercation, Big Freedia's dance partner and spiritual sister. A radiant blonde with wing tattoos on her sternum and an inspiring body/consciousness, Altercation was the undiscovered treasure of the day, as she shared ever-richer parts of her story, as the wing-woman to the reigning queen of New Orleans Bounce.

Regal and soft-spoken, Big Freedia took her time perking up with her new Montreal fans and shared gradually and humbly the reality of living as an artist in a city defined by disaster, violence and race history. Her presence was like visiting royalty to me and C T Horné, who hung on every velvet word, and relished every smile. For his part, Rusty, whose stomach was the way to my heart, told us the story of meeting Big Freedia, whose work he respected and who he ran after on one of NOLA's impromptu Bounce Days, when the Belle of Bounce was the centerpiece of a street party— no dress and crown, thank you very much— seated atop an open convertible, being driven through throngs of ass-shaking, ecstatic fans. Bounce music is such a prevalent part of NOLA culture, in an anecdote of Big Freedia's, that you'll see two people arguing on the street, and a car will come by playing bounce music, and the two will get down and start dancing until the car drives away, only to see the argument resumed. Bounce music's fan-base is 80% female according to Big Freedia, and unlike most popular hip-hop traditions, is resolutely and fabulously queer. The epithet “Sissy” was ascribed to the Bounce stars who happen to be openly gay, but is not an adjective that they use themselves.

A florist and interior designer in her beloved hometown, Big Freedia's LaDiva Creations is her mainstay but by no means just her bread and butter: it's what she loves to do. It just so happens that what queers, music lovers and all of New Orleans love to see her do most is take the mike, pop the P (as in pussy) and sing in a way that makes you dance like you've never danced before, from a place of reclaiming your space, your worth, and your ass. “The red chakra is the seat and basic chakra, and represents the verb 'to have'”, explained Altercation in the bounce workshop earlier the day before. By dancing with your ass and reclaiming your body and your space, you are reclaiming your right to feel the way you feel in your body, and to have the space you have, and ultimately, to communicate your desires, your needs and your reality. Raised by missionaries with early-twenties aspirations of being a 'nutritionary', Altercation addressed both in the workshop and over brunch the beautiful and profoundly thought-out notion of cultural reciprocation that imbues her work and art. “If someone gives you potholders, it doesn't mean you have to give them potholders in return,” by which she means the gift of Bounce music which sprung from Black-American New Orleans culture is one that has changed her life, and for which she expresses gratitude in a variety of ways, from dance classes, to food security work, to anti-poverty activism in her chosen hometown.

The questions I asked Big Freedia were about her spoken word art, which she uses with Nina-Simonesque brilliance in tracks like “I Got the Power” and “Sittin’ Home”; and she greeted them with the humility and subjectivity of a poet. “It's what I'm thinking about in the moment, what matters to me in the moment, what I feel I need to say.” Lost to the caprices of my room-mate's Sony Dictaphone are the depth and realness of what Freedia really said that afternoon. She spoke of hardship, friendship, the love of music and community. Her voice and heart were music to my ears, reaching something like holiness. She is a sound-uttering mystic of words and ass, and a real diva. She knows how good she is, but she never forgets, not for a second, where she's from and what the stakes are. She spoke of her lover for her boyfriend, and the upcoming funeral she had to attend back home. The misery of post-Katrina NOLA was met with pained eyes and a deep-breathing wisdom that it is her role as artist and queen to show help her hometown grow, by making Bounce music better know everywhere. Ass, everywhere, yes, but heart and wisdom too. I am left thinking it is a testament to what an innate poet Freedia is that I found it to hard to quote her exactly when I tried to write this article. Respect.

Big Freedia came to Montreal as an anomaly in the Pop Montreal programme, which had very little spoken word and even less of anything hip-hop related. Having met Lezzies on X at SXSW in 2009, and now having made two visits in 2010, we can only hope to make it to New Orleans for Mardi Gras to experience her power and fame in their birthplace. If the devotional ass-shaking and musical influences on LoX's new single is any indication, we should all have the privilege of hearing and feeling this artist's love of community and heartfelt creativity in our private and not-so-private places sometime soon. Check out www.myspace.com/bigfreedia for upcoming shows and to purchase the album.

Alice In Wonderland ~ Dawn Of An Empire Ball

Alice In Wonderland ~ Dawn Of An Empire Ball
12 November at 16:00 - 13 November at 00:00
Location SPACE 128
454 W. 128th St (128th & Amsterdam)
New York, NY
Created by:
The Opulent Haus of PUCCI
More info
The Haus of Pucci Presents: Alice In Wonderland, The Dawn of an Empire Fridayn, November 12, 2010 Doors Open 4pm, LSS 6pm

I. OTA Foot & Eye "The White Rabbit" $100 Tastefully done with creative frame AND shoe, 3 Trophies, 1 cash)

II. Mini Grand OTA Switch "The Blue Caterpillar" $50 Youre known for 1 category, then switch to another, biggest gag wins! (part 2 later)
...
III. FF Performance "Alice" $150 Bring it like alice, soft, feminine, and dainty (1 trophy, 1 cash)

IV. Mini Grand 2: BQ Face "The Wicked Jabberwocky" $150 Wicked Beauty (1 trophy, 1 cash)

V. The Opulent Haus of Pucci Grand March

NYC

Going to NYC for Mix Festival. So excited to renew my passport!