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 The National Queer Arts Festival: "Looking Back, Looking Forward"By Mara Math Published: June, 2007  Marga Gomez's comedy show, "Marga Gomez & the Boys" will be at the LGBT Center's Rainbow Room on June 30. "We thought about the people who inspire us," explains Pam Peniston, executive director of the Queer Cultural Center, which produces The National Queer Arts Festival (NQAF), a focus which translates into more intergenerational programming. This year's 53 events include, for instance, Dorothy Allison reading with the young writers of the Bent Writing Institute and "Mad to Live," which pairs contemporary queer "Heirs to the Beats literary legacy" with such Beat luminaries as poet Diane di Prima. The NQAF tenth anniversary events "look forward" politically and culturally, indicative of the breadth of artistic disciplines and the scope of the issues and identities represented. Opening Night on June 8 at the Queer Women of Color Film Festival will showcase the curated show "Loving in the War Years," while the 30 short films featured in the other three screenings come directly from the workshops of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP). "We're different because we create the filmmakers who make the films," says Executive Director Madeline Lim, a filmmaker and 2005 KQED "Local Hero." The nonprofit project provides free introductory and intermediate training in filmmaking to queer women of color. QWOCMAP's special focus this year is on black women, with a panel on Queer Black Women in the Media, a fundraising cocktail party with panel members, and the screening Reels of Resistance on June 9. One particularly provocative showcase title this year is the short, That's Why I Hate Females, by Vassilisa Johri, a community mental-health counselor at a West Oakland high school. Witnessing the self-hatred of the female students inspired Johri to make the film. "The film shows that even though we have supposedly come so far, there's an underlying neo-sexism that encourages us to hate each other, to have low self-esteem about ourselves and our gender, so that in some ways we help oppress ourselves and we have to look at how to survive this internalized oppression." "Where My Girls At?," running June 8-9, began life as a sock puppet show until her stint volunteering at Luna Sea opened creator Micia Mosely's eyes to "a world of different possibilities." Mosely went on to co-found Nappy Grooves, an all-black drag king group. "Being a physical presence on the stage in a black lesbian body that experience had a real impact on me," she says. In her first solo show, Mosely explores the diversity of local black lesbian life through various characters, bookending the show with Ziggy, a young "well-read revolutionary," and Sistah, an elder and earth-mother whose instruction in yoga and Yoni Power nourishes younger generations of black dykes like Ziggy. "For Lack of a Better Word" is the title of both host/curator Thea Hillman's new book and event, subtitled "Nearly Shameless Performances Reflecting Intersex Experiences and Shameless Promotion Book." On June 20 she will read from the collection of first-person prose poems about "coming to terms with and coming out as intersex" which will be interspersed with spoken-word and multi-media presentations from others Hillman selected for their unique perspectives: Hila Viloria, Eli, Emi Koyama, and Shar Rednour. "The title is 'Nearly Shameless' because although we'd love to be completely free of shame, a lot of our performance is about working through those issues and coming out the other side," says Hillman. "It's really brave." She says that no matter what the "treatment" for an intersex child, whether surgery is involved or not, shame and secrecy play a large part. "Performing in public is the exact opposite," she notes. "And a lot of intersex people are paraded before medical professionals and students [as oddities], so taking that back, choosing to reveal things about yourself in public, can be both really hard and really rewarding." In a more classic vein "but with, of course, a twist" "A Queer Night at the Opera" on June 29 is described as "entertainment with a little education and a lot of humor," according to producer Leslie Hassberg. "It's a good introduction for people who might otherwise feel intimidated about opera," she says. "As well as providing unusual queer material for opera buffs." Traditionally, "pants parts" (male roles written for female vocals) are supporting characters who don't figure in the romance. But with Hassberg and Elena Krell singing a duet from Bellini's Romeo and Juliet, audiences can enjoy seeing the girl get the girl. For more information on the Festival, visit http://www.queerculturalcenter.org. Mara Math is a San Francisco writer/editor and activist whose work has appeared in numerous publications.
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