Queer Arts Festival Marks Ten Years of Transgression & Transcension with 10th Anniversary Celebrations: DECADEnce

Queer Arts Festival (QAF) marks its landmark tenth anniversary with the multi- disciplinary 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 organization, features a boundary-pushing, dialogue-igniting array of artistic expression that raises the voices and articulates the experiences of diverse, creators. 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 Barry Truax Skin & Metal; 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, African- Caribbean, Jewish, Latina, and Japanese Artists, DECADEnce remembers the Other marks and interrogates what we collectively choose to celebrate.

Media Art Program | June 18 | 7pm | with VIMAF | $12 / $10
Building on our successful programming collaboration from 2017, shared and emerging histories are explored through media and performance to highlight discourses within Queered-Indigenous experience and its intersections, curated in 2018 by Fallon Simard

Queerotica | 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) | June 20-23 | 7pm | June 23-24 | 2pm | with the frank theatre company | $30 / $20
The world premiere of Lesley Ewen’s new work is a fantastic imaging 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.

Barry Truax Skin & Metal | June 24 | 7pm | $30 / $20
Performed by Erato Ensemble with Jerry Pergolesi, percussion, this concert honours seminal electro- acoustic 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 Su-Feh Lee negotiates an environment of smoke and numbers, flying objects and the rigorous beauty of Barry Truax’s electro-acoustic score, Sequence of Earlier Heaven. The complicated dialogue as Asian diaspora encounters colonized Indigeneity.

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 11-24 | with MACHiNENOiSY, UNYA, BYRC, Directions, Qmunity |
This 2-week process led by contemporary dance company MACHiNENOiSY and new media artist Sammy Chien draws content from youth participant’s own stories, empowering them through art and technology. Participants will perform the new work on the QAF main stage.

All events at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre except where noted.

2018 QAF Early Bird 4-Show Flex Passes are now on sale for $69 until April 16 at: brownpapertickets.com/event/3366149

Regular 4-Show Flex Passes ($79) and single tickets on sale April 16 at: brownpapertickets.com/ref/22139/event/3366149
or brownpapertickets.com/producer/22139

About the Queer Arts Festival (queerartsfestival.com):

The Queer Arts Festival (QAF) is an annual artist-run professional multi-disciplinary arts festival at the Roundhouse in Vancouver, BC. Recognized as one of the top 5 festivals of its kind worldwide (Melbourne Sun Herald), 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 artscreenings. 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), some of the most adventurous of any local arts festival” (Vancouver Province) and “on the forefront of aesthetic and cultural dialogue today” (Xtra)

LISTING INFORMATION

Dates: Venue:

Flex Passes + Tickets:

Box Office: Website:

DECADEnce: 2018 Queers Arts Festival June 16 to 28, 2018

Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre 181 Roundhouse Mews
Vancouver, BC

2018 QAF Limited Early Bird 4-Show Flex Passes are now on sale for $69 until April 16.

Regular 4-Show Flex Passes ($79) and single tickets on sale April 16.

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/22139 Brown Paper Tickets Customer Service: 1-800-838-3006

QueerArtsFestival.com