May 9th, 2012 maggie
Zoe Whittall has a post up at Pretty Queer about femme, identity politics and community standards for art. There are a few threads in the post – one is about moving past the point in one’s life where you want to have basic identity conversations. The that thread really got me thinking is about what it means that so much queer art, and so much femme art, is cliched, under-rehearsed, and derivative.
Whittall writes:
If you want to write about femme identity, then write in a way that I have never heard it before. If you re-wrote the shit out of that fishnet poem, perhaps you’d reflect on the use of the imagery and determine that it’s cliché. Perhaps you’d re-work the sentence that uses red lipstick or combat boots as a meaningful symbol. Having a counter-cultural identity doesn’t mean you automatically know how to write about it. Sure, it’s your story and you’re oppressed and our stories are all important blah blah blah, but it’s not enough.
Beyond the experimental, read-from-my-journal-at-the-open-mic phase that so many people have as they come out, whether or not they continue to pursue writing and/or performing, there is definitely a need for higher standards. But we should look at some of the factors that are making it more difficult and think about possible solutions before we throw the femme baby out with the bathwater and just go RSVP “no” to every identity-based art project that comes our way. Read the rest of this entry »
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May 1st, 2012 maggie
Phyllis and Beatrice of the Society for the Preservation and Promotion of Sapphic Social Mores (SPPSSM) have been invited to Since the tandem is a little slow, they need to raise funds to help them get to Atlanta to share their high-femme camp and wisdom. Please consider supporting their kickstarter campaign. 
MondoHomo is a not-for-profit run by awesome community volunteers. They are not able to cover our full travel costs, so we are asking you to help us make up the rest! Your support will help bring high femme hijinks and performance art to a super queer festival.
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April 17th, 2012 maggie
Ahem. Did we get your attention with that subject? We are so excited to bring dirty queer sex to the Midway, as if there wasn’t enough of that going on already.
Dirty Queer Sex Tour features readers from the SAY PLEASE: LESBIAN BDSM EROTICA anthology released by Cleis Press in April 2012, and many special guests! Performers include Aporia, Bitches of Destiny, Gigi Frost, Idalia, Elizabeth Thorne, and Anna Watson, hosted by Sinclair Sexsmith, writer of the Sugarbutch Chronicles and editor of Say Please & Best Lesbian Erotica 2012.
In Say Please, Sinclair Sexsmith presents a cornucopia of queer kink—tantalizing tales rich in variety and saucy details of girls put in their place—and held there firmly. Whether readers dream of surrendering to a lover or of taking control, Say Please offers plenty of erotic inspiration and gives readers exactly what they want! Come hear authors from the book read their stories and celebrate the release of this kinky queer collection.
8pm, Sunday April 22
The Midway
3496 Washington Street in JP
$5-10 sliding scale
More about the artists below.
Read the rest of this entry »
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April 16th, 2012 maggie
The Femme Show and In the Streets productions is thrilled to announce that our favorite mistresses of manners, Phyllis Troubridge and Beatrice Llewellyn will be gracing the stage at the Network/La Red’s annual gala, Paint The Town (La) Red: A Celebration of Survival, Thursday, April 19 at Oberon.
Paint The Town (La) Red: A Celebration of Survival
Full Dinner and Cash Bar. Mingling. Silent Auction.
$60 per person; $100 for two
(Use Code 2FOR1 to Purchase Two)
$35 per person; $60 for two (Reduced Admission)
A limited number of further discounted tickets are available for community members.
Location:
Oberon
2 Arrow Street
Cambridge, MA
(between Harvard Sq. & Central Sq. Stations)
wheelchair accessible; ASL Interpretation Available
With
Genki Spark – Japanese Taiko Drumming
Tina Oza – Classical Bharathanatyam Indian Dance
Porsha O. – Spoken Word
Society for the Preservation and Promotion of Sapphic Social Mores (SPPSSM)
Sass Attack
and more….
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March 28th, 2012 maggie
Heels on Wheels Glitter Roads: Queer Political Art with Sparkle in Boston April 8 at Lorem Ipsum Books
With guest performer Maggie Cee and Femme Show alum Geppetta!
Date: Sunday April 8, 2012
Time: Doors 7:00/show 7:30p
Venue: Lorem Ipsum Books, 1299 Cambridge St., Cambridge MA; Sponsored by the Papercut Zine Library
Cost: $5-$10
Special Guests: Maggie Cee and more TBA!
“The Heels on Wheels Roadshow is a glorious campaign to put femininity in the spotlight. I totally applaud and approve. It is a delicious combination touring glitterati and local sparkle that showcases some serious queer talent. Don’t let them pass you by!”
– Lois Weaver, Obie-Award Winning Performer, Lecturer Queen Mary University of London
The Heels on Wheels Glitter Roadshow tours the US annually with a dazzling cabaret of performance art works and acts of resistance by queer folks of femme-inine spectrum genders. The show itself consists of five performers, featuring a raucous, thought-provoking line-up of multi-media, literary and performing arts, music, puppetry, participatory art — and even dance parties. The fearless artists rampage across the femme-inine spectrum-from hi-femme to femmedrogyny, dandy darling to ladybeast in a wild revue of visceral, poetic, performance, emotional escape plans in wild workout gear, dark whimsical puppetry, innovative intersectionality, and rocknroll you can sink your heels into!
The 2012 tour is the third, and features experienced performers Damien Luxe, Geppetta, Heather Acs, Najva Sol, and Shomi Noise, with wrangler/visual artist Lizxnn Disaster, and runs April 6-14, 2012. This show is unique to and engaged with each place it lands in, and in Boston is at Lorem Ipsum Books, sponsored by the Papercut Zine Library.
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January 24th, 2012 maggie
The 2012 Femme Conference is 8 scant months away and they’re looking for workshops, art and entertainment. Expect to see some Femme Show folks there – we love Baltimore and we’re excited for another FemmeCon. UPDATE: Registration is now open here! The early bird gets the discount. 
And you can find out about volunteering and scholarships, too.
Femme2012: Pulling the Pieces Together
National Call for Submissions!
Call for Workshops, Papers, Panels, Films, Performance, and Visual Art
Baltimore, MD
August 17-19, 2012
www.femme2012.com for the full call.
Femme2012: Pulling the Pieces Together is a multi-threaded conference and forum for those who think about, talk about, and create Femme as a queer gender and identity.
Following our Femme2006, 2008, and 2010 conferences in San Francisco, Chicago, and Oakland, where hundreds of femmes and allies gathered for workshops, panels, films, visual art galleries, and performances, we again invite femmes of all kinds and their allies to continue the conversation by participating in Femme 2012 as presenters and participants.We are invested in having Femme2012 continue to reflect the diversity and complexity of femme gender, identity, and contributions. We hope for this conference to be a community-building event, as well as an exploration and celebration of what it means to build and live queer femme identities.
Submissions of all kinds are welcome, particularly submissions by Femmes. We are committed to having our presenters reflect as many different voices from within our Femme community(ies) as possible. We aim to prioritize and centralize the experiences of historically marginalized groups, including but not limited to people of color, working-class people, fat folks, trans and gender-non-conforming people, elders, youth, previously incarcerated individuals, people without documentation, and people with dis/abilities. Femme2012 will continue the community dialogues from Femme2006, Femme2008, and Femme2010. In particular, we hope that the intersections of femme with race, region, class, access, dis/ability, privilege, oppression, and marginalization will be talked about, given space, meditated upon, constructed, and deconstructed.
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October 31st, 2011 maggie
We are so excited to share this news:
SAVE THE DATES! The 4th Biannual Femme Conference is coming!
Femme2012: Pulling the Pieces Together
August 17-19, 2012
The Femme Conference provides a weekend by, for, and about queer femme-identified people and our allies.
Every other year the Femme Conference steering committee co-creates with you, our femme community and allies, an opportunity to hold and experience femme-centered space. Together we bring each other thought-provoking workshops, brilliant keynotes, glittering performances, resource sharing, community building, and so much more.
Past keynote speakers have included Dorothy Allison, Kate Borenstein, Jewelle Gomez, Amber Hollibaugh, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Moki Macias.
Our 2012 event aims to explore how we grow, build, nurture, and align the many pieces of our communities and identities while building shared femme community and power.
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