September 3rd, 2008 maggie
Volunteers needed!
See the show for free! You scratch our back and we’ll scratch yours, ok?
After party Hosts (Friday only): Help decorate, set up, and get folks talking and mingling at the MadFemmePride (www.madfemmepride.org) sponsored after-party.
Ushers and merch: sell tickets, pass out programs, circulate the mailing list, sell merch.
Friday volunteers arrive at 6 PM for set up.
Saturday volunteers arrive at 7 PM and stay after the show to clean up.
Stagehands: Want to see what really goes on behind the scenes? We need folks to help with props and keeping communication flowing backstage. No theater or technical experience needed. Must be available mid afternoon on Friday, October 10 for rehearsal as well as for both shows.
Interested? Email volunteer at the femmeshow dot com. Last year these slots filled up fast, so don’t wait!
Posted in news | No Comments »
September 3rd, 2008 maggie
Tickets on Sale!
October 10 and 11, 8:00 PM
Cambridge Family YMCA Theatre, 820 Mass Ave in Central Square
$11 in advance, $12 at the door.
After a summer of East Coast touring, the femmes et. al. of The Femme Show are back in the Boston area with an all new show. From Barbie dolls to garter belts, from 1950’s dyke bars to suburban back yards and late night taco joints, from hula hooping to clowning, this show takes audiences on a wild ride. The Femme Show offers a variety of diverse perspectives on femme identity with subject matter that is at times thoughtful, sad, sexy, funny, and fun, with film, dance, storytelling, burlesque, drag, and performance art.
Posted in news | No Comments »
August 28th, 2008 Sassafras
I’ve been really sad ever since hearing the news yesterday that Del Martin died. The moment that she and Phyllis Lyon were married just a couple of months ago was so beautiful, and even though I have an incredibly complicated relationship to the institution of marriage I was incredibly touched by the fact that they were the first couple to be married. Yesterday I heard about her death before a lot of news outlets had picked it up and I just kept thinking about how sad it was, and what an inspiration their relationship is to so many of us in the community. When I got home from work and Kestryl told me that all the flags in San Francisco including a rainbow flag were flying at half mast in her honor I nearly lost it, it was such a beautiful image, and yet as a femme I feel incredibly conflicted.
As most folks know Del Martin and her partner Phyllis Lyon founded Daughters of Bilitis,the first national lesbian organization, and as part of that ran the organization’s monthly magazine The Ladder. This all relates to femmeness because the Daughters of Bilitis as an organization was primarily focused on the needs of middle class white lesbians, and encouraged its members to avoid standing out so as not to tarnish the cultural appearance of the rest of them. This means that the group actively encouraged folks to not cross-dress, to avoid appearing as too different, and to not embrace butch-femme cultures and identities. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in musings | 2 Comments »
August 26th, 2008 maggie
We’re off to Philadelphia and Baltimore this weekend! Here’s a quick hit from the Philadelphia City Paper. Not sure where they got the idea that we’re “lady DJ’s”. Ha.
Posted in news, touring | No Comments »
August 22nd, 2008 maggie
Warning: completely fluffy post follows:
Maybe because my brain is still fried from the femme conference, or maybe because I read US weekly at the airport (it’s my constitutional right to read gossip rags while traveling), I’ve been thinking about celebrity butch-femme type couples. Poor Samantha Ronson is getting tons of shit for her plaid shirts and hoodies, and while I don’t love her fashion sense or find her attractive, I don’t think it’s fair for the Go Fug Yourself folks and their ilk to take her style out of the context of her gender and expect her to wear whatever they think young feminine celebrities should be wearing. I don’t care all that much about queer celebrities most of the time, but it would be nice if people could make an effort to understand just a little tiny bit about different gender expressions.
Anyway, a friend just informed me that she has purchased the people magazine with Ellen and Portia’s wedding pictures and I am so excited! I love the way the lines of Portia’s dress echoed the lines of Ellen’s vest, I love how happy they look, I love the cream. Even if they don’t ID as butch or femme I like seeing a romantic, idealized picture of that celebrated in pop culture. But some folks at feministing are unhappy about Ellen’s joke about Portia cooking and cleaning and “taking her off the market.” I like feministing for news but they continually take a one-sided, second-wave view of queer women as gender-free, oatmeal-eating, cuddling overall-wearers. Fortunately, there are some good comments in response.
Posted in musings | 1 Comment »
August 18th, 2008 maggie
(written on the plan coming home)
In high school I travelled with my student ballet company to a workshop in Boston, one day of competing and one day of classes from 9-5. Sick with a cold, after day of doing the same steps over and over, when I closed my eyes in the car on the way home, I saw people turning and turning. I felt like I was still dancing in the same way you feel the waves still rocking you after a good day of swimming.
Tonight, on the plane home to Boston, I closed my eyes and heard stories, not coherent passages, not the notes I took but phrases I swallowed whole and gobbled up with my heart. I saw the bright colors, purple and red and green and yellow and glitter, so much glitter and silver and flowers and feathers in hair. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in musings | 3 Comments »
