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 and 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.
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 and Metal | June 24 | 7pm | $30 / $20
Performed by Erato Ensemble with Robert Black, double bass, 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 18 | 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.
DECADEnce: 2018 Queers Arts Festival
Dates: June 16 to 28, 2018
Venue: Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre 181 Roundhouse Mews Vancouver, BC
Flex Passes + Tickets: 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.
Box Office: brownpapertickets.com/producer/22139
Brown Paper Tickets Customer Service: 1-800-838-3006
Website: QueerArtsFestival.com