Tag Archives: lesbian

Announcing our Jury Award winner… The Thing!

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Be inspired to create, to celebrate and to keep telling your stories! A little encouragement can go a long way. Some times all it takes is one festival to screen your film, one person to tell you how much your work meant to them to motivate you to keep on creating. And while the nymph of inspiration may flit in and out of our lives, the artists we are showcasing work tirelessly even when that elusive sprite is no where to be found. These filmmakers pour over dailies, spend long nights editing, and toss and turn at night wondering what they’ll do if they don’t meet their Kickstarter goals. And sometimes we just want to throw in the towel and crawl into a hole and never come out…This is DIY filmmaking. This is why we need festivals. This is why we need awards.

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“SAY PLEASE: LESBIAN BDSM EROTICA” Dirty Queer Sex Tour (LA Butch Edition)

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Sugarbutch & Raquefella Present: For the release of SAY PLEASE: LESBIAN BDSM EROTICA, come join us in LA for dirty readings from dirty butches, including Jeanne Cordova, D’Lo, Ian Harvie, [rife], Claudia Rodriguez, AJ Stacy, Sinclair Sexsmith, with MC Angie Evans.

ABOUT SAY PLEASE

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.

ABOUT SINCLAIR SEXSMITH

Sinclair Sexsmith runs the award-winning personal online writing project Sugarbutch Chronicles: The Gender, and Relationship Adventures of a Kinky Queer Butch Top at sugarbutch.net. With work published in various anthologies and websites, including Take Me There: Trans and Genderqueer Erotica, she is the guest editor of Best Lesbian Erotica 2012, and her first full-length erotica anthology, Say Please: Lesbian BDSM Erotica, which was published by Cleis Press in April 2012. Mr. Sexsmith writes, teaches, and performs focusing on the subjects of sex, gender, and relationships. More information on her at mrsexsmith.com.

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2Raquel-GutierrezWEB

PUNK ASS QUEERS

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Raquel Gutiérrez (b. 1976, Los Angeles, California) cut her teeth on Los Angeles performance art when she interned and house managed at Highways Performance Space in the year 2000. Raquel is a performance writer, playwright, and cultural organizer, studied in university settings and performed in a variety of locations, like the Salvadoran countryside, cabarets, galleries, San Antonio, more universities, Pico-Union, etc. In 2001, Gutiérrez was one of the co-founding members of the performance ensemble, Butchlalis de Panochtitlan (BdP), a community-based and activist-minded group aimed at creating a visual vernacular around queer Latinidad in Los Angeles. Raquel also co-founded other queer women of color projects and Latino projects, Tongues, A Project of VIVA and Epicentro Poetry project. Raquel has published work in Ambientes: New Queer Latino Writing (edited by Lázaro Lima and Felice Picano), Los Angeles Weekly, Make/shift magazine, Journal of Chicana/Latina Studies, and Izote Vos: Salvadoran American Literary and Visual Art (published by SF’s Pacific News Service).

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WANDERLUST writers of latina/o and queer extractions HIGHWAYS PERFORMANCE SPACE

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My dear friend, Micha Cardenas, is doing a reading from her book, The Transreal: Political Aesthetics of Crossing Realities, Fri and Sat at Highways with a great group of performers. Raquel Gutierrez, another of my favorite queer writers and performance artists is curating this amazing evening of queer latin voices.
CHARLES RICE-GONZALEZ (April 21 only)
SUSANA COOK
MARCELA FUENTES
RAFA ESPARZA + LUIS FLORES
FRANK GALARTE
MICHA CARDENAS
RAQUEL GUTIERREZ

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VAG MONO

The Vagina Monologues & Sexual Health Fair at La Tierra de la Culebra Art Park

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Come to La Tierra de la Culebra Park to celebrate V-day with an afternoon of visual and performance art, screen printing, drumming and radical sex and wellness education.“The Vagina Monologues” by Eve Ensler will begin on the outdoor stage at 6pm.
12-4 Artists, Craftspeople & Vendors
12-4 Sexual Wellness Workshops (See Schedule Below)
2 pm Medicinal Plant Walk With Herbalist, Eden Beth
6 pm “The Vagina Monologues”
8 pm Somatic Awareness: Sex & Creativity (workshop)
8-10 pm Post Performance Party & Community Discussion

Vegan and freegan food will be served all day by the Bike Scum Chapter of Food Not Bombs. Two blocks from the Gold Line.

Admission to the show and workshops is free; a $5 donation is suggested.

Sexual Health & Wellness With Mommy Fiercest

12:00-1:00 BDSM 101

We live every day of our lives within a world constructed of nonconsensual power hierarchies… BOO! HISS!
Now learn about how the consensual exchange of power can be a fun, powerful and even cathartic addition to your sex life. What are the feminist implications of willingly giving up or taking power in a sexual dynamic? How do I tell my partner about my strange desires? BDSM sex toys are expensive, what can I use that’s already laying around the house?
Answers to these questions and yours!

1:30-2:30 pm How To Be An Ally To Transgender People
We all want diversity in our community but how can we make safe space for trans people? What kinds of questions, language, jokes, & comments can make people feel unsafe & unwelcome? We’re all taught to be transphobic and if you haven’t made a conscious effort to unlearn these beliefs, chances are, you’ve got a lil work to do. The good news is you can unlearn these oppressive beliefs and behaviors and become an excellent ally to the transgender and gender non conforming folks around you!

2:45-4 pm Safer Sex For Everyone

What kinds of sex acts are riskier than others? What are the real STI risks of unprotected sex between people with vaginas? How can I safely give a rim job? Why would I wear a latex glove for digital penetration? What in the world can you do with plastic wrap? Why is it important to use lubrication and know what is in your lubricant? Come ready to learn! All questions and desires are safe here!

8:00-9:00 pm Somatic Awareness: Sex & Creativity

A hands-on sexual energy & creative workshop facillitaed by sex and relationship coach, Anya de Montigny. Details to come.

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Andrea Lambert, Debra Simone & Ofelia Del Corazon at homo-centric at Stories Books & Cafe

Andrea Lambert, Debra Simone & Ofelia Del Corazon at homo-centric at Stories Books & Cafe

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I’ve spent so much time and energy publicizing, distributing, and writing about the artwork of those I admire but I often pull this self defeatist stunt where I only tell people about my readings a day or two before hand. That way, if the person says they can’t come, it’s not because they don’t care but because they were too busy, and I can save myself from the humiliation of rejection. Fortunately I’ve come to realize this this misguided little selfdefense mechanism no longer serves me.

A friend of mine (for whom I had just organized a reading) confided in me that there was a time at which she only organized shows & readings for others. She told me that night as we sat drinking Hefeweizen in trendy brewery in Oakland that I had “done my time” as an arts programmer and challenged me to start focusing on my own work. Her words were very inspring particularly because she is my favorite writers on contemporary feminist theory and that she didn’t write her first book (which is pretty much required reading for anyone with any interest in feminist studies and contemporary queer theory) until she was in her forties.

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Mazer Lesbian Archives Film Screening

Mazer Archives Lesbian Short Film Screening

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Where
For Valentine’s Day, these films take us on a journey of love and its many forms: a celebration of a 40-year relationship, the awakening of new passion, the rejuvenation of a troubled marriage, the awkward pratfalls of falling in love, the bond between a mother and son, and a love letter to a remarkable Los Angeles neighborhood.

Tiny and Ruby: Hell Divin’ Women
An intimate and humorous portrait of legendary jazz trumpeter Tiny Davis and her partner of over 40 years, drummer-pianist Ruby Lucas with rare jazz recordings, live performances, vintage photographs, and narrative poetry by Cheryl Clarke.
Directed by Greta Schiller, Andrea Weiss – USA, 1989, 30 min

Fresh Air Therapy
In this offbeat comedy from Germany, a lesbian couple discovers that counseling isn’t the only way to work out their differences.
Directed by Christoph Scheermann– Germany, 2009, 6 min
Audience Award Melbourne Queer Film Fest Australia 2010

Lust Life
Caught between what was and what could be, a woman who has lost her lust for life in the world’s most passionate city takes a chance.
Directed by Lynda Tarryk – USA, 2011, 9 min

Falling for Caroline
This feel-good romantic comedy tells the tale of Darcy, who becomes uncontrollably accident-prone whenever she’s around the girl of her dreams.
Directed by Christine Chew – Canada, 2010, 20 min
Audience Award for Best Short, ImageOut, 2009 (Rochester, NY);
Best Short Film, Queersicht Festival, Bern, Switzerland, 2009

and i am me
An honest and touching portrayal of the relationship between a lesbian mother and her adopted, Ethiopian son.
Directed by Alison Segar – USA, 2010, 16 min

East L.A. Interchange
This trailer for a work-in-progress documentary shows how excavating Boyle Heights’ unique multicultural past serves as a field guide for understanding how to encourage and support diversity, active citizenship, and a respect for differences.
Directed by Betsy Kalin – USA, 2012, 12 min
There will ba a Q&A after with several of the Directors!!!

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