ABOUT NQAF 2002

QAF’2002
INTRODUCTION & HISTORY
This series of visual art exhibitions, performances and interpretive programs has been organized by the Queer Cultural Center (QCC) and the Harvey Milk Institute (HMI).

Since its debut in 1998, the National Queer Arts Festival (NQAF) has showcased some of the best professional and emerging artists in the Queer Community. The National Queer Arts Festival has been produced in collaboration with numerous Bay Area nonprofit arts organizations, including Jon Sims Center for the Arts, SomArts, the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Art (MCC), the African American Art and Culture Complex (AAACC) the Asian/Pacific Island Cultural Center (APICC), Brava! for Women in the Arts, and many others whose events you’ll find in this catalog.

The National Queer Arts Festival presents the breadth of our communities’ diverse artists and arts organizations. In this catalog you’ll find spoken word performances, multimedia work, visual art exhibitions, dance, theater, comedy, literature and poetry readings, video screenings, and a wide array of multidisciplinary programs featuring artists discussing their own works.

On its 5th Anniversary, the NQAF is examining how issues of the intersection of race/culture and queerness can be expressed by the arts in our community. As a microcosm of the world, the Queer Community encompasses its full diversity; how we differ or mirror that larger world is the question that many of our artists have addressed for this festival. A large percentage of our events will focus on the construction of racial identity and/or racism from the queer artist’s perspective. The artists mine the past and present and create a future to express their vision. These visions are, at times, hilarious and pointed in their satire, tragic or triumphant in their outcome, and always original as we have come to expect.

This year, NQAF delightfully celebrates its fifth anniversary at our new home at the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. This remarkable new building provides the NQAF with two new performances spaces to showcase the talents of a greater number of artists than ever before. We thank everyone involved who helped make the Center a reality. Please join us at the Center on Saturday, June 1 as we celebrate with a Gala Festival Opening Night Performance Party.

The National Queer Arts Festival has been financially supported by SomArts, the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Art, the Bayview Opera House, the Cultural Equity Grants program of the San Francisco Arts Commission, Grants for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the Gateways Initiative of the San Francisco Foundation, the Horizons Foundation, the Astraea Foundation, the Zellerbach Family Fund, Hispanics in Philanthropy, New Performance Network , California Poets & Writers, Inc., African American Art and Culture Complex , the Vanguard Foundation, and the Walter and Elise Haas Foundation.

Festival Staff
Pamela Peniston, Qcc Executive Director, Artistic Director
Kevin Schaub, HMI Executive Director, Festival Director

Kathryn Grooms, Artistic Business Affairs Director
Rudy Lemcke, Internet Programs Director
Mark Menke, Assistant Festival Director, Media Director
Mathew DeGumbia, Technical Director
Ken McPherson, Technical Director
Adrienne Fuzee, Gallery Installation Director
Renaud Proch, Qcc Gallery Director
Sini Anderson, Pam Peniston, Marvin White and Charles Wilmoth, Festival Curators

Publicist for the National Queer Arts Festival
Karen Larsen, Larsen Associates
Press/Media should contact: 415.957.1205, [email protected]

Event and Reception Sponsors
Hotel Bijou is the official hotel of the National Queer Arts Festival
Isosceles Group
Blavod & The Black Vodka
Barefoot Wines
Trader Joes
Rainbow Grocery Cooperative (find right language and logo)
Harvest Market
Buffalo Whole Food & Grain Company
The Lexington
Ixia
Matagrano
Peet’s Coffee & Tea
San Francisco Pride Celebration Committee
Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence
Cleis Press

Qcc The Center for Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgender Art & Culture
For information about the Festival contact Festival Coordinator at: Festival Coordinator

Founded in 1993, the Queer Cultural Center (Qcc) is a multidisciplinary arts-presenting organization that conducts artistic and interpretive programs exploring queer identity issues. Our programs promote the careers of lesbian gay bi transgender artists, foster the growth of queer arts organizations, and serve queer and non-queer audiences alike. By presenting, exhibiting, and screening queer artists’ work, Qcc contributes a multicultural perspective on the lesbian gay bi transgender experience.

Qcc Board of Directors
Sini Anderson
Lucrecia Bermudez
Blackberri
Lenore Chinn
Greg Day
Jeff Jones
Jonathan Katz
Pamela Peniston
Juan Alberto Tam

Harvey Milk Institute
www.harveymilk.org

Tel. 415.865.5633, [email protected]

The mission of the Harvey Milk Institute (HMI) is to foster the development and examination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer culture and community in the Bay Area and beyond. HMI conducts programs that present and interpret works by contemporary and historical lesbian gay bi transgender artists and critical thinkers and that explore community and personal issues within the context of queer culture. HMI produces programming year-round which includes an Arts & Lecture Series, workshops, conferences and other arts events. New catalog available August 2002.

Harvey Milk Institute Board of Directors

Sini Anderson
Amy Andre
John Paul DeCecco, Ph.D.
Evan Deerfield
Max Ehrsam
Tara Henry
James Harrison Lott, Jr.
Ann Leslie Singer
Samuel B. Tucker
David Tulller

Volunteers
Harvey Milk Institute coordinates the efforts of more than 100 volunteers who make this festival possible. If you’d like to volunteer, contact Mark Menke at 415.865.5633 or [email protected]. Volunteers are needed for a variety of positions and box office, event production, ushering, publicity and general administrative needs. If you have parking tickets and are eligible to do work exchange through SF DPT’s Project 20, sign up with us. If you’d like to see more events than you can fit in your budget, volunteering is a great way to reduce ticket fees.