Creating Queer Community Grantees (2016)


*Manifesting Access* is an intentionally more accessible (captioned and audio described) collection of short movies that expose truths at the intersection of disability and police terror. From the Sins Invalid Statement Against Police Violence: “Disabled people who are Autistic, who are Deaf, who live with mental health impairments or cognitive impairments, epilepsy or movement disorders, are at highest risk of being assaulted by police, and that is deeply compounded when we are further marginalized by homelessness, transphobia, and white supremacy.”	Black Rage//Black Magic is a sometimes comedic, sometimes musical, sometimes somber, always loving collection of skits and scenes that explore the ways rage impacts the Black body, consciousness, spirit, heart, and family — as a result of systemic, interpersonal, and internalized racism — and the magical ways we turn that rage into an (he)Artistic tool for survival, healing, resilience, dignity, love, and creativity.

*Muck and Sparkle: The Magic and Pain of Survival,* brings forth the art of expanding hearts and the paradox of possibility in a candid array of artwork from LGBTQIA2S youth. The show brings with it the specter of struggle that youth maneuver to (re)claim space and carve out the complexities of their identities.	Queer Mixtape: Two of your favorite queer filmmakers – Celeste Chan and Irina Contreras – join forces to create a film mixtape from raw footage found in the GLBT archives. Join them as they present their film and discuss their process.

All Ways Lead to the Mill is a solo exhibition by visual artist Jamil Hellu, investigating the conflicts that emerge at the intersection of Middle-Eastern heritage and queerness. Exploring how we determine relationships to cultural histories and personal narratives, Hellu claims his identity in relation to his Syrian roots and Arab ethnicity. All Ways Lead To The Mill is inspired by a Syrian proverb about how different paths lead to the same destination. His work juxtaposes performative moving and still images to address homophobia and sexuality, creating a contemporary discourse about the implications of cultural lineage.	What does it mean to live in the slash of a binary; male/female, gay/straight? FLEXIBLE HORIZONS; the body in transit is a curated group show that defines the end of “normal.” This exhibit explores the intersection of class, race and gender within the body-individual-community—through portraits, performance, experimental films and discussion.

The 5Faces Project is a multi-genre collaborative gallery experience courtesy documentary photographer EPLi and black femme burlesque superstar, The Lady Ms. Vagina Jenkins; Femme Space is a photo project exploring queer femme identity and reclamation of space.	Blues Arrival is about to take you on a road trip of southern Black Queer culture, identity and migration. Our stories are what connect us. Blues Arrival gives us the opportunity to take part in the stories of a marginalized community to create awareness and share knowledge about Black Queer culture in the South. Featuring Trey Amos, Dazie Grego, Vernon Keeve III, Valerie Troutt’s MoonCandy Live House Ensemble and more.

Transgender Endowment 1 (TE1) is an audio/visual work-in-progress historical perspective of the political, legal and social environment of the 1960’s that preceded the San Francisco Compton Cafeteria Riots.	Changes: Larkin Street Youth Services has been helping youth get off the streets since the 1980’s. The Art department at Larkin has been encouraging artistic inclined youth to use art as a way to express their struggles and aspirations. This exhibition perfectly fits the NQAF theme of Horizons because it gives young Queer artists a voice and perspective of San Francisco’s changing landscape. It’s an exhibition about origins and destinations.

Type/Caste: A queer, black actor dreams of a dazzling career on the American stage but must contend with an industry largely unprepared for applicants who are not white heterosexuals. Using monologue, song, dance and drag Rotimi embodies, explores, and exposes the battles artists fight in the exclusive world of mainstream American theatre.	ISO Queer Gods features contemporary queer artists whose work mines historical religious iconography and responds to diverse representations of homosexual, transgender and non-binary content that has been preserved through the mythology of world religion. This project is accompanied by an inclusive artist zine, The Gods Sure Are Queer Volume 2. This exhibition and publication offer the opportunity to look back and examine the preservation (and erasures) of queer representation through artifact and mythology, and to look forward to how these histories might manifest visually and conceptually in contemporary queer experience.

We Are Family: Indigenous life from the experience of one Xican-India family. Screening clips from 25-years of original film, video and moving images from the mujerista artista familia – the D’s: Lola, Osa, Louis, Liz, Tim, Laura, Celia, and Liliana de la Riva. The film company Eagle Bear Productions c/s, has screened works throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe. Re-presenting a unique POV, philosophy and new, yet ancient state-of-being and world-view, we welcome our extended familia to party and re-present with us.	Inspired by the Black queer revolutionaries of the #blacklivesmatter movement, *Seeds* is a tale of survival, mental illness, addiction, and resilience. The intentions behind this project are to expose audience members to the myriad of ways Black, queer people navigate their personal lives and mental health while experiencing oppression and fighting injustices afflicting both the Black and Queer communities.

Discover KUMALICIOUS, celebrating the allure and beauty of Queer bigger men of color inspired by Gay Japanese Manga. The exhibiting artists are inspired by this genre and/or its canon artists including Jiraiya and Gengoroh Tagame. From gachimuchi (“chubby muscle”) to BDSM eroticism, enjoy rare glances at works highlighting underrepresented populations often neglected in mainstream art.	Femme Space is a photo project exploring queer femme identity and reclamation of space. Queer femmes of all genders choose locations and co-conspire with photographer, Amanda Arkansassy Harris to reclaim sites of marginalization, erasure and invisibility through portraiture. Femme Space exists to draw attention to the experiences of queer femmes and amplify our stories in art and media. Join us to see portraits exploring femme identity, survival and resilience! + 5 performances/rituals from the 5Faces of The Lady Ms. Vagina Jenkins all evening long.

Drawing Lineage, Building Legacy is an intergenerational community chamber music project featuring queer and trans of color classical musicians illuminating our shared lineage and creating collective legacy in classical music. The performance will engage audiences in a soundscape of queer past and future through works by queer composers and composers of color.	Roots in Resilience Film Festival showcases how people from communities of color in San Francisco claim agency to the places they call home. The festival displays the work of artists, youth, residents and community members who explore intergenerational blessings in their communities. In order to understand blessings, they fearlessly attempt to also recognize struggle. Festival includes experimental, narrative and documentary shorts–all voice the power of rootedness: Our roots.

Queer Brilliance Film Festival (QBFF) is a documentary film festival that will feature 9 short films created by queer and transgender filmmakers of color that celebrate the theme of not simply surviving within their own communities, but thriving. The films will highlight the multiplicity, fierceness, and brilliance of the myriad of experiences within the queer and trans people of color community throughout the country. This is a valuable opportunity to amplify the voices of queer and transgender people of color in their own words. Come watch short documentary films that are sure to inspire, to amaze, and to incite!	Pintishkannovt nantahaat katihmi? (What Happened to Little Mouse?), is a multidisciplinary theatrical production exploring Native American and Two-Spirit (LGBT) identity through non-verbal interpretations of Chickasaw myths utilizing traditional masks, pantomime and live music. Local drag performer and Two-Spirit artist, Landa Lakes, takes you on a journey with Little Mouse as she explores the ancient world of Southeastern Tribal origin stories.

Perverts Put Out: San Francisco’s oldest running performance series, an all-gender, all-orientation celebration of lust and love, celebrates a special Pride Week edition, featuring a roster of outstanding perverted performers, hosted by Dr. Carol Queen and Simon Sheppard.	The Musical Prostitute: One Day Ahura Mazda (The Wise and Forgetful God of the Zoroastrians) looks over his dominions and flock: he finds something odd! On Earth, Simon, a young man struggling with his mortality, free love vs fear of love, community, and medications, is making a list of all the things he is giving up. A ragtag band of musical transcendentalists has formed, to be the harmonious conduit for the voyage. AND…. Somewhere else Freddie Mercury is in a Coma waiting to die.

A Roof Over My Head is a original musical by Tommi Avicolli Mecca and Alison C Wright that reflects the absurd nature of the SF Bay Area’s housing crisis. Focusing on a the building of neighbors who receive an Ellis Act Notice from their ‘flip happy’ landlord, their story exposes what other tenants have been subjected to: being bullied, pushed out, or burnt out while they fight to keep a roof over their heads.	Conjuring Roots: QTPOC mixed heritage artists are bearers of many spiritual traditions and creators of new rituals that embodies their lineages to empower themselves and resist oppression. Many of their ancestors resisted colonization with spiritual practices. What does decolonization and healing look like today and from mixed heritage artists? What portals and possibilities are created when they come together and give voice to the buried stories of both their mythic and ancestral lineages? Come find out at Conjuring Roots and watch artists reveal their stories through dance, music, lyra and poetry.

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