June 2023 Week 1 QCC News
 June 2023 at Queer Cultural CenterNQAF 2023 starts THIS WEEK!  Can you believe our 2023 NQAF season starts in just two days?! Our team at Queer Cultural Center is so excited to share the incredible work that our artists and crew have been creating – it really does take a village! To explore our full festival line up, check out our brand new, fresh off the digital printer FESTIVAL CATALOG! Use it as your guide as you plan what events you’ll be attending this year. We hope to see you at our OPENING NIGHT this Friday, June 9th at SOMArts! We can’t wait to kick off this year’s festival with a bang. Check out our special guest performers below, and grab your tickets below to join us! Check out our Festival Catalog! NQAF OPENING NIGHT PERFORMERS OUR MC FOR THE NIGHT: Qing Qi is a notable Bay Area performer with 5+ years of performance & production experience under her belt, 400,000 collective streams, and an impressive catalog of work as a director. She has opened for Saweetie, Princess Nokia, Oshun to name a few. With 3 years of cooperative experience, 10+ years of community advocacy and labor, and 5 years of event production with 1,000+ attendees to date, and her current efforts to bring the free black women’s library to Oakland; she still has time to be a bomb mom, avid reader, and fierce supporter of public libraries. Currently a Return to Black Wall Street Fellow, preparing for the launch of her podcast, and co-starring in her first feature film “Donna And Ally” taking screens in 2024, there is much to be expected from this rap luminary. Catch her June 22nd at the Crybaby in Oakland for the debut of her newest show “PU$$Y FUNCTION” on her birthday!  BOMBSNAXX is a black femme liberation project makin’ noise about access to music production for Black womxn, femmes, queer, and trans identified artists through the creation and performance of Black American Diasporic music. Lead by LAYA (they/them), a self-taught musician, producer and Spanish speaker, BOMBSNAXX is platforming, educating, and supporting Black Femme artists through live performance and free music production workshops. They are a vibrant performer and thoughtful bilingual lyricist empowering themselves and their community through the fusion of beats, rhythms, & noise from throughout the Black American Diaspora.  Aunty BB (Anuhea sometimes, Aunty Brown Sugar Boba and more recently Unko Bb/Unko Boto Bangaz) is a shape shifting Māhū story teller, dancer , poet and performance artist. She was born and raised on the islands of O’ahu and Big Island where her Japanese ancestors immigrated to. With love making and combating colonization, this mixed race Māhū Two Spirit Asian icon was born. Her work combines written spoken word, eco erotica, food erotica, song, dance and pule (Hawaiian prayer), and punani. After her performances you will be left sticky, wet and questioning why you want to decolonize your pussy all of a sudden.  OUR DJ FOR THE NIGHT: Originally from New York City, Del made a name for herself in the Bay Area drum and bass scene with her four deck vinyl mixes before moving into more intentionally queer dance music spaces. As a pioneer in bringing Jersey Club to the Bay Area, her high energy cross genre sets and flawless blends are guaranteed to make any dance floor shake. Famous for dropping 35-40 tracks in a single hour, you can catch her at The Port Bar every Wednesday, Steamworks every third Friday, and Elis Mile High Club every fourth Sunday. This week’s QCC COMMISSIONED EVENTS  Murmurations: Queer Bodies of Werq Opening Reception Queer Cultural Center’s National Queer Arts Festival Opening Night Date: Friday, June 9, 2023 Murmurations: Queer Bodies of Werq is a pulsating, swooping, living, collective of queer ecologies, on display from June 9 – 30, 2023. Join us for an evening of performances and ritual to celebrate the body of work curated by Xtal Azul & Gaia WXYZ. Additionally, this evening serves as an opening night to the 26th annual National Queer Arts Festival presented by Queer Cultural Center. Celebrate with us! Murmurations: Queer Power of Werq Xtal Azul & Gaia Weise Date: June 10 – 30, 2023 Murmurations: Queer Bodies of Werq is a pulsating, swooping, living, collective of queer ecologies featuring featuring installation, digital works, altars, and offerings that honor the relationship of queer bodies in nature. This engagement is curated by Xtal Azul and Gaia WXYZ, and is presented as part of the 26th annual National Queer Arts Festival, showing both virtually and in person at SOMARTS in San Francisco, CA from June 10 – June 30, 2023. Register for the gallery show 5th Annual Queer Afro Latin Dance Festival In Lak’ech Dance Academy Date: June 9th – 11th Time: Varies by day Location: DoubleTree by Hilton San Jose, 2050 Gateway Pl San Jose, CA 95110 Ticket Price: Varies from $25 – $275 AN INTERNATIONAL CELEBRATION OF UNITY – The 5th Annual Queer Afro Latin Dance Festival will be bringing together queer, trans and ally dancers and music lovers for the party and celebration of the year! This event is open to all – not ONLY for dancers! This festival is for all who love & support the LGBTQ+ community, and who want to be part of a magical weekend. Join us for three days of dance, music, performances, pool parties/night parties, dance competitions, panel discussions, and over 60 hours of music.  Live & Queer LIVE! Maya Chinchilla & Gwen Park Date: Sunday, June 11, 2023 Live & Queer is a talk show/video podcast produced by QCC. We get real with Bay Area LGBTQ+ artists about what they’re doing, what inspires them, what they’re trying to accomplish, and the way their art contributes to LGBTQ+ and beyond culture & movements. On this episode, we’ll be talking about all about NQAF with guests from some of the other shows in the festival. Join us for the first time at an in-person taping to find out more about what’s happening, what you can expect and what you don’t want to miss! This show will be both in-person and livestreamed to QCC’s Youtube channel so you can attend from anywhere around the world. The guest list includes individuals from NQAF 2023 performers Gaia WXYZ & Xtal Azul, It’s Qwere, and OYSTERKNIFE. Don’t miss out!  Because of Black Music I Am Valerie Troutt Date: Saturday – Sunday, June 10 – 11, 2023 Because of Black Music I Am (BOBM) is a two-day music festival in celebration of Black Music Month being held June 10th – 11th, 2023 in Oakland, California. BOBM is a conversation piece that brings together local artists, industry professionals, and the community to make connections, create awareness about the impact of Black music, and the need to develop new music industry infrastructures to ensure the longevity of not only Black music but Black Artists. The festival will include an artist’s brunch, mixer, panel, and live music. The day one lineup includes SF poet Laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin, vocalist The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol, singer SoLauren, rapper JWalt, saxophonist Howard Wiley, and MoonCandy Live House Music Ensemble. The day two lineup includes singer-songwriter Aime Cota, poet Marvin K. White, and The Valerie Troutt Jazz Soul Project. These events have been made possible by grants and donations from the Akonadi Foundation, Eastbay Community Fund, The African American Art and Cultural Complex, and The Queer Cultural Center of San Francisco. QCC is proud to host the second day of this live music event. Address will be sent out to registered attendees. Grab your tickets for BOBM! This week’s COMMUNITY PARTNER EVENTS 19th Annual Queer Women of Color Film Festival QWOCMAP Date: June 9 – 11, 2023 QWOCMAP will premiere 30 films in 6 screenings for the FREE 19th annual International Queer Women of Color Film Festival, June 9-11, 2023 at the Presidio Theatre in the Presidio National Park. From the lush sageness of memory, movement, and Indigenous traditions of environmental stewardship, to the transformation of grief, and the mycorrhizal relationships between love, collective care, and disability justice, the Festival Focus “Forever Rooted” liberates spores of sovereignty and survivance. Read More Info A NQAF-filled Live & Queer! This month’s guest is writer, educator, and cultural worker tanea lunsford lynx. tanea is a 4th generation San Franciscan who was recently in an exhibition called “MUNI Raised Me”, so you know she has some SF pride. They’re also hosting a panel and party this year’s National Queer Arts Festival about the legendary Club Q. Full episode drops next week, check out the preview now! Watch Now LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT  We acknowledge we are on unceded ancestral homeland of the original inhabitants of this land otherwise known as the San Francisco Bay Area. Click below to access our visual land acknowledgement created in partnership with The Association of Ramaytush Ohlone and Inés Ixierda for the National Queer Arts Festival. Visual Land Acknowledgement If you are non-Indigenous, we invite you to pay a Shuumi Land Tax to the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust – an urban Indigenous women-led land trust based in the San Francisco Bay Area that facilitates the return of Indigenous land to Indigenous people. Copyright © *2021* *Queer Cultural Center*, All rights reserved. |
