NATIONAL QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL 2003

It’s hilarious, it’s fantastic, it’s tragic, it’s triumphant – it’s the quintessential San Francisco festival – the National Queer Arts Festival!

Produced each year during Pride month by the Queer Cultural Center (Qcc), NQAF celebrates and promotes the work of local, national and internationally acclaimed queer artists. Based upon the premise that the queer community is a microcosm of the world, NQAF is dedicated to encompassing its full diversity and presenting the breadth of our community’s artists and arts organizations. Since its inception in 1998, NQAF has presented the work of renowned artists such as Bill T. Jones, Meredith Monk, Alice Walker, Marga Gomez, Adrienne Rich, and the late Lou Harrison.

NQAF invites artists each year to explore a topic that resonates within the queer community. We ask how the topic affects their work as queer artists, and how it mirrors their differences or sameness in the larger world. This year the topic is gender identity, and will be the emphasis of many pieces included in this month long festival. To kick-off the NQAF 2003 festivities, we invite you to join us for THE Q BALL! on SATURDAY, MAY 31st at The SF LGBT Community Center @ 6pm! Come lick your lips and savor the delights, for we have something to tickle everyone’s fancy – performance teasers, breathtaking art, tasty morsels and bangin’ beverages! The excitement starts May 31st and continues through June 29th with intriguing multimedia installations, dance, theater, visual art exhibitions, comedy, lit and poetry, film, and a wide array of multidisciplinary programs featuring artists discussing their work.

NQAF 2003 is produced by Qcc in collaboration with numerous Bay Area arts organizations such as SomArts, The San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center (The Center), Jon Sims Center for the Arts, QueLACo, Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center, Native American Cultural Center, Harvey Milk Center, ODC Theater, Dance Mission Theater, Brava Theater Center, La Galería de la Raza, and the 848 Community Center. We thank the following supporters of NQAF 2003 for helping to make it happen: San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council, Grants for the Arts, Rainbow – a worker owned cooperative, Horizons Foundation, Open Meadows Foundation, Astraea Foundation, Bayview Opera House, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, SomArts, Hispanics in Philanthropy, and the Zellerbach Family Fund. And we are so very excited to announce NQAF’s first media sponsor & The SF Weekly!

Special THANKS goes to Waller Press, Gregory Casillas and the staff at the York Hotel, Ruth Herring, Megan Murphy & Theater Rhinoceros, Charles Wilmouth, Idris Ackamoor & Cultural Odyssey, Anne Tamar-Mattis, Melinda Caparaiso, Roberto Ordegna, Jennifer Barth of The Center, Kim, Jamie & Mel of The Center, and all the individuals and artists who gave their talent, time, expertise and hearts to help make NQAF 2003 what it is!