LGBT audiences see themselves reflected on stage during traditional arts performances? What motivates LGBT immigrant artists to perpetuate traditional art forms in their new home? What vital, ongoing traditions have queer communities created for ourselves?

Join Fresh Meat Productions and the Queer Cultural Center for a dynamic panel discussion exploring the relationship of community traditions to LGBT art and culture. We´ll explore the significance of queers engaging in, preserving and interpreting traditional arts as well as the vital, ongoing queer community traditions that developed in the Bay Area after the closet collapsed. Moderated by Greg Day with panelists including Patrick Makuakāne (Director, Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu) and Ian Enriquez (Director, Barbary Coast Cloggers).

Queer Traditions is presented by Fresh Meat Productions, the Queer Cultural Center and the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. Fresh Meat Productions is an award-winning Bay Area arts organization dedicated to the year-round creation and presentation of transgender and queer arts programs.

PANEL BIOGRAPHIES:

Greg Day is a documentary photographer and cultural anthropologist, with a specialty in American and African American traditional art and culture. He has been a consultant and contributor to numerous museum collections and exhibitions of LGBT and African American history including: the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, the Schwules Museum, Berlin, The American Museum of Natural History, New York, and the LGBT Historical Society of Northern California. As a writer and photo journalist Greg has documented many Queer performance artists and groups including Divine, Stephen Varble, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Angels of Light, Hot Peaches, Bill T. Jones and Brava for Women in the Arts.

Greg Day has studied Appalachian and Gullah material and performance art traditions. His field research among the Sweetgrass Basket Makers of the Carolina Lowcountry, is featured in “Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art”, a current exhibit, catalogue and video by the Museum For African Art, New York. An exhibition of Greg’s 1970’s Lowcountry photographs, “African Americans of the Gullah-Geechee Coast”, will open at the Fowler Museum at UCLA in October 2009.

A founding member of the QCC and a former resident of San Francisco, Greg currently resides in Palm Springs, California.

Greg Day’s photographs of the Gullah-Geechee Coast can be seen in the fine art section of his website: www.gregdayphotography.com

Ian Enriquez discovered his talent for dance during his adolescence; however, the homophobic stigma of men dancing kept him from taking dance in any shape or form until he came to Oberlin College where he began to study traditional African dance and other similar forms. His first company experience was with the London Marching Boys, who danced and headlined at Pride parades across the United Kingdom. After three years with the company, he came to San Francisco where he revived the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance’s dance program.

Enriquez began clogging in 2003 to take a break from his pursuits of a certification in African dance forms. A combination of a love of history, the effort towards mastery, and diligent recruitment by instructor Matt Ellinger brought Enriquez to the Barbary Coast Cloggers. It was a short time before his commitment to the group placed him in the seat of Executive Director for the company and now the Fresh Meat festival marks his debut as the company’s third Artistic Director in its 28 years of operation. www.barbarycoast.org

Patrick Makuakane (Director, Kumu Hula) is a creative force in the hula world, and is well known for his innovative choreography. His work is grounded in the traditions and fundamentals of hula, and he labors to keep traditional dances intact as they have been for generations. He has also developed a unique style of hula (called hula mua) that uses modern music to provide a whole new dimension to the poetry of hula.

Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i, Mr. Makuakāne began dancing at the age of 13 and went on to study with some of Hawai’i’s most recognized hula masters, including John Keola Lake and Robert Cazimero.

In 2000, he began intensive traditional studies with hula master Mae Kamāmalu Klein in Hawai’i and, after three years, achieved the recognized status of kumu hula (hula master). This achievement culminated in a traditional ‘uniki ‘ailolo graduation ceremony and connects Mr. Makuakāne to a hula lineage stretching back for generations. His studies were made possible by funding from a prestigious two-year Irvine Fellowship in Dance.

Mr. Makuakane has received numerous awards for his choreography, including several Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (“Izzies”). In 2006, he received a lifetime achievement award from the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. www.naleihulu.org LGBT audiences see themselves reflected on stage during traditional arts performances? What motivates LGBT immigrant artists to perpetuate traditional art forms in their new home? What vital, ongoing traditions have queer communities created for ourselves?

Join Fresh Meat Productions and the Queer Cultural Center for a dynamic panel discussion exploring the relationship of community traditions to LGBT art and culture. We´ll explore the significance of queers engaging in, preserving and interpreting traditional arts as well as the vital, ongoing queer community traditions that developed in the Bay Area after the closet collapsed. Moderated by Greg Day with panelists including Patrick Makuakāne (Director, Nā Lei Hulu I Ka Wēkiu) and Ian Enriquez (Director, Barbary Coast Cloggers).
Queer Traditions is presented by Fresh Meat Productions, the Queer Cultural Center and the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. Fresh Meat Productions is an award-winning Bay Area arts organization dedicated to the year-round creation and presentation of transgender and queer arts programs.

PANEL BIOGRAPHIES:

Greg Day is a documentary photographer and cultural anthropologist, with a specialty in American and African American traditional art and culture. He has been a consultant and contributor to numerous museum collections and exhibitions of LGBT and African American history including: the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, the Schwules Museum, Berlin, The American Museum of Natural History, New York, and the LGBT Historical Society of Northern California. As a writer and photo journalist Greg has documented many Queer performance artists and groups including Divine, Stephen Varble, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Angels of Light, Hot Peaches, Bill T. Jones and Brava for Women in the Arts.

Greg Day has studied Appalachian and Gullah material and performance art traditions. His field research among the Sweetgrass Basket Makers of the Carolina Lowcountry, is featured in “Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art”, a current exhibit, catalogue and video by the Museum For African Art, New York. An exhibition of Greg’s 1970’s Lowcountry photographs, “African Americans of the Gullah-Geechee Coast”, will open at the Fowler Museum at UCLA in October 2009.

A founding member of the QCC and a former resident of San Francisco, Greg currently resides in Palm Springs, California.

Greg Day’s photographs of the Gullah-Geechee Coast can be seen in the fine art section of his website: www.gregdayphotography.com

Ian Enriquez discovered his talent for dance during his adolescence; however, the homophobic stigma of men dancing kept him from taking dance in any shape or form until he came to Oberlin College where he began to study traditional African dance and other similar forms. His first company experience was with the London Marching Boys, who danced and headlined at Pride parades across the United Kingdom. After three years with the company, he came to San Francisco where he revived the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance’s dance program.

Enriquez began clogging in 2003 to take a break from his pursuits of a certification in African dance forms. A combination of a love of history, the effort towards mastery, and diligent recruitment by instructor Matt Ellinger brought Enriquez to the Barbary Coast Cloggers. It was a short time before his commitment to the group placed him in the seat of Executive Director for the company and now the Fresh Meat festival marks his debut as the company’s third Artistic Director in its 28 years of operation. www.barbarycoast.org

Patrick Makuakane (Director, Kumu Hula) is a creative force in the hula world, and is well known for his innovative choreography. His work is grounded in the traditions and fundamentals of hula, and he labors to keep traditional dances intact as they have been for generations. He has also developed a unique style of hula (called hula mua) that uses modern music to provide a whole new dimension to the poetry of hula.

Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i, Mr. Makuakāne began dancing at the age of 13 and went on to study with some of Hawai’i’s most recognized hula masters, including John Keola Lake and Robert Cazimero.

In 2000, he began intensive traditional studies with hula master Mae Kamāmalu Klein in Hawai’i and, after three years, achieved the recognized status of kumu hula (hula master). This achievement culminated in a traditional ‘uniki ‘ailolo graduation ceremony and connects Mr. Makuakāne to a hula lineage stretching back for generations. His studies were made possible by funding from a prestigious two-year Irvine Fellowship in Dance.

Mr. Makuakane has received numerous awards for his choreography, including several Isadora Duncan Dance Awards (“Izzies”). In 2006, he received a lifetime achievement award from the San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. www.naleihulu.org