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NATIONAL QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL 2021

Since 1998, QCC has curated and produced 24 National Queer Arts Festivals (NQAF) that have featured more than 2,300 LGBTQ+ artists in over 920 different arts and cultural events. The festival has become a bay area cultural institution bringing to life hundreds of performances, visual arts exhibitions, literary readings and film screenings.

Our Creating Queer Community (CQC) program has commissioned over 400 LGBTQ+ artists to create, produce, commission, promote, and document original works examining LGBTQ+ social justice and civil rights issues that debut at the National Queer Arts Festival.

THE FUTURE IS…

This year’s theme, The Future is… allows us to collectively embody the future. This year’s festival honors QCC artists and our art as it is today, while also opening the door to imagination and manifestation of the future through the eyes of the artists centering Queer, Trans, gender nonconforming, Intersex, Two-spirit, Black, Indigenous, people of color (QTI2SBIPOC artists) and giving voice to the truth we know – the future is already here, an the future is us. 

Over the years, our Creating Queer Community (CQC) program has commissioned over 400 LGBTQ+ artists to create, produce, comission, promote, and document original works examining LGBTQ+ social justice and civil rights issues that debut at the National Queer Arts Festival.

-Natalia Vigil, Executive Director

Buy Festival Pass

NQAF 2021 CATALOG

This year, all elements of the festival are virtual/digital including our catalog.

Check out the NQAF interactive catalog to see the details of all 25 festival shows! You can click on links to find descriptions, ticket links, social media and more!

Download The Future Is… NQAF Interactive Catalog: NQAF_2021

SHOWS

Dwayne Calizo – The Future Is Free

NQAF, NQAF 2021
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Still Here Presents, Mission Pride: An Evening with Vero Majano

NQAF, NQAF 2021
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We Love Like Barnacles: Crip Lives in Climate Chaos, encore performance

NQAF, NQAF 2021, Uncategorized
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BIPOC Trans Pride & Resilience

NQAF, NQAF 2021, Uncategorized
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Queer AF & Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center proudly presents: Radical Joy

NQAF, NQAF 2021, Uncategorized
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The 45th

NQAF, NQAF 2021, Uncategorized
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The Song Sanctuary

NQAF, NQAF 2021
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Queer Rebel Fest Image

Queer Rebels Fest 2021 Juneteenth Edition: Say It Loud

NQAF, NQAF 2021
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Fresh Meat Artists

20th Anniversary FRESH MEAT FESTIVAL

NQAF, NQAF 2021
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Central American Unicorns in Space! A Queer Digital Cabaret

NQAF, NQAF 2021
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So The Darkness May Glitter: Queer & Trans Arab Futures

NQAF, NQAF 2021
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Tiny Baruch and His Amazing Friends!

NQAF, NQAF 2021
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Crossbones on My Life

NQAF, NQAF 2021
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An evening with Skywatchers and Oysterknife

NQAF, NQAF 2021
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Future Is Queer Country

The Future is Queer Country

NQAF, NQAF 2021
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MAJOR FUNDERS

 

FUNDERS, SPONSORS, VENUES

Somarts Cultural Center logo Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center Logo African American Art and Culture Complex logo
brava theater center logo

CONNECT

QUEER INSTAGRAM

Frankie Maston is a gender-expansive AfroSoul, R&B Frankie Maston is a gender-expansive AfroSoul, R&B, and Pop artist originally from Tanzania, now rooted in the Bay Area. A singular voice from a veiled society, their music draws from soul, reggae, and Afropop, carrying the stories of a community that seeks hope, healing, and representation. Since first performing live in 2016, Frankie has toured globally and built community platforms spanning Tanzania, Kenya, Germany and the U.S. dedicated to artistic expression and collective care. In everything they create, the vision is the same: a world where everyone feels seen, heard, and free to be.  Mirrored Sessions is that vision made into an evening.  The show unfolds in three acts — each a transformation. It begins with the Healer: fog, candlelight, singing bowls, and a contemporary dancer moving through a journey of peace. A soundscape that calls the body home. From there, Frankie steps to center stage as the Enchantress — casting spells through slow, sensual music, live instrumentation, and the mesmerizing presence of two pole dancers. Finally, the night erupts into Rebirth, as a traditional drum circle leads the room into a full Afro dance set, Afro-traditional dancers take the stage, and Frankie channels the fierce, transformative power of Goddess Oya.  It is grounding, then pleasure, then fire. A full arc of queer becoming — lived in community, in real time. 

June 11 · Doors 6 PM · Show 6:30–9:30 PM
The Palace Theatre · San Francisco 

Get your tickets at the link in bio now!
Creating Queer Community (CQC) is QCC’s longstandi Creating Queer Community (CQC) is QCC’s longstanding artist development program, built to give emerging artists the tools they need to participate in the business of art. Queer and trans artists of color are often locked out of traditional art spaces, forced to perform a specific brand of trauma for audiences that prefer consumption over communion.  CQC is an intervention. 

Join us June 21, 7PM at Brava Theater to celebrate this year’s cohort.
Meet two of the visionaries behind Tidal Mirror. Meet two of the visionaries behind Tidal Mirror. 

Xtra.dae is an Oakland-based interdisciplinary artist with ancestral roots in South Korea, working at the intersection of queerness, transness, and Asian Futurism. Through immersive performance and film, they reimagine folklore and mythology to build new worlds shaped by diaspora — centering queer and trans voices, challenging what sound and video can hold, and weaving their artistry directly into community organizing rooted in mutual aid, DIY experimental music, abolition, and the preservation of queer narratives. 

Lil Bebe Cyborg (they/them) is a shapeshifter. Performance artist, rave DJ, peer advocacy counselor — every role they inhabit is threaded through an obsession with embodiment as rebellion. Fusing pro-femme dominatrix roots with raw, deconstructed club soundscapes, they create spaces where play, transformation, and full self-inhabitation aren’t just possible — they’re the whole point. 

Together as co-producers of Tidal Mirror, these artists bring a vision that is as grounded in community care as it is in artistic experimentation. Come see what they’ve built. 

18+ May 30 · 5–10 PM · Spire | the church · Oakland
Mirrored Sessions is bringing reflection to San Fr Mirrored Sessions is bringing reflection to San Francisco.

On June 11th, @frankiemaston leads a cast of Trans, Gender Non-Conforming, and Queer artist through an immersive performance at @thepalacetheatersf. Through live music, embodied dance, and storytelling, the evening moves from grounding to release; from remembrance to reclamation. Rooted in Afro-diasporic memory and lived experience across Tanzania and the Bay Area, Mirrored Sessions extends the circle across continents, connecting queer and trans communities in East, South, and Central Africa in an act of solidarity and shared presence.

This performance happens one night only. Don’t miss your chance to be in the room when it happens. 

Doors 6 PM · Show 6:30–9:30 PM | The Palace Theatre · 644 Broadway, San Francisco | Tickets available at the link in bio
What shows up in your reflection? Lucia, Xemara, D What shows up in your reflection? Lucia, Xemara, Demse, and Alfredo are ready to share. QCC’s Emerging Artist Showcase happens June 21 @bravatheater hosted by @aimathedreamer - get your tickets at the link in bio.
@restingbetweenwaveforms is an electro-acoustic du @restingbetweenwaveforms is an electro-acoustic duo formed by QTPOC artists cuchari and transcriptions01, born during the shelter-in-place of 2020 and premiered live at the National Queer Arts Festival in 2022. their work uses sound to respond to an earthly harkening: to protect, resound, and care for our community’s slow and turbulent transit from isolation towards collectivity. committed to liberation through live and virtual performance in queer and accessible spaces, resting between waveforms brings that devotion into ꧁꫱꧂ 𝒶𝓆𝓊𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓊𝓂 ꧁꫱꧂, a 5 hour drop-in sound medicine festival where you are invited to arrive whenever you’re ready, rest as long as you need, and leave feeling held. this is sound as care. this is community as practice. 

📍 Community Music Center, San Francisco 
May 23 | 2pm to 7pm | 18+ 

Get your tickets now at the link in bio!
Seeking volunteers! Support queer art and communit Seeking volunteers! Support queer art and community this summer and get an up close look at our 2026 events! Link is in our bio :) <33
Join @BlackMoonAstrology and @7000coils for As Abo Join @BlackMoonAstrology and @7000coils for As Above So Below, a night where the cosmos, the ancestors, and the community gather as one. 

BlackMoon Astrology holds the mirror of the heavens up to our deepest selves. Rooted in the belief that the stars are our oldest ancestors, BlackMoon reclaims the astrological archetypes that were once overwritten by colonial violence, honoring the celestial wisdom that has always illuminated our paths forward. 

@7000coils brings the sound. A record label and holistic wellness movement fueled by the diaspora’s ritualistic alchemy, they bridge past and present through music, facilitation, and ritual, centering Black and queer voices that have been overlooked for too long. 

As Above So Below is their offering to you: live readings, meditation, collaborative ritual, and stargazing under an open Oakland sky. 

The cosmos is calling. Come as you are. 

📍 5.16.2026 | BlaQyard, Oakland | Doors 5pm | Stargazing 9pm | In-person & Livestream tickets available at the link in bio.
Follow on Instagram
Link to: Overlooked Giants: A Parable of Queer Women of Color in The Arts Link to: Overlooked Giants: A Parable of Queer Women of Color in The Arts Overlooked Giants: A Parable of Queer Women of Color in The ArtsOverlooked Giants, A Parabale of Queer Women of Color Artists Link to: Queer Afro Latin Dance Festival Link to: Queer Afro Latin Dance Festival Flyer with queer dancers and artists for the Queer Afro Latin Dance FestivalQueer Afro Latin Dance Festival
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