best revenge's big queer spectacle

Sunday, 3 June 2012
15:00 until 19:00 San francisco, CA

"BEST REVENGE: A BEAUTIFUL FUCK YOU"

To kick off the month of June and the National Queer Arts Festival in grand, rebellious, queer, spectacular style

On Sunday, June 3rd, BEST REVENGE will emerge from the street corners, alleyways, living rooms, fire escapes, and back rooms of the Mission District. Over thirty artists from the San Francisco Bay Area, the east and west coast and everywhere in between, Mexico, London, Canada, and Istanbul will converge in/on four distinct venues to present their work on radical queer resistance and self determination.

Beginning at the (de)Appropriation Wall on Valencia Street between 23rd and 24th, BEST REVENGE will take its audience through the streets, en masse, through the Mission District, to experience visual art, performance, installation, and ritual. Queer collective houses will be turned into galleries; fire escapes will act as stages for a line-up of music, brilliant drag, and performance; the OPEN stretches of the Valencia and 24th Street Corridors (courtesy of Sunday Streets) will act as stages for spontaneous, surprise performance and public intervention/interruption; and, at the end of the evening, audience and artists will converge in the back gallery of Alley Cat books for an illustrious display of glittery rebellion and visual art installations.

SUNDAY June 3rd: 3pm-7pm
STARTING at the (de)Appropriation Wall: Valencia St between 23rd and 24th
ENDING at Alley Cat Books: 3036 24th St
For location updates and more information leading up to and on the day of, visit bestrevenge2012.wordpress.com and twitter.com/bestrevenge2012

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The milestones spread across the landscape of the LGBTQ rights movement are undoubtedly worthy of acknowledgement. There is merit to the embrace of the agitation and evolution stirred by the Compton Cafeteria and Stonewall riots, ActUP, and Queer Nation, just as the repeal of DADT and the shifts in policy and public opinion of DOMA are noteworthy marks of progress.

However, recording queer liberation by our ability to confirm and be accepted by the dominant society ignores the fact that many of us are too queer, too perverted, too much, too poor, too brown, or too loud to “pass.”

What must we surrender if we’re expected to measure our achievements by how well we fit into a straight, capitalist, racist, classist society?

How do we build a future based on self-determination and mutual aid?

How do we create rituals to validate and celebrate our individual and collective accomplishments?

How are we already engaged in these processes?

Let's explore, discuss, and witness.

Curated by Caitlin Sweet and Lex Non Scripta ♥, BEST REVENGE features these magic makers (and more):

Malic Amalya, Micah Bazant, Sarah (sass) Biscarra-Dilley, Craig Calderwood, Rocket Caleshu, carmen, Finley Coyl, Dia Dear, Leah DeVun, Ariel Durrant, Larisa Escobedo, Fat Transfer, Jaye Lee Fishel, Johnny Forever, Claire Forsyth, Jason Fritz, Elitrea Frye, Naomi Rincon Gallardo, Max Garnet, Joolie Geldner, Ariel Goldberg, Nicki Green, Rik Haber, Nina Höchtl, LOVEWARZ!, Marilyn McNeal, Gabby Miller, Lex Non Scripta, Adee Roberson, Coral Short, Julz Simpson, Caitlin Sweet, Safak Sule, Dorothy Wang, Max Yuristy

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The curators of BEST REVENGE believe that part of creating and sustaining community is recognizing and attempting to address the persistent economic inequalities in the art/world, ie., we want to offer each of our artists a stipend for all their time, energy, hard work, and fabulousness. Donations at all levels are appreciated at www.indiegogo.com/bestrevenge, as is any assistance in publicizing the campaign.

BEST REVENGE is part of the 15th Annual National Queer Arts Festival and is sponsored in part by the Queer Cultural Center

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help lambeth women's project

From my inbox...

Today the Lambeth Women's Project (London, UK) has been given 2 weeks to leave it's home of over 3 decades. Eviction is set for 15th June.
www.lambethwomensproject.org/ To find out more about the services they offer, or to get involved in our work, please email us at lambeth_women_project@hotmail.co.uk

Sign the petition at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/lambethwomen/

We feel that Lambeth Council should meet the needs of the community it serves. By supporting the valuable and unique services provided by Lambeth Women\'s Project, the council would go some way towards fulfilling its social contract with the 53% of its citizens who are women.
The purpose of this petition is to demonstrate the strength of public support for Lambeth Women\'s Project. You can show your support by signing this petition, which will be presented to decision makers to strengthen our case for:
A) A lease for the building = security
B) Recognition of the need for women-only services = safety
C) Adequate funding = maintenance and development of services
D) Policies that promote the social advancement of women = equality


Stockwell Primary School, who have been managing the property for little over a year who have also been obstructive wherever possible during this time. LWP has been delivering vital services to and for young women and girls (ages 0 - 90) in Lambeth for nearly 35 years.

After years of negotiation regarding the use of the space that LWP have been operating from SPS are reneging on agreements made and are behaving unreasonably on the eviction notice they have served on LWP. LWP suspects that the School is motivated by the desire to have a refurbished listed building for their sole use.


The deeper issues at stake relate the cessation of vital services being provided to young girls and young women in an area of extensive poverty and deprivation and which targets young girls and women across racial class and dissability lines.

Come and picket and come and occupy come and help LWP stay where it belongs.

We are holding a public meeting to plan actions. Bring banners, placards etc. We want to use the building as much as possible over the next two weeks and fill it with music, meetings, talks, food and lots of people. We are not going anywhere, this is our building in our community, we must make this clear.

Come and picket and come and occupy come and help LWP stay where it belongs.

If you would like to help in some way please get in touch. We need leaflets and banners. We would like there to be a demonstration in Windrush Square on Monday and/or Tuesday. If you can help with this let us know.

marinaomi interview with alison bechdel

What a joy!

Follow the link to read MariNaomi's partially illustrated interview with Alison Bechdel. What a treat. http://therumpus.net/2012/05/the-rumpus-interview-with-alison-bechdel/


It makes me wanna get back into connecting and talking with people about their art and their work more. I had a dream last night after reading this, about making new issues of Colouring Outside The Lines, but doing the interviews in person. I'm so inspired and enthusiastic at the moment, and itching to reconnect with that part of my brain that reading this interview reminded me of.

doris saledo exhibition in london

Doris Saledo’s exhibition of site-specific works at White Cube, Mason’s Yard (London, UK) until June 30th.

http://whitecube.com/exhibitions/doris_salcedo_masons_yard_2012/

Really wish I could get down to see this in person.

s&s at Victoria Baths Zine Convention

Victoria Baths Zine Convention (Manchester, UK) 19th May, 2012.

Brilliant building, brilliant event, brilliant people.

The exhibition, 'Posters Of Inspirational European Women: Taken From The Zine, Shape & Situate' was displayed at the Victoria Baths Zine Convention, Manchester, UK on Saturday.
The posters from issues 1 to 3 of Shape & Situate zine were exhibited for the first time all together, all 80 or so of them!

Huge thanks to all the artists for your amazing work. The posters, the exhibition, and the zines were all REALLY well received on the day, and there was a lot of interest in them. Your work is amazing, thank you!

Thanks too to all the amazing people who came to say 'hi' on the day. It was so great to see so many friends and familiar faces. I love zine events for that; the chance to catch up with people across the country by attending events like this is brilliant. Really great to see so many amazing stallholders again too (noteably Footprint, Black Dogs, Sugar Paper, Twigs & Apples, and Karoline Rerrie).

The Victoria Baths is such a wonderful venue, it was a treat to be in there exhibiting and exploring. http://www.victoriabaths.org.uk/
Thanks so much to Natalie for organising the day - it was a credit to you.

Thanks so much too to Amy for getting up at stupid o'clock with me to drive over and put the posters up before the doors opened. And thanks to Rose for being ace all day long.

Such a treat of a day, thanks to everyone there for making it so great.

The last copies of issue 2 of the zine that I had have now sold out following the event. If you're still wanting a copy, check the links on the right of this blog for places that may still have issues in stock.

Some photos from the event:

(p.s. Natalie interviewed me about the project, and it can be read online here: http://theshriekingviolets.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/shape-situate-posters-of-inspirational.html)

shape & situate mini-exhibition at ante, in shipley, may 5th&6th. what a weekend!

"It’s a familiar format: a bookfair, some anti-art, a gig, and hands on workshops. But in truth Ante (from the Latin ‘before’) is more than that. It’s about the person we were until we became buried by work (or increasingly, ‘no work’), by shopping, debts,... television and the all the worries and stresses and strains of modern life. So, if like us, you keep promising yourself that you’ll make time to rediscover that lost self, to be more creative, spend more time with friends, meet more people, experience life more fully, but can never quite make it happen, Ante is for you. Ante – or more to the point May Day – is when we collectively say to hell with shopping, with work, with debt, with worrying and with tv! It’s a day when we remind ourselves that a life always promised for tomorrow is a life robbed of today." (Ante blurb, taken from their site (www.ante-art.co.uk))

I took the posters from 'Shape & Situate: Posters Of Inspirational European Women' zine on a trip to Shipley this weekend for the Ante art event, to appear in a mini version of the full exhibition (the posters on the wall were accompanied by a folder [on my zine stall] full of the rest of the posters featured in all 3 issues of the zine).

Thank you to all the contributors to the zine for making the exhibition so great with your amazing work, you're terrific - the A3 posters looked really great in the space. Thank you too to all the amazing people I met on the day, and special thanks to Nick for inviting me to be a part of it all in the first place. Posi vibes all round! It's been a very special weekend indeed, congratulations and thank you to all the organisers.

I have fallen in love with the art work of Ricky Adam, and Lindsey/Pivo of Caged Bird Club as a direct result of this event! It was a treat hanging out with them both (it's so rare you see amazing artwork exhibited and then get a chance to properly talk to the folk that created it).

Above 3 images are of Pivo's work as part of the Caged Bird Club display.

There was so much great work and people there this weekend (besides the above), showcasing so many different projects and skills. Even the work shown by people not personally in attendance (such as Seth Tobocman) struck me.
Hopefully without gushing too much, there was such an overall great uplifting atmosphere of support and creativity.
It was great to see again Cath and James from Footprint, Sarah and Nick of The Print Project, Craig from Salford Zine Library, Rachael & Alice from the Museum Of Lies, and the crew from Knit A Bear Face.

But more than that there were so many people attending the event who came up to me to talk about the Shape & Situate project and exhibition. In particular there was a noticable amount of women from a generation older than myself who wanted to excitedly talk about the women depicted in the posters, wanted to know more, and who were keen to share tales of what the women on the walls and in the zine meant to them. Speaking to these women as they came up to the zine table I had out on the Saturday felt like such an important connective part of the Shape & Situate project that I'd never fully encountered before, yet it's something that's had the greatest impact on me; to speak to women about the women in the posters, and to see what they have meant to them was really powerful, and has made me even more aware of the potential power of visual and artistic social history projects.

The blurb (at the top of this post) that 'advertised' the Ante event is something that really did come true this weekend at the event for me, and I'm so grateful to have been part of something so great and something that has really re-charged me and my brain and my desire to do 'stuff'.

More photos from the weekend can be found on the ANTE flickr pool: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1952523@N23/pool/

the f word feature S&S interview

The interview I gave to Natalie over at The Shrieking Violet blog about the Shape & Situate poster exhibition that'll be hung at the Manchester Victoria Baths Zine event on May 19th has been featured in The F Word's weekly roundup of links, which is nice!

See here (5 links from the bottom): http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2012/04/weekly_round-up_70

In other news, I'm all set for hanging a mini-version of the exhibition, plus having a stall for Shape & Situate zines (plus others) at this weekend's Ante Art Festival in Shipley. It looks like it's going to be really great.
Facebook event here:http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/220690814699812/
Website here: http://www.ante-art.co.uk/