Dyke March
San Francisco, CA
June 27, 2008
The march keeps getting larger every year. Amazingly, the event is still well organized and committed to consciousness raising old school style.
A highlight of the march was the Sistah Boom reunion.
Bonus Link: Dyke March Photos (Black Light Online)
Femme2008: The Architecture of Femme
August 15-17, 2008
Chicago Wyndham O’Hare
The Femme Collective proudly announces its Program Schedule, Performance Schedule and Keynote Lineup!
Our keynotes this year will rock your socks off! Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Dorothy Allison, Julia Serano and Veronica C. Combs talking about a myriad of subjects as they relate to Femme! For more information about our individual keynotes click here.
Okay, I’m adding this image to my virtual Ethnic Notions collection.
So much for fine German craftsmanship and precision.
Off The Shelf (Potential) Head Of State
From Spiegel Online:
“Offermann explained that he was forced to adapt an off-the-shelf black doll’s head for his tribute to Obama, which is his first attempt at making a black doll.”
The organizers of this event offer some of the best in Oakland underground entertainment. The private property were the outdoor performances are held is centrally located off Hwy 580 and Park Avenue within walking distance to Lake Merritt and accessible by public transportation.
Raks Africa is worth the price of admission alone—these women can move!
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Announcement
Hello everyone!
We want to remind you about our upcoming concert on Sunday, June 15th in Oakland. It’s almost here! so make your reservations while there is still space. Besides all the wonderful performers, there will be there will be delicious chamorro food as well as ice tea being sold as part of the fundraising by Erica. So come hungry and thirsty and ready to enjoy some good food and beverages. Here is our line-up for the June 15th exciting event:
Raks Africa is an Oakland based belly dancing duo featuring Etang and Tammy. Being big-bellied girls doing big things, the pair challenge what belly dancers are supposed to look like. Dancing with ample heart and soul, this duet have been shaking and shimmying at many Bay Area venues. They are proud to be a part of a long tradition of embracing feminity, culture and power through Raks Sharki . . . better known as belly dance.
*Carrie Gerendasy **Carrie is an outstanding, high energy folk singer with a superb voice, and a lightning-fast flat picking hand. Powerful and passionate, her songs inspire and her charismatic presence electrifies the room.*
Liquid Girlfriend featuring Linda Atkinson on keyboards, Cate Larsen on guitar, and blakwomyn on bass are a new musical group with a liquid passion for rock, pop, funk, and indies music. In the past, they’ve performed separately around the Bay Area, always on the lookout to groove with their musical soul mates. At long last, their wait is over. Together, they are “Liquid Girlfriend.” Let their original tunes flow into your head space.
Erica Nalani Benton is a proud daughter of oceania, rasied in the bay area. As a singer, songwriter, student, activist, queer, chamorro, hawaiian, mixed-european - she is a bridge between many worlds and her music represents the same. A blend of soul, blues, island, acoustic funk, futuristic 2 step - check herout! Erica’s using her donations from the concert as a fundraiser for her trip to Guahan (Guam) this summer to participate in the movement for Chamorro Self-Determination and Cultural Revitalization. Her trip is a part of a local bay area program called World Bridges, whose mission is to “foster international cooperation between young people of color from low-income backgrounds, and provides them with opportunities to gain global perspectives on the social justice issues that impact their lives.” Check them out at www.world-bridges.org She will gladly accept other donations specifically for this project.
As always, we appreciate people making reservations. (We send an email with
all the particulars the week of the concert.) You can make reservations by emailing us at backporchconcerts@gmail.com or calling at 510 533-4732. We ask $8-20 donation at the door, approximately 90% + of the $ goes to the performers. For those of you who have been here before; we have changed our yard dramatically (there is a lot more sun now) and there is room for more of you then ever. Bring chairs, the shows start at 2PM, the “doors” open at 1:30. Looking forward to seeing you all.
What: National Black Lesbian Conference
Where: Las Vegas, Nevada
When: July 10-13, 2008 (conference dates)
Who: Skye Ward. International Education Professional
Workshop: Conjuring Wellness and Renewal Through International Travel
Description:
This interactive workshop is an introduction to international travel as a means for transformational healing, self-discovery and the development of global sisterhoods. Participants will explore notions of self-worth, scarcity, and financial accessibility as potential barriers and inhibitors to overseas travel.
Participants also will obtain logistical and anecdotal information on traveling abroad from an Afriles seasoned traveler, international education professional, and spiritualist, conjuring woman and experienced group facilitator.
Format: Overview of travel logistics, facilitated discussion on cross-cultural and societal barriers for WOC, brief visualization and writing exercise to help participants create a preliminary plan for traveling overseas.
Skyeview readers are especially invited to join the conversation.
What goes on in Vegas WILL be uploaded to Skyeview!
Stay tuned for a link to the workshop material.
Femme2008: The Architecture of Femme
August 15-17, 2008
Chicago Wyndham O’Hare
Mission Statement
Femme Collective is committed to creating conferences by Femmes, about Femmes, and for Femmes and their allies. We understand that Femme is more complex than just being a queer person who is feminine; it is a part of how we interact with and shape our world as queer academics, activists, artists, homemakers, parents, professionals, students, teachers, etc.
Our conferences seek to explore, discuss, dissect, and support Queer Femme* as a transgressive, gender-queer, stand-alone, and empowered identity and provide a space for organizing and activism within Queer communities. We hope to attract people of all genders who are interested in a deeper understanding of Femme identity, culture, and history as well as Femmes interested in learning, teaching, connecting, and building community geared towards social change. Recognizing that queer Femme gender can be constructed independent of and/or intimately connected to biological sex, this conference will build coalition among queer Femmes of every stripe. Taking into consideration the various ways in which Femmes across the country and the world construct Femme based on region, class, race, ethnicity, access and ability, the Femme Collective will strive to create a safe place for open dialogue among a plethora of Femme-identified persons and their allies.
We are dedicated to: creating a Femme-positive environment; selecting programming to honor differences in ethnicities, physical abilities and gender expressions; and highlighting the intersection of queer Femme identity with issues of race, class, age, and body. We hope that together we can create a space to explore many of the complexities of Femme identity, including (but not limited to) questions of privilege, invisibility, intersecting identities, class mobility, aging, and the differences between femininity and Femme identity. We hope to contribute to giving voice to queer Femme identity, and to building unity, coalition, and solidarity in and among genderqueer communities.
*We recognize that for many lesbians and same-gender-loving Femmes ‘queer’ is not a term that works and that it can often feel alienating and unwelcoming. We want to recognize that language is always imperfect, and make it clear that we use the term as an umbrella to include all of us who identify as Femme within LGBTQIA/SGL and genderphile communities. We are using this term to specifically and intentionally include lesbians and same-gender-loving women as well as genderqueers, transwomen, and folks of every sex and gender who identify as Femme and see themselves as part of LGBTQIA/SGL and genderphile communities.
No matter how you say it DC Black Pride was ON! The full program included workshops, educational forums, networking opportunities, community resource exchanges, health education and the like. But I’m not going to front and write that I participated in any of those activities. I happened to be in town for business and I attended DC Black Pride for the PARTIES, the legendary house music and the outdoor festival.
Lawd have mercy the LGBT family up inna “Chocolate City” sure know how to gather the tribe, welcome visitors and host a very nice celebration of Black queer life. I even managed to meet up with long-time sistahfriends from 
outside of the DC area including a couple of former Bay Area residents. Luckily my buddy and author Dorothy Randall Gray was in town to conduct a series of writing workshops for DC Black Pride. She quickly brought me up to speed on where to find mature sistahs including the Saturday evening Old School Vocal House Music party at the host hotel and the Sunday evening Sister-2-Sister soiree.
Skyediver and writer Dorothy Randall-Gray
Sister-2-Sister Party
Big up former Oakland resident Papaya Mann for co-hosting this fun party at the stately Blair Mansion Inn that featured three dance floors, multiple bars, outdoor patio and a slew of elegant and handsome women. Yum!!!
The Amsterdam Roots Festival is an ideal travel destination especially for a short 3-4 day trip. Europe bound travelers should definitely consider this festival as a way to stretch your travel dollar and enjoy the excitement of summer fun on the continent!
Budget Traveler Tip
To offset the weak US dollar consider prepaying lodging and ground transportation expenses. Take particular note of the FREE open-air festival at the Oosterpark in the forwarded announcement below. Come on you can do it!
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Amsterdam Roots Festival 2008
June 14-21, 2008
African stars Baaba Maal and Oumou Sangare at 11th edition
11th edition of Amsterdam Roots Festival
The Amsterdam Roots Festival has been one of the leading international music festivals for ten years now. The festival presents pioneering developments within world music for a large and varied audience. The mix of ethnic backgrounds, music styles and the contact between the different population groups has become essential for the festival.
From Saturday 14 through Saturday 21 June 2008 the 11th edition brings around 60 concerts at the Concertgebouw, Tropentheater, Melkweg and Paradiso and a large-scale free open air festival at the Oosterpark: Roots Open Air. In addition there is a supporting programme (films and photo exhibition) and an Off-Roots programme. In 2007 the festival attracted 65,000 visitors; 58,000 of which for Roots Open Air.
The goods were delivered last night at the SF Citadel! The much anticipated annual fundraiser event would haven been an excellent subject for research on sex positive women’s space, particularly as it relates to the visibility of lesbians of color in this type of environment. Kinky colored gurls were in the da haus. The majority I identified was of African descent, East Asian descent, South Asian, and some Latinas.
I didn’t get the impression there were many wallflowers in attendance. Novice and seasoned kinsters alike were sociable, flirtatious and many appeared to be excited about attending the de facto spring/summer kick off event for the Bay Area women’s play party scene.
The event was skillfully and expertly produced. The MC’s Indigo Blue and
Midori demonstrated their many years experience in producing this type of event. They kept everyone on a slow but steady simmer. A ton of money was raised, the event sponsors donated LOADS of first rate and high quality raffle prizes, the Selector played an excellent set during the
erotic dance performances that got everybody in the mood for sump’ting.
Delicious eye candy on both levels of the very well equipped safer sex space.
There appeared to be a range of sexual expressions amongst the folks but clearly FEMME TOPS in DELICIOUS and SEXY attire dominated (pun intended) the play space at least during the couple of hours I was there–which is just fine with me because noting melts this switch butta more than the undivided attention of a hot femme top. Yum!
Big Up SF Citadel for maintaining a safe and fabulous space for kinsters.
I LOVE the bay area.
[sw 4.26.08]
