A group of queer small business owners in Oakland are raising funds for open a brand new space for creative people in the area. Qulture Collective will be a community space, complete with a cafe, a retail shop selling goods made by queer artisans and a gallery showcasing art by “people across the LGBTQIA spectrum from Oakland, the Bay, and beyond”. Located in downtown Oakland, the project’s mission is to “provide a central, devoted space for LGBTQIA folks to network, cultivate creativity, and develop and accomplish entrepreneurial goals.”

Qulture Collective will be a gathering hub for the queer community, holding in-house events such as art openings, film screenings and workshops. The space will also be available to members of the community to hire for their own events. This brand new safe space , which will aim for an “atmosphere of inclusion” will be all about “fostering the creative spirit” and helping “the diverse and talented queer and allied community to connect.”

The project’s Indiegogo explains in detail what the money (their goal is $50, 000) would be used for, primarily building work to transform the space into one that suits their vision. The key element of this is the cafe, which will be the main meeting space, as well as the gallery and the upstairs work spaces, with additional funds for furnishing and equipping the space.

“We envision a multifaceted workplace and shopping destination that can double as a gathering space, to strengthen the already vibrant community here,” says co-founder Alyah Baker.

The women behind this project are a pretty impressive bunch. Creative Director Alyah is an entrepreneur, freelance stylist, and classically trained dancer. Terry Sok, who was born and raised in Oakland, has a background in business management, having worked with a Fortune 500 company. Julia Wolfson, a freelance artist, translator, marketing developer and bookkeeper whose experience is in the food industry, will be in charge of “The Numbers”.  All three women own small businesses in Oakland and are keen for Qulture Collective to support local queer business owners.

“As small business owners ourselves, we are especially interested in promoting a cycle of support for queer artists and entrepreneurs. We hope that having a space like this will work to grow multiple businesses and livelihoods.”

If you want to learn more or support the campaign, check out the Indiegogo page or the Qulture Collective website for more info.

Francesca Lewis is a queer feminist writer from Yorkshire, UK. She writes for Curve Magazine and The Human Experience as well as writing short fiction and working on a novel. Her ardent love of American pop culture is matched only by her passion for analyzing it completely to death.

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Pop star Annie‘s “Russian Kiss” video, featuring Bjarne Melgaard, is “a critical cry from Norwegian and American elite performers — albeit not from the Olympic disciplines.” Annie and Bjarne joined up to create this music video “about the right to kiss one’s beloved — regardless of sexual orientation — wherever one likes,” according to the “Russian Kiss” website.

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Image: L.J Roberts, Censorship Protest Mask (David Wojnarowicz), embroidery on cotton, 17″ x 15″, 2011

BY Washington Blade

“Queer Objectivity,”  curated by genderqueer artist Kris Grey at the Stamp Gallery at the University of Maryland at College Park, is an exhibition that brings together 16 emerging and established artists diverse in their identities, experiences, materials and approaches. Some of the artwork exhibited addresses the body in relation to objects. Others may present the body as an object itself. Still further, some work presents objects as conduit for the body to another realm. There will be a range of artwork displayed including photography, sculpture, performance and new media.

“Recent scholarship in material studies and phenomenology has challenged the traditional notion that human bodies are stable entities divorced from other objects in the material world,” Grey writes in an introductory statement. “The elevation of queer theory to academic prominence and the emergence of new types of feminism have further complicated the separation between personal and political — bodies and objects. Materially, the human body is comprised of separate, interacting, individual elements and forces that are often reduced to being seen as one. So too, the intricacies of bodies and their relationship to other objects, animated or not, get flattened into a binaristic body/other dichotomy.”

The exhibit runs through Dec. 6. The Stamp Gallery is on the first floor of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union-Center for Campus Life at the University of Maryland at College park.

For more information, visit The Stamp Gallery‘s website.

Read more at Washington Blade

Washington Blade is America’s leading gay news source

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One set of images from Ashley Kolodner’s “GAYFACE” series. (Photo: Ashley Kolodner)

BY JAMES NICHOLS
Huffington Post Gay Voices

Ashley Kolodner is a New York-based activist and artist who specializes in still photography. Her latest project, “GAYFACE,” involves over 150 participants across six states and utilizes portraiture in an attempt to both empower the subject and transform the perspective of the viewer. The subjects are photographed in two frames — one with eyes closed and the other with eyes open to give the viewer “a sense of the subject’s vulnerability.

As a body of work, “GAYFACE” is Kolodner’s response to the marginalization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals living in America and the mainstream attempt to cast LGBT identity in black and white terms. She cites the goal of the project as an attempt to “break the barriers under which the LGBTQ community has lived for too long… to give this community the voice it deserves and the power to speak the diverse truth… [and] to portray the innovative, personal and participatory face of the gay movement and American culture at large and in the home.”

For more information on Ashley Kolodner’s work check out her website.

Read more at Huffington Post Gay Voices

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BY KAREN HOUSTON

“Vixen Obscura – El Libro Malo” is a collection of Ivana Ford’s “desires, vanities, obsessions, and demons” in the form of erotic photography. Ford challenges viewers to “understand and appreciate the intrinsic depth and directness of unadulterated images captured on film as opposed to digital.” A majority of the photographs are in color, but a few appear in black and white, emphasizing the light and shadows around the women’s curves. On Ford’s Tumblr, she has a quote by Japanese photographer, Daido Moriyama, regarding how he thinks color affects the level of a photograph’s erotic quality: “The reason why I think black and white photography is erotic is completely due to my body’s instinctive response. Monochrome has stronger elements of abstraction or symbolism. Colour is something more vulgar because the colour is making the decisions, it feels vulgar, and that seems to me to be the difference.”

Ford features a range of women in her work—tatted women, redheads with ruby red lipstick, muscular women, pierced women, a pale woman captured in daylight with wild hair, women in bondage, feminine women, women of color, and one woman wearing briefs and a tie which I, um, particularly appreciated. Ultimately, Ford aspired to create a body of work with strong images that would intrigue and entice.

Read more at TaggMagazine.com

Tagg Magazine is a print and online resource for LBT women in the DC Metropolitan and Rehoboth, DE areas.

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The multi-talented Janelle Monae talks “The Electric Lady” and making music for the queer community.

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]]> https://www.lesbian.com/janelle-monae-on-making-music-for-the-queer-community/feed/ 0 https://www.lesbian.com/celeste-chan-shining-the-queer-spotlight/ https://www.lesbian.com/celeste-chan-shining-the-queer-spotlight/#respond Tue, 10 Sep 2013 15:00:11 +0000 http://www.lesbian.com/?p=17060 Chan and KB Boyce founded Queer Rebels Productions to create a stage for queers of color to share histories, stories and art.

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Celeste Chan (Photo via SFWeeklyBlogs)

BY HASSINA OBAIDY
Curve

Feeling there was a strong need for queer artists of color to come out on stage and shine their talent Celeste Chan and KB Boyce founded Queer Rebels Productions based in San Francisco in late 2008. Their goal: to showcase queer artists of color, connect generations, and honor histories with art for the future. Chan and Boyce delve in to the deeper understanding of art and history and put them together to create incredible projects and shows for the community and beyond to further advocate for LGBT equality.

Celeste Chan and KB Boyce (Photo: Robin Berg)

Before developing their production agency, Chan was studying International Feminism and video production at Evergreen State College. Later, she got involved in community-based work in the Bay Area working with Incite: Women of Color Against Violence (Oakland, Calif), Shifting Narratives Film Collective (San Francisco) and the Femme Conference (National). Boyce on the other hand is a two spirit musician developing a solo act called TuffNStuff: The Lasta Dela Drag. Boyce served on the Trans March steering committee and co produced the Radical Performance Fest. Chan and Boyce both curate and they always scout talent and reach out to queer artists of color. This past year, they ran their first open call for submissions to Exploding Lineage: Queer of Color Experimental Films. Chan tells us how Queer Rebels came be.

Read the interview at Curve

Curve, the nation’s best-selling lesbian magazine, spotlights all that is fresh, funny, exciting, controversial and cutting-edge in our community.

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Laurel Holloman has made a solid transition from actress to visual artist. You make know her as Tina from “The L Word” but in Europe, they know her by her large, mural paintings.

The post Laurel Holloman prepares for art show first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Laurel Holloman (Photo: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Entertainment)

BY TRISH BENDIX
AfterEllen

Laurel Holloman is best known to us as Tina Kennard or Randy Dean, which is why she’s been pursuing her art career in Europe instead of the States. “It is very important because it has been easier for me,” she told DigitalJournal.com. “I am now more known as a painter in Europe not as an actor, and that is what I care about. No one really asks me questions regarding the other art form.” Laurel’s 16 large murals are part of a new show called “All The World Inside” at Palazzo Italia in Berlin, Germany.

Read more at AfterEllen.com

AfterEllen is the pop culture site that plays for your team

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The stunningly talented Mezzo-Soprano Laurie Rubin and her guide dog (Photo: Jennifer Taira)

BY KIM HOFFMAN
Curve

“She said to me, ‘Wow! I didn’t expect you to look so foxy,’” Laurie Rubin giggles, recounting the observation a librarian made during a recent reading for her memoir, “Do You Dream In Color?” Blind since birth, she has written about her life and the pivotal challenges and rewards that have crossed her path, dispelling misconceptions about blindness and the cynics in her life who told her she would never have a job, find romance or be independent. Clearly, they didn’t know Rubin.

Swayed by opera at a young age, the now internationally recognized mezzo-soprano has performed legendary recitals with world-renowned musicians, and is the recipient of many awards, including her maiden moment — the 1997 LA Music Center Spotlight Award. Adorned with ‘Bravas!’ Rubin shares her message of resilience through the beauty of music. “Do You Dream In Color,” the memoir title taken from the piece Rubin wrote with composer Bruce Adolphe, is a book about taking chances. Growing up, Rubin second-guessed herself, enamored with the idea of being social, but struggling for acceptance among her peers.

Read more at Curve

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