Castro Theater and Castro Street at dusk. (Photo via LesbiansWhoTech)

BY KATY RAY
Tagg Magazine

This year marks the first ever Lesbians Who Tech Summit, a national event that connects queer women across all areas of technology. Founded by Leanne Pittsford, the mission of Lesbians Who Tech is fourfold: the organization empowers women not only to connect with each other and other leaders in the tech community, but also to connect with community organizations to gain visibility in the field of technology, encouraging more queer women to enter this male-dominated industry.

“So many of our tech icons are straight, white men,” says Pittsford. “We want to increase the number of women in technology and leadership positions in the field, raise the visibility of the lesbians who are already leading tech innovation, and help younger lesbians advance their careers.” The Lesbians Who Tech Summit seeks to create a culture of empowerment, enabling women to advance their own careers and be an advocate for women’s and LGBT causes in their own company.

The Lesbians Who Tech Summit will be held February 27 – March 2 at the Castro Street Theater in San Francisco, California. For ticket cost and more information,visit the Lesbians Who Tech Summit site.

Read more at TaggMagazine.com

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

The post First ever Lesbians Who Tech Summit to be held in San Francisco first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY GEORGIE KROKUS

The iconic world-renown lesbian event – the original Dinah Shore Weekend – is celebrating its 24^th Anniversary by upping up the volume more than a notch, and scoring a sizzling coup for its high-profile party on Saturday night. Keeping the festivities at the Palm Springs Convention Center – the desert’s largest concert venue – twin sisters Tegan and Sara will headline the famed soiree on Saturday, April 5, 2014.

Canadian-born, lesbian cult favorites Tegan and Sara Quin have been on an unstoppable meteoric rise since the release of their 7^th studio album dubbed “Heartthrob”, which debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200. The band’s lead single “Closer” has broken into the Top 20 on the Pop Charts, is currently on rotation on over 150 Top 40 radio nationwide, and week after week keeps a solid spot on the VH1’s Top 20 Countdown. As ardent LGBTQ rights advocates, it’s only fitting the duo will bring their world tour to the largest lesbian event in the world: Club Skirts Dinah Shore Weekend.

Read more at Curve

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

The post Tegan and Sara to headline Dinah Shore first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY HEATHER CASSELL

Next week a wave of women will hit the shores of Seaside, Ore. for the first-ever EDEN Pacific Northwest.

Guest of EDEN PNW will enjoy a comedy show, dance parties and outdoor activities throughout the weekend October 3 – 6, 2013.

“Let’s rock the beach and enjoy being together for four wonderful days!” says Gabriela “Gabe” Kandziora, co-producer of EDEN PNW and partnership and business development of PQ Monthly.

The producers of the inaugural EDEN PNW have planned a smashing lineup of the Pacific Northwest’s female comedians, musicians and DJs spinning at two parties for the new four-day women’s weekend.

“The local vibe of our music fest is exciting. We’re introducing our guests to artists from Seattle, Portland and San Francisco – all sister cities and all full of incredible talent,” says Sarah.

Gabe agrees, excited about the diversity of the music and comedian lineup representing the flavor and talent of the Pacific Northwest throughout the weekend.

“Eden PNW’s musical lineup is fantastic!” says Gabe. “We are gonna have a blast!”

Christine De La Rosa, founder and producer of EDEN Pride Events and co-producer of fiveTEN Oakland Events, which is co-producing the weekend getaway, adds.

“EDEN loves bringing together diversity in our entertainment lineup,” says Christine. “We are very proud to be working with these world class entertainers and making sure that we stay true to our mission, diversity and amazing entertainment.”

Pacific Northwest favorites comedians Belinda Carroll, Lisa Koch and Sandra Valls will get the women laughing and in the mood for dancing with the premiere of new material in their musical comedy routines Friday night, at 7 p.m., October 4 before the Beach Bonfire.

The Lovers will rock the Oregon Coast with their new songs at EDEN Pacific Northwest. (Photo: Courtesy of Eden Pacific Northwest)

Portland’s Lovers will rock the beach along with Oakland’s Aima the Dreamer and Seattle’s Ms. Briq House on Saturday night at 7 p.m., October 5, before the EDEN Dance Party with DJs Fusion and Mr. Charming starting at 9 p.m. after the concert.

The Lovers will perform many of their latest songs from their new album, “Friend in the World,” released Sept. 24.

DJs Fusion and Mr. Charming are excited about getting the girls up and grooving on the dance floor while emcee RaMona Webb keeps the audiences pumped up and excited.

“Everyone in the house should hear a song they love, or a song they forgot they loved, but haven’t heard in awhile,” says DJ Fusion about the musical trip she has planned for the women. “Expect to sing along to those songs, and stay on the dance floor!”

DJ Mr. Charming plans to get things steamy on the dance floor.

“I hope to help create a sexy dance party for all the women at EDEN PNW, and to keep them dancing and flirting all night long!” adds DJ Mr. Charming.

“With acts like these, the tickets won’t last,” says Sarah Toce, co-producer of EDEN PNW and founder and publisher of The Seattle Lesbian.

Girl Power

The EDEN PNW producers, the Pacific Northwest’s preeminent queer publications that have a following of a combined estimated 320,000 readers monthly reached out to EPE, San Francisco Bay Area’s preeminent women’s entertainment and lifestyle company, that attract upward of an estimated 15,000 women and their friends throughout the summer to mostly queer women events during Pride throughout the Bay Area. The same EPE team also produces fiveTEN Oakland Events.

EPE also produced BLISS, a women’s getaway to Palm Springs, Calif., for two years.

“EDEN puts on amazing events and their experience is invaluable,” says Gabe, who was familiar with EPE and thrilled to partner with EPE.

“EDEN Pride Events, as well as myself, were so honored to be approached by PQ Monthly to produce this event and are looking forward to a long partnership with both The Seattle Lesbian and PQ Monthly,” says Christine.

The women were all seeking an untapped, but familiar destination filled with charm, but it wasn’t until they accidentally met through Girls That Roam, that they all came together to produce EDEN PNW.

“I am thrilled to be a part of it,” adds Sarah. “Whenever there is a positive way for women to work together to create something truly special, I’m in!”

The entertainers who have worked with EDEN couldn’t agree more.

“Eden events always have the best audiences who just want to laugh and have fun!” says Sandra.

Belinda, a Portland native, who has performed at other EPE events, couldn’t agree more with Sandra.

“The energy of the women and the great talent involved with the event make it spectacular!” says Belinda, who’s excited about EDEN PNW. “[It’s] just such a feel good, wonderful time,” she says.

Swept Away

The entertainers who haven’t been to Seaside are just as excited about EDEN PNW as those who are familiar with the destination and the girls putting on the event. Seaside, a historic resort on the northern Oregon Coast, has long been a vacation destination for families and lesbians.

“I’ve spent lots of time on the Oregon coast, but never with so many amazing women!” says DJ Mr. Charming, who is a staple in Portland’s music scene spinning at Gaycation for eight years.

Unlike Provincetown, Mass. and Key West, Fla., which have established weeklong queer women festivals, the Pacific Coast hasn’t ever established its own beachside getaway until now.

There are other locally produced women’s music festivals in the Pacific Northwest – the Out/Loud: Queer Women’s Music Festival and Siren Nation Festival, but they are all far away from the shores of the beautiful Oregon Coast.

“Personally, I am looking forward to experiencing the quaint town of Seaside as a vacation getaway,” says Christine, pointing out that the group is starting out small, but has “big plans to make this a full week of events for women and our friends over the course of the next five years, our very own West Coast Provincetown.”

And why not? Seaside was selected because lesbians have been escaping to the beach town for years; say Gabe and Sarah, who have both escaped their busy lives in Portland and Seattle to the charms of the welcoming beach town.

“Seaside is welcoming to the LGBT community and our straight allies,” says Sarah.

Seaside has embraced EDEN PNW as much as queer women have fallen in love with the coastal town, which is also near charming Cannon Beach and Gearhart, 10 minutes to art and golf. Astoria, a more urban town at the mouth of the Columbia River where Lewis and Clark ended their expedition led by Sacajawea, is only 30-minutes away.

Also, unlike Ptown or Key West, Seaside is easy to get to from Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. The town is only an hour and a half drive down U.S. 26 from Portland; a three and a half hours drive from Seattle; and nearly a six hours drive from Vancouver, B.C.

The EDEN PNW team has received a warm welcome from Seaside.

“We’re thrilled to have a first-time group like EDEN Pacific Northwest coming to Seaside,” says Jon Rahl, director of tourism and marketing of the Seaside Visitors Bureau, about why Seaside has been a popular resort destination for more than 100 years. “Seaside is truly more than just a day at the beach and we are excited to have you find out why!”

Karen Monroe, director of sales of the Shilo Inn Suites Oceanfront Hotel Seaside, EDEN PNW’s host hotel agrees adding, “Seaside has always been a great place to hold large fun events as well as a great place for families, couples, and friends to meet up.

“We are happy that EDEN PNW has chosen Seaside, Oregon and Shilo to be that place,” continues Karen.

“The Oregon Coast can be sublime during this time … warm, mellow and calm,” says Gabe. “It is a great town with lots to do and see … and a beautiful beach.”

“Seaside offers both a relaxing getaway and nightlife options for all different types of people,” adds Sarah.

Seaside is walkable, making it easy to ditch the car and get outside to take a walk along the Prom, the Promenade; or enjoy the amusement rides, arcade and local art galleries, boutiques, bars and restaurants, not to mention the amazing events EDEN PNW has planned.

It’s a relaxing getaway, a variety of outdoor and other activities for various individuals’ interest from clamming, cycling, hiking, golf, motorcycling, and surfing to art, boardwalk amusement, microbrewery and wine tasting, shopping, spas and nightlife.

“Where else can you ride a Harley one minute and play arcade games and eat salt water taffy the next?” asks Sarah. “Add to that dance parties overlooking the water and bonfires in the sand and you’ve got the perfect destination location.”

The women of EDEN PNW are planning an all-girl weekend getaway unlike any other.

“EDEN Pacific Northwest is unlike any other women’s weekend,” says Sarah. “In our first year alone, we are offering bonfire gatherings on the beach, dance parties with celesbians we all know and love, clam digging, sightseeing excursions, and more. This event is completely outside of the box and all three partners are excited to share it with everyone.”

The women hope that EDEN Pacific Northwest will become a destination for women from around the world to discover the beautiful Oregon coast.

Get your tickets to EDEN Pacific Northwest. Learn more about EDEN Pacific Northwest, visit EDENPNW.com or become our friend on Facebook.

Reserve your room at the Shilo Inn Seaside Oceanfront today to get the special discounted rate for EDEN Pacific Northwest, by calling 503-738-9571. Use the guest code: EDEN PNW.

This article originally appeared on GirlsThatRoam.com

Full Disclosure: Heather Cassell is the marketing and sponsorship director of EDEN Pride Events, one of the producers of EDEN Pacific Northwest.

The post Girls will rock at EDEN Pacific Northwest first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY KELLY MORRIS

The Los Angeles Times noted that the announcement “never actually explained that LGBT stands for lesbian, bisexual and transgender,” but clearly officials have “come a long ways from when they kicked out a lesbian couple for kissing at the Dodger Stadium game in 2000,” according to Advocate.

Read more at TheSeattleLesbian.com

The Seattle Lesbian online magazine reaches more than 188,000 readers per week globally.

The post Los Angeles Dodgers to host first-ever LGBT Night Out first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Life has been a party for Leigh Cousins and Mandy Randhawa promoters of award-winning FlyGirl Productions, a queer women’s party company based in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

FlyGirl Productions’ monthly parties and all-girl festivities during Vancouver Pride have been a sellout affair for thirteen years, they say.

Next weekend, the girls are taking their party on the road to Calgary, Alberta, where they are throwing their first Hershe Day Club post-Calgary Pride party.

“It’s kind of exciting to go to a place that is at the forefront of change,” says Leigh, about hosting their first post-Pride party in the formerly conservative province, Alberta.

Only a short few years ago many Pride Parade marchers donned masks during their celebrations in fear of being “noticed,” says Leigh. What’s changed is the population has swelled upward of just more than 1 million people, according to a 2011 census, and “new blood in the political system” has turned the conservative government’s tide.

For years, Vancouver girls who relocated to Calgary along with Calgary’s girls who attended FlyGirl Production’s Vancouver Pride parties have begged Leigh and Mandy to bring the party to them. Finally, the two women couldn’t resist the enticement anymore.

The party is the first for Leigh and Mandy in Calgary. They’ve thrown wildly successful monthly parities, Hershe Bar, in Vancouver for more than a decade, most notably during Vancouver Pride Weekend.

This new Hershe Day Club at West Restaurant and Bar (225 7th Avenue SW, 403-237-5556, WestRestaurantandBar.com), Calgary’s newest gay club, is steps away from the Pride celebration and features a rooftop patio overlooking Calgary as the girls dance the day away with DJs Riki Rocket and Jenna J.

The party gets started at 1 p.m. – 8 p.m., Sept. 1. Tickets are $36.75 Canadian and $35 US dollars advanced, not including the processing fee.

How to Get Fly

Really, it was a lark how these girls got into the lesbian party scene. Thirteen years ago they were hosting fundraisers for their softball team and throwing their own birthday parties that seriously got out of control. It got them thinking that they had a talent throwing parties and being a promoter could be a business.

“People loved it so much that there must be a business in this,” says Leigh, who quit her job as a retail manager at local stores nearly two years after launching FlyGirl Productions to focus on producing parties for women full-time.

The two women, who have been together in business and love for 15 years, throw mostly circuit parties and some live band events for queer women in Vancouver called Hershe Bar. The parties are usually on the Sunday of Canada’s monthly Legendary Long Weekends, but occasionally the festivities will happen on a Thursday when the holiday lands on a Friday.

The next Hershe Bar is set to get down Sept. 1, 10 p.m. – 2 a.m. at the Red Room Ultra Bar (398 Richards Street, 604-687-5007, RedRoomonRichards.com) in Vancouver (the same day the launch Hershe Day Club in Calgary). Tickets are $15.75 Canadian / $15 US dollars advanced, not including the processing fee.

Hershe Bar attracts an estimated 700 women out dancing and partying in Vancouver.

“It always showcases female DJs or with a combination of live artists,” says Mandy.

During Vancouver Pride the girls are known for their popular cruise dance party along with other parties they produce throughout the weekend for women.

“The boat cruise is really, really spectacular it goes up to a very beautiful spot up to Vancouver called Indian Arm which is sort of a fiord or inlet and you get to see the beauty of Vancouver,” says Leigh.

They have been known to entertain an estimated 3,000 women throughout the weekend, they say.

The girls hosted another stellar all-girl weekend during Vancouver Pride this year at the beginning of August. They closed out the weekend with Hunter Valentine who was the headliner of one of their after-Pride parties Aug. 4 with opening act emcee Re’Styla from the U.K. along with their other parties during Pride weekend where they had a killer lineup of local and international female DJs. pumpin’ up the music on the dance floor.

Seven years after Leigh began working full-time on FlyGirl Productions, Mandy joined her full-time too after the Doctors Without Boarders office where she worked closed up shop due to the economic downturn.

“I recruited her,” laughs Leigh, who tied the knot with Mandy three years ago this September.

Joking, she says, “I thought, hmmm, she has a lot of experience and skills. I think that we will scoop her up.”

The two women run the whole show with the help a three to four regular part-time staff and on-call talent. They won’t disclose their ages or annual revenue, but age is just a number and the business is clearly enough to sustain them and expand.

When the they aren’t planning the next big party, the two women are escaping into Vancouver’s natural surroundings, often going on hikes, taking a walk on the beach and kicking it at home eating good food, generally, taking time off to enjoy their each other.

Taking Flight

It was about being in the right place at the right time. Back in bad old 2000 there weren’t any clubs or parties for queer women in Vancouver, they both say.

It wasn’t easy in the beginning. In spite of the Girls Gone Wild phenomenon, for the most part queer girls have had a tough time shaking off the age old stigma that they just don’t go out as often or spend as much money as the boys, gay or straight, do.

Leigh recalls having to kick down doors and bust through a few glass ceilings when FlyGirl Productions first launched. The club owners weren’t gentlemen, they preferred to stay dark for a night rather than open up their doors to the ladies for an afternoon or an evening.

“Like everybody else in the beginning, we are a pioneer in the fact that I had to kick some doors in the beginning to get people to notice that we could fill their nightclub,” says Leigh, about the many bar and nightclub owners who hadn’t gotten the message that in the past two decades, women have come into their own and are looking for a good time.

It’s hard to think that a little more than a decade or two is considered pioneering, but queer and straight women didn’t start really showing themselves as the hot sexy women ready for a night out on the town they are until a little more than two decades ago.

More than a decade later, FlyGirl Productions has show just how fly their audience is with a little feminine persuasion and sassy business sense. Today, the doors open wide for them.

“We have a good rapport and people in Vancouver the nightclub owners or the event space owners know us and know our brand, love our brand, love our customers,” says Leigh, whose trained bar and security staff over the years about how to allow the girls to have a good time, while keeping them safe. “It’s always generally a win-win situation for all concerned.”

The biggest reward for being the life of the party is, “Our customer loves us. They are very loyal. They understand that we are always working in their best interest,” says Leigh.

She’s also quite proud of the fact that in a business where promoters rarely make it to a decade, they are still going strong and growing 13 years later.

Mandy adds that they also choose quality and talent over quantity to entertain their guests. Unlike in the Australia, U.K. and the U.S., Canadian queer women don’t lust after the celesbians. Therefore celebrity doesn’t work for them at their events. What works are local queer women rock stars, hot female DJs and simply giving the girls an excuse to get out and meet other girls like them.

“It’s also consistently producing a product that the customer enjoys,” adds Mandy.

“The intention is to have a joyful uplifting event,” says Leigh, who is a Vancouver native. “We just want to wow them a little bit every year,” about keeping the parties alive and fresh “so it doesn’t feel like same old, same old” and to have the girls walking out of the party saying, “Wow, that was great.”

It’s a tone down, but similar philosophy as their club partner the legendary lesbian promoter of The Dinah, Mariah Hanson.

“We think she’s absolutely awesome,” says Leigh, who joined forces with Mariah four years ago. “I personally think that her business [approach] and the way she deals with people falls true in our business philosophy. I’ve always found her terrific to work with.”

Mandy agrees with Leigh, adding that the parties are also about community and providing an accepting space.

“For me, it’s also about a sense of community,” says Mandy, talking about her personal struggles with her Indian family for a moment. “It’s providing that space of acceptance for everyone else, just because I know what that feels like.”

Raised in North Kandahar, Mandy immigrated with her family to Toronto when she was 14-years old. She moved around Canada and Northeastern U.S. with stops in Montreal and New York State, before finally settling in Vancouver.

“At the end of the day [their guests] want to meet and greet, schmooze [and] dance,” says Mandy. “I liken it more to a lesbian rave.”

Girls set sail on the Chick Ahoy! Boat Cruise during Vancouver Pride Weekend 2012. (Photo: Courtesy of FlyGirl Productions)

At the End of the Night

Leigh and Mandy know they’ve hit the right spot the moment they see women laughing, dancing, hugging and kissing friends and girlfriends and basically having a great time

“You can actually sit there and watch the smiles on people’s faces,” says Leigh. “Their hands are in the air, they are dancing, they are holding hands, they are kissing, they are meeting new friends, they are meeting old friends: When we see that moment, we know that we’ve done the right thing and have done a really good job.”

“I know for Mandy and I both there is a particular point in a party where you worked hard to facilitate the event and at one particular point it goes off,” says Leigh. “That’s what we hit for.”

“Sort of like an unbridled sense of freedom.”

To get fly with the girls in Vancouver, visit FlyGirlProductions.com.

Originally published by GirlsThatRoam.com

The post Getting fly in western Canada with FlyGirl productions first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY LUCIEN MAE SAGUSTAME

The third national BUTCH Voices Conference was held August 15-18 in Oakland, California, and I had the pleasure of attending Saint Harridan’s Gala on Saturday night. Saint Harridan is the new clothing company founded by Mary Going, which makes masculine clothing for nontraditional bodies. The idea got started when Going started shopping for a suit for her own wedding ceremony, only to find that most men’s suits didn’t fit her frame, and that most men’s department workers didn’t suit her style.

The BUTCH Voices Conference featured many workshops, community dinners and performances geared towards creating community and celebrating the butch identity. Founded in 2008 in order to unite people who identity under the “Masculine of Center” spectrum, the intention is to enrich the lives of self identified butches by building community and facilitating open discussion. Judging from the excitement and energy at the Gala, I’d say they’ve achieved that, and much more.

Read more at dot429.com

The post Celebrating butch identity: BUTCH Voices Conference first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY LYNNA DO

Festival of the Babes (“FOB”) is an annual women’s soccer festival that unites queer west coast ladies in a sun-filled Labor Day weekend of “sportiness and revelry.” Geared toward “women who are lesbians or willing to be mistaken for one,” it’s hosted by a different city every year, and this time, in its 23rd year, FOB is back in Portland, Oregon.

This year’s festivities begin on Friday, August 30 and wrap up Sunday, September 1.

The FOBulously fun soccer tournament also has a hint (okay, more than a hint) of Mardi Gras-esque extravagance. The games are played in teams of seven vs seven and teams are typically clad in costume. There are three divisions that range from competitive to recreational (e.g., “please hand me another beer before my next run!” or “I kicked to the hottie in the grass skirt- is she on my team?”). Nontraditional rules spice up the games (some infractions may require kissing the ref or kissing the goalie that you just scored on — no sore losers here!)

Teams travel from Vancouver B.C., Seattle and San Francisco, but a few even make the journey from as far as Europe and Australia. So far, of the 18 teams that are registered, there will be women coming from the Pacific Northwest and California, Boston and even Canada.

With a capacity for 20 teams and approximately 300 players, FOB is a well-loved soccer event. Even women who don’t play soccer will join in the festivities. Regardless of what city is hosting, face it: who doesn’t want to spend the day with a bunch of lesbians running around in costumes (yes, I was serious)?

FOB comes complete with opening ceremonies, awards, and dance parties each night. It has been the birthplace of countless new friendships, delicious hookups and committed partnerships/wives/families. See you there?

Festival of the Babes Schedule
Friday August 30:
6:00 – 10:00 p.m. Registration Party at Crush Bar (1400 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR 97214)
*Snacks will be served. Full menu available. 21+ only

Saturday August 31:
9 a.m. – 12 p.m. Games at Fernhill Park (NE 37th Avenue & NE Simpson Street, Portland, OR)
12 p.m. – 1 p.m. Opening Ceremonies
1 p.m. – 4 p.m. Games
8:30 p.m. – ? a.m. – White Owl Social Club (1305 SE 8th Ave, Portland, OR 97214)
*Full menu available. 21+

Sunday September 1:
10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Games
7 p.m. – TBD

If you are interested in volunteering, please e-mail: fob2013portland@gmail.com

For more information, check out the FestivaloftheBabes.com

Lynna Do is also known as Wiki-Lynna to her friends because she retains a lot of random (and not so random) knowledge. A typical Type A personality, Capricorn and political junkie, you can find her on Facebook and Twitter.

The post Festival of the Babes: Faster and more to the left first appeared on Lesbian.com.

Anna Anthropy’s game is among the fun you’ll find at the convention.

BY NICOLE SCHULTZ
AfterEllen

GaymerX will be making history next month as the first gaming convention with a focus on queer geek culture. The two day event promises fun, socializing, and gaming related education in the heart of San Francisco. Taking place at the Hotel Kabuki in Japantown, the convention will feature an expo space sponsored by LogoTV, Bosses of Honor (special guests), panels, cosplay, music and parties.

Read more at AfterEllen.com

AfterEllen is the pop culture site that plays for your team

The post GaymerX convention showcases queer geek culture first appeared on Lesbian.com.

DJ Rekha (Photo: Courtesy of DJ Rekha)

BY HEATHER CASSELL
GirlsThatRoam

Oakland will be turned into “Little India” for a night when world renowned DJ Rekha turns up the Bhangra beats on Saturday.

The South Asian DJ has gotten President Barack Obama into the Bhangra groove with at the White House. She’s also been called the Ambassador of Bhangra by the “New York Times,” named the “Most Influential South Asian in the U.S.” by “Newsweek”, and tagged as the best DJ by “New York Magazine.”

This Saturday (July 6), DJ Rekha will bring down the house at the DesiQ Gala at the Scottish Rite Center (1547 Lakeside Dr., Oakland, 510-451-1903, ScottRite.com) 6:30 p.m. to 12 a.m. Tickets are $75 online (until midnight July 5) and $100 at the door.

Raising the South Asian roof

Born in England as Rekha Malhotra, the 42-year-old music revolutionary, better known as DJ Rekha, began throwing parties in college and to raise money for South Asian organizations and civil rights and domestic violence before co-founding the South Asian Youth Action in 1996. SAYA helps South Asian youth reach their full potential, according to the organization’s website.

New York’s South Asian scene was emerging at the same time she began spinning the turn tables, says the Queens, N.Y.-raised DJ.

Bhangra got DJ Rekha when she was young. She was introduction to the music when her mother brought home Malkit Singh’s cassette tape “UpFront” from England, where most of Bhangra is produced. Up to that moment, the only Punjabi music she heard was one folk record that her parents had in the house, she says.

She was enraptured with the music, which blends Indian folk music with Hip Hop and other modern dance music, in particular with Malkit’s vocals.

“It just did something for me,” says DJ Rekha, who still listens to the songs today. “There is just something about them.”

Since then she’s worked with Malkit and traveled around the world spinning at galas, festivals, and parties.

Bhangra has taken her to Brazil, Belize, the Caribbean, Dubai, India, Sweden and other places.

She is in high demand often crisscrossing the U.S. performing up to 12 gigs during a busy month, not including her regular party, Basement Bhangra at Le Poisson Rouge (158 Bleeker St., New York, 212-505-3474, LePoissonRouge.com) in New York’s Greenwich Village, locally known as “The Village,” and her Bollywood Disco parties around Brooklyn and Manhattan.

DJ Rekha, who is based in Brooklyn, will be back in New York on July 7 and again in August on the 15th spinning at her Basement Bhangra party. She will follow up the party with a set at a free concert with dance lessons and live drumming at Battery Bridge Park in the Big Apple on the 17th.

When she isn’t on the road, DJ Rekha can be caught spinning the latest Bhangra beats every Sunday on her radio show “Bhangra and Beyond” at Breakthru Radio and producing music

Keeping it real

DJ Rekha attributes her success to her diverse musical palette while maintaining the “integrity of the sound” keeping the vocals, melodies, and traditional aspect of the music she spins intact while at the same time pumping it up with the modern beats. More often than not, South Asian DJs overly mash up and remix the music distorting and ruining the sound, she adds.

“I like to keep it as it’s been produced,” she says.

Additionally, DJ Rekha pays attention to the crowd, allowing the people on the floor guide her as she moves from one song to the next.

“I play music for the people,” says DJ Rekha, attributing the diversity of the audience she attracts to her early years as an activists throwing parties and spinning to raise money for causes.

That contributed to her decisions to keep making the music accessible to a broad range of audiences.

“I started DJing through activist circles, so those audiences are inherently diverse,” says DJ Rekha, about the choices she makes about the music she spins and the venues works with. “I think that part of the strategy of attracting diverse crowds at my party in New York.”

She’s also a “big crowd reader,” she adds. “I’m really in tune with the audience when I spin.”

Her true colors

Given her astounding career in a field where women are rarely seen in the DJ booth at her level, DJ Rekha shrugs off the thought of being a role model, calling the thought of it “very awkward.”

“I’ve just been doing what I like,” says DJ Rekha, pointing out that it’s been a combination of being in the right place at the right time, working with key people in the music industry and going with the flow taking one step at a time.

“Part of it is just being committed and loving [and] standing by the music that I present,” she says.

DJ Rekha only wishes she could see more women at all levels of the music industry.

She is bothered by the fact that “people are astounded that a woman can even be a DJ,” she says.

From her perspective, while there are more female DJs getting the party going and getting people out onto the dance floor more than ever before, women in music still have a long way to go.

“There are more women DJs than ever, which is fantastic!, [but] there are not that many women producers, there are not that many women sound techs,” she continues listing off the different areas in music that very few women have laid claim as their domain alongside men.

“There are still so few on the technology side of things,” continues DJ Rekha. “Even today, there are many situations where if you are a woman and you display any kind of competency in audio … [and] any kind of technical competency, you are met with surprise. That’s just ridiculous.”

In 2007, DJ Rekha released her debut album, “DJ Rekha presents Basement Bhangra.” Five years later she got behind the producers table launching her own label, Beat Bazaar Music, with the first song “Pyar Baile” with Dave Sharma and featuring Zuzuka Podersa and Meetu Chilana.

DJ Rehka describes the song released in 2012 as a blend of Bollywood and Bollyfunk.

“I want to produce,” she says. “I’m excited to put out on this label my own stuff and put out other artists that I know and work with and that I hope to cultivate.”

While DJ Rekha won’t take on the label of “role model,” she views producing music through her own label as part of leading by example for other women interested in pursuing music as a profession as well as providing a platform for herself and other artists.

“I want to keep doing what I do,” says DJ Rekha. “Starting a label is a good move for me.”

“As always, whether it’s producing music or DJing there is a thrill reaching a wider and wider audience,” she adds.

Get your Bhangra moves on with DJRekha.com or http://onesheet.com/djrekha/splash/#.

Originally published by GirlsThatRoam.com

The post South Asian mixtress DJ Rekha turns up the Bhangra in Oakland tonight first appeared on Lesbian.com.

BY CINDY ZELMAN

This past March, the winter was tough in New England with four feet of snow in a matter of weeks and with my anxiety revving up in my body like a race car ready to crash and burn. I have a history of panic problems, so regular life stressors can hit me hard physically and produce rampant anxiety in my body. During one March weekend, it took all the strength I could muster to get on an MBTA train to ride into Boston to see friends from around the country at a writing conference being held in town. This conference should have been a wonderful time-of-my-life experience, but truly, it was hard for me. I didn’t enjoy myself.

I was signed up for a writing retreat with the TMI organization for the following weekend to be held in the Catskill Mountains, a nearly four-hour drive from my home. How would I manage that when I could barely manage 30 minutes into Boston?

The TMI Project is a monologue and memoir writing and performance workshop. TMI is short for “Too Much Information,” and nothing could be more apt for someone like me who loves to tell stories about myself. I’ve been lucky enough to participate in their weekend retreats for women where for more than 48 hours we focus on telling the stories of our lives. And at the end of the workshops, we perform our pieces in front of an audience. Even those who swear they will never do the performance component of the workshop out of shyness or privacy end up wanting to perform. Performance is cathartic.

In workshop (via TmiProject.org)

Motivation plays a role in my anxiety, and I am always highly motivated to participate in TMI. So despite my anxiety about the winter, I leapt into my car that weekend and headed straight to the The Lifebridge Sanctuary in Rosendale, New York. I arrived at the same moment as workshop leaders Eva Tenuto and Sari Botton. I felt a little embarrassed that I was the first one there. You know, overeager, like for a date. Yet, as I stood in the driveway partway up a mountain, I was greeted warmly by Eva and Sari. This was my third workshop with them and with TMI, and as always, I immediately felt part of a family. Here, I knew, I would be free to be myself.

The workshops with TMI waste no time, and this workshop was no different. We had an opening gathering in which Eva and Sari spelled out the goals and the expectations. We had a great dinner, expertly prepared, with salmon and vegetables. We then headed upstairs to the glorious room with the panoramic view of the Catskills. We began to write and share our personal stories on a Friday night. For someone like me, that’s heaven.

Only my therapist knows the special moment I experienced at this workshop, but I will now tell the rest of you. During the Saturday afternoon writing session I looked at the faces of Eva and Sari amazed once more by their ability to listen and to help anyone shape a story into a monologue; and then I turned my head to see my workshop mates — eleven women of diverse ages, shapes, colors, ethnic backgrounds, family histories, sexual orientations, personal stories and sometimes traumas. Finally, I looked out the windows at the beautiful Catskill Mountains, not all that far off in the distance, holding us all safe within their splendor.

TMI participants.

I thought, Look at you, Cindy, that you have reached this point in your life as a person and as a writer, where you can sit here in this beautiful place with these women and tell a story about your life to perform in front of an audience. For an agoraphobic, panic-disordered, relatively solitary human being, this was quite a moment of peace and connection.

But the peace I felt was not just about me and how far I’d come in my life. It was also about the amazing experience of being part of TMI. Leaders set the tone and Sari and Eva have honed the atmosphere of safety, connection, creativity, humor, authenticity and fun, to an art.

At TMI, I get to be a writer, a lesbian, a woman who grew up in a dysfunctional family, and a woman who is angry that she is the caretaker of her elderly mother. I get to be humorous, sarcastic, sad or poignant. And I get to be part of a group of women, who in a very short time, come to bond and care for one another. That’s what an open and supportive storytelling workshop will do.

For the first time, TMI is coming to Provincetown for Women’s Week, culminating in a public performance at The Sage Inn. There are still spots available if you’re interested in the workshop being held from October 16th through 20th, and of course, we hope to gather a large audience for the show. To get a better idea of what the workshop is all about, explore the TMI Project website at http://tmiproject.org/TMI/. Included are some great videos of some of the performances. I hope to see you in PTOWN to say hello!

Cindy Zelman is a writer based in Boston, whose blog, “The Early Draft,” explores a variety of topics, including lesbianism, writing, agoraphobia, and humor.

The post ‘Too Much Information’ is coming to PTOWN first appeared on Lesbian.com.