Vancouver’s Queer Arts Festival announces 2023 lineup
It’s an otherworldly journey for the fest’s 16th year, with the theme of Queers in Space
bumfuzzled monachopsis: innerspace out.
VANCOUVER’S QUEER ARTS FESTIVAL (QAF) is back for its 16th year. Taking place from June 17 to 28, it promises an otherworldly journey with the theme of Queers in Space.
The fest’s multidisciplinary offerings centre around QAF’s signature curated visual-art exhibition. This year’s show is called bumfuzzled monachopsis: innerspace out and is curated by new-media interdisciplinary artist, Zandi Dandizette.
“Futurism and fantasy have served as sanctuaries for Queer folks across generations, providing an escape from mainstream, heteropatriarchal societies,” according to a release. “bumfuzzled monachopsis: innerspace out explores what happens when Queer and Trans artists come together to claim their Space, free to be their authentic selves.”
The show will be on display at the Exhibition Hall at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre throughout the festival. A curator tour happens June 24 at 2 pm. (For the first time since 2019, the Roundhouse will be QAF’s main hub.)
QAF 2023 kicks off on June 17 with ArtParty!, the gala opening reception, and the official unveiling of bumfuzzled monachopsis: innerspace out.
Cosmic Connections: Queer Indigenous Astronomy (A View From Above and Below), running June 17 to 28, is presented in partnership with Little Chamber Music. It features augmented-reality artist Preston Buffalo, who will be secretly bringing the Roundhouse to life with Indigiqueer pasts and futures, including a Cree story of how humanity originates from the Pleiades star cluster. Buffalo’s AR images are invisible and inaudible to the naked eye and ear, but are revealed when your phone scans a QR code.
Joshua Whitehead.
QAF and Talking Stick Festival (by Full Circle: First Nations Performance) team up on June 18 for a celebration of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer art and artists across three events. Love After the End: Joshua Whitehead & Friends at 3 pm is a literary happening. It’s based on Whitehead’s Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction is a ground-breaking collection showcasing emerging and established Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer writers, edited and compiled by acclaimed writer Whitehead, who will join with authors Nathan Adler, jaye simpson, and Nazbah Tom for an afternoon that demonstrates how Queer Indigenous communities can bloom and thrive through utopian narratives.
A Cinq-à-Sept Reception follows at 5 pm, with a book signing, DJ, and special reception courtesy Full Circle: First Nations Performance.
At 7 pm on June 18, there’s a performance by the Indigiqueer artists’ collective known as Virago Nation Burlesque.
QAF’s Pride in Art Community Exhibition runs from June 19 to July 8 at James Black Gallery. The fest’s flagship event features local 2SLGBTQIA+ artists, with the opening taking place on June 19 from 7 to 10 pm.
SUM gallery is presenting a solo exhibition by Odera Igbokwe, an illustrator and painter who celebrates the magic of the African Diaspora and QTBIPOC. Odera Igbokwe: New Yams Festival is a direct reflection, response, and Queer reclamation of The New Yam Festival of the Igbo people, the artist seeking to create a visual lineage between Queer Afrofuturism and ancestral rituals. New Yams Festival opens with a reception on June 22 and will be on display until July 28.
Sujit Vaidya: Breathe In The Fragrance, on June 23 at 7 pm, is a dance performance that combines traditional Indian dance elements with modern choreography and Queer eroticism set to live music by Curtis Andrews, Arno Kamolika, and Ramya Kapadia. It’s described as a “celebration of erotic ritual — of taste, of smell, of song, of dance, of sensations awakened by jasmine — to make space for the in-betweenness of things to exist”, according to QAF.
Witch Prophet.
Witch Prophet on June 25 at 5:30 pm is a free musical performance in partnership with Vancouver International Jazz Festival at šxʷƛ̓ənəq Xwtl'e7énḵ Square/Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza. Witch Prophet is the evolution of Queer Toronto based singer-songwriter Ayo Leilani. (“Think Erykah Badu meets Lauryn Hill meets Portishead.”)
Another musical performance takes place on June 27 at 7 pm: Hymnen an die Nacht: Claude Vivier Retrospective. Vivier was Canada’s “queerest and most cosmic” composer, who, at age 34 in 1983, was murdered by a rent boy in Paris. This retrospective commemorates the 40th anniversary of his death with performances by the Standing Wave Ensemble, soprano Sarah Jo Kirsch, and pianist Rachel Iwaasa, along with musical tributes by composers Rodney Sharman, Matthew John Knights, and Gabriella Yorke.
Glitter is Forever on June 28 at 7 pm is the fest’s out-of-this-world closing reception, complete with drag performances by the House of Rice and music by DJ Bella Sie.
“[This festival] is a call to explore and celebrate the space we occupy, each and every day; to honour our Queer elders on whose shoulders we stand; and to celebrate our future, Queer trajectories,” says Mark Takeshi McGregor, Queer Arts Festival artistic director, in a release.
For more information, see queerartsfestival.com.
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