Trikster Blog

Trikster’s editor has been somewhat absent from the blog over the last months due to work load on other fronts, but hope to pick up some speed with news and info about good stuff happening on the queer political, theoretical, activist and academic front.

In that vein, it is great to see that Oslo Queer still keeps up arranging a queerfest, and this year the festival is held between October 1-3 between Blitz and Humla. The program isn’t ready yet, but it will be probably be good this year as well. This is what they have written so far on their homepage:

“Oslo Queer Festival is a DIY (do-it-yourself) and non-profit event. It’s a non-sexists and non-racist festival which is focused on making a space for creativity and critial thought. Except for the party on Saturday, the entire festival is free!”

Read more on their homepage.

This summer between July 20-26 the 4th Copenhagen Queer Festival will take place at Gøglerskolen at Kigkurren. The organizers have just presented this years theme: “Fuck money: Commercialization – Mainstreaming – Anticapitalism”. This is what they write on the festival’s homepage about what to expect of this year’s festival:

“Copenhagen is this year hosting the World Outgames and the games are beginning the weekend that the Queerfestival is ending, on the 25th of July. The Outgames has gotten a lot of focus and media attention in Denmark, and Copenhagen has been busy labelling itself as “gay-friendly/pink-city”. We see this only as a capitalistic attempt to make money on the expected 5-10.000 participants, but at the same time the World Outgames is charging 2200 dkr (290 euros) just to participate in a conference. So we decided that its time for an anti-capitalistic queer perspective!

Copenhagen Queermanifestival

With the Copenhagen queer festival we wish to create a queer space. But what is queer? How do we define it, use it, make it part of our lives? How do you define “queer” in relation to “non-queer”? these are just some of the questions we want to work on understanding during the festival. We wish to create a forum where people from all over the world can exchange impressions, viewpoints and ideas. Where we can play, learn, teach, move our boundaries and go places we didn’t know existed.

The festival is strictly D.I.Y. meaning that YOU as a participant must take an active part in making the festival successful. A few things have been planned in advance by the organizing group, but otherwise it is up to the participants to decide in unity how they want the festival to proceed. It is expected that everyone help out as much as they can to ensure that the festival will be a fun and enlightening experience for all.

Non-profit is another keyword for the festival. We wish to create a space which is not based on money, as we find this is the case in society today. The festival is open to all, whether or not they have money.

To create a place that is free for all it is important that we all try radically confront some, if not all (?) of the structures exiting in society today. We need to help each other to break free from structures and norms imposed on us by the capitalist, heteronormative, racist society. At the festival we need to respect each other, listen and think before we act and keep in mind that calling the festival “free” and “queer” doesn’t automatically make it so. We expect everyone to analyze their own actions and what effect they have on other people.

And even though the list is long, we still won’t tolerate racism, sexism, heterosexism, homo/bi/queer/hetero/trans –phobia, in other words: No discrimination based on sexuality, age, gender, ethnicity, class and so on. There will be room for those who make room for others.

Despite our political agenda we must not forget that the festival is also about having fun and meeting new exiting people of all genders and sexualities

We hope to see you in late july for a great week of discussions, workshops, parties and politics!”

From May 7-10, our friends from Openhagen.net organize the festival Undoing the City in Copenhagen. It will be three days with “workshops, debates, film-screenings, city walks, canal tours, parades, actions and alike will question our use of the city”. They invite all of us who “use the city space and who have a wish to make the city a common space to participate in Undoing the City”. It will be great!

Here is some more background:
“Cities today are scene for a long series of conflicts between different society groups. It’s a battle going on between those who are forced out into ghettolike districts, those who retreat to gated communities in the suburbs, the creative class in the redeveloped city centres, and the police who increasingly are forced to ensure these separations. The city and its space are more and more becoming battle zones – battle zones which call for a re-conquest of the city space against fences, profit and discrimination. It is a battle to be fought with theoretical inputs, political statements and with the entire spectrum of social, cultural and artistic forms of anti-power. We want to challenge both the capitals, the states, the city governments and the creative class’s ideas of the city. And we want to challenge our own idea of the city. Let’s undo the city.”

Read more about the thoughts, discussions (and soon also the program) for Undoing the City on Openhagen.net or on Undoing the city’s Wikispace.

The summer is approaching, and the planning of this years’ queer festivals is moving ahead. Here are some dates and places in Europe:

5-10 May: Queer Zagreb, Croatia (Facebook)

12-25 May: Queer Up North - International Festival, Manchester, UK

21-25 May: Queer Insurrection, Leeds, UK

4-7 June: entzaubert - a radical queer DIY film festival in Berlin, Germany

5-7 June: Off_Pride - The Alternative Queer Festival in Zurich, Switzerland

6-12 July: Jafnaðr - Nordic Queer Youth Festival, Malungen, Norway

20-26 July: Copenhagen Queer Festival, Denmark

11-15 August: Aalborg Queer Festival, Denmark

20-23 August: Oslo Queer Festival, Norway (myspace)

14-20 September: The Nights and Days of Tribads, Helsinki, Finland

If you have more information about places and dates, leave a comment.

Monday September 8th is the first day of the annual Nights and Days of Tribades week in Helsinki. This is the 9th time they arrange this “Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Culture Festival”, with films, performances, discussions, concerts and parties.

The program for the festival is now online, and they promise that it will be a week of cultural events “ranging from extravagant occasions to more prosaic discussions, presented critically, experimentally, monumentally, digitally or manually – and always passionately.”

This includes events such as the Tram-O-Rama! party on a tram, a comics seminar, a meeting for ILGCN - The International Lesbian & Gay Cultural Network, a screening of a documentary on the Swedish journalist Barbro ”Bang” Alving, a book swapping arranged by The Invisible Library, and a closing party with performances at the L-Word Club.

Oslo Queer Festival starts tomorrow, and keep going until Sunday. The festival recently released their program, including workshops, concerts, performances, and art shows, with guests from Europe and the US.

The festival opens tomorrow at 19.00 with the performance New Fashion Rock! by Anne Synnøve Skogstad and Guro Trøseid Gjerstadberget. This also functions as the opening of the festival’s art exhibition, including works by Asta Salvine Gulliksen, Ane Marte Dyvi, Birger Åseson Storås, Rima Qvale, Marit Grøntveit and Robert Robberstad. Later on in the evening tomorrow, the Italian zine Clit Rocket will launch their new issue with a party including among others a concert by The Vibrarians (US).

The is situated at Indigo, Brenneriveien 9, though the parties in the evenings will be held at The Villa. Tickets for the festival can be bought online or at Tiger record store, as well as at Indigo. See you there!

We are happy to invite everyone to a pre-release preview party for Trikster #2 on Saturday July 26 at 19.00 at Copenhagen Queer Festival.

The second issue of Trikster will be online in the middle of August, but this Saturday, I will give a short “guided tour” of Trikster #2, presenting and discussing different texts and art projects from the upcoming issue.

Trikster #2 circles arounds the theme Querying Space, with contributions that investigates sexual, architectural, artistic, separatist and academic space(s). The issue also includes reviews, cartoons and other pieces.

Come and have a drink with Trikster at Copenhagen Queer Festival, and get a glimps of our new issue. We are looking forward to see you!

Tomorrow, Monday July 21, is the first day of this year’s Copenhagen Queer Festival at Kigkurren 1-3 on Islands Brygge. It will be a week full of workshops, discussions, parties, concerts and performances in the cozy and intimate Gøglerskolen, where the festival takes place. The festival is stricktly a DIT (Do-It-Together) event, so come and join in on creating a great festival!

During the week there will possibilities to attend workshops on non-heterosexuality and racism, on feminist drag, on creative writing, on making-your-own-dildo, on “antilookism”, on drugs on the left wing autunomous scene, on DJ- and VJ’ing, on queer pornography, and several other topics. On Saturday July 26 there will also be a unique chance to see a preview on Trikster #2, due to release in mid August (more on that later)! See the preliminary program for the festival here.

On Tuesday there will be a big Welcome Party starting at 22.00 with concerts by the electro hip hop punk rock feminity glam zap SCREAM CLUB (US) and the queer performance singer NICKY CLICK (US)! (CC: 20 kr.) Later in the week, there will be concerts and performances by Nuclear Family (DK), PUMP! Body Politics Licked Out My Dancing Shoes (DE), Noah Grain (DE), Stella Sounds, Howdie Ho, LAGO, and others…

On Saturday June 21 at 21.00 there will be a sleazy support party for Copenhagen Queer Festival at Folkets Hus at Nørrebro in Copenhagen.

Copenhagen Queer Festival takes place between July 21-27 at AFUK, Kigkurren on Islands Brygge in Copenhagen. The support party will give a taste of what to expect later on this summer. The party will fill three floors in Folkets Hus, and among other things contain dirty DJ’s and VJ’s, cocktail-lounge, dress-up/dress-down corner, chill-out & enjoy-eachother-lounge and the exclusive chance of supporting the local queer festival and having a great time, all at once! (Cover charge: 40 DKK)

The day before the support party, on Friday June 20 at 19.00, Enhedslistens Queerudvalg will thrown another queer cafe event, Cafe Under Dekonstruktion, at Folkets Hus. Here the organizers of the Copenhagen Queerfestival will give a presentation of the festival, and everybody is invited to decorate the place for the support party. If you have loads of fantastic fabrics and materials at home, bring it!

Nå er programmet klart til Queerlitteraturdagen som arrangeres 31. mai i Göteborg. Queerlitteraturdagen har i år temaet “Kropp og språk”, og festivalens kunstneriske ledere er Athena Farrokhzad og Linn Hansén. Queerlitteraturdagen holdes på Pusterviksteatern i sentrum av Göteborg, og er en del av HBT-GBG-festivalen. Det er gratis inngang. Slik ser programmet for dagen ut:

12:00 Panelsamtal: Queer och censur.

Deltagare: Reb Kerstinsdotter (genusvetare, chef för PrideHouse), Mathias Danbolt (konstvetare, redaktör för Trikster) och Hanna Hallgren (kritiker och poet). Moderator: Marit Östberg (journalist, fd. redaktör för Kom ut).

Hur förhåller sig queerrörelsen till ämnet censur? Varför pratar man så sällan om det, trots att det är en så central fråga? Vad finns det för olika traditioner i bögvärlden och flatvärlden? Hur kan man tänka kring frihet, utrymme, tabu, performativitet, historia, maktkritik? Utgångspunkt bland annat i Bo Cavefors inställda medverkan under Queerlitteraturdagen 2007, inklusions- och exklusionsmekanismer i det queeraktivistiska klimatet, och en återkommande diskussion om PPP (porr/prostitution/pedofili).

13:00 Författarsamtal: Dennis Cooper
Samtalsledare: Kristofer Folkhammar

Hur förhåller Dennis Cooper sig till form och innehåll utifrån ett queert perspektiv? Hur tänker han kring om narrativitet när han i sina texter balanserar på gränsen mellan fantasi och verklighet, i starka och explicita skildringar av våld, sex och övergrepp? Hur förhåller det sig med litteraturens pornografiska funktion? Vad krävs för att någon/något ska fungera som musa? Finns det ett egenvärde i att befinna sig i periferin (både litterärt och generellt) eller är det den enda möjliga positionen? (Se Coopers hjemmeside/blogg)

14:00 Föreläsning: Tiina Rosenberg talar om Zarah Leander

Tiina Rosenberg föreläser om den queera divan Zarah Leander. Varför blir vissa kvinnor gayikoner och inte andra? Tankar om genus, sexualitet, nation och politisk skam utifrån fallet Zarah Leander.

15:00 Seminarium: Queer och rasism

Deltagare: Pia Laskar (idéhistoriker, aktivist), Monica Amante (Feministiskt initiativ) och Carlos Diaz (RFSL). Moderator: Lawen Mohtadi (journalist, redaktör för Slut).

Är queerrörelsen rasistisk och/eller färgblind? Hur förhåller den sig till vithet, global fördelningspolitik, asylfrågor etcetera? Vilka subjekt har tillträde till queera identiteter? Hur ser konflikten/ skärningspunken/samarbetet ut mellan queerpolitik och antirasistik politik i Sverige och världen, idag och utifrån ett historiskt perspektiv. Hur skulle det kunna se ut? Utgångspunkt bland annat i debatterna i FI, utvecklingen från förtryckssamverkan till intersektionalitet, queerteoretiska skrifter och praktisk politisk kamp.

16:00 Författarsamtal: Staceyann Chin
Samtalsledare: Ulrika Dahl (och eventuellt Sofia Pulls)

Hur tänker Staceyann Chin om spoken word-formens politiska potential? Och om politiska litterära strategier i stort? Vilka sammanhang väljer hon att medverka i, och hur tänker hon kring dem? Och vad säger hon om this business of dykery?

Under hela dagsprogrammet huserar dessutom queera förlag och bokhandlar på ovanvåningen, tillsammans med en workshop kring kropp och språk som leds av Helena Sandström (deltagare: Rekon Dekon, Eddie Mio Larsson, Elsa Leth och Tova Gerge).

Kvällsprogram på Stora Scen fra kl. 19-22:

Kvällsprogrammet består av queera, kollektiva, poetiska, specialskrivna framträdanden med:

Dennis Cooper & Eli Levén, Hanna Hallgren & Johan Jönson, Staceyann Chin, Kristin Berget, Malin Backström & Sara Hallström, Jonas Brun & Kristofer Folkhammar, Kajsa Sundin, Tova Gerge & Christian Yde Frostholm, Eva Borgström, Tarmo Rissanen & Aylin Boynukisa. Dessutom workshopgruppen med ett under dagen skapat material.