Oakland, CA August 20-22, 2010
brought to you by the Femme Collective
Welcome to
Femme2010: No Restrictions!
On behalf of our Steering Committee and the entire Femme Collective, we are so excited to share space with all
you fierce, amazing, fantastic Femmes and allies! We hope this will be a conference where we break through restrictions – both those put on us and those we put on ourselves – so we can begin to look at how we can re/build
our community and lives in more empowering and connected ways. We have put our best selves into creating this
space, and – although we know it won’t be perfect – we hope that you experience it as the community-building and
Femme-affirming space we have intended to make.
Our Steering Committee is made up of Femmes working to build intentional space for and with each other, both
in commonality and across our differences. We are of different races, classes, ethnicities, sexualities, sizes, and
backgrounds. We’re from different regions in the U.S., live and work in different communities, and understand our
genders and identities in different ways. We’re Femmes of Color, Feminist Femmes, High Femmes, Black Femmes,
Tomboy Femmes, Diesel Femmes, Latina/Chicana Femmes, Femme Artists, Stone Femmes, Asian Femmes, Lesbian Femmes, Femme Parents, Academic Femmes, Working Class Femmes, Femme Tops, Bottoms, Switches and
more. We’re Queer Femmes who want to create a space to talk about, learn about, think about, and explore Queer
Femme as identity, gender, construction, experience, and way of being both intentionally in our personal lives and
explicitly in our work/activist lives.
We’ve worked hard to lay the groundwork for what we hope will be an exciting, challenging, and amazing conference. Our organizing structure is interconnected and mutually accountable, and we have a democratic-consensus
process for making our decisions. We have worked with intention to create a space that is inclusive and welcoming.
We understand that the term “Queer Femme” includes many different identities, genders, bodies, sexualities, etc.
We explicitly include bi folks, trans folks, and genderqueer folks who identify as Femme in “Queer Femme”.
While you do not have to identify as “Queer Femme” to participate, present, or attend, we do ask that folks who
identify as straight honor the fact that we’re invested in creating a space that’s explicitly Queer/LGBT/SGL
focused.
2 • Femme2010
FEMME COLLECTIVE MISSION STATEMENT
create a safe place for open dialogue among a plethora of
Femme-identified persons and their allies.
The 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.
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.
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
*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.
INDEX
Femme Collective Steering & Committee Bios .....p 4–7
Check our
Workshop
Descriptions
page for an
in-depth look
at the diverse
ways our
communities
approach
talking about
Femme. In addition to workshops and presentations,
our Accessibility and Awareness Committee has created
a whole series of caucuses during lunch on Saturday.
We encourage you to look those over and join in on the
conversations. Our Performance Chairs have created
two mind-blowing shows including talent from all over
the United States, Canada, and even across the Atlantic!
You can learn about these amazing folks on the Performance pages. And our Keynote Speakers are inspiring
and exciting Femmes who we are thrilled to be showcase
at Femme2010.
Welcome! We can’t wait to be a part of the conversation
with you, learn from you, and build community with
you.
Jessica Eve Humphrey
& Christine De La Rosa,
Conference Co-Chairs
Logistics
Accessibility & Awareness ...........................p 8–9
Childcare ..............................................................p 11
Maps ........................................................................p 24, 25
Art Show ..............................................................................p 12–13
Workshops
Friday .....................................................................p 14–16
Saturday ...............................................................p 20–23
Sunday ....................................................................p 32–34
Performance
Friday .....................................................................p 17–19
Saturday ...............................................................p 26–27
Keynote Speakers
Kate Bornstien ..................................................p 22
Moki MacÍas ........................................................p 33
Film Festival .......................................................................p 28–31
Presenter & Performer Bios .......................................p36–45
Program design/layout by: Hadassah “D’Luxe” Hill
heelsonwheelsdesign.com
Program editing by: Cherry Poppins
No Restrictions • 3
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
Art&Film
Bios
STEERING COLLECTIVE 2010
Conference Co-Chair: Jessica Eve Humphrey
is a peripatetic Femme who
currently lives
in Chicago on
weekends, and
travels around
the country
on assignment
for the Labor
Movement during the week.
When she has
Photo by Kina Williams
the opportunity,
Jessica is a radical homebody who likes to knit
things, read things, cook things, and recharge
her batteries with radical queer community.
Fat, femme and fond of frosting, she thinks
alliteration is sexy and slant rhyme is fantastic.
Truly geeky, Jessica believes in working hard to
make all our lives better, political activism that’s
rooted in both ideals and pragmatism, multiissue/multi-identity feminism, and the bliss of
perfectly-baked baked goods.
Conference Co-Chair: Christine De La Rosa
is a transplanted Tejana
living the Bay Area who
has been creating spaces
for the LGBT community
for over twelve years both
online and in real life.
One of the founding
members of the Femme
Collective, co-founder of
Movement Productions
which produces BLISS –
An Oasis for Women of
Color in the Desert, WETbar, Good Times, among
other events, co-host of Real Talk with Kiki and
Miz Chris on KPFA radio, founder of MizChris.
com and the Yay! Area Events Newsletter and
owner of Butch-Femme.com, Christine is committed to creating intentional space for Women
of Color within a larger lesbian community
context. Her passion is bringing together diverse
groups of women to mix, mingle, talk, argue,
engage, converse and generally bring about
change through conferences, events, gatherings and salons where ideas are sparked and
exchanged. She believes that through this
dialogue, we can create change, together. You
can also reach Christine at http://www.mizchris.
com/.
4 • Femme2010
Performance Co-Chair: Currently celebrating
30 years as a tap dancer, Krista Smith aka
Kentucky
Fried Woman
(KFW) has
been performing
in and producing queer cabaret shows since
2000. She was a
member of the
Disposable Boy
Toys in Santa
Photo by Amelia Mae Paradise
Barbara, CA and
founded the Queen Bees in Seattle, WA in 2002.
Since residing in Oakland she has founded three
performance groups, ButchBallet, ButchTap &
Titland and has also performed and produced
as a solo artist and with other Bay Area queer
performance artists, including playing the part
of Hermoine Granger in Hogwarts Express: The
Musical. Since living in the San Francisco Bay
Area she has produced many shows including
the 2006 Femme Conference Saturday Evening
Cabaret, the Wham! Tribute Show, Rally the
Troupes IV and VI, Flabulous! & Flabulous Too:
Fatter than Ever, and the once monthly Kentucky
Fried Woman show. KFW also facilitates
workshops around the US and Canada on the
intersections of bodies and identities. She is one
of the femmes featured in the book: Femmes of
Power where her essay discusses the intersections of her fat, femme and queer identities.
She has been on the steering committee of the
FemmeCollective since 2005 and is thrilled to be
on board for Femme2010: No Restrictions.
Performance Co-Chair: The Lady Ms. Vagina
Jenkins is more than “Atlanta’s Best Burlesque
Dancer” as named by Creative Loafing magazine,
she’s more than one of Go! Magazine’s “Top 100
Lesbians”, she’s more than SOVO’s magazine’s
most creative “up and coming activist.” The Lady
Ms. Vagina Jenkins is also a noted philanthropist. As the CEO and Founder of the “No Butch
Left Behind”
program she’s
been housing
(and bedding)
impressionable
young fellagirlies since
2003. Give until
it hurts, that’s
Vagina Jenkins’
motto. If you’d
like to learn
more about her efforts in your town, check
www.VaginaJenkins.com for more details!
Programming Chair: Dr. Kathe Young
is a queer
Femme feminist
and one of
the founding members
of the Femme
Collective. She
is a Clinical
Psychologist
and owner
of Affirming
Alternatives
Psychological Services, a practice that specializes
in treating trauma and Chicago’s queer community. She can be found blogging about all things
trauma related at Treating Trauma in Chicago.
Her professional interests include trauma, EMDR
and mindfulness. She is recently intrigued by
the application of social media to mental health
treatment and education. Her personal interests
include processing things endlessly, hiking,
feminism, vegetarian cooking and pugs.
Registration Chair: Marisa A. Klages
is a fat queer femme from NYC. She earned
her PhD in 2007 from West Virginia Univeristy
and specialized in medieval mysticism. Marisa
teaches writing and literature at LaGuardia
Community College in NYC. An avid cyclist, you
can find her blog at Fat Grrl Rides.
Logistics Chair: Jodi Bon Jodi (aka Joe D.
Vice / Jodi Kansagor) was a member of DK
PDX, Portland
OR’s fagtastic
drag troupe
until early 2006
when the troupe
disbanded. Since
then she has focused on other
projects, including receiving
her MBA from
Portland State
University, co-founding Pants Off Productions,
a radical queer event production company,
and also co-founding The Untrained, I Dance
Company. JBJ spends most of her time figuring
out how to survive in the world without a full
time job while also providing fun activities for
her community. Jodi Bon Jodi loves expensive
cosmetics, cheap beer and condescension.
Allison Stelly) is a queer femme artist, per-
Film Chair: Sarah Deragon is a San Francisco
based glitter
femme originally
from Denver,
Colorado. Sarah
has a BA in
Literature and
an MA in Social
and Cultural
Anthropology and
currently works
for Frameline,
the San Francisco
Photo by Sophie Spinelle, Shameless
International LGBT
Film Festival. Sarah was the co-chair of queer
women’s programming at the San Francisco
LGBT Community Center for two years and
won Volunteer of the Year for the city of San
Francisco in 2008. One of her main focuses is
taking the time to create space(s) for exploration around racism and white privilege to
launch new anti-racist activism/practices. She
occasionally works as a self-defense teacher
and maintains a store on Etsy.com, where she
sells her fabulous hair accessories. She loves
to bake her infamous chocolate mayonnaise
cupcakes, play with her pit bull mix, Pork Chop,
and do yoga in the early morning hours.
Transition Chair: Katie Spencer is a queer,
feminist, fat,
femme in her
second go-round
working with the
femme collective. She has
lived and loved
in every midwestern state
and loves a cold
glass of pop and
a good hot dish. Strongly invested in building
femme community, she values femme friendship
and processing feelings as well as long discussions about dismantling the white supremicist
heteropatriarchy. She works as a sex and gender
therapist by day and a strong proponent of glitter and great mascara by night. Her work as the
transition coordinator for this year’s conference
is focused on establishing the longevity of the
conference itself and reaching out to the vast
queer femme community to keep the femme
collective going strong and continuing its fierce
and fabulous traditions.
Bios
a superqueer
bearded-lady hard
femme, living
in Minneapolis,
Minnesota for
2 years and 2
months longer
than she ever expected. For money,
Jessica makes
mochas and takes
minutes. For love,
Jessica dances, brunches, recruits volunqueers,
tries to make change in systems and spaces with
and for trans and queer young folks, and works
on her collective process skills as a anti-Zionist
Jew Quaker sex fiend.
things). founder,
performer,
activist, inciter,
creator, mediator, dreamer and
soup maker, she
has extensive
experience in
performance
activism, public
education and
community
organizing. her paid and unpaid work has focused largely on queer liberation, gender-based
violence, reproductive justice, and the sex trade.
Currently, jennifer spends her time reveling in
her return to Chicago, the city that holds her
heart: plotting future projects, educating kids
about food sovereignty through organic gardening, and generally running amok. her likes
include dismantling privilege & oppression, the
lost truths of both/and, and locating the community and power in the space in-between. she
also enjoys soft and stinky cheese, whiskey and
dancing, although not necessarily all together
or in that order.
Art&Film
Volunteer Co-Chair: Jessica Rosenberg is
valles is sassy, classy and femme (among other
fat femme living
in Minneapolis,
but with her
roots firmly
planted in the
Garden State
where she was
born and raised.
She is a fifth
year Ph.D. candidate in gender
studies focusing on feminist and queer theories and their
intersections with new media, performance, and
fat studies. When she’s not working on her dissertation research on the neo-burlesque movement, Jessica keeps busy as the editor of the
forthcoming first fat, queer anthology, Spilling
Over. In her spare time, she enjoys thinking of
ways to merge her academic dreams with her
activist heart, teaching butches how to slow
dance, and attending cake decorating classes
with Midwestern soccer moms.
Events
a Brooklyn-based
queer femme,
liberationist
artist, writer, creative, and activist
who performs
as Axon D’Luxe.
Her work focuses
on celebrating extremes
of femininity;
Photo by Kristyn O’Reilley
feminist / queer
archiving and storytelling, and on building and
skillsharing a new framework to both analyze
and enjoy life from. D’Luxe is co-founder of
New York’s Femme Family [femmefamily.com],
a queer femme cultural community; she’s the
co-creative director of the all-femme Hart
Collective [hartcollective.com]; and she Art
Directed the award-winning $pread Magazine
[spreadmagazine.org] for three years. A repatriated expat by way of Toronto, DIY tech geek and
communications designer [heelsonwheelsdesign.
com], and working-class gone hustling-class
high femme fatale, Damien loves rhinestones
and anything dramatic on wheels. Download
tracks, read stories and her how-to blog: www.
axondluxe.com .
Accessibility & Awareness Chair: jennifer
Fundraising Chair: Jessica Giusti is a queer,
Performance
Media Co-Chair: Damien Hadassah Luxe is
fat, femme feminist who works for reproductive rights in the non-profit industrial complex
by day and inhabits the queer underbelly of
Minneapolis by night.
Workshops
former, writer,
and organizer. She
just moved to the
Bay Area from
Austin, TX, where
she spent 7 years
Making Things
Happen: producing a drag troupe,
co-founding a
radical queerPhoto credit: Beau Toxic
leading squad,
launching the Austin chapter of the Femme
Mafia, building community, making zines, and
organizing events (no doubt she’ll stay busy in
the Bay, as well!). She crafts like it’s going out
of style, journals obsessively, and leaves a trail
of glitter in her wake.
Volunteer Co-Chair: Becky Smith is a queer,
Logistics
Media Co-Chair: Cherry Poppins (aka
No Restrictions • 5
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
COMMITTEE MEMBERS 2010
Executive Committee: Mz. Amy Adams is a
community activist and lover of women, trying
to enhance the
lives of women
and family with
love & positivity.
With the mission of creating
harmonious
communities
for women by
women, she also
finds love rockin
the mic. She
spits poems with ferocious diva attitude.
Performing around the Bay Area and beyond
for the past 7 years. SheSpeaks, Eclectic, Love
Jones, Coochielicious, LIP, Butta, 2007 APIWTC
20th annual Lunar Banquet, Dorsey’s Locker,
FRESH, Winner of 2008 Talent Show , 2009
SF Pride Women’s Stage, and has acted in the
Fourth Annual DykeDrama Festival, Dangerous
Curves: “The Femme Show” , and several other
plays with the Lunasea Theater. Mz. Amy was
also the organizer for the 2004 Oakland Poetry
Slam, and for the 2006 Shespeaks fundraiser
for Sistahs Steppin In Pride. 2008 organizer
for the MO’ Butta Weekend, 2008 Volunteer
Coordinator for the Soul of Pride Stage @SF
Pride, 2008 Coordinator for the Butch-Femme
Bash, 2009 Volunteer Coordinator for the SF Pride
Women’s Stage.
Performance: amanda harris (aka Lola
Dean) is an
activist-artistqueer-southernpoly-feministfrequently in one
helluva pair of
cowboy bootsfemme. she recently relocated
to the bay (via
brooklyn) but is
always longing for her southern soil. amanda co-organizes
community events, skillshares, and performance
nights at her high femme fabulous house - the
glitterhaus - with her wing-femme in crime, rachel schiff. an avid supporter of harm reduction
and rural queer organizing, amanda believes
in carrying our roots and telling our stories
wherever we go.
Performance:
Celeste Chan
aka Chan
Dynasty is
Photo: Amie LeeKing,
www.handpickedlovlies.com
6 • Femme2010
a queer API
multimedia artist, performer,
activist, and arts
organizer. She is
inspired by drag
queens, Chinese
opera, radical
queer people
of color cabaret/burlesque, and new media.
She has performed and screened her work at
National Queer Arts Festival, Mangos with
Chili shows, Queer Women of Color Film Fest,
TrannyFest, SF in Exile, and other art venues.
She’s also organized with Shifting Narratives
film collective (2008-present), Homoagogo
(2002), and she’s a proud Board Member of
Community United Against Violence (cuav.org).
Performance: Ms. Cherry Galette Born
into a family of
migrant music
makers, Ms.
Cherry Galette
is a Moroccan
and Chicana
interdisciplinary
movement artist
fusing dance,
burlesque, text,
theater and
more to create
post-colonial fairy tales of modern resistance
that celebrate queer desires, histories, survivals,
migrations, and revolutions. Cherry has captivated, delighted, roused and stunned audiences
as a solo artist in renowned, alternative, and
underground theaters, festivals, cabarets, clubs,
and varied stages across North America. She
has danced and performed with some of the
Bay Area’s most noted world dance ensembles
including MaraReggae, The Hot Pink Feathers,
and the legendary Shabnam. Cherry’s performance evokes elements of the cosmopolitan
cabarets of the golden age of Middle Eastern
dance, the legacy of movement passed down in
women’s kitchens and salons, and the energy,
joy, and enthusiasm of collective street dance.
She has earned recognition for expanding the
genre of burlesque to explore narratives of race,
power, empire, and queer bodies in diaspora,
and is known for presenting genre pushing work
based in sultry, sacred, and profane fusions of
traditional dance forms with story, burlesque
and ultra-gay cabaret. Over the past 5 years,
Cherry has produced and curated more than 60
productions for audiences across North America
as both solo producer, and as Co-Director of
Mangos With Chili.
Performance: Pidgeon Von Tramp With
the goal of making you laugh infused into every
piece she creates, Pidgeon
brings humor
into everyday
events brought
to the stage. Of
course she may
also try to sneak
in a little taboo
and a smidge of
thought provoking politics.
Pidge currently produces quarterly shows with
Pidgeon Coop Productions in Seattle.
Art&Film
Bios
Programming: Sophie Spinelle is a high
femme photographer and poet
living and working in Brooklyn,
New York. She
is founder of
Shameless
Photography
(www.shamelessphoto.com),
a feminist pinup
photography
business that works to turn beauty standards
upside down and reclaim stilettos, rhinestones,
and crinolines for people of all colors, sizes,
shapes, and abilities. She is an organizer for
Femme Family NYC and an incorrigible troublemaker with Femme Menace Action Club. She is
also a tree hugger, cake batter eater, linguistic
anthropologist, shower opera singer, scrabble
fiend, and really good friend.
Programming: Aja Jones Aguirre is a born
and raised San
Francisco femme,
feminist, wife
and mother.
When she’s not
working as Senior
Editor for Drink
Me Magazine or
volunteering for
IMPACT Bay Area
Self-Defense, Aja
gives the world
a cheeky peek into one lesbian’s closet at her
style blog, Fit For A Femme, nominated for the
prestigious Lezzy Award for two years running.
She’s also deejayed at lesbian and queer parties
like Catfight, Hot Pants and Shadowplay, including the popular Shadowplay stage at SF Pride.
Some of her proudest moments include fighting
violence against women with the Purple Berets,
surviving natural childbirth with a healthy
8-lb. baby girl, a one-time appearance in Curve
Magazine, an established non-fear of public
speaking, and being legally wed to her dapper
wife, Miriam. This is her first year as a member
of the Femme Collective, and she hopes to be so
inspired that the awkward standoff with her unfinished novel can at last come to an end(ing).
Programming: Christina is a fabulous, fierce
femme and feminist extraordinaire with a serious heart on for political action and community
organization and an unmitigated desire for
beautiful shoes. She currently lives in Oakland,
California by way of Sacramento, CA; Pittsburgh,
PA and Chicago, IL. In her downtime, Christina
enjoys time with her amazing family, human
and canine alike, and dancing like no one... and
everyone... is watching.
Events
Art&Film
Accessibility & Awareness: Kaytee Duskin is
a queer femme living in Denver, CO, who grew
up in Philly and spent some time in Grrrlington,
VT. After co-facilitating the femme caucus at
the University of Vermont’s Translating Identity
Conference for the last two years, she hopes
she’s ready for the big leagues of femme
conferencing. Right now she’s working at an
environmental education non-profit, crocheting
fancy beer cozies, and listening to a lot of Kate
Bush. Kaytee enjoys craftivism, farmers markets,
books about labor unions, creme brulee, and
playing the banjo.
Bios
Media: Haley Koch is a queer femme-inist
performance artist and trouble maker whose
current work could be described as a sparkly
pastiche of anarchist politics, queer theory,
stilettos, poetry, and queer archives. She believes in the power of femme magic and rage to
destroy, create, and get shit done. If you want
to exchange rants, lipstick smudges, or sordid
plots, holler at her: haleykoch(at)gmail(dot)com. Performance
Registration: Erin McDowell is a box office
and special events manager who loves checking in hot girls ;) She is a life-long competitive
track runner planning on competing in the Gay
Games VIII in Cologne, Germany and reclaiming
her title as ‘the world’s fastest lesbian.’ She is
also a new bird on the Sac City Roller girls derby
team and is working on her Master’s at SFSU in
Recreation. This fierce femme is looking forward
to working with all of you!
Media: Meredith Fenton is a long-time
Bay Area activist, performer and fairy princess.
By day, she is the Director of Communication
Strategy at the Ella Baker Center for Human
Rights, where she leverages media, communications and Web 2.0 for economic and racial
justice social change. She performs drag and
burlesque under the names Starr 69 and Corky
St. Flair and has been a part of such beloved
groups as Hogwarts Express: the Musical,
Titland, The Transformers, Burlesque-Esque,
and Sparkle Motion. Meredith worked as the
National Program Director of COLAGE for over
7 years, has years of experience organizing with
radical Jews, and has appeared in media outlets
from the New York Times to the Advocate. She is
an avid reader, an aspiring urban gardener, and
a lover of musicals, cheese, glitter and Muppets.
Logistics: Aster Wolfe is a genderqueer
mythical creature
who could be
found until
recently in the
home terrain of
Portland, OR.
Here you might
have run across
him laying down
some smut for
the Dirty Queer
open mic at
In Other Words. Or helping reinvent queer
performance by strutting all matter of sexy
and thought-provoking stuff on the Pants Off
Productions stage, both solo as Billy Coyote and
with Beefcake Burlesque. Aster has called queer,
femme, trans, genderf***ing, worker’s-rightsrabble-rousing community home for a long time
and is committed to the work of co-creating
safe space and challenging ourselves and the
world through performance, the written word
and co-conspiring. Recently transplanted to
Oakland, CA, Aster is nesting and making magic
and is open to newly local conspirators and
friends.
Workshops
Programming: Taueret Manu is a fatshion
shopgrrl, activist,
and artist. Her
femme roots are
in the elevated
subway tracks,
man-made jungle zoos, queer
topless beaches,
and gentrified
piers of New
York City. Her
hands and heart
Photo by Sophie Spinelle, Shameless
are always full of
sequins, trouble, and ferocity (tools, all of them).
She loves the divine, pitbulls, friction, hibiscus
juice, sexual currency, poetry, rioting, and her
femmesisterfriends. She dislikes White Santa/
White Jesus/White Male God, the prison industrial complex, and the NYPD. She is also the
co-editor of the radical fat style zine Glutton for
Fatshion, an organizer with the Femme Family
NYC, and a proud Femme Shark. Photo credit:
Sophie Spinelle, Shameless Photograph
Media: Bevin Branlandingham is the Host
and Producer
of FemmeCast:
The Queer Fat
Femme Podcast
Guide to Life.
She is a flamboyant femmecee, queer high
femme, writer,
drag king, burlesque and comedy performer.
Photo by Sophie Spinelle, Shameless
She is Co-Head
Madam of the Femme Family, the New York
Chapter of the Femme Mafia, and on the steering committee for the Fat and Queer conference.
In 2008 Bevin received a Commendation from
the Mayor of Jersey City for her work with the
LGBT community. Her writing has been published in numerous periodicals and she has performed throughout North America. Her mission
is to make the world a safe place for people to
love themselves, regardless of their differences.
Her website (including blog, calendar of events
and workshops) is found at QueerFatFemme.
Com. Photo credit: Sophie Spinelle, Shameless
Photography
Logistics
Programming, Mixed Media Art Show
Coordinator: Cassandra Falby (aka Brock
Cocker) is
a West IndianAmerican
femme who has
been ‘that way’
since the days
of Underoos.
Currently, she is
a graduate student working toward her M.S. in
Counseling with
the goal of becoming a therapist. Cassandra is
a member of The Art of Living Black (TAOLB),
a collective of San Francisco Bay Area artists
of African descent. For three years running,
she has co-curated a satellite exhibit through
TAOLB which is held annually at Mills College
in Oakland, California. Her commitment to
gender freedom and racial awareness includes
her work as the Logistics Chair for Femme 2006,
her participation in the Queer Women of Color
Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP), and her love of
performance. She is one of the founding members of the Femme Collective.
Accessibility & Awareness: Dulce is a fierce
Queer Xicana born
in Mexico City
and raised in East
Los Angeles who
has evolved from
a high risk youth
to an outspoken
community activist and organizer.
Blending her book
smarts with her
street smarts,
she has passionately served underrepresented
and undeserved communities since the age
of 19, while never forgetting her roots. As a
sexual health educator she advocates for selfempowerment though education that is fun,
non-judgmental, and accessible to her audience
regardless of their age, gender, sexual orientation, race or ability status. When not talking
about sexual communication and consent you
can find her at your nearest San Francisco dance
floor... she’ll be the lady with the hot red lipstick
and matching heels dancing Salsa!
No Restrictions • 7
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
Art&Film
Bios
Session Tips & Guidelines
Film: Jae Sevelius was born in a trailer
park in
Opelika,
Alabama,
was raised
in Miami,
Florida, and
arrived in
the Bay Area
by way of
Gainesville,
St. Louis, and
Eugene, Oregon. Jae has a PhD in Clinical
Psychology and is currently an Assistant
Professor of Medicine at University of
California, San Francisco. During her clinical
internship, Jae discovered she has a distaste
for diagnosing people and opted instead
to devote her life to research and advocacy
for transgender health care. In 2007, she
helped found the Center of Excellence for
Transgender Health at UCSF (www.transhealth.ucsf.edu). As a genderqueer femme
drag king, Jae often finds other people’s
well-intentioned comments about her gender disorienting. As drag king Jay Walker, he
enjoys excessive glitter, fagtastic choreography, well-packed hot pants, and inappropriate duets with his husbutch Delicio Del Toro.
Fundraising: Alysia Angel is a feral mix
of Scottish
and Lakota
Sioux and a
native Texan.
Alysia a fine
whiskey sipper, a female
jack tripper,
a constellation catcher,
a feminist, a
lover, a logophile and a high femme living out of pink
Samsonite suitcases. When not courting her
San Francisco dreamboat, Karlyn Lotney aka
Fairy Butch, she is writing on scraps of paper
on her thigh in bathroom stalls, publishing
and touring with a series of five chapbooks entitled “What I Do When You’re Not
Looking”, facilitating body positive workshops and pretending to be a performer. If
asked about where her favorite spot to rest,
it would be on her knees. If asked what the
most important part of living is, it would be
for love. Alysia flags sham-ow on the left.
http://alysiaangel.blogspot.com/
8 • Femme2010
Fundraising, Childcare Coordinator :
Lindsey Shively is a femme anarchist
organizer in the East Bay. Recently she has
been working with Midnight Special Legal
Collective, Unsettling Minnesota, and Black
Mesa Indigenous Support, and is excited to
get back to her roots in queer organizing
with the Femme Conference. She is passionate about building multi-generational
radical communities, dismantling heteropatriarchy, and getting other white people
to talk about colonization. When not busy
smashing the state, Lindsey enjoys painting
her toenails and dancing in her underwear
to Dolly Parton songs.
Fundraising: Lady Monster A Queen
of the Fire
Tassels and
Satans Angel’s
Own Protégé.
Straight outta
the mouth
of Hell is –
burlesque, fire
tassels, go-go
dancer, model,
actress, writer,
recording
artist, event producer and radio disc jockey –
plus-sized and passionate!
Fundraising: Moonyean is a life-long
lover of books. A California native, she is
happy to be living there again after a 16year break in Arizona where she earned an
English degree and owned a feminist bookstore. She lives in northern California with
Lakke, her spouse, and Kona, a yellow Lab.
She has been published in Hitched! Wedding
Stories from San Francisco City Hall and in
Visible: A Femmethology. Do your best to be on time to all
sessions. If you do arrive late please
enter closed door sessions as quietly as
possible. We suggest not entering
sessions more than 15 minutes after
they have begun.
Please note that in each room there are
designated seats reserved for conference
attendees with hearing and/or sight impairments or other specific needs. We ask
that you leave these seats available up
to 5 minutes before the session begins
if you are not in need of them; if you
do occupy one of these seats, be willing
to move should someone with specific
needs require that seat.
You’ll notice that in each of the rooms
there are open spaces in some rows;
we have reserved these spaces for our
attendees in need of wheelchair access
– please do not move chairs into these
spaces.
When the East Hall is not in use for
caucuses or keynotes, it will be available to all attendees as a conversation
room. Inspired, enraged or engaged by a
particular workshop? Want to find others with which to discuss? Need a space
to continue a conversation? Head to the
welcome table and one of our Accessibility & Awareness volunteers can direct
you to an open space.
You will also be able to locate a trained
mediator there. Should you want to provide feedback to us directly, process with
someone one-on-one, or have someone
help you with a difficult conversation
we’ll be available for you.
It takes all of us to create
an inclusive, dynamic and
accessible space – thank you
for contributing!
Following is information regarding awareness and accessibility for Femme 2010: No Restrictions. If you have any questions
or concerns about the below policies and information, please contact our Accessibility and Awareness Chair, jen valles.
We believe that providing ASL services at all plenary
events as well as in requested workshops is crucial. To
that end, we have done our best to secure ASL interpretation for all of our keynotes, performances and requested
workshops.
Childcare
Dietary
Scent-Aware Policy
We are working hard to create an environment at Femme
2010: No Restrictions in which everyone experiences the
conference as comfortable for sharing thoughts and ideas.
In keeping with this goal, our stance is that the conference
space be a scent-aware environment. While we cannot
force each attendee to be scent-free, we ask that, when you
know you’re going to be in the communal space of the conference, you acknowledge how using certain products could
diminish someone else’s ability to enjoy the same panels or
workshops that are of interest to you.
We understand that perfumes, oils and hair products can
be part of one’s gender identity, ethnic identity or spiritual
practice. For these reasons, we do not promote a scent-free
policy at the conference, but ask that you be as close to
scent-free as possible for you.
You can view our full scent-aware policy, as well as gather
resources & information on scent-awareness, on our website
at www.femmecollective.com.
No Restrictions • 9
Ongoing
As the conference organizers we are not able to provide
food from sources external to the hotel. However, please
feel free to individually bring whatever food you may need
to meet your specific dietary requirements.
If you have internet access, you can find information on
gender neutral / genderfree / all-gender restrooms in the
SF Bay Area at Safe2Pee’s website (http://www.safe2pee.
org). You can also check with the conference organizers for
resources.
Friday
Additionally, there are dozens of restaurants that can be
found within 0.5 miles of the hotel that can meet many
dietary requirements and preferences. Please ask hotel staff
or a conference organizer for further details, or see the map
in the center of the program.
During scheduled conference hours, we will be designating
select restrooms gender neutral.
Saturday
To keep conference registration costs down, we did not
include any meals in the conference registration fee. There
are, however, two restaurants within the hotel: the City
Center Grill, serving breakfast and lunch and the Atrium
Lounge serving dinner.
Restroom Accessibility
Sunday
Should you want to provide feedback to us directly, process
with someone one-on-one, or have someone help you with
a difficult conversation, we’ll be available for you. We will
have trained and experienced mediators and counselors on
hand throughout the conference.
In each room there will be designated seats reserved for
conference attendees with hearing impairments, sight impairments and other specific needs. Additionally, there will
be open spaces in rows reserved for our attendees in need
of wheelchair access.
Bios
Conflict and Crisis Resources
Workshop & Keynote Accessibility
Art&Film
The Femme Conference Kids Working Group has organized a dynamic, fun, and safe space where kids can have
their own Femme conference, as well as space to play and
learn. Parents and caregivers are welcome to leave kids for
the day while they are attending workshops or can join in
as they explore themes of Strength in Femininity, Creative (Gender) Expression, and Solidarity through radical
gender coloring books, games, queer sing-a-longs, dramatic
fairytale re-tellings, and glitter. Kids of different ages,
needs, and abilities are welcome!
The Oakland Marriott City Center is fully accessible and
is in compliance with the 1990 Americans with Disabilities
Act. Our performance venues are fully accessible as well.
Events
Femme 2010: No Restrictions is excited to be offering free,
quality childcare and kid-oriented programming this year.
Physical Accessibility and Safety:
ADA compliance
Performance
ASL
Workshops
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 strives to create a safe place for open dialogue
among a plethora of Femme-identified persons and their allies.
Logistics
Accessibility and Awareness
Performance
Performance
Events
Events
Art
Art&&Film
Film
Bios
Bios
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
Logistics
Logistics Workshops
Workshops
The
Femme Collective is looking for new members!
Planning for the 2012 Femme Conference is already underway and we’re looking for
new members to work with us.
The Femme Collective is made up of the following committees, and there are openings on all:
Registration
Media
Volunteers
Programming Performance
Fundraising
Logistics
Executive
Accessibility & Awareness
Keynotes
We’re looking for Femme-identified people who are committed to our mission and are interested in working in a
collaborative environment. All members must commit to:
• Communicating with other collective members via e-mail and conference calls
• Fundraising
•
Being present at the conference
Time commitment required varies; however, Femme Collective members should be able to spend a minimum of
two (2) hours per week conference planning and upwards of ten (10) hours per week in the month preceding the
conference.
If interested please send the following info to memberapp@femmecollective.com
• Name
• Phone Number
• Any relevant identifying demographic information you choose to include
• E-mail Address
• City of Residency
• A short statement on why you’re interested
• A list of previous experience, if any, with conference planning or community activism
(it’s okay if you don’t have any, just send us what skills you’d like to develop)
•
Which committee you are interested in!
New collective members will be chosen by consensus among the current members; we will endeavor to place as
many folks as we can. If we are unable to place all applicants this cycle, we hope you’ll submit a proposal for the
conference itself. Getting involved is the best way to become a part of the Collective.
If you’d like to participate in planning, but don’t think being a member of the Collective is right for you right now,
let us know; we’d love to hear your ideas on how we can work together.
Questions? Comments? Ideas? Contact us at memberapp@femmecollective.com
Deadline to submit an application is July 1st, 2011
We look forward to hearing from you! The Femme Collective
10 • Femme2010
Logistics
CHILD CARE
Workshops
This year for the first time we will be supporting parent access to the Femme conference
with free childcare and kid-oriented programming! Parents, guardians and caregivers are welcome to leave kids for the day while attending workshops, or can join us as we explore themes of Strength
in Femininity, Creative (Gender) Expression and Solidarity
through radical gender coloring books, games, sing-a-longs,
fairytale re-tellings, and glitter. We will do our best to accommodate kids of different ages, needs, and abilities.
Performance
You can locate our Kidspace in room OCC 205.
Childcare will be available during conference
workshop hours:
Events
8:30am-9:00pm Friday
8:30am-5:30pm Saturday
9:00am-5:15pm Sunday
Art&Film
For further info, please drop by room OCC 205 or Registration and ask
for Lindsey Shively, Childcare Coordinator or jen valles, Accessibility and
Awareness Chair.
Bios
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
No Restrictions • 11
Events
Art&
&Film
Bios
ART SHOW
We are pleased to have eleven artists share their imaginative spirits as part of the Femme2010 art show, Through the
Looking Glass: Femme Portraits, Images, and Visions.
Sunday
Saturday
Ongoing
Performance
Friday
Logistics Workshops
Through the Looking Glass: Femme Portraits, Images, and Visions
These artists offer diverse creative visions through a range of mediums such as painting, photography, and sculpture.
Some have formal art education and some are self-taught. All have stories to tell about their experiences of being
femme, how they see femmeness, or how the identity of femme inspires them as artists. Each artist has a unique narrative conveyed through their work. Through the Looking Glass is a rich array of queer reflections and perceptions.
In the Marriott, OCC 350 East Hall
Friday: 1:00pm - 6:00pm
Saturday: 10:00am - 5:30pm
Sunday: 11:00am - 5:30pm
Featuring the work of:
Adee Roberson
Ashley Eberlein
Cassandra Falby
Catherine Murty
Cherry Poppins
Corinna Nicole
Elizabeth “Oscar”
Maynard
Erin Rosett
Karen Marisa
Sophie Spinelle
Vixen Noir
Ashley Eberlein
Corinna Nicole
Sophie Spinelle
12 • Femme2010
Tickets are $1 each or $10 for the
length of your arm, waist, or bust
and the prizes are FIERCE!
•
•
•
Events
Early money, helps us
organize sooner and
continue to ensure
exciting programming
for future conferences.
Show us your support by
purchasing raffle tickets
throughout the conference. Your help makes
all the difference!
Art&Film
Bios
Raffle tickets will be sold at the Friday night reception, Friday and Saturday evening performances, and before Kate
Bornstein’s keynote address on Saturday. Winners will be
announced on Sunday after Moki Macias’ keynote.
Sunday
xoxo, The Femme
Collective Steering
Committee
Catherine Murty
Performance
Erin Rosett
•
•
•
$200 goodie bag from Good Vibes filled to the brim
with exciting items
A strap-on kit provided by Babeland
Copies of Visible: A Femmethology, Vol. 1 &2
Gift certificates from businesses such as plus-size clothing company, Cupcake & Cuddlebunny
Hand-made jewelery from local artists and vendors
And more!
Workshops
Help us in our efforts to keep the Femme Conference going
by participating in our raffle that will help us raise funds in
anticipation of our 2012 conference!
Logistics
BUY A RAFFLE TICKET,
WIN A PRIZE!!!
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
Karen Marisa
No Restrictions • 13
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
Art&Film
Bios
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
9:00 am – 10:15 am
SESSION 1: FEMBODY Flash Mob Movement Workshop (Amelia Mae Paradise)
SESSION 3: Non-Violent Communication (Bettina Stuecher)
A space where Femmes can come together and move in
an invigorating, sassy, healthy, sparkly, way. Start your
day with Amelia Mae Paradise, who will lead a class with
a yoga-type warm-up/cool-down and a saucy jazz type
movement section, featuring short choreographic phrases
and opportunities for participants to connect with their
sensual and powerful bodies. Come learn the moves and
have a chance to join our spontaneous Femme flash mob!
This workshop includes discussion, exercises, and small
group work as a method of gaining insight into the interpersonal communication process and ways that nonviolent communication (NVC) can further authentic connection between partners. NVC, as described by the NVC
Center for Non-Violence is “[an] approach to communication that emphasizes compassion as the motivation for
action rather than fear, guilt, shame, blame, coercion,
threat or justification for punishment. The process of NVC
encourages us to focus on what we and others are observing separate from our interpretations and judgments,
to connect our thoughts and feelings to underlying human needs/values (e.g. protection, support, love), and to
be clear about what we would like towards meeting those
needs.”
OCC East Hall
OCC 202
10:30 am – 11:45 am
SESSION 6: TechFemme: Femme Blogging &
Social Media (Aja Jones Aguirre)
SESSION 8: PolyFemmory: Living, Loving, and Fucking
as Poly and Femme (Amanda Harris, Rachel Schiff)
Network, share resources, ins + outs of the queer blogging scene, discover new blogs and expand your readership, the pros and cons of advertising on your website or
blog, etc.
For those of us living, loving, and fucking as poly and
femme, we know that this distinct intersection of identity equally challenges and empowers us. Answering both
self-imposed and outside questions regarding our sexual
freedom and gender roles can spark daily inquisitions into
self-discovery – and often self-doubt. This interactive
workshop will take on these tough questions, guiding us
as a poly-femme community in exploring non-monogamy
as an extension of feminism and femme sexual agency,
communication patterns in poly situations, and how our
genders and partners’ genders impact, inform, and transform our relationships. Our loyal friend, “Jealousy” (who
we love to hate and hate to love!) will be front and center, as we spotlight its effects on our passionate pursuits
of good loves and good fucks. The session will be largely
participant-driven, so bring all your baggage (don’t worry,
it doesn’t have to match!), and let’s talk polyfemmory!
While this workshop is primarily for polyamorous and
non-monogamous femmes, polycurious folks and allies
are welcome.
OCC East Hall
SESSION 7: Read Between the Lines: A Hands-On Guide
to Sexy Sign Language (SSL) (Lillith Grey)
This workshop will cover basic sign-language techniques
and vocabulary from American Sign Language, with a
focus on ways to use sign language to spice up your sex
life. Sexy Sign Language can be used in a variety of ways
– from bar flirting to cruising, from private conversations
to private moments, this class will offer you a fresh and
unique way to communicate with the people around you.
OCC 201
SESSION 9: Show Production 101 (Jenny Lowery)
Learn the basic skills required to produce your own
cabaret or spoken word show. Focus will be on finding a
venue, creating a budget, promotion, sending a call for
submissions, and all the little details involved in making
your show or fundraiser happen.
OCC 202
OCC 203
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Lunch Break
14 • Femme2010
Grab lunch in the hotel café or one of the many places
nearby, and take advantage of the hour free to continue
your discussions or just hang out and get to know your
fellow attendees.
1:15 pm – 2:30 pm
Come learn the basics of country-western two-step! Twostepping is fun, challenging, and a great way to meet new
people. We will be covering some basic steps, turns, and
partner dance etiquette – and there will be plenty of time to
practice your moves!
OCC East Hall
SESSION 12: Wild Geese: Femme Survivors Write (Jen
Cross)
OCC 201
OCC 202
SESSION 14: Red Hots Burlesque School of Shimmy (Dottie Lux)
Calling all divas, cool cats, harlots, dames hot mamas and
daddy-o’s, RED HOTS BURLESQUE SCHOOL OF SHIMMY is
for you! If you have always dreamed of being a burlesque
star or just want to learn what all this fun is all about you
too can be Red Hot! Burlesque is about having fun! Bring a
smile and an open mind, because we’re going to let loose as
you learn to shake it with confidence and class!
OCC 203
SESSION 15: My Kind of Crazy: Femmes Confront the
Stigma and Stereotypes at the Intersections of Queer
Femininity, Mental Illness, and Other Marginalized
Identities (Tasha Fierce)
A workshop in which femmes with mental health issues can
focus on community building, radical mental health networks, harm reduction (involving self-injury, eating disorders, etc), creating strategies on how to deal with symptoms
in positive ways, the benefits of medication vs. no meds,
radical therapeutic models, resources for those without the
means to get expensive health
care and/or medications, recognizing and fighting stereotypes, and coming to accept
and love themselves in the face
of neurotypical discrimination
and marginalization.
OCC 204
• Sunday Saturday Friday Ongoing
“You do not have to be good […] you only have to let the
soft animal of your body / love what it loves.” -- Mary
Oliver / “Wild Geese” Writing is a way to discover and
honor our resilience and our resistance – Gather with other
femme-identified survivors of sexual trauma to create a
space in which we struggle with and celebrate our complex
selves, our survival strategies, and the ways in which our
survivor selves intersect with our femme selves. Many of
us who are survivors of sexual trauma feel fragmented or
disjointed and have come to believe we must always live
our lives this way. Transforming our language is one way we
transform our lives; we can create new art and new beauty
out of the difficult and complicated realities of our lives.
Although the setting is a supportive one, this workshop is
different from a therapy group, as the focus of the workshop itself will be on each person’s writing. Also, even as we
come together as survivors, we are never required to write
any particular version of our “abuse story.” In this space, you
have the opportunity to write
as you feel called to write, no
matter what the subject. You’ll
leave this workshop with: a renewed sense of yourself as resiliently creative, a rich body of
new creative writing, feedback
from your peers about what’s
already strong in your new
writing, and connection with a
new writing community. Open
to folks of all writing abilities!
Calling all LOVERS! In theme with this year’s conference of
NO RESTRICTIONS, come learn how to communicate with
your partner(s) about what you like, how you like it, and
where you like it! In this interactive workshop, we will discuss and practice how to identify, ask for, and negotiate the
kind of sex/intimacy you want. Consent is sexy, baby!
Logistics Workshops Performance Events Art&Film Bios
SESSION 11: Country-Western Two-Step (Chiara Manodori,
Haley Ausserer)
SESSION 13: May I Kiss You?: Sexual Communication &
Consent (Dulce Garcia)
No Restrictions • 15
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
Art&Film
Bios
2:45 pm – 4:00 pm
SESSION 16: Quit Fucking Taking Us For Granted:
How to Survive the Movement as a Femme (Moderators: Savannah Kilner, Lisa Marie; Panelists:
Damien Luxe, Fatima Arain, Blyth Barnow, Morgan
Bassichis, Kai Barrow)
Though femme organizers and activists have historically
carried social movements, we often find ourselves to be
one of a handful of femmes in our activist communities.
Femmephobia and invisibility within our movements impact our spirits and psyches and limits the capacity of all
of us to vision a more liberated world. We see the femme
conference as an opportunity to bring femme organizers
and activists together to examine the ways we can learn
from each others experiences, strategies for resistance
and survival, as well as create fierce femmeships with
other movement femmes. This panel of femme organizers and activists will celebrate and explore the libratory
potential of femme organizing strategies as well as the
challenges of organizing in masculinist, femmephobic
organizing spaces, queer and otherwise. We will also explore how our many femme experiences are mediated by
race, class, gender, age, geography, etc.
SESSION 18: Singing as Social Justice (Nomy Lamm)
The voice is a powerful tool in defending ourselves, voicing our truths, and sharing our essence of being with the
world. In this workshop we will create a non-judgmental
space to explore our voices in authentic ways. With a
series of breathing exercises, vocal warm-ups, and improvisations, we will learn to be more grounded in our
bodies, self-aware, brave, flexible, and connected to our
surroundings. We will explore how these qualities can
help us deal with our own oppression, and help us to be
good allies to each other. Open to all styles and abilities.
OCC 202
SESSION 19: Our Power Is Larger Than Our Size: Making Visible Queer Femme Disordered Eating (Marisa
Hackett, Jessica McPherson)
Participatory art workshop for femmes to explore the
ways in which we access space, and the issue of space as
it pertains to food and eating behaviors.
OCC 203
OCC East Hall
SESSION 17: How Fat Women of Color Queer
Femme (Patricia Valladolid, Virgie Tovar)
A workshop where participants can examine how sexuality and space is both ignored and erased for fat women
of color.
OCC 201
4:15 pm – 5:15 pm
Opening Remarks
OCC East Hall
Oneg Shabbat. led by Chaia Milstein
7:15 - Gather for service | 7:38 - Shabbat begins
Oakland Room, 3rd Floor
Come light candles, say kiddush, and engage in
the mitzvah of cruising each other’s footwear!
This oneg is open to all self-identified Jews and
those on the path of giyur. It’s not going to be
Orthodox, but we won’t be, like, serving bacontopped challah either.
Co-sponsored by JQ International.
16 • Femme2010
A Spoken Word Stand Up Showcase
...and Conference Reception!
Friday, August 20 | City Center Grill (in the Marriott) | 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Come to the welcome reception in the City Center Grill at the Marriott, fill up your plate from the buffet, and mingle – then stick around and enjoy this showcase of spoken talents, the first of three Femme2010: No Restrictions
performance events.
Featuring FemC Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha!
Performances by:
Tara Hardy
Missy Fuego
Anna Camilleri
Belinda Carroll
Sara Brickman
Daphne Gottlieb
Happy/L.A. Hyder
Jessica McPherson
Dominika Bednarksa
Victoria Bell Hegemony of
the Down-Down South
Logistics Workshops Performance Events Art&Film Bios
Femmes on Fire:
• Sunday Saturday Friday Ongoing
No Restrictions • 17
Performance
Events
Art&
&Film
Bios
Friday Night Lights
Two-Stepping, Music &
a Risqué Cabaret!
Friday, August 20 • Oakland Metro Opera House, 630 3rd St, Oakland
$10 general public/free with conference registration
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
Logistics Workshops
9:00 Two-Stepping
10:30 Nicky Click
11:00 Risqué Cabaret
Rosie Lugosi &
Bevin Branlandingham
Co-FeMC’s:
Featuring San Francisco’s Own
Alotta Boutté
with special guests...
Lola Dean
Dottie Lux
Girlie Pink
Ruby Vixen
Miss Tamale
18 • Femme2010
Lady Monster
JAC McFaggin
Chan Dynasty
Pidgeon Von Tramp
Cherry Galette
√ MuLotta TaTas &
Miasia
Sugarbush Lane
Ms. Vagina Jenkins
Logistics Workshops Performance Events Art&Film Bios
Straight from the womb to the lime light, this lady’s been
performing since her first breath. Itching for her own
little niche in this glamorous world, she went searching
for her place and found it in the stories of her moonshinin’ grandpa and strong matriarchy.
Alotta relished her rich Creole family history and the
dirty blues of the Deep South. She added her queer-ashell family, vibrant with drag of all kinds, and refined the
mix into the perfect audacious spitfire sweet-treat you’ve
ever had the pleasure to see.
You can find this bawdy, brazen, juke-joint mama performing throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and on
occasional national and international travels.
• Sunday Saturday Friday Ongoing
Alotta Boutté
No Restrictions • 19
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
Art&Film
Bios
9:00 am – 10:15 am
SESSION 21: Starting the Revolution from Within: How
to Use Meditation to Heal and Fuck Shit Up! (Meliza
Bañales)
The strongest muscle a Femme has is her spiritual one.
In this workshop, we will explore how to use the healing
practice of meditation to further our activist and creative
selves. For many of us, life can be a mix of absolute joy and
progression combined with uncontrollable stress and complete break-down. We even come to these amazing conferences to party and connect and by day two, find ourselves
exhausted, overwhelmed, and needing a vacation from our
vacation. What we forget in our busy-ness and urgency is
the simplest act of all: breathing. The breath is an amazing source of healing and rejuvenation that needs nothing
more than your willingness and open mind and heart. In
this workshop we will participate in a guided meditation
for a bit, talk for a bit, and learn methods that we can
institute in our daily lives to further our commitment to
revolution and our creative selves. This workshop is open to
everyone, regardless of religious beliefs or faith and is designed to benefit beginners and experienced practitioners.
It is also okay to only come for the sit (meditation) and not
stay for the talk (though, of course, you are encouraged
to!). Give yourself an extra boost to keep your bad-ass self
going! In the words of Ajhan Cha, “If you have time to
breathe, you have time to meditate.”
OCC East Hall
SESSION 22: Embodying Dialogue: A Creative Exploration of Femme (Heather M. Ács)
This workshop offers an alternative to traditional discussion groups by encouraging participants to get on their
feet and explore issues surrounding “femme” through
interactive exercises and group activities. Using theatre,
improvisation, movement, and writing as tools to explore
issues and incite dialogue, the facilitator will guide a creative “conversation” and exploration of topics on “femme”
chosen by the group. No performance experience necessary.
OCC 201
SESSION 23: Talk Back! Responding to Anti-Femme
and Anti-Butch Comments Within LGBTQ Communities (Paige Kruza, Sophia Lanza-Weil)
The workshop will focus in on what we want people to
know about femmes and butches, and will share tools for
confronting anti-femme/anti-butch biases in ways that
will help end the criticism/opposition and create space for
community-building.
OCC 202
SESSION 24: RAW DIVINE! Honoring Your Femme Spirit!
Sacred Space Workshop (Monica Anderson)
Nourish your spirit by honoring the power of personal
sanctuaries. Learn how to revitalize your spirit energy by
defining and creating sacred spaces in your everyday environments (work, home, school, etc.).
OCC 203
10:30 am – 11:45 am
SESSION 26: Enabling What? Femmes talk about Disability, Gender and Sexuality: Poetry and Conversation
with Members of Fabled Asp (Fabulous/Activist Bay Area
Lesbians with Disabilities: A Storytelling Project) (Dr. Laura
Rifkin, Dominika Bednarska)
How do ideas about ability and disability affect us as
femmes? What is it like being partners with femmes with
disabilities? How do changes in our bodies impact how we
see ourselves as sexual beings? Issues ranging from high
heel envy to “how to get into the dance” when you use a
wheelchair or a cane, and everything in between. This will
be a personal conversation where we get to the nitty gritty
questions about being femme, claiming our sexuality, the
challenges we face, and the successes we have as femmes
who are differently abled than the norm. People of all abilities encouraged to attend!
OCC East Hall
20 • Femme2010
SESSION 27: Femmes and Aging (SJ Kahn and Jewelle
Gomez)
Join our discussion about issues related to aging and femme
identity. We will make a short presentation and invite you
gals to share and we can all talk together cuz we know that
no one (or two) of us knows more than all of us.
OCC 201
SESSION 28: Pastie Making (Vagina Jenkins)
This international Queen of Queer Burlesque shows you
some tried and true methods for making a tip top decorative nipple cover. From basic designs and everyday materials to tasseled pasties, to more advanced designs; Vag can
teach you how to make your titties festive and fun for any
occasion!
OCC 202
10:30 am – 11:45 am [cont.]
A panel discussion of femme porn performers talking
about presenting as femme in queer sexual performance,
working in the mainstream as a queer femme, and much
more.
OCC 203
SESSION 30: Positively Lovely (Lady Monster)
A workshop about loving our bodies, releasing judgments and falling in love with them. Let’s have a positive
discussion in the round about loving every inch of your
body, how we fell in love with our bodies, what each of
us does to spread the love, and how we can love them
more. Includes visualization exercises, discussion, and
creating community. All body sizes and genders welcome.
OCC 204
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Lunchtime Caucuses
Femmes Over 40 (Kathe Young): OCC East Hall
Femmes of Color (Tasha Fierce): OCC 201
Femme Trans Women (Julia Serano): OCC 202
Feel free to use available space to create your own caucus, either on Saturday or anytime throughout the conference weekend! Post your caucus or workshop on the
community board.
BDSM Femmes (Jukie Sunshine): OCC 203
Poor / Working Class Femmes (TBA): OCC 204
1:15 pm – 2:30 pm
Keynote Address: Kate Bornstein
See more information on page. 23
Co-presented by Nehirim: GLBT Jewish Culture &
Spirituality (www.nehirim.org) and the Pacific Center.
OCC East Hall
2:45 pm – 4:00 pm
SESSION 31: Feature Film: Diagnosing Difference
OCC East Hall - See description on pg. 28.
SESSION 32: Creating Women of Color Spaces: Ownership and Intentionality/The Color of Femme (Christine De La Rosa, Norma Sanchez, Amy Adams)
This workshop is about creating plans of action to create
women of color spaces while be mindful of our allies, to be
intentional about the spaces we do create and really understand why we need/want to create them. This workshop
is for self-identified Femmes of Color only.
OCC 201
SESSION 33: The Money Is Out There for the Femme
Revolution: Grassroots Fundraising for Work and
Play (Dara Silverman)
For all of us who are working to build queer and radical
community, one of the biggest skills we need is fundraising. This workshop will teach you the basics of grassroots
fundraising, how to make a plan, get over your fear of
making the ask and strengthen your community in the
process.
OCC 202
A panel of queer femme mothers, exploring issues of family, parenting and identity. Followed by Q&A and open
discussion.
OCC 203
SESSION 35: Femme Kings: Performing Maleness Onstage\ (Panel Moderator: Bethany Lockhart; Panelists: Leslie
Einhorn, Jay Walker, Brock Cocker, Charleston Chu)
What does it mean to be a drag king who identifies as
femme? This group of panelists will discuss their artistic journeys and their motivations to perform maleness. Among the topics examined will be intersections of
femme-ness and stage persona, socio-cultural influences,
and performance themes. There will be time set aside for
Q&A. This is a special opportunity to hear femmes speak
about ‘kinging’ as a form of creative, personal, and political expression.
OCC 204
• Sunday Saturday Friday Ongoing
Viewing of the 2009 documentary Diagnosing Difference
(dir: Annalise Ophelian), followed by panel discussion.
SESSION 34: Femme Mamas (Celestina Pearl, Dana Rosenberg, Annie Schuessler, Sara Lesser, Kathy Brady)
Logistics Workshops Performance Events Art&Film Bios
SESSION 29: Queer Femme Porn Panel (Courtney Trouble
and Dylan Ryan)
No Restrictions • 21
Performance
Events
Art&Film
Bios
Saturday Keynote Address
Kate Bornstein
1:15 pm – 2:30 pm
OCC East Hall
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
Logistics Workshops
Photo by: Dona Ann McAdams
KATE BORNSTEIN is an author, playwright and performance artist whose latest book is “Hello, Cruel World: 101
Alternatives To Suicide For Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws.”
Other published works include the books “Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us”; “My Gender Workbook”; and the cyber-romance-action novel, “Nearly Roadkill,” with co-author Caitlin Sullivan. Kate’s plays and performance pieces include Strangers in Paradox, Hidden: A Gender, The Opposite Sex Is Neither, Virtually Yours, y2kate:
gender virus 2000.
Kate’s books are taught in over 120 colleges and universities around the world; and ze has performed hir work live on college campuses, and in theaters and performance spaces across the USA, as well as in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria. She is currently touring colleges, youth conferences and high schools, speaking and leading workshops
on the subjects of sex, gender, and alternatives to teen suicide.
Kate was born outside of Fargo, North Dakota in a log cabin ze helped hir parents build. Hir father was a Lutheran minister, and hir mother was Miss Betty Crocker, 1939. Kate has lived in the queer ghettos of Philadelphia, San Francisco,
and Seattle. Ze currently lives with hir partner--sex pioneer, writer and performance artist Barbara Carrellas--in New
York City, along with their pug, two cats, and two turtles.
22 • Femme2010
4:15 pm – 5:30 pm
At this workshop we will be coming up with creative solutions to violence against queer / lesbian women of color by
working toward a conscious active community response to
this type of violence. By refusing to tolerate or be complacent in our discussion or response to sexual violence and
promoting sexual empowerment we are resisting the silence
and perpetuation of unhealthy sexual communication. In
this workshop we will encourage participants to engage
in dialogues about sexuality in an effort to promote community response to sexual violence against queer / lesbian
women of color. We will help promote the sexual, physical
and emotional health of the people in our communities by
empowering individuals to reflect on their personal experiences and assisting community members in developing
the tools and skills needed to promote holistic sexual wellbeing.
OCC East Hall
SESSION 40: “Bitch, I Want to Fuck You” (Shar Rednour, Caitlin Sweet)
Femme to femme desire and relationships.
OCC 204
Many of our butch sisters have been, often out of necessity,
propelled into entrepreneurship, but what about a femme
who wants to create their own business? What are the options and some concrete steps we can take to start & grow
our own business? This is an interactive discussion.
OCC 201
SESSION 38: Film Panel (Annalise Ophelian, Miss Major,
Adela Vazquez, Shawna Virago, Cecilia Chung, Jeanna Eichenbaum)
How does it feel to have your gender identity included in
the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders?
Find out when the fierce and fabulous women of the new
documentary film Diagnosing Difference join queer femme
director Annalise Ophelian for a panel discussion about the
medicalization of transgender identities.
OCC 202
SESSION 39: Fairies, Dandies and Fancy Boys: Variations
on Femme (Mason Munson, Aster Wolfe)
Explore femme-identified masculine folks and our roles in
the femme community.
OCC 203
• Sunday Saturday Friday Ongoing
East Bay?
SESSION 37: How-To for Entrepreneurial Femmes (Spring Opara)
Logistics Workshops Performance Events Art&Film Bios
SESSION 36: Sexual (R)Evolution: Exploring the Interconnectedness of Race, Sex, Violence and Pleasure for
Queer / Lesbian Women of Color (Amy Saucier and Mayra
Mendoza)
PACIFICCENTER.ORG
No Restrictions • 23
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
Art&Film
Bios
LOCATION MAPS
MASS TRANSIT
BART - Bay Area Train.
Stops @ Midnight
$1.75 [w/i Oakland $3.25 [SF/Mission]
Conference is at 12th
Street City Center stop.
AC TRANSIT - Oakland bus
$2 / $2.25 w/transfer
MUNI - SF bus/trolley
$2 / $2.25 w/transfer.
Dial 511 and say, “AC Transit,” to speak with a person
OAK. MARRIOTT
1001 B’WAY. @ 11TH
TRANSBAY BUS - $4.
Leaves from SF’s Union
Station (kind of
deserted late at night)
and drops off about 3
blocks from the
hotel in Oakland.
All systems take both bills
and coins. They do not share
passes/fare cards.
OTHER EVENTS
FOOD
AMENITIES
Awaken Café: 14th off B’way. Coffee, tea,
breakfast stuffs & lunch. Independent!
Rite Aid, Walgreens: 14th/B’way. Close @ 6p
Breakroom Café: 13th/B’way. Vegan/Veggie!
Golden Lotus: 13th/Franklin. Vegan/Veggie!
BAY AREA
24 • Femme2010
City center: Btw 12th & 14th and clay & B’way
is quite beautiful with plenty of places to sit,
a nail salon, florist, lots of fast food/take out
places and small vendors.
ART & SOUL festival Sat/
Sun. 14th and B’way.
HELLA GAY! Sat 21st
@ The Uptown, 1928
Telegraph Ave. $5 w
Femme2010 wristband
OAKLANDOP
VENUE MAP
Ground Floor:
Keynote, Film &
Large WOrkshop Room
• FREE WIFI in the Atrum
Lobby
• Restrooms closest to
the East Hall WILL BE
Gender NEUTRAL
• ELevators in Lobby
• smoking outdoors
only
Second Floor:
Second Floor:
Child CAre & Workshop rooms
CITY CENTRE GRILL &
ATRIUM LOUNGE:
• Free WIFI
• Food Available
• Friday’s 6pm RECEPTION
Logistics Workshops Performance Events Art&Film Bios
Ground Floor:
• Sunday Saturday Friday Ongoing
OPERA HOUSE PERFORMANCE VENUE
METRO OPERA HOUSE
630 3rd St
No Restrictions • 25
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
Art&
&Film
Bios
An Evening of
Fierce Femme Sparkling
Entertainment!
Saturday, August 21 • Oakland Metro Opera House, 630 3rd St, Oakland
8-11pm • $15/free with Femme2010 conference registration
Featuring:
Rosie Lugosi
With Special Guests:
Titland
Cattitude
Indigo Blue
Fran Varian
Heather Ács
Alysia Angel
Damien Luxe
Alex Cafarelli
Gina de Vries
Jessica Halem
Elaina M. Ellis
Sweet LillyBee
Shawna Virago
Goldie Dartmouth
Happy/L.A. Hyder
Heaven Mousalem
The Miracle Whips
The QUEERleaders
Jessica McPherson
Amelia Mae Paradise
Celestina Meow Meow
Ginger Snapz & Cherry Tart
Brock Cocker & Jay Walker
Psychobabble
Co-FeMCEE’s:
Alotta Boutté
&
Kentucky Fried Woman
This event will be a cabaret of live music, spoken word, belly dancing,
drag, & burlesque entertainment
26 • Femme2010
Rosie Lugosi
Winner of the DaDa Award for Performance
Artist of the Year and an Erotic Oscar for Solo
Performer, she has appeared throughout the
UK as well as Europe and the USA, performing at venues ranging from stadium events such
as Europride, Kinkfest, and The Skin Two
Ball to events such as Queer Up North (Manchester), Schmacht! FrauenKonferenz (Berlin),
Femme2008 (Chicago), and the Dallas ButchFemme Bash. She was proud to be featured in
Del LaGrace Volcano’s book Femmes of Power.
As well as performing at Femme 2010, she is
launching a new collection of poetry - Things I
Did While I Was Dead, her first publication following her experience of throat cancer in 2009.
www.rosielugosi.com, www.myspace.com/
rosielugosi.
Logistics Workshops Performance Events Art&Film Bios
is a high-femme mistress of musical mayhem,
one of the UK’s most in-demand comperes, and
certainly the kinkiest. She has been tantalizing
audiences with her unique blend of camp humor, mayhem and song for ten years, performing twisted parodies of Andy Williams, Shirley
Bassey and Gloria Gaynor (to name a few poor
victims) in a vamp-goth-fetish style.
• Sunday Saturday Friday Ongoing
No Restrictions • 27
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
Art&
&Film
Bios
FEATURED FILM
Saturday, OCC East Hall , Film Screening: 2:45 pm – 4:00 pm. Panel Discussion: 4:15 pm – 5:30 pm
Diagnosing Difference,
Directed by Annalise Ophelian
How does it feel to have your gender identity included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders? This is the question explored in Diagnosing Difference, a new documentary that features interviews
with 13 transgender and genderqueer artists, scholars, and activists who discuss the impact and implications
of the Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis on their lives and communities.
Panel discussion to follow with Annalise Ophelian, Miss Major, Adela Vazquez, Shawna Virago, Cecilia
Chung, and Jeanna Eichenbaum.
Annalise Ophelian is a San Francisco-based human sexuality consultant, trans ally, and filmmaker with
a doctorate in clinical psychology. Her clinical experience includes working at New Leaf: Services for Our
Community, one of the nation’s leading LGBT community mental health clinics, as well as running a dropin group for trans youth at the Dimensions Health Clinic. She has most recently worked for a private sector
mental health agency specializing in relapse prevention for violent and sexual offenders. Since 1998, Dr.
Ophelian has worked as a community-based sex educator, specializing on alternative sexualities and communication and negotiation skills for sexual partners. She has lectured at colleges and universities around the
country, and provides clinical competency workshops on issues of human sexuality for medical and mental
health providers.
28 • Femme2010
No Restrictions • 29
Performance
Events
Art&
&Film
Bios
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
Logistics Workshops
Femme2010
Short Film Fest
OCC East Hall
Shorts Program: 9:30 am – 11:00 am
Panel Discussion: 11:15 am – 12:30 pm
We are proud to present to you some of the newest and most exciting voices in independent cinema. We have selected 19 short films – by
femmes, for femmes, and/or about femme identity – that touch on
themes of family, loss, relationships, sex, dating, remembrance, music,
and song. Our hope is that these films will conjure up a vast range of
emotional experiences so that, in the end, you will have extraordinary insights into the possibilities of short filmmaking.
Stick around after the films for a Q&A session with several of the filmmakers. In attendance (subject to change): Catherine Murty, Michelle Miguelez,
Celestina Pearl, Indira Allegra, So Yung Kim, Joey Cupcake, KB TuffNStuff,
Jenna Riot, Courtney Trouble, April and Allegra Hirschman, Mary Guzmán,
Ruth Vilasenor, Maria Breaux, Tina D’Elia, and Nicky Click.
Mechanics Daydream (directed by Catherine Murty): A
HiDef homage to perfection: high femmes, aerialists and vintage motorcycles.
By Looking At Me (directed by Joey Cupcake): An experimental video of thoughts passing on a slow day on a boat.
http://www.52pickupvideos.com/HTML/Stevenson_grid.html.
HoOps (directed by Michelle Miguelez): A young Latina gives
up HoOps and finds her groove with the help of her mother.
3 Hour Man (directed by KB TuffNStuff): It’s all about
LOVE! This music video is set in scenic San Francisco and features dance/performance artist Lady Fantastique! Music by
KB TuffNStuff. www.KINGTUFFNSTUFF.com.
Las Mañanitas (directed by Celestina Pearl): Las Mañanitas
(The Little Tomorrows) is about the relationship of a queer
Chicana Femme Dyke and her Drag Queen Nana, their adventures, love of life, Nana’s beautiful, bittersweet passing, and
the magical, alchemical integration of these experiences into
the cycle of Las Mañanitas.
Blue Covers (directed by Indira Allegra): Blue Covers is an
experimental visual poem that re-imagines the survivor’s
journey from childhood sexual abuse. Here, the lover, trauma
and the possibility of healing all exist within the space of a
moment. http://bluecovers.wordpress.com.
Homeschool (directed by So Young Kim): A Korean adoptee
is haunted by lessons of forced assimilation.
30 • Femme2010
Never Been a Bad Girl (directed by Sabrina Chap): Music video for the single off Sabrina Chap’s newest album,
“Oompa!” It features King of New York night-life, Murray
Hill, and the Queen of the Drag Queens, Linda Simpson. www.
sabrinachap.com.
I’m on my Cell Phone (directed by Peter Pizzi): A beautiful and strange video for this hit song by Nicky Click. www.
magicclubfilms.com.
Hustle (directed by Shawna Virago): Erotic music video
featuring Shawna Virago’s song Hustle and an all trans-cast.
www.shawnavirago.com.
Logistics Workshops Performance Events Art&Film Bios
Worst Case Scenario: Femme Edition (directed by Mary
Guzmán): A super 8 femme etiquette primer. www.oneof9films.com.
Won’t You (directed by Jenna Riot and Courtney Trouble):
Queer femme music video from the legendary Jenna Riot.
Traditional Indigenous Values (directed by Ruth Villasenor): Traditional Indigenous Values is an Indigenous Woman’s
perspective of the confrontational Yes on 8 rallies in the Bay
Area. Historical photos of Native American acceptance of gay
people before colonization, along with interviews of Indigenous same sex couples married during this time compares
Proposition 8 to the impact of colonization
Slug Love (directed by J. Mary Burnet): This short music video addresses gender and sexual oppression by imagining what
it would be like if we (humans) were leopard slugs. http://
www.youtube.com/user/jmaryburnet.
the heart’s regeneration (directed by Celeste Chan): Experimental video collage touching on themes of identity, love,
and re-birth. Set to “Iron Lady” by Diamanda Galas.
Shafted (directed by April & Allegra Hirschman): When
femme lesbian Lindsay finds that her ex has taken all of her
sex toys after their break-up, she is outraged. Lindsay seeks
solace in her friends, only to find that it is commonly accepted that femmes get ”the shaft” when it comes to postbreakup sexual property. The personal and political collide as
Lindsay channels her heartbreak and rage in a one-woman
journey for justice. (Frameline)
Cut & Paste: Understanding Sexuality through Movie
Watching (directed by Alexis McCrimmon): An eye-catching
and playful autobiographical documentary that explores the
historical contexts of racial stereotypes, gender identity and
sexual agency, i.e. what it meant for one little girl who dared
to be Black, queer and kinky.
Lucha (directed by Maria Breaux and Tina D’Elia): El Salvador, 1982, during the civil war. While President Reagan sends
funds and arms to the Salvadorian military to kidnap, torture,
and kill the people of El Salvador, Lucha and Isabella decide
their fate. www.luchafilm.com.
• Sunday Saturday Friday Ongoing
In Your Face (directed by The Hungry Hearts): The International Lesbian Anthem. Music by The Hungry Hearts Pin-Up
Performance Band.
No Restrictions • 31
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
Art&Film
Bios
9:30 am – 11:00 am
Femme2010 Short Film Fest
We are proud to present to you some of the newest and most exciting voices in independent cinema.
We have selected 19 short films – by femmes, for femmes, and/or about femme identity – that touch on
themes of family, loss, relationships, sex, dating, remembrance, music, and song. Our hope is that these
films will conjure up a vast range of emotions so that, in the end, you will have extraordinary insights
into the possibilities of short filmmaking. Stick around after the films for a question and answer session
with some of the filmmakers.
OCC East Hall
11:15 am – 12:30 pm
Short Film Fest Panel Discussion
Filmmakers in attendance (subject to change) are
Catherine Murty, Michelle Miguelez, Celestina Pearl,
Indira Allegra, So Young Kim, Joey Cupcake, KB TuffNStuff, Jenna Riot, Courtney Trouble, April and Allegra Hirschman, Mary Guzman, Ruth Villasenor, Maria
Breaux, Tina D’Elia, and Nicky Click.
OCC East Hall
Minding the Cleavage: A Cross Generational Dialog (Keiko Lane, SJ Kahn)
How do you articulate femme? What signifiers do you
use to mark your territory in the world and in your relationships? What have the femmes who came before
you taught you about being a femme? What will be
your gift to the next generation? In a paradoxical culture where old queers are neglected by youth centric
politics, and simultaneously youthfulness is fetishized
while young queers are abandoned, how do femmes
stay committed to one another’s visibility and viability
across generational divides? How do differences of
race, class, spiritual practice, and community affiliation
impact the construction of our femme identities? How
important is it to maintain a cohesive sense of history
as a community? And, with the increasing complexity,
fluidity, and queering of genders, how do we hold onto
and adapt our femme histories and identities? Join us
for a facilitated conversation about femme identity
and experience through our lives and across generations. We welcome butches, allies — and femmes.
Strap-On Satisfaction: A Femme’s Guide to Giving
and Receiving Pleasure (Greta Carey)
This workshop will explore tools of the trade (finding
a harness built for you, in search of the perfect dildo...
to suit your mood, and lube, glorious lube), switching things up (fabulous foreplay; giving, receiving and
sharing - strap-on play where everyone wins; exploring
anal), and building sexual confidence and asking for
what you want. This workshop is intended for people
from all levels of experience. All discussion and materials will be presented in a safe, sex-positive and body
friendly manner. The facilitator is a queer, plus sizefemme domme, burlesque performer, writer, former
sex-worker and professional marketer, with a primary
intention in this workshop of sexual education and exploration.
OCC 201
Community Accountability Approaches to
Violence Against Femmes (Juliet November, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha)
White folks have a unique role to play in resisting racism both within femme/LGBTQ communities and the
world at large. Join us in a dialogue around privilege
and allyship.
Come together to talk in a radically different way
about how we can stop, prevent and heal from violence against us without relying on cops or prisons. The
criminal legal system has never shown itself to be a
friend to marginalized femmes, in particular those who
are poor, of colour, trans, migrant or youth. So how
can we find ways to deal with violence ourselves? In
this skill share we’re proposing understanding violence
widely – that it’s not just about physical violence – but
that we look at the spectrum of violence we face: like
domestic violence with our partners, social, spiritual,
emotional and cultural violence of misogyny and state
violence – and the intimate ways these intersect with
other oppressions. This is a skill-share not a workshop
because we are not interested in “teaching” so much
as sharing the fierce wisdom of femmes about healing,
transformation, resilience and prevention.
OCC 203
OCC 204
OCC 202
White Privilege (Meredith Fenton, Krista Smith)
32 • Femme2010
Keynote Address:
Trust & Delight: Exercising a Femme
Politic in Political/Public Work.
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm OCC East Hall
While at SCHR, Moki co-founded BLOCS –
Building Locally to Organize for Community
Safety – a grassroots organization dedicated to
building the leadership and power of those most
affected by Atlanta’s police and prison system by
fighting for police accountability and developing
effective strategies to create just and peaceful
communities.
In 2009, Moki entered a Master’s program in
City & Regional Planning at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and is writing her thesis on
public safety rhetoric, the intersection of planning and criminalization tactics, and creative
responses at the neighborhood-level.
For the last three years, Moki has lived with
and parented her teenage sister Nandi, with the
support of her partner LB, an incredible queer
family, and unstoppable love from their boxer/
pitt Stanford. She holds a bachelor’s degree
from Mount Holyoke College and is a 2010-2011
Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund grantee.
• Sunday Saturday Friday Ongoing
Moki Macías is a queer femme organizer and
community planner in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally from New Mexico, Moki found her way
to Atlanta, Georgia after her mother and sister
moved there from New Orleans post-Katrina.
She received her education in southern history
and the criminal justice system while working at
the Southern Center for Human Rights, a public
interest law firm challenging mass incarceration
and the death penalty in the southern states.
Logistics Workshops Performance Events Art&Film Bios
Moki Macías
No Restrictions • 33
Sunday
Saturday
Friday
Ongoing
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
Art&Film
Bios
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm
Keynote Address: Moki Macias
OCC East Hall
2:45 pm – 4:00 pm
SESSION 46: Tough Girls: A Celebration of Tomboys,
Rough Girls & Gender-Queer Femmes/The GenderFucked Femme (Meliza Banales, JAC Stringer)
What happens when you seem to fall in-between butch
and femme? What happens when you have the looks of Jo
from the Facts of Life, the swagger of Joan Jett, with the
smile of Marilyn Monroe? What happens when you realize that instead of dance class and burlesque, you’re more
likely to get roughed up in a mosh pit or get caught wearing lacy panties under your Dickey work-pants? You get
the kind of femme who might wear Doc Martins but never
smears her lipstick and whose guitar and words are her
weapons of self-empowerment just as much as her mascara. Award-winning writer, filmmaker, and punk-performance-artist Meliza Banales (aka Missy Fuego) curates this
panel-performance, featuring four of the toughest chicks
around, bad-ass girls who through rough edges, juvenile
hall, rock n’ roll, and a little geeky-ness have managed to
carve out a space in femme identity.
OCC East Hall
SESSION 47: Dress and Express: Exploring Body Image
and Self-expression Through Fashion (Sarah Astarte)
Body image is a major issue among contemporary feminists, as it affects all women in this country. How one sees
and carries one’s body has much to do with one’s selfimage. Fashion is a form of creative expression that can be
utilized to express and even transform one’s self-image.
This workshop will involve dressing up; clothing, cosmetics,
and accessories will be provided for participants to dress
however they choose to. A discussion will follow the activity about what their outfit(s) express, how one feels about
themselves before and after changing outfits, and how it
affects their self-image, intellectually and emotionally.
Gender identity, race/ethnicity, and economic issues may
come up around manner of dress as well.
OCC 201
4:15 pm – 5:15 pm
Closing Plenary
OCC East Hall
34 • Femme2010
SESSION 48: Self-Identification Begins in the
Womb (Queen Hollis)
This workshop provides a safe space of self discovery for
Femme women to honor their Divine Feminine by sharing their menarche (first menstruation) stories, or if they
don’t remember their stories, this space will also provide a
meditative journey followed by journaling that will invite
imagination, memory, and possibility of creating her own
story. This space will also invite us to tap into the power
of creativity and sensuality while crafting waist beads to
honor our womb whether She still bleeds or not. The intention of this space is also to restore a common unity that
transcends race, religion, beliefs, or anything that keeps us
from remembering the sense of Oneness that binds us together as women who bleed. It is the ultimate intention to
inspire each participant to continue this circle of celebration with children, lovers, family, friends, and community.
In addition, participants will also have an opportunity to
create neck or waist beads to honor and celebrate their
blood/womb.
OCC 202
SESSION 49: Tips for a World-Class Marriage / Relationship (Molly McKay, Davina Kotulski)
Everyone has what it takes to create a world class marriage. The truth is that great marriages are made, not born.
But many of us don’t know how to find that right relationship or how to make the one that they have even better.
Davina and Molly, a butch/femme couple, together for 14
years and who have married each other countless times on
the road to securing civil marriage for same-sex couples,
provide insights, tools and practical steps to reach new levels of intimacy, understanding and vitality to ensure that
we not only can legally marry but live our happily ever afters together.
OCC 203
THANK YOU!!!
The Femme Collective would like to thank:
Our keynotes, Kate Bornstein and Moki Macias
Encian Pastel and Tiffany Martinez for help coordinating childcare
Dean Jackson and Krystian Muroya for stage managing
Rocket and Delicio del Toro for help with other performance needs
The Oakland Downtown Marriott and the Oakland Metro Opera House
Our childcare providers and ASL interpreters
Movement Productions, Kentucky Fried Woman, Debauchery and any other
groups, individuals, or businesses who helped raise funds for Femme2010
Movement Productions for providing webhosting
Cristy Road for her poster art
The founding members of the Femme Collective:
Christine De La Rosa, Cassandra Falby, Ryn Hodes, Jessica Eve Humphrey,
Angie Ward, and Kathe Young
Our donors:
Elizabeth Busch, Angela Shock, Carol Thompson, Blyth Barnow, Syndey Lewis, Davey Wilkes, Dawn Haney, Emily Smith, Rachel Devitt, Babeland, Good
Vibes, Cupcake & Cuddlebunny, Sarah Deragon, dirtydarlingshop.com, Amy
Nicole Miller, Jennifer Burke and Homofactus Press.
All the performers who donated their talent to help raise funds for Femme2010:
Alotta Boutté, Beary Craves, Billy “The Poof” Elliot, Brock Cocker, Cherry
Poppins, Delicio del Toro, Diamond Daggers, Dick Damount, DJ Dandy G,
Dottie Lux, Drew Montana, Gabe Oi, Jay Walker, Jukie Sunshine, Kentucky
Fried Woman, Lance Armstar, Lil Miss Hot Mess, Lyric Styles, Momma’s
Boyz, Ocean of Emotion, Phenix Love, Pidgeon von Tramp, Ricky T. Smiles,
Ruby Vixen, Rusty Hips, Savory Sweet, Simone de la Getto, Starr69, Sugarbush
Lane, The Dangers, Wife, Zelda du Jour, Brock Cocker, Mona Webb, DJ Olga
T, DJ Rockaway, Celestina Pearl, Amy Adams, Arnetta King, Rubenesque Burlesque, Cherry Galette, Chan Dynasty, Susie McCaffery
Our friends, families of choice and origin, lovers, partners, and allies, who
support us in ways too numerous to list here
ALL of our presenters, artists, performers, speakers, committee members,
and amazing volunteers for dedicating their time, skills, and energy to make this
conference possible!
No Restrictions • 35
Logistics Workshops
Adee Roberson (Artist)
is a queer black
artist currently
based between
New Orleans,
Louisiana and
Gainesville, Florida. An independent, self-taught,
mixed media
visual artist, Adee
has curated and
exhibited her
art in numerous independent and alternative
media/art venues across North America including
Pensacola, FL, New Orleans, LA, Oakland, CA,
Portland, OR, Providence, RI, and Montreal,
Canada. Inspiration for her work is influenced
by punk , hip-hop, and 1960s and 70s African
psychedelic aesthetics, animals, the natural world,
LOVE, and Resistance.
Alex Cafarelli (Performer)
is a genderqueer
femme Jewish
Witch who has
been performing and writing
erotica ever since
her short story,
Being Bisexual
In One Day, was
composed at age
10. Since then,
her solo and collaborative work has blossomed
to encompass crafty wordsmithing, internal
martial arts, music, and ritual performance art
that inspires sexual healing, spiritual awareness,
and a mad dash of feisty femme resistance. Alex
co-founded the Minneapolis-based performance
group, the Psycick Slutz, in 1993, whose original
work includes a capella singing, queer campy
spoken word theatrics, and kinky anti-oppression
themed Sex Magick.
Alexis McCrimmon (Filmmaker)
is a multimedia
artist and filmmaker of Midwestern origins.
Her media work
ranges in mode,
incorporating
performative
documentary,
hybrid narrative
strategies as well
as elements of
collage cinema. Currently, she is developing a new
series of works exploring the theme of nostalgia
and the transformation of public and private
landscapes. Alexis’ film/video work has screened
at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Frameline
32, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, MIXNYC,
Boston LGBT Film Festival and the BFI London
Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.
36 • Femme2010
Performance
Events
Allegra, April, and Celeste
Hirschman (Filmmakers)
founded
Hirschman Sisters
Films in 2000.
Their films focus
on the comedic
side of the LGBT
world. Blood and
Monkey, about
Frida Kahlo,
won Best Short
Film in the SF
VideoFest. They
were inspired at a young age by their father, a devout videophile, who showed them the beauty of
musicals. Allegra is possibly the only fifteen year
old who wept when Gene Kelly died.
Amelia Mae Paradise (Performer,
Presenter)
is founder/artistic director of
Diamond Daggers burlesque
company, an
illustrious brood
of vigilante
vaudevillian teasers and the Bay
Area’s longest
running queer
burlesque cabaret. With Diamond Daggers,
Amelia has headlined across Europe. Amelia also
serves on the core-committee of Sistahs Steppin’
In Pride: The East Bay Dyke March & Festival. With her wife, Sarah Paradise aka Sir Loin Strip,
she is one half of The Bearded Ladies on Parade!,
a story-telling, singing, dancing, wisecracking act
that draws on the languages of Drag, Burlesque,
and Husband/Wife comedy teams. They live in
Oakland with their two dogs, Uncle Lewis and
Frances, and their two kitties, Sadie and Mellie.
Amy Saucier (Presenter)
is a queer woman
of color mental
health consumer,
advocate, and clinician originally
from Chicago.
She brings to her
work as a social
worker, five years
of experience
working with
children and
families involved with Child Protective Services
in both San Francisco and Alameda County
Family Preservation Programs. Amy’s training
includes culturally sensitive therapy, in-home
family therapy, human sexuality, and working with
dual diagnosis populations. Amy is specializing
in working with women of color and with issues
related to gender fluidity, sexuality, sexual trauma,
and sexual orientation.
Art&Film
Bios
Anna Camilleri (Performer)
has performed
and read across
Canada and the
US in theatres,
festivals, universities, and houses
of ill-repute
over the past 15
years, and most
recently at the
Queer Literary
Kinships Symposium at Gent University, in Belgium. She is a founding member of SweLL (with
Ivan E. Coyote and Lyndell Montgomery) and coauthored Boys Like Her: Transfictions. Camilleri
is the writer and performer of one-woman shows
Still Breathing Fire and Sounds Siren Red, author
of critically acclaimed I Am a Red Dress, editor
of Red Light: Superheroes, Saints and Sluts, and
co-editor of Brazen Femme: Queering Femininity.
Website: www.annacamilleri.com.
Annie Schuessler (Presenter)
is a couples
therapist in
private practice
in San Francisco.
She specializes in
helping couples
stuck in arguing
and other painful
patterns. She is
a queer femme
Mama of 2
young ones, an infant and a 7 year old.
Ashley Eberlein (Artist)
was born in Park
City, Utah, then
later ventured
to less religious
lands, and she
rarely ventures
without at least
one of her cameras. “Sharing
my photos, is my
way of giving you
a little present—here is something that I saw, that
perhaps you didn’t, and it’s quite possible it won’t
ever exist again; open it with your eyes, explore
it with your whole you. What will you do with it?
How does it affect you? Had you ever thought
that thought before?” She is founder & CEO of
An Eye For It, Productions and Memory Movies
(Bay Area).
Aster Wolfe and Mason Munson (Presenters)
have been collaborators in
fanciful distraction
for many years.
Co-producers and
performers with
is a working class femme who believes that politics
are personal. And not just in that who’s-gonnawash-the-dishes kinda way. She has organized,
performed, talked the talk and walked the walk.
Caitlin Sweet (Presenter)
is a gender queer
switch hitting
femme who
hella loves other
femmes. She is
the perfect blend
of Appalachian
bohemian working class woo and
radical dirty per-
The Clackamas
Community Cat
Club (CCCC)
strives to create
cat-based art
in a supportive,
loving environment. Through
interactive
workshops, community building and outreach we hope to create
a cozy catmosphere for all feline friends. The
CCCC presents the Cattitude Dance Ensemble,
the performance arm of our club.
Celestina Pearl (Filmmaker, Performer,
Presenter)
is a Chicana
Femme Dyke,
artist, poet,
bruja and queer
Mama. She’s
performed sola,
with the Fierce
Pussy Posse
Cabaret Theatre
Company, 3
years of Liquid Fire, in many shows at Lunasea
Women’s Theatre, Debauchery LiveDykeSexTheatre, “Wet” an erotic cabaret by Lesbians of
Color, Fairy Butch, and Cabaret de Nude. She
starred in “Voluptuous Vixens” and “Please Don’t
Stop,” two Good Vibrations erotic movies. Her
film “Las Mañanitas,” about her Nana, showed
at QWOCMAP and Frameline. She appears in
“Femmes of Power” by Del LaGrace Volcano and
Ulrika Dahl. She is raising her beautiful daughter
Esperanza Lola and making a movie about creating queer family, called “Queer Spawning.”
Charleston Chu (Presenter)
is a genderqueer, genderfluid femme of Chinese
American descent who lives in San Francisco, CA.
are two fierce femme burlesque performers
who’ve been individually titillating and tantalizing the west coast for the last five years. These
‘two tough cookies’ shimmy and shake the stage
with sexy, playful, subversive antics to challenge
“-isms” and create art that celebrates diversity,
sexuality, and body-positive politics. Miz Snapz is
currently a doctoral candidate at the University
of Washington where she teaches a course on
Burlesque and Feminism highlighting histories
obscured by the dominant narrative of burlesque.
Miss Tart is a founding member of Gayitease, a
queer body-positive drag/burlesque troupe, and
moonlights as a performance poet with the Bent
Writing Institute.
Bios
Blyth Barnow (Presenter)
Cattitude Dance Ensemble
(Performers)
Art&Film
has long been
involved in the
non-violent communication (NVC)
community and
has worked as
a community
workshop facilitator and organizational consultant
for some years.
Training for licensure as a therapist with a focus
on LGBTQ couples, she makes her home in Minneapolis, MN.
Cherry Tart and Ginger Snapz
(Performers)
Events
Bettina Stuecher (Presenter)
loves femmes
and motorcycles, so she
decided to make
a film about
it. Mechanic’s
Daydream has
played all over
the world, from
San Francisco’s
own Frameline
Film Fest to Romania. Recently the film won the
“Best Stunt” award.
Performance
is a Portland, OR
based stand-up
comic. Belinda
sang Blues, R&B
and Soul most of
her life in various
bands, and migrated naturally
to comedy in
2002 with the
sketch comedy
troupe “The Tragedies.” Moving to Austin, TX in
2005, she branched into improvisational comedy,
began stand-up comedy and discovered an art
form that allows her to express all of the different
parts of her performing background, and seek
vengeance on students that mercilessly teased
her throughout school. Belinda is a contributing
writer for Ourbiggayborhood, GAY! E-mag and
Curve Magazine, performs and produces shows
throughout the US, and has headlined Portland
and Austin Pride.
Catherine Murty (Filmmaker)
Charleston is a
fussy yet sensitive
drag king/queen,
burlesque artist,
dancer, and
musician who has
performed with
The Bromantics,
Mangoes With
Chili, Model
Minority Revolt,
Butch Tap, The Transformers, The Fly Guys,
Eye Candy, Freeplay Dance Crew, and Hogwarts
Express: The Musical. Charleston’s alter ego is a
clinical psychologist and has written about genderqueer and femme identities in Nobody Passes:
Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity
and Visible: A Femmethology. (Photo: Justin Beck)
Workshops
Belinda Carroll (Performer)
vert queer. When she isn’t talking a mile a minute
about queer sex, fashion, animals, magic, and sexism in the queer community, Caitlin is making art
and doing body work. She published and edited
the Femme Coloring Book and co-produced the
Deep Lez Potluck and Performance Night.
Logistics
Portland based boy-lesque troupe Beefcake Burlesque; they both thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to address gender normative views, masculine
icons and inter-species interactions both of and
on the stage. Aster has recently relocated to
Oakland to dwell in an intentional creative space
and Mason is delighted to cross a few state and
identity lines to come for a visit at Femme 2010!
Chiara Manodori (Presenter)
has been dancing
for 27 years and
graduated with
a major in dance
from the San
Francisco School
of the Arts. She
studied music
for 15 years and
discovered partner dancing after
college. She has taught two stepping, children’s
dance classes, and west coast swing dance classes. Chiara is a certified yoga teacher and a licensed
psychotherapist. She has participated in many
styles of dance including jazz, modern contemporary dance, Duncan dance, folk dancing,
American Contra, and country Western dance. She is on the board of directors at Sundance
No Restrictions • 37
Logistics Workshops
Association and is a regular host of the women’s
social party at Sundance’s yearly San Francisco
Stompede. She currently organizes and DJs for
Texas Rose, a monthly women’s country western
dance in Oakland. Corinna Nicole (Artist)
discovered
her passion
of painting in
2005 during her
sophomore year
at the University
of Montevallo
- Alabama. Usually working in
oil and preferring
figurative art, her
art usually deals with the human figure, human
relationships and/or identity. In August 2008, she
graduated Magna Cum Laude with her Bachelor
of Arts. Currently residing in California, Corinna
Nicole is pursuing her MFA in Art Practice at UC
Berkeley.
Courtney Trouble (Filmmaker, Presenter)
is a Queer Porn
Icon, known
for her awardwinning porn site
NoFauxxx.Com,
her stunning
photographs, and
most recently her
AVN-nominated
and Feminist
Photo by Rae Threat
Porn Award winning films including Speakeasy, the Roulette series,
the Seven Minutes in Heaven series, Bordello,
Nostalgia, and Billy Castro Does the Mission.
She’s an expert when it comes to creating highimpact, creative, gritty, and raw pornographic
portraits on little to no budget, and also performs
porn, makes music, writes books, and designs
websites. www.CourtneyTrouble.Com, www.
NoFauxxx.Com.
Dana Rosenberg (Presenter)
is a queer, Jewish,
femme health
teacher and
school counselor, who has
been promoting
feminism and
positive sexuality
to youth for the
last fifteen years
in the Bay Area.
She is a big
mama of a sassy-pants eight and a half year old
boy, who keeps her busy, and laughing. Dana is a
proud Oakland native and has no reason to take
up residence anywhere else.
Performance
Events
Daphne Gottleib (Performer)
Award-winning
San Franciscobased Performance Poet
Daphne Gottlieb
stitches together
the ivory tower
and the gutter
just using her
tongue. She is
the author of
four books of poetry (most recently Kissing Dead
Girls) and a graphic novel (illustrated by the
amazing Diane DiMassa). She is also the editor
of two anthologies, as well as the co-editor (with
Lisa Kester) of Dear Dawn: The Letters of Aileen
Wuornos, due from Soft Skull in Spring 2011.
Photo credit: Joie Rey Cohen.
Bios
ducing SF’s only
weekly burlesque
show, RED
HOTS BURLESQUE, now in
its 3rd year at El
Rio. Dottie hails
from New York
City, where she’s
known to cause
a ruckus with a
horn, shake it up and bring bawdy brouhaha to
well known stages like Coney Island Side Show,
The Supper Club and Bowery Poetry Club. Also
an educator, she has performed and lectured at
NYU and Bard University. For more information
on how to book her or just say hi, email redhotsburlesque.com.
Dylan Ryan (Presenter)
Dara Silverman (Presenter)
is a consultant,
organizer and
trainer who has
worked to build
movements
for economic,
racial and gender
justice over the
past 15 years. She
works with small/
mid-sized groups
to build their organizing skills, fundraising and
organizational capacity. Dara was the Executive
Director of Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
(JFREJ). Her work has appeared in the New York
Times, Tikkun, Zeek, Heeb, Curve, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and Righteous Indignation: A
Jewish Call for Justice. She co-authored The Love
and Justice in Times of War Haggadah. She splits
her time between consulting, farming, and teaching yoga. http://www.infovisions.org/rise.
Dominika Bednarska (Performer, Presenter)
is a doctoral student in English
and Disability
Studies and a
queer disabled
femme. Her writing has appeared
in The Bellevue
Literary Review,
Nobody Passes:
Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity,
What I Want From You: An Anthology of East
Bay Lesbian Poets, Niet Normaal: Difference On
Display, and Cripping Femme. Her solo show
entitled My Body Love Story was developed as
part of the AIRspace residency program and was
performed as part of the National Queer Arts
Festival this past June. It is also cosponsored by
FabledASP.
Dottie Lux (Performer, Presenter)
38 • Femme2010
Art&Film
Well, hello San Francisco! Dottie’s here and pro-
is a porn star and grad student currently living
in Toronto, Canada. A proud member of the
queer porn revolution, Dylan is finishing up
her Masters in Social Work where she wrote
her thesis as an autoethnographic response to
feminist critiques of porn. An avid supporter of
sex workers, Dylan believes that sex work can be a
safe, viable and empowering option for femmes.
Elaina Ellis (Performer)
worships at
the Church of
Poetic Intentions
morning, noon,
and night. She
is proud to be a
teacher at Bent,
Seattle’s Queer
Writing Institute,
and is working
towards her MFA
in Creative Writing at Antioch University. In
early 2009, she founded TumbleMe Productions,
a dynamic site for multi-genre events of the wordy
& nerdy variety. In its first 14 months, TumbleMe
produced four standing-room-only, taboo-smashing shows incorporating poetry, music, and image.
Recently Elaina was a Write Bloody Publishing
manuscript contest winner; look for her first book
for sale (and catch her on tour) in the year ahead!
Erin Rosett (Artist)
is a queer fat
femme artist and
educator born
and raised in
Michigan, now
residing in Portland, OR. When
not hanging out
with her amazing
roommates and
tiny dog at Gaylords Paradise, she can be found teaching, hanging
with little ones, crafting, and making femme art.
She is particularly fond of block prints, stencils,
collage, pen + ink, and gouache.
Girlie Pink
(Performer)
also known
as Miss Lola
Sunshine, is
really just your
average, garden
variety queer,
is a rainbow of
flavors rolled into
one big, juicy,
kinky, amazon
hellcat. A native
New Yorker who’s
transplanted to
the Bay Area
via Music City,
USA, she’s spent
this wonderful
life exploring, celebrating, working in and writing
about the sexual panorama. Curently, Greta is
happily working for Babeland, finding sex toys
and spreadsheets equally thrilling, filling out her
vintage porn collection and exploring the many
wonders of Northern California
.
Haley Ausserer (Presenter)
has been twostepping since
2005, when she
learned the basics
in Toronto before
moving back to
California in
2007. She has
the good fortune
to live in the
Bay Area, where
country-western dance opportunities abound. A
tried and true country music lover, she has worked
at both the Country Music Hall of Fame and
Heather Acs (Performer, Presenter)
is a Brooklynbased multimedia, theatre
performance artist, activist, and
educator. She
creates nonlinear
worlds layered
with movement,
soundscape,
video, and storyPhoto by Ally Picard
telling, refracted
through working class Appalachian and Mexican
cultural imagery. Her gritty, glittery work has been
called “performance art that pushes boundaries
without pushing the audience away” (Portland
Phoenix) and featured at theatres, galleries, festivals, college/universities and conferences across
the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Heather is also a
dedicated teaching artist, using theatre as a tool
for social change with low-income youth in cities
throughout the United States. heatheracs.com.
Bios
is a queer femme
Paisan pervert,
and a writer,
performer, and
activist with
a long history
doing political
organizing in
and with queer,
trans, and sex
worker communities. Gina has performed, taught, and lectured
everywhere from chapels to leatherbar backrooms,
including Reed College, Yale University, and Harvard University. She is the founder and facilitator
of Sex Workers’ Writing Workshop, a writing class
for current and former sex workers. Gina is pursuing her MFA in Fiction Writing at San Francisco
State University. She likes glitter, the color fuchsia,
leopard print, and political discussion as foreplay.
www.ginadevries.com.
Greta Carey (Presenter)
‘Older, wiser,
sensuous to the
bone,’ Happy/
L.A. Hyder wrote
for an ad 10 or
so years ago. The
writing she’ll
share comes from
many years to
immediate. The
dance she has
been dancing for 40 years, just as long as she has
been making images. For more: www.lahyderphotography.com.
Art&Film
Gina De Vries (Performer)
is a fat, queer,
high femme
activist and
performance
artist from Berlin,
Germany. She
blends burlesque,
strip tease, theatre and comedy
to produce explosive, politically
infused performances full of trashy high drama
and femme extravagance. She draws from a wide
range of cultural influences including Hitchcock,
Dolly Parton, Ancient Greece, feminist literature
and Divine; for parody, critique and homage.
Offstage Goldie is an activist, film maker and
playwright, as well as holding down various day
jobs. She is currently working on a documentary
about fat queer performance activists. www.emmacorbettashby.co.uk.
Happy/L.A. Hyder (Performer)
Events
is a writer, performer, activist
and late stage
lyme disease,
babesia and
bartonella warrior. She is also
a proud Femme
who loves her
community and
misses the SF/
Bay like mad, but has found tremendous reasons
to love living in the South. Her writing appears at
Lodestar Quarterly, www.hipmama.com, Without
a Net: The Female Experience of Growing Up
Working Class, It’s So You: 35 Women Write
About Personal Expression Through Fashion
and Style, and the upcoming anthology: Gender
Outlaws: The Next Generation (edited by S. Bear
Bergman and Kate Bornstein). helphealfran.org
Goldie Dartmouth (Performer)
Museum and Country Music Television (CMT),
and is currently employed at roots music label
Arhoolie Records. Her video Letters to Dolly
screened at the Femme2006 conference.
Performance
Fran Varian (Performer)
high femme, switch, slut, sexworker, pervert,
and burlesque performer. She enjoys destroying dichotomies, dissecting absolute truths, and
dismantling heteronormativity. She believes in
sex, glitter, energy explosions, good manners, and
cooking with real bacon, butter, and sugar. If you
haven’t seen her boobs onstage in Chicago, Las
Vegas, Baltimore, Dallas, or San Francisco, then
try visiting her at work at the Lusty Lady.
Workshops
is a radical queer
Pakistani femme
youth worker
originally from
the Midwest,
now residing in
Seattle, WA. She
envisions and
works toward a
world where her
femme, and its
intersections with her race and religion, is appreciated as an integral part of her resistance.
Logistics
Fatima Arain (Presenter)
Heaven Mousalem (Performer)
Having studied
dance for ten
years, Heaven
Mousalem felt
she was ready
to explore her
own cultural
roots through
dance. Under
the tutelage of
the legendary
Shabnam of Oakland, CA, she embarked on a
journey that ultimately led her into the depths
of her own soul. Through Belly Dance, Heaven
strengthened her core and discovered the power
of self love. She claimed the sacred feminine held
deep within herself and each woman. Whether it
is performing with Shabnam’s Shalabiya troupe
or performing solo, Heaven hopes to share this joy
of life and celebration of beauty and dance with
everyone present.
No Restrictions • 39
Logistics Workshops
Indigo Blue (Performer)
With a strong
dance and theater
background and
extensive experience as a stripper,
Miss Indigo Blue
brings sensuality,
musicality, eroticism, and humor
to her carefully
crafted routines.
Photo by Sheena Lee
Based in Seattle,
Miss Indigo has performed across the globe, most
recently Stockholm, Shanghai, Lisbon, Dublin,
London, and Amsterdam, and she is a three-time
aware winner at the Miss Exotic World competition. In 2008 she was selected by Heeb Magazine
for the “Heeb 100”, won “Sexiest Eyes” at the
New York Burlesque Festival, and starred in the
documentary film “A Wink And A Smile” about
her Academy of Burlesque.
Indira Allegra (Filmmaker)
is a writer and
artist concerned
with emotional
intimacy, the
body as landscape, spirit, and
states of hyperawareness. Her
short film Blue
Covers debuted at
the 2008 National
Queer Arts Festival and has screened at festivals
and events in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston,
Calgary, AB and Vancouver, BC. In 2008, she
co-facilitated the artistic vision of performance
project Sins Invalid, a re/view of embodiment for
artists exploring intersections of sexuality and disability. Indira’s writing has appeared in Wordgathering: An Online Journal of Disability Poetry, the
2008 Artists Against Rape Chapbook and Make/
Shift Magazine. Indira is of African, Cherokee
and Irish descent.
JAC Stringer (Performer, Presenter)
is a radical genderqueer-femme
trans-activist born
and raised in the
Midwest. JAC
is the founding
director of The
GenderQueer
Coalition and
The Queer Wellness Initiative, an
original member of the drag troupe The Black
Mondays, and an avid blogger on MidwestGenderQueer.com. JAC’s alter-ego, the genderfuckingly fabulous JAC McFaggin’, is a pleather and
feather wearing euro-star who has performed
across the country both solo and with The Black
Mondays. In addition to his activist work and
40 • Femme2010
Performance
Events
performing, JAC is pursuing research in sexology
and gender studies focusing on non-pathologized
gender variance and GID reform, transgender
and queer health access, and queer sexualities.
Jen Cross (Presenter)
is a writer, performer, facilitator,
and femme dyke
incest survivor.
Her writing
appears in over
thirty anthologies
and periodicals,
including Make/
Shift, Nobody
Passes, Visible:
A Femmethology, and Best Sex Writing 2008. She tours with
the Body Heat Femme Porn Tour, for which she’s
produced two chapbooks. She’s featured at such
Bay Area literary events as Femina Potens’ Sizzle,
Writers With Drinks, and the National Queer Arts
Festival. Jen has facilitated sexuality and survivors
writing workshops since 2002. She received her
MA in Transformative Language Arts from
Goddard College, and is a certified facilitator
of the Amherst Writers & Artists method. www.
writingourselveswhole.org
Jenna Riot
(Filmmaker)
is a fierce-femme
force of nature.
Jenna Riot makes
your electropop dance floor
dreams come
true. Her style &
glamour are innovative & unique.
Not only does she
work hard fixin’ up beats & heartthrob bruises,
she also raps and sings with KATASTROPHE
in their up and coming music project, Ice Cream
Socialites: www.myspace.com/icecreamsocialites.
www.jennariot.com.
Jessica Halem (Performer)
called “BRAVE
and BAWDY” by
Time Out Chicago, was raised
by hippie Jewish
artists from the
East Coast which
was anything but
normal - or easy
- in small town
Ohio. But it did
help to foster this
very funny “on-your-face” comic who puts her
queer spin on Sudafed, sexual politics, and glory
holes.
Art&Film
Bios
Jessica McPherson (Performer, Presenter)
is a fierce, wordspattering, pole
dancing, glittertwirling, feministtheory-obsessed
femme from
Littleton, CO,
currently residing
in Seattle, WA.
She is a Graduate Assistant at
Seattle University working on her Master’s in
Education. She believes each clink of her high
heels hitting the pavement is revolutionary. She is
committed to challenging patriarchy with protest,
pole dancing and an anti-capitalistic analysis
of feminine expression and glamour. Her social
justice work includes, but is not limited to, feminist
justice, challenging heteronormative culture, eating disorder awareness in queer spaces, and trans
activism.
Jewelle Gomez (Presenter)
is the author
of seven books
including the
double Lambda
Literary Awardwinning novel,
THE GILDA
STORIES. She
was on the founding boards of
GLAAD and the
Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice and taught
one of the first lesbian studies courses in the country at Hunter College (NYC) in 1985. She was on
the board of the early Lesbian/Feminist journal
CONDITIONS, and her writing appeared in numerous other early queer periodicals such as “On
our Backs,” “Girlfriends,” “The Advocate,” and
many that don’t exist anymore. Her forthcoming
novel is entitled TELEVISED and she’s finishing
a play about James Baldwin. She is President of
the SFPL Commission.
Joey Cupcake (Filmmaker)
lives in San
Francisco. She
is published in
several Canadian
anthologies and
was half of the
infamous fat
burlesque duet
The Chainsaw
Chubbettes.
Currently, she is
a hairdresser who is constantly searching for the
next feminist dance party. All queer femme, all
the time.
Juliet November (Presenter)
is a white, queer, working-class, anti-racist and
anti-capitalist sex worker, grassroots organizer,
Kai Barrow (Presenter) is a national organizer with Critical Resistance, an organization
working to abolish the Prison-Industrial Complex.
KB TuffNStuff (Filmmaker)
Ph.D., femme,
is the creative
catalyst/midwife
of “”Fabled
Asp””- Fabulous/
Activist Bay
Area Lesbians
with Disabilities:
A Storytelling
Project (www.
fabledasp.com).
Her recent writing and art has been published
in the open issue of Sinister Wisdom, featured in
the short film SIX and displayed at CHRONO-
is a writer, performer and teacher who moonlights
as drag king Arty Fishal. Arty was crowned SF
Drag King ‘98. In his heyday Arty could be seen
gracing many a Bay Area cabaret stage and scaring the midwesterners on various daytime television programs. Arty is now mostly in retirementhis swan song featured a gyrating eight months
pregnant belly. Leslie Einhorn is the director of
CASA (Children’s After School Arts).
Lillith Grey (Presenter)
is a queer femme
currently living
in the Dallas
area. Part diva,
part academic
masochist, her
favorite hobbies
are hula-hooping,
rounding up fresh
leather, scalping
fundamentalists,
and spanking insolent pin-up girls.
She is on the Advisory Council for the Woodhull
Freedom Foundation, working to affirm sexual
freedom as a fundamental human right. She is
also an instructor in the Dallas Mentors’ Training
Program, and presents educational workshops on
a variety of topics, including research, personality,
sign language, and multicultural/diversity issues.
Lillith owns and runs Gloryhole Productions
(www.GirlsGoneGloryhole.com) and Sex in Power
(www.SexInPower.com), and can be contacted
through www.LillithGrey.com.
Marisa Hackett (Presenter)
Bios
Laura Rifkin (Presenter)
Leslie Einhorn (Presenter)
received her
MFA in Playwriting from San
Francisco State
University, where
she was a twotime winner of
the Highsmith
Playwriting
Award. In 2000,
Maria ventured
into filmmaking. Her first film, I’d Rather Be…
Gone, premiered at the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival to a sold-out
audience. Lucha, co-written with San Francisco
artist and activist Tina D’Elia, won the Audience
Award for Best Short in the 2009 San Francisco
International LGBT Film Festival and was a
nominee of the 2009 Iris Prize. She recently completed her second feature film, Mother Country.
Art&Film
is a psychotherapist in Berkeley,
CA, where she
specializes in
psychotherapy
with gender radicals, postcolonial
activists, queer
parents, students
and artists (www.
keikolanemft.
com). A longtime survivor of ACT UP and Queer
Nation, she has been a queer and mixed-race activist in social justice, international solidarity and
inter-community dialog issues for 20 years. Keiko,
who is a published poet, essayist and academic,
also teaches graduate queer and multicultural
psychologies, and the embodied literature of exile.
Keiko is adjunct faculty in the Somatic Psychology
Department at the California Institute of Integral
Studies, and a clinical supervisor at the Center for
Somatic Psychotherapy.
Maria Breaux (Filmmaker)
Events
Keiko Lane, MFT (Presenter)
is a queer disabled Sri Lankan
writer, performer
and teacher. The
author of Consensual Genocide,
her writing has
appeared in the
anthologies Yes
Means Yes, Visible: A Femmethology, and Homelands, Colonize This, and We
Don’t Need Another Wave, to name a few. The
Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Intimate
Violence Within Activist Communities, which she
co-edited with Ching-In Chen and Jai Dulani, will
be published by South End Press in March 2011.
She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from
Mills College, focusing on creative nonfiction and
community-based teaching by writers of color.
is a 29 year old
queer Chicana
femme currently
based in the Bay
Area. Lisa Marie
has been an
anti-PIC, homeless rights, and
youth organizer
for the better
part of 10 years
and currently works as the National Campaign
Director with Critical Resistance. Lisa Marie is
fiercely anti-capitalist and fights for a world where
no cages, borders, or binaries determine how we
treat one another.
Performance
A Two-Spirit
musician who
is a NYC native
and SF resident,
KB’s adventures
include teenage
CBGB punk
band shows,
post-production
audio for B-grade
horror movies
and on to Drag King queer blues performance as
TuffNStuff: The Last Delta Drag King.
Leah Lakshmi PiepznaSamarasinha (Performer, Presenter)
Lisa Marie (Presenter)
Workshops
Kathy Brady (Presenter) is a queer femme
parent of two girls, a toddler and a tween. She
and her family currently live and work in Oakland.
TOPIA: The Past, Present and Future of Queer
Histories as part of Lineage ll: Matchmaking in
the Archives. She has been creatively living with a
disability for over 30 years and has been actively
exploring butch/femme identities and chemistry
for longer than that! Laura spearheaded the
movement to have 2010 named as The Year for
Honoring Lesbians with Disabilities.
Logistics
writer and fierce femme with a deep love for community resilience and the visioning beyond the
prison industrial complex.
is a queer bi
femme who
sometimes
uses the phrase
‘boyscout femme’
to describe her
ability to always
carry rain friendly shoes. Currently living in
Seattle where she
is learning to be a social worker and doula, she
hopes to someday have a dream job that involves
deconstructing the heteropatriarchy and babies. A
disciple of Lady Gaga, she channels her ballerina
experience into starting spontaneous dance parties
and can be found planning queer mixers, femme
organizing and creating original pieces of clothing
in her spare time.
Mary
Burnet
(Filmmaker)
is a queer
feminist living in
Halifax, Nova
Scotia.
No Restrictions • 41
Logistics Workshops
Performance
Events
Mary Guzmán (Filmmaker)
Melissa Koch (Presenter)
is an award winning filmmaker.
Her films have
screened in
Spain, France,
Australia, Indonesia and across
the U.S. Three
of them are in
distribution. Ms.
Guzmán has
directed theatre for The Playwrights Foundation,
San Francisco, and The Lark Theater, NYC.
Theatre directing highlights include Enrique
Urueta’s Learn To Be Latina at IMPACT Theatre, San Francisco and Bright Ideas at Shotgun
Players, Berkeley. Currently she is directing
Forever Never Comes for Crowded Fire Theater
Company, has completed the screenplay for her
mystery titled, Lost Dog and is creating a women’s
college basketball TV pilot titled Starting Five.
is a Midwestern,
working-class,
femme, multidisciplinary
media-artist who
has directed narrative short films
and has worked
in documentary
video, photography, and radio.
Her feature-length documentary directorial debut,
The Red Tail, premiered at the 2009 Galway Film
Fleadh and has been touring festivals internationally for the past year. Melissa has a BA in Cultural
Studies, Media Arts, and Social Justice from the
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and is a new
graduate student in the Social Documentation
program at the University of California, Santa
Cruz. She has worked with queer, community &
arts organizations for the past 12 years.
Mayra Mendoza (Presenter)
Michelle Miguelez (Filmmaker)
is a queer ally
from East
Oakland. An
all around peer
educator, Mayra
spends her time
spreading the
word about political issues, sexual
health, and legal
resources. She is
also studying identity politics in international relations at San Francisco State and works on issues
related to Indigenous Peoples’ rights through the
International Indian Treaty Council.
Meghan Pergrem (Presenter)
is a 24 year old
queer organizer
and community educator.
She works for the
Broadway Youth
Center (BYC) as a
Program Assistant
for their Drop-In
Program and
co-organizes their
Peer Advocate Project, a collective for LGBTQA
youth of color engaging in popular education and
leadership skills. Upon completing her degree in
Gender, Sex, and Sexuality at Antioch College in
Ohio, Meghan served as the Community Manager of Non-Stop Liberal Arts, before moving to
Chicago to engage in youth organizing through
After School Matters, Affinity Community
Services, and the BYC. Her work centers around
Rape Culture awareness, sexual wellness, and
gender identity.
42 • Femme2010
is a queer chica
from New Orleans, Louisiana.
She has been
living in the Bay
Area for the past
9 years. She’s an
educator, poet,
storyteller, and a
filmmaker.
Miasia (Performer)
Mi-a-sia \
My-Asia \ n.: A
dedicated Middle
Eastern Belly
Dance performer
and teacher
whose experience in Burlesque
serves to create a
uniquely satisfying entertainment experience. Captivating audiences all over
the U.S., as well as Canada, Turkey, and Egypt,
Miasia seeks to open the doorway of dance to include all sizes and abilities. Audiences find themselves seduced by sensual movement that explodes
the myths of what fat women can and will do with
their bodies. Synonyms: Spellbinding, Sassy, Agile,
Sensual, Tantalizing. To learn more about Miasia,
visit her website at www.miasia.org.
The Miracle Whips
(Performers)
is a queer femme
performance
troupe that works
to promote models of progressive
femininity, to
Art&Film
Bios
create radical erotic possibilities, and to disrupt
conventional notions of sexiness. This feminist
collective provides a healthy dollop of sass with
their social commentary. Incorporating performance art, sketches, song and dance, and take
on gender and social issues through sexuality and
irreverent humor, they’ve performed throughout
L.A. and at Femme Conferences 06 and 08.
Missy Fuego / Meliza Bañales
(Performer, Presenter)
writes books,
sews clothes, and
makes movies.
She has toured
with Sister
Spit: The Next
Generation and
Body Heat:
The Femme
Porn Tour. Her two most recent films are Do
the Math with Mary Guzman and Getting Off
with J Aguilar, and she is currently on crew for
the feature film Mother Country (Maria Breaux).
She was featured in FTF: Female to Femme and
the photo book Femmes of Power. She is working
on a spoken-word album with Crunks Not Dead
Records and another collection of short stories,
Life Is Wonderful, People Are Terrific. She makes
art in San Francisco.
Molly McKay & Davina Kotuski
(Presenters)
Since 1998, Molly
McKay and
Davina Kotuski
have been active
together in the
fight to secure
marriage equality for same-sex
couples through
grassroots
organizing. Molly, an attorney, is currently the
National Media Director of Marriage Equality
USA®. Davina, a psychologist, is the former
Executive Director of Marriage Equality USA
and authors of the books Why You Should Give
a Damn About Gay Marriage (2004) and Love
Warriors: The Rise of the Marriage Equality
Movement and Why We Will Prevail (2010).
Molly and Davina co-founded the annual national
marriage counter actions on Freedom to Marry
Day in 2001 where same-sex couples request
marriage licenses at their local marriage counters
to render the discrimination visible and tell their
stories of how they are harmed by the inability
to marry. Molly and Davina were one of the first
couples to be married in San Francisco in 2004
(later nullified by the California Supreme Court)
and re-married on their 12th anniversary in
September 2008.
Morgan Bassichis (Presenter)
is a queer anti-racist organizer with Community
is a San Francisco-based writer, performer and
musician. She teaches voice lessons and nurtures
collaborations with her band, “nomy lamm
& THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD.” She has
co-written a post-apocalyptic genderqueer rock
opera (“The Transfused”), released two solo
albums (“Anthem” and “Effigy”), and toured with
Sister Spit and The Sex Workers Art Show. She
currently writes an advice column for Make/Shift
magazine (makeshiftmag.com), performs with Sins
Invalid (sinsinvalid.org), and is working on her first
novel, The Best Part Comes After the End, as a
grad student at SF State.
is a first year
Master’s student
at San Francisco
State University
in the College of
Ethnic Studies, focusing
on gender and
sexuality. As a
self-described
plus-sized
Chicana, Patricia focuses her research on issues
of body, gender, space and sexuality. Her research
interests include representations of fat women of
color in the media, third world feminism, third
space history, Chicana bodies as a location of
intersectionality, and Chicana Lesbian Literature.
She plans to complete her Master’s degree in
Ethnic Studies with a thesis on reclaiming the
experiences of Fat Chicanas and other Latinas
and move on to a doctoral program.
Peter Pizzi (Filmmaker)
is a filmmaker, photographer and installation
artist from Boston, MA. In 1999, he formed the
production company Magic Club Productions.
Queen Hollis (Presenter)
For the last 28
+ yrs of my life
I have been a
Global Community Spiritual Activist/
Shawoman. My
collective journey
as a practitioner
of universal/
indigenous
spiritual practices, including
Mamahood,teaching,Kundalini yoga, West African dance, Elemental based Ritual and ceremony,
Founder of Ancestors Daughters a Women and
Girls Rites of Passage, Youth Mentoring Connection, Spiritual Counselor and Ritualist for Unitybridges.org ,Creating Sacred Spaces, Ceremonial
Crafting, Founder of Earth Pit Ceremonies
(return to the womb journey), Co-founder of BLU
(Blacklesbiansunited.org), Initiated in Ifa, Sacred
Sweat lodge, Mahikari, Poetry, Creative Writing
and more…
Bios
Nomy Lamm (presenter)
Patricia Valladolid (Presenter)
is a collective of bay area based queers interested
in dissecting gender norms and systems of gender
oppression; comprised of Charleston Chu, Lance
ArmStar, Scout B Naughty, and Kore Ansoul, Psychobabble made their debut at Rally the Troops
6 and include current and former members of
the Citizen Kings, the Saucy Knickers, Dancing
with the Star(Trekkie)s, Bromantics, Freeplay
Dance Crew & Hogwarts Express: The Musical,
Rhythmless Nation, Butchtap, Mangoes With
Chili, Model Minority Revolt, The Transformers,
The Fly Guys, and Eye Candy.
Art&Film
is a one woman
powerhouse
of high femme
queerness, with
a following of
devoted fans
around the
world. Her
infamous performance antics are
an experience in
themselves, as Nicky interacts with her audience
in femme extremity, often incorporating bizarre
costumes and sexy props into her acts. Her music
spans jump-up party dance music, and electro
sensibilities, spiced with emotive lyricism and
saucy storytelling. At femme 2010 she will share
a part of her new piece: the one doll show. www.
nickyclick.com, http://www.crunksnotdead.com.
is a white queer
stonebutch
woman and
proud New Englander. Currently
the Development
Manager at the
Transgender
Law Center, she
has previously
done a variety of
public health, organizing, and fundraising work.
She spends her free time adoring her dog and cat,
appreciating Bay Area people (and weather), and
supporting local organizations that do anti-violence, racial justice, and economic justice work.
PSYCHOBABBLE (Performers)
Events
Nicky Click (Performer)
Paige Kruza (Presenter)
His work explores themes of sexuality, gender
and identity. His recent directed short film titles
include Sucker, The Face of God and Dream
of an ex-girlfriend. His work has been described
as provocative, political and comical. He enjoys
working with props such as puppets, masks and
his alter ego - Mr. Bunny. His films and artwork
have been featured in Art Galleries and Film
Festivals both nationally and internationally. www.
magicclubfilms.com.
Performance
MuLotta TaTa’s
(aka Malcolm PeX)
is a former member
of the Transformers, ButchTap, and
Hogwarts Express and
a current member
of Seattle-based tap
sensation Time to
Heel. She’s grateful to
be on the FemmeCon
stage to shake her sugar makers. Sugarbush Lane
is thrilled to join MuLotta TaTa’s for a fabulous
duet. After a delectable debut in “Trekking With
the Stars,” Sugarbush was fortunate enough to
be taken under several glittery burlesque wings
and has been performing silly, sweet and sassy
numbers around the Bay Area ever since. She
hopes your sweet tooth will have you coming back
for more!
Told for too long
she wasn’t gay
enough, brown
enough, active
enough, or good
enough, Norma
Elena Sanchez
exemplifies the
healing required
to survive sexism,
internalized
homophobia and racism. She’s emerged with a
focus on the heart and stubbornly insisting she’s
as normal as the girl next door. She mentors other
young women with this same process, is a successful businesswoman in the Bay Area and ain’t
afraid to admit she may very well be the biggest
pervert in the room. She embraces this sisterhood
for the visibility it gives her and the camaraderie
in all things queer, femme, moral and naughty.
Workshops
MuLotta TaTa’s & Sugarbush
Lane (performers)
Norma Elena Sanchez (Presenter)
Logistics
United Against Violence and the Transgender,
Gender Variant, and Intersex Justice Project in
San Francisco, and loves the struggle to end all
forms of violence!
Ruby Vixen (Performer)
is an atomic
bombshell with
a love for all
things big, queer
and naughty.
She can’t wait to
shake what her
momma gave her
for all the delicious femmes,
femme-lovers
and allies at Femme Con! You can catch her at
the monthly fundraiser Debauchery! A strip club
for queers of all genders - every 3rd Sunday at the
White Horse Inn, Oakland.
No Restrictions • 43
Logistics Workshops
Ruth Villasenor (Filmmaker)
is Chiricahua
Apache and
Mexican and
identifies as Two
Spirit. Her Two
Spirit activism
includes involvement in Bay Area
American Indian Two-Spirits
(BAAITS), the
Native American Health Center, and currently
as the Native American Outreach Director for
Marriage Equality. She and her wife are owners
of Paws & Claws, a natural pet food store in
Oakland, CA. In her different roles, Ruth has
been a vehicle for proud unity and change in her
community. Through her energetic spirit and
tireless efforts she has helped educate Natives and
non native alike to the historical acceptance of
two spirit people.
Performance
Events
LGBTQ community and is a graduate of the
Women’s Initiative, Simple Steps to Success business program. She also holds a BS degree in Political Science from the University of California,
Berkeley. Spring served 5+ years in the US Air
Force and is a published, lesbian of color, writer
of erotic fiction. Spring is happily single and
LIVING LIFE with her extended Tribe and her
feline-familiar, Peejo, in beautiful Oakland, CA.
The QUEERleaders (Performers)
This bicoastal duet of fiesty femme fruitcakes
reunited to perform their legendary halftime
show at Femme 2010. Co-Captains AMAZING
GRACE (aka Ingrid Elizabeth of sultry roots
duo “Coyote Grace”, Sonoma County, CA) &
STRANGE POWERS (aka Noelle Powers, mastermind behind “Hooping Powers”, Baltimore,
MD) use their big mouths, short skirts & high
kicks to fight homophobia and cheer on genderlicious love in all its brave & breathtaking forms.
You never seen fly girls lookin’ so gay, you never
seen gay girls lookin’ so fly!
Savannah Kilner (Presenter)
is a 23 year old
white queer/
femme who
grew up in the
Bay Area and
organizes against
policing in Oakland and beyond.
Her politics are
guided by women
of color feminism
and grounded in prison abolitionism. She believes
that we all have a stake in each other’s liberation.
Sophia Lanza-Weil (Presenter)
is a queer femme
with rough edges,
happily identified
as an old-school,
working class and
feminist femme.
She is committed
to anti-oppression
work in activism
and communities,
and currently
works as a union organizer. She has been involved
with various queer and trans groups across the
country; and has also worked with HIV/AIDS
advocacy and education, youth sexual health
advocacy, and immigrant, worker and women’s
rights groups in the US and in Mexico. Sophia
adores high-heeled boots, motorcycles, books and
traveling.
Spring Opara (Presenter)
is the President of
Blac Gurlz Ink – www.
blacgurlzink.com, a
greeting card business
that specializes in
creating premium
greeting cards for the
44 • Femme2010
Sabrina Chap (Filmmaker)
is a songwriter/
performer whose
brand of vaudevillian stomp is
currently “Queering up Ragtime”
(the Queerist).
She’s currently
touring the East
with her spankin’
brand new album,
“Oompa!” with a band of burlesque ladies, fire
eaters and sideshow freaks. Also a writer, she edited the Lambda nominated book, “Live Through
This - On Creativity and Self-Destruction” (Seven
Stories Press) and often lectures on women, art
and self-destruction when she’s not wearing glitter
on her chest and flirting with the crowd.
Sara Brickman (Performer)
is a ten year
veteran of the
spoken word
stage. She is
proud to have
represented the
youth community
of Ann Arbor,
the Hampshire
College Slam
Collective, and
Photo by Andi Dean
the Seattle Poetry
Slam. An instructor and student at Seattle’s Bent
Writing Institute, the world’s only writing school
for queer folks, she teaches and performs nationwide. Her work plants seeds where the factory’s
torn down, buzzing around the hive of gender,
Judaism, magic, the Rust Belt, and femme identity.
She prefers her ukulele tuned and her sweaters
argyle. She gulps her breath-notes in Seattle,
Washington.
Art&Film
Bios
Sara Lesser (Presenter)
is a queer femme
parent of 2 cuties.
She and her
butch partner
co-parent with 2
gay men. She is
a psychotherapist
working with
individuals and
couples in Oakland.
Sarah Astarte (Presenter)
is a native
Californian, and
is the oldest of
four children.
Sarah attended
UC Santa
Cruz, where she
received her BA
in Psychology.
She went on to
the Institute of
Transpersonal Psychology where she received a
Master’s in Psychology and her Ph.D. in Transpersonal Psychology. Her research is on body
image in adult females, Jungian psychology, and
the Lover archetype. Sarah is certified in creative
expression and is a licensed minister, being an initiated shamanic healer and priestess in neo-pagan
traditions. Sarah has also been an activist in peace
and diversity.
Shar Rednour (Presenter)
Author of The Femme’s Guide to the Universe,
is also the director and co-producer of Healing
Sex featuring Staci Haines which helps us heal
intimacy with ourselves and others after surviving abuse or trauma. This revolutionary project
helps heal the world so everyone can enjoy her
company’s other endeavors like Hard Love &
How to Fuck In High Heels, Sugar High Glitter
City or the Bend Over Boyfriend series. She is a
creative, strong, and funny mother to 3 and wife
to 1– Jackie Strano. Her mommy revelations can
be found on goodvibessexymama.com.
Shawna Virago (Filmmaker, Performer)
is a celebrated
transgender
songwriter whose
music twists
together roots
rock and folkpunk, creating
anthems for a
new generation.
A transsexual
feminist icon for
the 21st century, Virago’s songs are windows into
queer and transgender life. Her performances are
celebrated for their compelling mix of original
songs, storytelling and standup – with exceptional
lyrics ranging from sexy to sarcastic, haunting to
heartfelt. The San Francisco Bay Times said, “If
In 1993, Sweet
LillyBee - Incendiary Burlesque
talent, Healer &
Priestess - flew
into Minneapolis
on the back of a
vengeful goddess
and has never
looked back.
Bringing a classic
look with a hot, modern twist, she’s a powerhouse
on the stage. A true renaissance woman, she passionately lives Life as Art. Sweet LillyBee performs
in many capacities with a focus on burlesque,
fetish, fire arts, alternative theatre and ritual performance. She has taken her act on the road and
is slowly conquering the world one sizzling step at
a time! www.SweetLillyBee.com.
Tamale (Performer)
is a cutting edge interdisciplinary performer based
out of Chicago. She earned her bachelors from
the University of Arizona in Agricultural Education, then followed the natural progression to
Tasha Fierce (Presenter)
is a 30-something
freelance writer,
social justice
blogger, and
avid consumer
of Twinkies. A
raging Aries, she
spends most of
her time writing
and building
her burgeoning
media empire, although she is occasionally interrupted by a part-time job. She’s written about race
politics, fat acceptance, mental illness, disability
and feminism in several zines, including Evolution
of a Race Riot and the zine she edited from 19982001, Bitchcore. She has contributed to Jezebel,
Shapely Prose, Racialicious, FWD/Forward, and
her work has also been featured in The Huffington Post. http://redvinylshoes.com. You can add
her on Twitter @redvinylshoes.
Tina D’Elia (Filmmaker)
is a queer/dyke-identified, power-femme,
mixed-race Mexican/
Italian/German,
actor, playwright,
performance poet,
and award-winning
screenwriter. She is best
known for her onewoman show Groucho: a Day in the D’Elia Soup,
presented at the National Queer Arts Festival (02)
Victoria Hegemony (Performer)
Victoria Bell
Hegemony of
the Down-Down
South is a Dada
Performance
Radical and more
importantly, the
Femme mother
of nonsense
drag house:
The House of
Hegemony. Victoria is an Argentinian, Salt Lake
City born self-proclaimed southerner who has
performed in outlandish places like Slovenia and
Denmark and landish ones like Carrboro, NC.
She holds a Bachelorette in Performance Studies
from UNC and intends to put that degree to good
use by making performances for her queer family.
Victoria spent much of her life believing she was a
princess and her most recent work focuses on the
experiences of femininity by little princesses.
Bios
Sweet LillyBee (Performer)
Composed of current and former members of
Kings & Things, Burlesque-Esque, the Queen
Bees, the Transformers, ButchBallet, Hogwarts
Express, and ButchTap, these hotties of Bay Areabased Titland bring a wealth of dance, burlesque,
and drag experience to the table. They aim to
thrill, tease, turn-on, tame, and titillate their audiences through their unique style of dancing and
twirling. It’s T’n’T all the way with these gals, so
get ready to explode with excitement for Cherry
Poppins, Starr69, & Kentucky Fried Woman as
they take you to an oasis known as Titland!
is the working class queer
femme poet who
founded Bent, a
writing institute
for LGBTIQ
people in Seattle, WA. She is
a founding member of Salt Lines,
the all woman
performance poetry group that toured the U.S. in
March of 2009 & 2010 in honor of Women’s
History Month. From 2008-2009, Tara was
the only poet in the country to perform on six
National Poetry Slam finals stages. Her work has
been published in various journals and anthologies, her upcoming book of poems is scheduled to
be published by Write Bloody press in the spring
of 2011. To contact Tara, email wordyfemme@
hotmail.com. www.tarahardy.net.
Titland (Performers)
Art&Film
is a queer adoptee of color whose
writing and
activism focus
on exposing the
racism and imperialism inherent
in the transracial
adoption industry. A co-conspirator behind
Transracial Abductees, one of the first websites by
and for critical transracial adoptees, she now blogs
at Outlandish Remarks on wordpress.
Tara Hardy (Performer)
Events
So Yung Kim (Presenter)
and the Women on the Way Festival (02). She
recently performed her new solo show, The Rita
Hayworth of this Generation (NQAF 2010). In
2009 D’Elia and director Maria Breaux co-wrote
& co-produced, Lucha. Lucha won Best Short
Film at Frameline (09). Currently D’Elia is writing
a full-length feature screenplay. tinadelia.com.
Performance
is a lesbian psychotherapist in
the SF/Bay Area
who has practiced extensively
in the LGBTI
community for
the past 20 years.
She works with
couples and individuals as well as
providing professional consultation. Her work is
relational, empathic, collaborative and grounded
in the larger social/cultural context. She is on the
faculty of the Women’s Therapy Center where
she supervises interns and provides professional
development groups.
becoming a comedian and performance artist in
Chicago. Having toured internationally with both
the Windy City Blenders and with independent
projects, Tamale incorporates comedy, burlesque,
drag, fire dancing, and tribal belly dancing into
her work to create exciting, original pieces.
Named America’s Seventh Funniest Lesbian in
2008, she is becoming popular on the stand-up
circuit. www.TamaleRocks.com
Workshops
SJ Kahn, MFT (Presenter)
Logistics
Keith Richards was a tranny that got together
with Merle Haggard, Shawna Virago would be
their love child.” She is also the Artistic Director
of Tranny Fest, the nation’s first transgender film
festival. www.shawnavirago.com
Virgie Tovar (Presenter)
is a sex educator,
author and fat
activist. Her first
book, Destination
DD: Adventures
of a Breast
Fetishist with
40DDs (2007)
earned her the
title of Best Sex
Writer 2008 in
the SF Bay Guardian. She began her career as an
activist while teaching a women’s sexuality course
at her alma mater, UC Berkeley, where she also
directed and produced Irreverence Is Our Right:
Monologues by Women of Color. Spotted by CBS
radio, she became the host of The Virgie Show, a
show on sex and relationships on 106.9FM. She is
pursuing her Master’s degree in Human Sexuality
Studies at San Francisco State University. www.
virgietovar.weebly.com.
No Restrictions • 45
Femme 2010
ONGOING
Conference Schedule
OCC 205
OCC East Hall ENTRANCE
Childcare
Art Show
Vendor Fair
FRIDAY
OCC EAST HALL
OCC 201
OCC 202
OCC 203
OCC 204
9am-10:15am
FEMBODY Flash Mob
Movement Workshop
FREE Session
Non-Violent
Communication
FREE Session
FREE Session
10:30am-11:45am
TechFemme: Femme Blogging & Social Media
Read Between the Lines: A
Hands-On Guide to Sexy
Sign Language(SSL)
PolyFemmory: Living,
Loving, and Fucking as Poly
and Femme
Show Production 101
FREE Session
12:00pm-1:00pm
Lunch break
Lunch break
Lunch break
Lunch break
Lunch break
1:15pm-2:30pm
Country-Western Two-Step
Workshop
Wild Geese: Femme
Surviviors Write
May I Kiss You?: Sexual
Communication & Consent
Red Hots Burlesque
School of Shimmy
My Kind of Crazy: Femmes
confront the stigma & stereotypes at the intersections
of queer femininity, mental
illness, & other identities
2:45pm-4:00pm
Quit Fucking Taking Us For
Granted: How to Survive the
Movement as a Femme
How Fat Women of Color
Queer Femme
Singing as Social Justice
Our Power Is Larger
Than Our Size: Making
Visible Queer Femme
Disordered Eating
FREE Session
4:15pm-5:15pm
OPENING REMARKS
6:00pm-9:00pm
Welcome Reception
Femmes on Fire: Spoken Word & Stand Up Performances @ City Center Grill
9:00pm-12:30pm
OFFSITE: Friday Night Lights: Line Dancing, Music & a Risque Cabaret!
Oakland Metro Opera House, 630 3rd St, Oakland
SATURDAY
OCC EAST HALL
OCC 201
OCC 202
OCC 203
OCC 204
9am-10:15am
Starting the Revolution
from Within: How to Use
Meditation to Heal and Fuck
Shit Up!
Embodying Dialogue: A
Creative Exploration of
Femme
Talk Back! Responding
to Anti-Femme and AntiButch Comments Within
LGBTQ Communities
RAW DIVINE! - Honoring
Your Femme Spirit! - sacred
space workshop-
FREE Session
10:30am-11:45am
Enabling What?- Femmes
talk about Disability, Gender
and Sexuality: poetry, and
conversation with Fabled Asp
Femmes & Aging
Pastie Making
Queer Femme Porn Panel
Positively Lovely
12:00pm-1:00pm
Femmes Over 40 Caucus/
Lunch Break
Femmes of Color Caucus/ Lunch Break
Femme Trans Women
Caucus/ Lunch Break
BDSM Femmes/ Lunch
Break
Poor/Working Class Femmes
Caucus/ Lunch Break
1:15pm-2:30pm
KEYNOTE: Kate Bornstein
2:45pm-4:00pm
Featured Film
Diagnosing Difference
Creating Women of Color
Spaces: Ownership and
Intentionality/The Color
of Femme
The Money is Out There
for the Femme Revolution:
Grassroots Fundraising for
Work and Play
Femme Mamas
Femme Kings: Performing
Maleness Onstage
4:15pm-5:30pm
Sexual (R)Evolution: Exploring the Interconnectedness
of Race, Sex, Violence and
Pleasure for Queer Women
of Color
How-to for entrepreneurial femmes
Film Panel- Filmmaker
Fairies, Dandies and Fancy
Boys: Variations on Femme
BITCH, I wanna Fuck You!
8:00pm - 1:00am
OFFSITE: Glitterati: An Evening of Fierce Femme Sparkling Entertainment!
Oakland Metro Opera House, 630 3rd St, Oakland
SUNDAY
OCC EAST HALL
9am-11:00am
Short Film Festival
11:15am-12:30am
OCC 201
OCC 202
OCC 203
OCC 204
Film Festival Panel
Strap-On Satisfaction: A
Femme’s Guide to Giving
and Receiving Pleasure
Minding the Cleavage: A
Cross Generational Dialog
White Privilege
Community Accountability Approaches to Violence
Against Femmes
12:30pm-1:30pm
Lunch Break
Lunch Break
Lunch Break
Lunch Break
Lunch Break
1:30pm-2:30pm
KEYNOTE: Moki Macias
2:45pm-4:00pm
Tough Girls: A Celebration
of Tomboys, Rough Girls &
Gender-Queer Femmes/The
GenderFucked Femme
Dress and Express: Exploring Body Image and Selfexpression Through Fashion
Self-Identification Begins
in the Womb
Tips for a World Class
Marriage/Relationship
FREE Session
CLOSING PLENARY
4:15pm-5:15pm
46
• Femme2010
No Restrictions • 47
?
Faces of
The Femme
Collective,
organizers of
Femme2010
Who’s Missing? YOU!!
See pg 10 for information on
getting involved to organize
Femme2012