Kenney Mencher

 

Click here to view in your browser

2012-2013 QAM Fellow Sasha Wortzel, still of adtivist Sylvia Rivera in "This Is an Address," 2019 Streaming September 12th-15th via the Open City Documentary Festival   QUEER|ART EVENTS: SEPTEMBER 2020 This month, applications are open for two grants at Queer|Art: the Eva Yaa Asantewaa Grant For Queer Women(+) Dance Artists and the Barbara Hammer Grant for Lesbian Experimental Filmmakers. And it's not too late to help us support, with GLITS, the family of Merci Mack with the Merci Mack Memorial Fund. Plus, online, you can catch the film This Is an Address, by 2012-2013 QAM Fellow Sasha Wortzel (via the Open City Documentary Festival, September 12th-15th), a live performance by Current QAM Fellow Olaiya Olayemi (via the BESPOKE Reading Series, September 16th, 8pm ET), 8 films by 2020-2021 QAM Mentor Angelo Madsen Minax (via the Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival, starting September 17th), and a work-in-progress showing of Current QAM Fellow Sarah Sanders' show In My Name (via Zoom on September 24th).   And don't forget: on our site, we now have a dedicated page for Community Resources, including COVID-19 Artist Resources, as well as the Queer|Art|Mentorship Giving Circle, to provide direct financial aid to QAM Artists who need help covering their basic needs during the pandemic.   More on these, accessible work and September events below! APPLICATIONS DUE OCTOBER 4TH! THE EVA YAA ASANTEWAA GRANT FOR QUEER WOMEN(+) DANCE ARTISTS Hollerin Space, 2019 Eva Yaa Asantewaa Grant Winner. HOTFOOT THEORIZING: cotton step Still, work in progress Apply now for the $7k Grant, to be judged this year by Torya Beard, Ni’Ja Whitson, and Leah Wilks. The Eva Yaa Asantewaa Grant for Queer Women(+) Dance Artists is a $7,000 grant awarded to US-based artists for making cutting-edge dance and movement-based performance work. Queer|Art strongly encourages self-identified women, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary artists to apply. Named in honor of visionary dance curator, critic, and educator Eva Yaa Asantewaa, the grant seeks to highlight the important contributions queer women and nonbinary artists have made to dance throughout history. Within the application process, funds can be requested to support work at any stage of development, from concept to presentation. Qualifying work may be dance and/or movement-based performance work of any format. The awardee will be announced in December 2020. “With this award, we seek to record and honor the creative innovation and labor of queer women and nonbinary dance artists.  To support and revere our artists for exactly and completely who they are; so they know a fierce community of peers, elders, and ancestors has got their back; and to make our world a safer, more empowering place for queer artists and, in truth, for all artists and for all people.” — Eva Yaa Asantewaa For questions, email Yaa Asantewaa Grant Manager Bree Breeden at bbreeden@queer-art.org.  Learn more and apply here! APPLICATIONS DUE OCTOBER 31ST! THE BARBARA HAMMER LESBIAN EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKING GRANT Barbara Hammer, "On the Road, Big Sur, California, 1975," 2017 Apply now for the $7k Grant, to be judged this year by Gelare Khoshgozaran, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, and Deborah Stratman. The Barbara Hammer Lesbian Experimental Filmmaking Grant is an annual grant that will be awarded to self-identified lesbians for making visionary moving-image art. Work can be experimental animation, experimental documentary, experimental narrative, cross-genre, or solely experimental. Applicants must be based in the U.S. This grant was established by Barbara Hammer in 2017 to give needed support to moving-image art made by lesbians. The grant is supported directly by funds provided by Hammer’s estate and administered through Queer|Art by lesbians for lesbians, with a rotating panel of judges. This year Queer|Art is pleased to announce the grant has increased to $7,000. “It has been the goal of my life to put a lesbian lifestyle on the screen. Why? Because when I started I couldn’t find any! ...I picked up a camera in the 60s, late 60s, made Super 8, 8mm, finally went to school and got a 16mm camera.  Made 13 films in two and a half years. All experimental. Because I think that as a lesbian at that time I was living an experimental lifestyle. Well let’s just say, I was experimenting.  And I still am.  And I think that lesbian film really calls out for experimental work. ...Working as a lesbian filmmaker in the 70s wasn’t easy in the social structure — the educational institution that I was in. It was difficult. And I want this grant to make it easier for lesbians of today.  So you can make work that you want to make.” — Barbara Hammer For questions, email Barbara Hammer Grant Manager Vanessa Haroutunian at vharoutunian@queer-art.org Learn more and apply here! ALMOST AT $85K! THE MERCI MACK MEMORIAL FUND On June 30th, 2020, Merci Mack, a 22-year-old Black transgender woman was killed in Dallas, Texas. Merci was adored by her friends and had a loving and supportive family—they are deeply heartbroken by this tragedy and are asking for support from the community during this difficult time. Queer|Art has partnered with GLITS to launch this campaign to support Merci's family and fundraise for the long road ahead towards their recovery. We are incredibly grateful for the immense support we've already experienced; this campaign has already fulfilled its initial goal of $50K! Unfortunately, Merci’s family is still living less than 1,000 feet from where her life was taken, which has made their healing process tremendously painful. So we are stretching our goal to $100K, in the hopes we can secure safe housing and a better living situation for Merci’s family, free from unnecessary reminders of such a traumatic loss. Help us reach this new goal– all donations will receive a special edition artwork from artist Keijaun Thomas, with additional access for donations of $100 or more. This fund aims to cover funeral expenses, mental health needs and grief counseling, rent assistance, the costs of moving, and to support Merci's family as they continue to seek justice for Merci. All funds collected through this fundraiser will be withdrawn to Merci's sister. Please donate here and share widely! THIS MONTH'S EVENTS, AND ACCESSIBLE ARTWORKS BY QUEER|ART ARTISTS Kate Bornstein Through September 2nd, 3am ET: Two Eyes Current QAM Mentor Kate Bornstein is part of the ensemble cast of Two Eyes, a feature film directed by Travis Fine, world-premiering at the Outfest Los Angeles Film Festival in drive-through format and online, streaming through September 2nd, 3am ET. The film weaves three narratives together: 19th century Montana, 1970s California, and present day Wyoming, creating a gorgeous ode to embracing love, sexuality, gender, and life in all of their beautiful expressions. More info and stream here James Lecesne September 4th, 7pm ET: FPOW Slam & Open Mic The Future Perfect Project (co-founded by Multi-year QAM Mentor James Lecesne) presents the FPOW (Future Project Online Workshop) Slam and Open Mic!  Check out what participating queer and allied young people have been working on in online workshops since March, live on Youtube, September 4th at 7pm ET. The Future Perfect Project makes safe spaces for LGBTQ+ Youth (Ages 13-19) & Allies to express themselves through the arts, connect with one another, and amplify their voices. More info here and on Youtube here Deborah Kass  September 10th - December 26th: Deborah Kass: Painting and Sculpture Kavi Gupta presents Deborah Kass: Painting and Sculpture, the gallery’s inaugural solo exhibition with 2011-2012 QAM Mentor Deborah Kass. Pairing a new body of work with select historical pieces, the exhibition creates an unflinching examination of the American condition before and during the Trump presidency. On view September 10th - December 26th. More here Sasha Wortzel September 12th-15th: This Is an Address Through September 27th: Idioms and Taxonomies  2012-2013 QAM Fellow Sasha Wortzel's film, This Is an Address, will stream as part of the Open City Documentary Festival. The film interweaves a 1995 interview with trans activist Sylvia Rivera and unhoused LGBTQ+ folks, with recent documentation of the same Christopher Street Piers area as it is redeveloped as a “cultural corridor” populated by art museums and luxury condos. A Q&A  will follow the stream. Available September 12th-15th. The film is also nominated for the festival's International Short Film Award. More here Wortzel's work can also be seen in Idioms and Taxonomies, a group exhibition in Miami by Oolite artists-in-residence whose practices investigate the dual roles of personal and cultural histories. Through Sept 27th, more here Hao Wu September 14th-17th: 76 Days 76 Days, co-directed by Current QAM Mentor Hao Wu (with Weixi Chen and Anonymous), will premier in-person and streaming (in Canada only) at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 14th-17th. Raw and intimate, the documentary captures the struggles of patients and frontline medical professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan. More info here Queer|Art|Film September 14th: Andre DeShields presents CABIN IN THE SKY Queer|Art|Film Club returns this fall! Organized by curators Adam Baran and Heather Lynn Johnson, this special “stay-at-home” season of the long-running screening series has been reformatted in the style of a digital book club: viewers are invited to watch films on their own before joining guest presenters online for an interactive discussion. This month, celebrated Broadway icon Andre DeShields (THE WIZ, AIN’T MISBEHAVIN and HADESTOWN) presents Vincente Minnelli's 1943 musical CABIN IN THE SKY. More info forthcoming here Olaiya Olayemi September 16th, 8pm ET: BESPOKE Reading Series Current QAM Fellow Olaiya Olayemi will read for the BESPOKE Reading Series, to help support Make the Road NY -- the largest progressive grassroots immigrant-led organization in New York state. BESPOKE is an all queer, all genre reading series, based at the Bureau of General Services – Queer Division (but virtual this time!), co-curated by Jerome Ellison Murphy, Tim Murphy, and 2016-2017 QAM Fellow Christina Quintana (CQ). More info here and sign up to join the Zoom here Angelo Madsen Minax September 17th - October 11th: Filmmaker in Focus at the Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2020-2021 QAM Mentor Angelo Madsen Minax has been named a 2020 Filmmaker in Focus for the Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival in Scotland. The festival will stream 8 films by the artist, spanning from 2012-2020, as well as live-streamed Q&A's. September 17th - October 11th. More info here  Camilo Godoy / Catherine Opie September 18th - December 19th: States of Mind Work by 2012-2013 QAM Fellow Camilo Godoy and 2017 Sustained Achievement Award Winner Catherine Opie can be seen in the group exhibition States of Mind: Art and American Democracy at Rice University's Moody Center for the Arts in Houston. Reflecting on some of the most pressing topics facing American democracy, the show is timed to coincide with the 2020 presidential election in order to encourage dialogue around current social and political issues. More info here