Kenney Mencher

 

Everett Quinton (1951 - 2023)

QUEER|ART EVENTS: February 2023

We’ve been deeply saddened to learn of the recent passing of Everett Quinton, a mentor in our community and a legend of queer theater. Everett, a decades-long presence in the New York theater scene, passed away in January at the age of 71. He was a mentor in the inaugural year of the Queer|Art|Mentorship program, 2011-2012, with his work beginning decades earlier in the 1970s, when he met his partner and collaborator Charles Ludlam. After starring in works at the Ridiculous Theatrical Company, he managed it for a decade after Ludlam's death due to AIDS-related pneumonia in 1987. In the years since, he led many revivals of the company's productions, and starred in and directed dozens of theatrical and film and television productions.  “Everett was a theatrical genius and also one of the sweetest, most gentle, and funniest people I’ve ever known,” Queer|Art’s Founding Director Ira Sachs reflects. “At Queer|Art, he was both a treasured connection to the history of queer theater—and specifically to the profound originality of Charles Ludlam, his great love and for whom Everett was his greatest muse—but also someone who never stopped living and creating in the present. He loved live theater and he devoted his entire life to its creation. I grieve to know that I will never laugh with Everett again or be witness to his brilliance and beauty on the stage.”   The Sorrows of Dolores by Charles Ludlam (1987) In 2010, Queer|Art helped Everett restore two long-lost 16mm films—The Sorrows of Dolores (starring Everett in the title role) and Museum of Wax—by Charles Ludlam that had been lately rediscovered in a closet in Everett’s apartment. The two films (originally produced in 1987) were screened at Queer|Art|Film in 2010 (presented by Anohni). The original 16mm film prints and new digital masters are now archived with the Legacy Project at the UCLA Film & Television Archive and will be preserved for generations to come. You can watch both films here.   Read more about Quinton's life and work here, here, and here, and more announcements/events for February below. —Evan Scott, Newsletter Editor

Everett Quinton (1951 - 2023) in the 1998 production of “The Mystery of Irma Vep" (photo by James Estrin)

Applications Close Feb. 15th:   The Robert Giard Grant for Emerging LGBTQ+ Photographers and The Barbara Hammer Grant for Lesbian Experimental Filmmakers

Queer|Art is proud to accept applications for two annual grants: The Robert Giard Grant for Emerging LGBTQ+ Photographers and The Barbara Hammer Lesbian Experimental Filmmaking Grant. The Robert Giard Grant for Emerging LGBTQ+ Photographers supports the creation of work by photographers whose projects address issues of sexuality, gender, or LGBTQ+ identity. With support from The Robert Giard Foundation, the international grant provides an award of $10,000 for the winner, and $1250 for four finalists, to support the creation of new work by emerging LGBTQ+ photographers. Named in honor of photographer Robert Giard (1939-2002), a portrait, landscape, and figure photographer whose work focused on LGBTQ+ lives and issues, the grant focuses on supporting emerging LGBTQ+ photographers who document, depict, and interrogate past and present LGBTQ+ cultures. This grant is made possible entirely through support provided by The Robert Giard Foundation. This year's judges include Lola Flash, Ariel Goldberg, Leandro Justen, Logan MacDonald, and Benjy Russell. Applications close February 15, 2023. Apply below! The Barbara Hammer Lesbian Experimental Filmmaking Grant is an annual grant 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 (1939-2019) 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's judges include Taylor Renee Aldridge, Nazlı Dinçel, and Lourdes Portillo. The grant includes an award of $7,000. Applications close February 15th, 2023. Apply below!

Left: Images by Robert Giard, via the Robert Giard Foundation. Right: Details of film stills by Barbara Hammer, via the artist's estate

RESOURCES FOR RACIAL JUSTICE & UPCOMING DEADLINES

2020 Black Trans Liberation March, Brooklyn NY (image by Stephanie Keith)

Looking through our Racial Justice Resources page, here's a pick for February: TransformHarm.org -  A resource hub for ending violence. Offers an introduction to transformative justice. Created by Mariame Kaba and designed by Lu Design Studio, it includes selected articles, audio-visual resources, curricula, and more. And two highlights from our list of Upcoming Deadlines for Artists: The Playwrights Realm Writing Fellowship - The Fellowship Program awards four early-career playwrights with nine months of resources, workshops and feedback designed to help them reach their professional and artistic goals. Deadline: February 13th New Voices Filmmaker Grant - Supports emerging LGBTQ+ directors by providing funding to make new work, assisting in getting their work more widely shared, and propelling their careers forward through mentorship, networking and professional development. Deadline: February 28th For more, check out our Community Resources, including COVID-19 Artist Resources.

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THIS MONTH'S EVENTS AND ACCESSIBLE  ARTWORKS BY QUEER|ART ARTISTS

Mashuq Mushtaq Deen Jan. 31st - Feb. 19th: Flood Performance (KC): Kansas City Repertory Theatre presents the world premiere of Multi-year QAM Mentor Mashuq Mushtaq Deen's Flood, which was originally scheduled to premiere as part of OriginKC: New Works Festival in 2020. An apartment on the 19th floor. Edith has been waiting for Darren to finish his amazing-fantastic-wonderful project for a while now. The kids don’t call enough, and when they do, they seem full of accusations. All she wants — it’s not too much to ask, is it? — is to sit and have some tea with her husband, someday, when he’s done with building his masterpiece. Meanwhile, outside their apartment, the waters are rising, rising, rising… More here.

Angelo Madsen Minax Feb. 4th - May 21st: A Crisis of Human Contact Exhibition (East Sussex): De La Warr Pavilion is pleased to present A Crisis of Human Contact, the first major institutional exhibition of Multi-year QAM Mentor Angelo Madsen Minax, whose practice spans essay and documentary filmmaking, narrative cinema, installation, music, performance, print media, text, and objects. The exhibition will host an artist talk and theatrical screening on February 6th, and is curated by Joseph Constable with an exhibition publication written by Jill Casid. More here.

virgil b/g taylor Feb. 4th: zur Entwicklung der Jüdenstraße (zEdJ) Event (Berlin): 2017 QAM Fellow virgil b/g taylor’s zur Entwicklung der Jüdenstraße (zEdJ) (Toward the Development of Jüdenstraße) will be presented at KW Institute for Contemporary Art's POGO Bar. The hybrid screening/reading/exhibition centers on Jüdenstraße in Berlin-Mitte, a central intersection of Berlin and focus of a development plan aiming to urbanize the area that bears the same name and physical scope it has had since the 13th century. More here. taylor's Fag Tips for Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst is also being presented at GAK through March 3rd. More here.

Sasha Wortzel Feb. 4th - May 7th: Thick as Mud Exhibition (Seattle): Henry Art Gallery presents Thick as Mud, a group exhibition exploring how mud animates relationships between people and place through the work of eight artists, including 2013 QAM Fellow Sasha Wortzel. Across the artworks, mud becomes an agent of time and transformation and a medium of decomposition and creation. The show tracks the afterlives of violence against people and the environment while also evoking the potential for regeneration. More here.

Avram Finkelstein Feb. 5th, 3pm ET: Satanic Panic book launch / discussion Publication/Event (NYC): Join the Bureau of General Services–Queer Division for the final day of Catalina Schliebener Muñoz‘s exhibition, Satanic Panic, and for the launch of their book on the Satanic Panic series. Cata will be joined in conversation by Multi-year QAM Mentor Avram Finkelstein, who also contributed an essay to the publication. The series references the moral panic that originated in the US in the 1980s surrounding Disney's The Little Mermaid, and spread through many parts of the world in the 1990s, including the artist's home country of Chile. More on the event and book here.

Jeffrey Gibson Through Feb. 7th: Copland Dance Episodes Performance (NYC): Current QAM Mentor Jeffrey Gibson has collaborated on the visual design of Justin Peck's Copland Dance Episodes at the New York City Ballet. Gibson contributes the promotional poster and two massive fabric drops, for the opening and closing of the abstract new ballet at Lincoln Center. More on the performance here and on the collaboration here.

Thomas Allen Harris Feb. 8th / 12th / 22nd: Three events in February Publication/Event (NYC): Multi-year QAM Mentor Thomas Allen Harris will participate in three events this month: First, on Feb. 8th, Finding Your Roots: Genealogy & The Next Generation, a virtual conversation. More here. Then, on Feb. 12th, Family Pictures Institute for Inclusive Storytelling (FPIIS) and the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh will co-host a special Community PhotoShare event with Harris. More here. Finally, on Feb. 22nd, Wesleyan History department will host a panel discussion, Filmmaking, Biography, & History in Making 'Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space’: A Panel Discussion with the Filmmakers. More here.

Stacy Szymaszek Famous Hermits Feb. 11th and Feb. 22nd: Readings in Hudson and NYC Publication: Archway Editions presents Famous Hermits, the seventh book of poetry by Multi-year QAM Mentor Stacy Szymaszek. In the book, Szymaszek departs from the annual journal form of her past three books yet still adheres to the belief that the potential for revelatory and revolutionary transformation exists in the power we have, when we claim autonomy, to organize the fabric of our day to day lives. More here. Two readings in February, the first at TSL in Hudson on Feb. 11th, more forthcoming here, and then at The Poetry Project with Lucy Ives on Feb. 22nd, more forthcoming here.

Melissa Li Feb. 11th - 19th: MISS STEP Performance (WA): The Village Theatre will present a beta production of 2013 QAM Fellow Melissa Li and Kit Yan's new musical, MISS STEP. Pam Carter is an unremarkable trans woman, working as a toll collector on the New Jersey turnpike. When a family tragedy uncovers her late father’s secret passion for competitive aerobics, Pam decides to step into her father’s sneakers and vault herself on a remarkable journey. This sweet, fun, 80’s throwback musical is a comedy for family members of all ages and genders. So slap on that spandex and get ready to clap your hands for MISS STEP! More here and here.

C. Finley Queer Love: Affection and Romance in Contemporary Art Feb. 14th - April 28th: Lehman College Art Gallery Feb. 18th - April 6th: La MaMA Galleria Exhibitions (NYC): Just in time for Valentine's Day, Lehman College Art Gallery and La MaMA Galleria present Queer Love: Affection and Romance in Contemporary Art. Works by 48 artists celebrate queer carnality, camaraderie, and passion—not rigid interpretations of our existence culled from the heterosexual imagination, but pictures and objects produced by every stripe of LGBTQIA+ within our polychromatic, ever-expanding spectrum. Among the artists participating are QAM/QA Awards family including David Antonio Cruz, C. Finley, Samantha Nye, and Catherine Opie. More info at Lehman here (opening Feb. 14th, 5pm!) and La MaMa (opening Feb. 18th, 6pm!) here.

Doron Langberg Feb. 16th - Feb. 19th: Exhibition at Frieze Los Angeles Exhibition (LA): Victoria Miro presents a solo presentation of new paintings by 2016 QAM Fellow Doron Langberg for Frieze Los Angeles. Prominent among a new generation of figurative painters, Langberg creates works that, luminous in colour and often large in scale, celebrate the physicality of touch – in subject matter and process. More