Stage Door News
Stage Door News
The Bi Arts Festival today announced an exciting lineup of artists,
authors and performers for the second annual festival, September
18-23, 2018, Toronto.
Toronto’s second annual Bi Arts Festival is the world’s largest
celebration of bisexual voices in art and culture and runs from
September 18th to 23rd, 2018. The festival welcomes a diverse
roster of artists to Toronto, including Vancouver playwright
Katie Sly,
Kingston’s former Poet Laureate
Eric Folsom,
Cleveland poet-performer
Eris Eady,
Ojibway multi-disciplinary artist, filmmaker and stand-up
comic
JL Whitecrow,
textile artist
Yahn Nemirovsky,
and spoken word artist and author
Mugabi Byenkya,
amongst others.
“Not only does the festival exist to showcase work by bisexual,
pansexual, and other fluid artists,” says festival founder
Catherine Jones,
“but we look for work that takes risks and that is challenging.
Certainly, some of the work we present is playful but some of it is
also deeply personal and at times quite uncomfortable.” She adds,
“as a community we are starved for authentic representations of
bisexuality, because although bisexuals make up the largest slice
of the pie that is the LGBTQ+ community, our stories are often
invisible. We exist in an in-between space and that makes people
nervous. Bisexuals are not considered queer enough for LGBTQ+
spaces but in society at large, coming out as bisexual usually
means reactions ranging from disbelief, to titillation, to a deep
mistrust.”
The festival kicks off Tuesday, September 18th with the launch of
Issue 2 of our zine
CRUSH,
and runs through Sunday, September 23rd with six days of vibrant
and original programming. The festival presents visual art, craft,
storytelling, performance, theatre, video, dance and film with over
90 participating artists and performers.
The full calendar of events is available on our website by
and a
list of artists is available here.
Some highlights:
In her one-woman show
Womannish: Redefining Womanhood in a World that Won’t Make
Room
writer, poet, and advocate
Eris Eady
has an aggressively delicate conversation with herself about the
complexities of showing up in this world as Black, bisexual and
mostly cisgender.
We’re also joined by playwright, performer, and author
Katie Sly
who will share a special workshop presentation of their new work in
development -
How to Self-Suspend,
an X-rated narrative developed in part during a two-day in-studio
residency with the Bi Arts Festival. Part photo-essay, part rope
bondage demonstration, this performance looks at Katie’s existence
in three cities: their childhood being raised in instability and
violence in Montréal, their ecstasy and injury in the Toronto BDSM
community, and
their year living on the edge of Vancouver’s Downtown East
Side.
This solo performance explores the impact of long-endured trauma,
and how that trauma shapes what feels normal, digs into
internalized rage and enacts revenge fantasies.
How To Self-Suspend
candidly excavates the challenges of isolation and
recklessness.
Visual artists
Amanda Amour-Lynx,
Alyssa Pisciotto,
Claire Davis,
Samantha Jones, Lynx Sainte-Marie Ciel,
Jonathan Rollins,
and
Yahn Nemirovsky
take over the Beaver Hall Gallery (29 McCaul Street) with work that
explores themes of bi erasure, desire and embodiment, colonization,
and the shifting borders between art, craft and zine culture. They
are joined by another ten artists from the Bi Arts zine
CRUSH
at the Glory Hole Gallery (at Glad Day Bookshop, 499 Church
Street).
On Friday, September 21st, collectors are invited to the postcard
show “SWITCH”
at Beaver Hall Gallery. For only $40 visitors can purchase an
original postcard-sized work of art from an emerging or established
artist - but they won’t know whose work they have selected
until
after their purchase
as all items are displayed anonymously and signed only on the back.
It’s the postcard show with a secret!
Cabaret
(Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Avenue) Hamilton-based
singer-songwriter
Shanika Maria
performs songs of identity, empowerment and expectation, alongside
a comedy set from
JL Whitecrow
who explores the concept of “Indian-ness” as it seeps into her
everyday experiences as a hip, ambitious, and highly creative
artist that escaped the Rez for a better life. JL blends stand-up
comedy, prose, and performance art for an intimate, yet
uncomfortable look at living as a First Nations woman that is never
Indian enough. Toronto- and Kampala-based spoken word artist
Mugabi Byenkya
shares a set of new work, and is joined by burlesque and drag
sensations
Bianca Boom Boom
and
Beauregard Deville.
And there’s so much more! In addition to the music and
performances, a wide range of vendors will be present at our
Handmade Market at Trinity St. Paul’s United Church,
on Saturday, September 22nd, selling jewellery, art, zines, badges,
candles, bags, and more.
FESTIVAL PROGRAM, BIOS and TICKETS at
2018-08-22
Toronto: The Bi Arts Festival running September 18-23 announces its 2018 program