ALLIANCE EVENTS
AIDS Diva: The Legend of Connie Norman
Long Beach QFilms Festival
September 8-11, 2022, Long Beach
Director: Dante Alencastre
Seizing her power as she confronts her mortality, trailblazing trans activist Connie Norman evolves as an irrepressible, challenging and soulful voice for the AIDS and queer communities of early 90’s Los Angeles. Duration: 62 minutes.
=====
Transmutation: A Ceremony
November 21, 2021
Zoom
Mirror Memoirs is proud to present “Transmutation: A Ceremony,” a theater performance featuring our sacred storytellers Samantha Jo Dato, Ebony Ava Harper, Alexandra Magallon and Sydney Rogers. This production, supporting these four Black and Afro-Latinx transgender, non-binary and intersex survivors of child sexual abuse to share their true stories of survival, and their visions of healing and the world we need and deserve, was written and directed by Luna Merbruja and Amita Swadhin, with additional writing by Jaden Fields.
This performance is supported in part by an arts grant from the City of West Hollywood, additional grants from the California LGBT Arts Alliance, Asian Women Giving Circle, Jenny Phillips Future Freedoms Fund, and Tory Burch Foundation, and donations from numerous individuals.
Tickets are free, but we are still raising donations to cover the production costs.
AIDS Diva: The Legend of Connie Norman
A Film by Dante Alencastre
Cinema Diverse
Palm Springs Cultural Center Showing: Saturday, 18 September
The number and range of people involved in the struggle against AIDS is larger and wider than we can possibly know. It’s proven once again by this intriguing portrait of Connie Norman, a local LA activist who worked tirelessly to make a difference. Director Dante Alencastre deftly handles this portrait of a political figure whose HIV diagnosis spurred her eloquent rage against complacency, hatred and denial as the AIDS virus ravaged the queer community. Yet Norman is also shown as a nuanced early spokesperson for trans rights, raising her head high above the parapet and creating an unbreakable bridge between sexuality and gender that we are still crossing today.
ALLIANCE EVENTS: 2020
The Papi Project- Multimedia Virtual Presentation and Panel
by Oliverio Rodriguez and California LGBT Arts Alliance
Saturday, September 19, 2020 at 2 PM – 4:15 PM
The Papi Project is an interdisciplinary project including public collaborative performances, videos, photography, archival images, 3D photographs and writing. This project investigates a simultaneous absence of my Papi (dad) and an examination of the AIDS pandemic in 1980/90s with working poor men of color and queer family.
This program is supported by a grant from the City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division.
@wehoarts
Facebook Link
Eventbrite Info & Tickets
ALLIANCE EVENTS: 2019
ALLIANCE FUNDRAISER
BEHOLD! AIDS DIVA: THE LEGEND OF CONNIE NORMAN
FRIDAY JUNE 28, 2019 @ 8:30 PM – 10:30 PM
A special fundraiser screening of this 2018 documentary on the late AIDS Activist and LGBTQ media spokesperson, Connie Norman. Co-presented as a fundraiser by California LGBT ARTS ALLIANCE and Highways Performance Space 30th Anniversary BEHOLD! Series
As the self-appointed “AIDS DIVA” and ACT UP/LA spokesperson in early 90’s Los Angeles, Connie Norman stood proudly in her multiple, fluid and evolving LGBTQ identities. Both beloved and confrontational, Connie’s soulful and salty rantings and intersectional politics were heard widely through her newspaper column, and pioneering radio and cable TV talk shows. Serving as a bridge in both gender and politics, and modeling “wokeness” in an early era of crisis, Connie’s piercing and compassionate voice urges us again into action, to fully engage with our lives and our world.
Honoree
The Alliance is also pleased to be honoring filmmaker ARTHUR DONG this evening with its inaugural Trail Blazer Award.
Arthur Dong is an Oscar®-nominated and triple Sundance award-winning filmmaker, author and curator whose work centers on Asian American and LGBTQ stories. His films that investigate anti-gay prejudice include Family Fundamentals, Licensed to Kill, and Coming Out Under Fire. His films about Asian Americans include Sewing Woman, Forbidden City, USA, Hollywood Chinese, and The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor.
Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/events/389139081675773/
Highways Performance Link: https://highwaysperformance.org/event/aids-diva-the-legend-of-connie-norman/
Rear Opening
A Performance Tribute to the Gutter Art of Stephen Varble
photo by: Greg Day
Saturday, May 11, 2019 | 3:30pm – 5:00pm
ONE Gallery, West Hollywood
626 North Robertson Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90069
PUBLIC LECTURE by Curator David J. Getsy:
“Rubbish and Dreams: The Genderqueer Performance Art of Stephen Varble in 1970s New York”
Photo by: Greg Day
Lecture sponsored by the California LGBT Arts Alliance in conjunction with the Varble Exhibit at the ONE Gallery,
The Gutter Art of Stephen Varble: Genderqueer Performance in the 1970s, Photographs by Greg Day.
April 13, 2019 at 2 – 4:30 pm at West Hollywood City Council Chambers, West Hollywood, CA.
Q & A with David Getsy after lecture. Reception to follow.
Parking free at the library structure with validation.
Read More and Get Tickets to Rubbish and Dreams
Raising Zoey Film Screenings, 2019
Directed by Dante Alencastre
13 year-old trans activist Zoey Luna wants nothing more than to simply go to school, learn, have fun with her friends in Downey, CA. Unfortunately, ignorance and intolerance have not always made this easy. With the help of her mother Ofelia, her older sister Leticia and the ACLU, Zoey fought school officials for her right to self-identify in school. Even in the face of bullying and endless teasing from both school officials and students, Zoey determinedly continues to live her life as she is and tells her story in the hopes of helping others persevere in living their authentic lives.
Feb 9, 2019
5:30 – 8:30 pm
Bagdouma Community Center
City of Coachella, 92236
This will also be shown in San Diego, April 2, 2019
The Gutter Art of Stephen Varble:
Genderqueer Performance Art in 1970’s photographs by Greg Day
Curated by David J. Getsy
ONE Gallery, West Hollywood, March 1 – May 17
photo courtesy of Greg Day Archive
I met Stephen Varble at the Spike Bar in Chelsea in 1975. We became friends and I spent two years photographing his life, studio and public performances. I was captivated by Stephen’s visual and performance art and he greatly inspired my photography. At that time I was a graduate student in cultural anthropology at Rutgers. Following field research protocols, I collected everything about him including personal letters, fliers, newsletters and costumes.
I left New York in 1976. Stephen died of AIDS in 1984. There was no mention of him until 2015 when I received an email from historian David Getsy. David was researching Stephen’s life and had found very limited resources in public archives, a frequent problem in LGBT history. Fortunately, I had kept everything and was delighted to be included in his research process. I discovered that my personal collection was an essential resource for the project. I also learned that Stephen’s pioneer work as a Genderqueer artist, critic of America culture and of the arts establishment, remains very relevant today.
Historian and curator David Getsy has done an amazing job of researching and reconstructing Stephen’s life/art and his importance in the Avant Guard and Queer art scene of 70’s New York. Stephen Varble has returned to our lives and our history thanks to Dr. Getsy and the personal collections that have made his research possible. Every person who collects our community’s history creates a potential resource for research. Collect it, keep it and share it!
~ Greg Day
Gutter Art: The Genderqueer Performance Art of Stephen Varble in 1970s New York
lecture by art historian David J. Getsy
April 13, West Hollywood
David J. Getsy’s talk explores performance artist, playwright, and fashion designer Stephen Varble (1946–1984), who was a fixture on the streets of SoHo in the 1970s, but whose ephemeral practice has largely gone unrecognized in histories of art. His guerrilla practice aimed at disruption — of commerce, of gender roles, and of the institutions of art and celebrity. In elaborate sculptural garments made of street trash, Varble held unauthorized gallery tours through SoHo and protest performances in banks, Fifth Avenue stores, and in the street.
‘COLOR BONITA’ Connects Audiences With Queer Latino Experience
‘Color Bonita’, a new media art performance piece by artist Christopher Ramirez, in collaboration with Phoenix Toews, premiers at the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Village at Ed Gould Plaza’s Ronberg Theater on Saturday, January 19, 7PM-10PM.
‘Color Bonita’ began several years ago as an ethnographic art project in Los Angeles, California. Over 100 initial conversations occurred over a two year period in various locations throughout Los Angeles County with Latino men who identified as gay, homosexual, bisexual, men “on the down-low” (on the DL) and men who have with sex men (MSM). ‘Color Bonita’ is a collection of voices from 29 of these recorded interviews focusing on the Latino family, the Catholic Church, homophobia, machismo, and racism.
ALLIANCE EVENTS: 2018
Sponsored Alliance events:
July 29, 2018 (Los Angeles)
LA Made: Screening of “Raising Zoey” + Panel Discussion
Hosted by Los Angeles Public Library
Central Library – Mark Taper Auditorium
630 West 5th Street, Los Angeles, California 90071
https://www.facebook.com/events/627452234278996/
Produced Alliance events:
July 17, 2018 (Los Angeles)
OutfestLA
California LGBT Arts Alliance
AIDS Diva: the legend of Connie Norman
Plaza de la Raza
3540 N Mission Rd, Los Angeles, California 90031
https://www.facebook.com/events/204015306906820/
June 23, 2018 (Pacoima)
California LGBT Arts Alliance
Raising Zoey Film Screening
https://www.facebook.com/events/467019473730362/
ALLIANCE EVENTS: 2017
A New Visual Exhibit At Temple Isaiah & Jewish Community Center in Palm Springs, CA
June 8th through June 28th, 2017
The Dancers We Lost opening lecture at Temple Isaiah Jewish Community Center in Palm Springs was well attended and included many retired dancers.
Presented by Impact Stories, California LGBT Arts Alliance and Temple Isaiah Jewish Community Center.
The Dancers We Lost Exhibit is made possible by funding from the California Arts Council
Art.Equity.LA, held May 21, 2017 was a well attended event of LGBT artists and art advocates of color.
Artists performed and panelists discussed the importance of the ats in under served communities and how public and private funders can better support them.
Click on thumbnails for larger view
Dancers We Lost Traveling Tour 2016-17
The CAC Local Impact Grant will support the Dancers We Lost exhibition and panel discussions at four LGBT Centers located in Riverside, Los Angeles and Orange Couties. The first exhibition will open at the LGBT Center Long Beach in late August 2016. It will continue through September and run concurrent with the annual Q Film Festival. Exhibition openings and panel dates will be presented shortly on our website and Facebook page.
Fore more information go to: dancerswelost.org
ALLIANCE EVENTS: 2016
Dancers We Lost Event at Highways Performance Space
May 5 – June 19 , 2016
Opening reception Friday May 27 2016, 7 pm
Highways Performance Space
1651 18th St, Santa Monica, CA 90404
Website
Presented by the California LGBT Arts Alliance and the City of west Hollywood One City One Pride Queer Arts Festival
Wednesday May 25, 2016: Queer California – On Music and Mapping
In QUEER CALIFORNIA, scholar/writer Karen Tongson and writer/performer Raquel Gutierrez explore the ways identities impact built environments and psychogeographies in California. How does sprawl, for example, sound? How are built environments repurposed and transformed by LGBTQ people of color through music, performance, and art? This conversation will musically map some of Southern California’s “peripheral” spaces of queer sociability. 7:30 pm, City Council Chambers, 625 N. San Vicente Boulevard. Free admission.
DANCERS WE LOST : San Francisco Exhibit 2013
From April 1, 2016 to July 4, 2016
GLBT History Museum, 4127 18th Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
Opening reception at the Museum in the Castro:
Friday April 1st, 2016 at 7pm
Sunday April 3rd, 2016 2—5pm
Opening Night Party (Friday) [Facebook]
Friends and Family Reception (Sunday) [Facebook]
Dancers We Lost Exhibit Info
EXTENDED !!
Twenty Years of Perpetual Indulgence
Los Angeles LGBT Center
Advocate & Gochis Galleries
On view through April 16, 2016
FREE
A look at 20 years of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in Los Angeles featuring historical photos, ephemera and video. Opening reception includes DJ, blessing by the Sisters and lots of fun and frolicking!
MORE INFO : http://www.lalgbtcenter.org/art
NOTE: click image for larger view
Join the Alliance at a reception and tour of the Robert Mapplethorpe Exhibition at the Getty Center, Saturday April 2nd, 2016.
RSVP required: Email: afernandez@getty.edu
DRAG ANGELES: A Celebration of Los Angeles and West Hollywood Drag Creativity, History, and Art
A collaboration between the City of West Hollywood through WeHo Arts/One City One Pride, Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Advocate & Gochis Galleries and the Center for the Arts of Performance / UCLA with assistance from the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives and the California LGBT Arts Alliance.
Twenty Years of Perpetual Indulgence
Los Angeles LGBT Center
Advocate & Gochis Galleries
On view through April 2, 2016
FREE
A look at 20 years of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in Los Angeles featuring historical photos, ephemera and video. Opening reception includes DJ, blessing by the Sisters and lots of fun and frolicking!
MORE INFO
A Brief History of Drag in LA
West Hollywood Library
Opening Night Reception Saturday, March 5th, 2016 7-9pm
7pm – Historic Drag Photo of Los Angeles, Immediately followed by Opening Reception
On view through June as part of One City One Pride
FREE, RSVP requested for participation in photo, http://draginla.eventbrite.com, www.weho.org/pride
MORE INFO
Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music: The 20th Century Abridged
Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA
@ Royce Hall / UCLA Campus
Saturday, March 12th, 2016 8pm
MORE INFO
ALLIANCE EVENTS: 2015
Southern California Meeting About The National Queer Performing Arts Summit
Monday, November 2, 2015
6:30 – 7:00 pm Alliance Meeting
7:00 – 8:00 pm Summit Director Manish Vaidya
Community Room – West Hollywood Library
625 N San Vicente Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069
All are welcome to this free event.
Validated parking will be available in the adjacent five-story parking structure.
Presented by the California LGBT Arts Alliance, San Francisco Queer Cultural Center, City of West Hollywood One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival and Highways Performance Space.
ABOUT THE SUMMIT
dance // music // theater // interdisciplinary
August 18-21, 2016
Oakland + San Francisco, California
The first-ever National Queer Performing Arts Summit connects some of the best queer and trans performing artists in the US with performing arts presenters looking to reach & grow LGBTQ audiences by booking innovative, tour-ready queer and trans performing artists
Info/ updates/ to get on our email list: http://qcc2.org/summit
http://www.weho.org/pride
http://www.highwaysperformance.org/highways/
Art, AIDS, America Lecture/Tour
Art, AIDS, America: Lecture Tour with co-curator Jonathan D. Katz
Saturday, July 18, 2015
1:00 – 3:00 pm
West Hollywood Library, 625 N. San Vicente Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069 and ONE National Archives and Gallery, 626 N. Robertson Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90069
Jonathan D. Katz PhD. leads this tour from 1:00 – 2:30 pm at the West Hollywood Library and from 2:45 – 3:30 p.m. at ONE Archives Gallery & Museum.
Free admission.
Parking with validation is provided at the adjacent five story parking garage.
More info at www.weho.org/arts. RSVP at calgbtarts@gmail.com
Presented by the California LGBT Arts Alliance, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries, and the City of West Hollywood through its Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission.
Funding provided by the California Arts Council, The National Endowment for the Arts, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the City of West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Art, AIDS, America: Celebrating Artists We Lost
Art, AIDS, America: Celebrating Artists We Lost
Sunday, July 19, 2015
2:00 – 4:30 pm
Renberg Theatre
Los Angeles LGBT Center
1125 N McCadden Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90038
Presented by the California LGBT Arts Alliance, Los Angeles LGBT Center, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries, and the City of West Hollywood through its Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission.Featuring performances and presentations by Sean Milan of REACH LA Studios, Miguel Garcia of Brown & Out Latino/a Theatre Festival, Karen Anzoategui, Joey Terrill and Glenne McElhinney of “Dancers We Lost.” Moderated by Jonathan D. Katz co-curator of the “Art, AIDS, America” exhibition.Free admission.
More info at www.weho.org/arts
Funding provided by the California Arts Council, The National Endowment for the Arts, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the City of West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
Jason And Shirley: OUTFEST 2015
The California LGBT Arts Alliance is a proud community sponsor of:
Jason and Shirley, OUTFEST 2015
Saturday, July 11, 2015
9:30 pm
REDCAT Theatre
631 W 2nd St, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Directed By: Stephen Winter. In his newest experimental feature, Stephen Winter (CHOCOLATE BABIES) fictionalizes the infamous 12-hour film shoot that resulted in Shirley Clarke’s trailblazing work of cinéma vérité, PORTRAIT OF JASON (1967). Jason Holliday (Jack Waters), an outspoken and flamboyant African American hustler, recounts his trials and tribulations in NYC’s 1960s gay counterculture. As the shoot wears on, Shirley (Sarah Schulman) and her crew goad and provoke one of documentary cinema’s most remarkable subjects, and we are granted a glimpse at the intricacies of pride and survival in a far less permissive climate.
PRE-SCREENING RECEPTION: REDCAT Lounge
http://www.outfest.org/tixSYS/2015/xslguide/eventnote.php?EventNumber=0334¬epg=
Art Talk
Art Talk
Saturday, June 6, 2015
6:00pm – 7:30pm
West Hollywood Council Chambers
725 N. San Vicente Blvd. (Melrose)
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Curator and Artists Debate the Thesis of the Art, AIDS, WeHo Exhibition. With co-curator Dr. Jonathan D. Katz and artists Joey Terrill and Rudy Lemcke.Moderator: Tina Takemoto, artist and associate professor at the California College of the Arts.
West Hollywood Council Chambers
725 N. San Vicente Blvd. (Melrose)
West Hollywood, CA 90069https://www.facebook.com/events/821346044628992/Presented by the California LGBT Arts Alliance and the City of West Hollywood One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival.Funding provided by the California Arts Council, The National Endowment for the Arts, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the City of West Hollywood.
This is a free event
Free validated parking will be provided for the 5-story Public/Park Parking Structure on El Tovar Pl.
Rsvp: calgbtarts@gmail.com
For a review of the Art, AIDS, WeHo Exhibition see:
http://www.poz.com/articles/art_aids_america_2926_27036.shtml
Dancers We Lost
Dancers We Lost
Saturday, June 6, 2015
7:30 to 8:00 pm
West Hollywood Council Chambers
725 N. San Vicente Blvd. (Melrose)
West Hollywood, CA 90069
A lecture by historian Glenne McElhinney, Director of Impact Stories and Dancers We Lost.
https://www.facebook.com/events/399485533593214/
Presented by the California LGBT Arts Alliance, Impact Stories and the City of West Hollywood One City One Pride LGBTQ Arts Festival.
Dancers We Lost (DWL) is a comprehensive dance history project honoring professional performers who died due to HIV/AIDS complications.
The heart and soul of DWL is a searchable database and biography files of each of the dancers. The most visual part of the project is an arts and public history exhibit showing the performers in their prime “strutting their stuff”. The photography exhibit will highlight the dancers who performed in a myriad of performance disciplines including: Broadway and Las Vegas Shows, Dance Concerts, Television Variety Shows, Films, Ballet, Music Videos and Commercials.
Rsvp: calgbtarts@gmail.com
This is a free event.
Free validated parking will be provided for the 5-story Public/Park Parking Structure on El Tovar Pl.
Funding provided by the California Arts Council, The National Endowment for the Arts, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the City of West Hollywood.
ALLIANCE EVENTS: 2014
Reach LA: The Ovahness Archives
Curated by Sean/Milan
Friday, June 20, 2014
6:00 – 9:00 PM
West Hollywood Park Auditorium
647 N. San Vicente Blvd.
Hollywood, California, 90069
An interactive tour of the “Ovahness Archives” will take guests on a behind-the-scenes virtual tour of the House/ Ballroom scene. Presented by: The California LGBT Arts Alliance, Reach LA and the City of West Hollywood One City One Pride Festival.Sponsored by: The Black LGBT Project, Color in Common, Impact Stories, Black Lesbians United and Install WeHo.
rsvp: calgbtarts@gmail.comFree Event – $5 Suggested Donation
Validated parking will be provided on site
http://calgbtartsalliance.comhttp://www.weho.org/pridehttp://calgbtartsalliance.com
http://www.reachla.org/
The Last Bastion: A Conversation on Feminist and Queer Museum Politics
Monday, June 30 2014
6:30 – 9:30 PM
West Hollywood Council Chambers
627 N. San Vicente Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Featuring: Dr. Amelia Jones and Dr. Jonathan D. Katz, two of the world’s leading Queer art historians.
Speakers will examine how museum curators continue to ignore and under-represent women and LGBT artists. The lecture will be followed by a reception and tour of June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives and the ONE Gallery exhibit “The Classical Nude and the Making of Queer History” presented by the Leslie-Lohman Museum for Gay and Lesbian Art.
Parking with validation is available on site in the five story parking garage
RSVP: calgbtarts@gmail.com
Presented by the California LGBT Arts Alliance, the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives and the City of West Hollywood One City One Pride Arts Festival.
Sponsored by: Leslie-Lohman Museum for Gay and Lesbian Art, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, Black LGBT Project, Black Lesbians United, Tom of Finland Foundation, Highways and Impact Stories.