Beautiful Dreamers is a film and live performance cabaret of new feminist avant-garde art. From surrealism to science fiction, from macabre to the erotic, this event showcases women who conjure the unexpected, the beautiful and the somewhat odd.

These short films and cabaret performances deeply probe and play with non-(Western)traditional, non-formulaic narratives from Vancouver and Canada’s most edgy, ingenious women artists. You won’t see “talking head” documentaries or classic love stories here. Expect mythology and magic, femme monsters and unlikely heroines, burlesque and a dash of the perverse, and, of course, expect feminist voices heard in new and unexpected ways.

Curated and hosted by Amber Dawn, Director of Programming for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

Filmmakers:
Asa Mori
Dana Claxton
Penny Lane
Amber Dawn
Kathryn Jean
Thirza Cuthand
Julie Atlas Muz
Shawna Dempsey
Lorri Millan
Divya Mehra
Freya Bjorg Freya
Leslie Loksi Chan
and more…

Live Performers:
VaVa Vunderbust
Little Woo
Luisa Jojic
April O’Peel
Jonie Gyoza
Morgan Brayton
Edward Malappropriate
Namchi Bazar
and more…

DJ/soundscape artist: Iffer

I am just hanging out listening to Zaki Ibrahim. By far one of my favorite singers. By far. Zaki is one of those singers who’s mind blowing connection to something bigger than us, gives you goose-bumps from head to toe. Then she subtly says  something in such a way that you suddenly see yourself in a whole new way.She is Forever memorable. Forever beautiful. Timeless grace and power on the mic.

In my opinion, over the last few years she has grown into one of the best. Ever. And we are immeasurably lucky to have her booked for the 2009 Sistahood Celebration on March 19th!! YAY!

There is a something about her music that makes you feel lighter. Like it’s just a little bit easier to get through the day, simply because something this beautiful exists. She is the rulenest! Click her picture below to checkout her myspace page. I suggest you listen to ‘You Choose’ while you read the rest of this post

As part of my wild and crazy weekend plans, I have been ‘Stumbling’ around with the theme Future Ancestors in mind, while listening to Zaki and I thought I would share all the awesomeness that I discovered. The technology exists to get us through this mess and make the world better for the ancestors of our future. Totally. All of a sudden things will just shift. I can feel it…

Silent Urban Wind Power!

Energy Generating Revolving Door!

Wind power for your home!

Awesome energy activists pushing for a market shift!

Sun Farmer!

Grow Coral Reefs With Electricity!

5 OPTIMISTIC Environmental Texts

See! It’s not so bad after all!

And on that note here is something amazing that the earth made:

wow

Werd.

R*

Emerge Vancouver’s Afterparty Hiphop show and Community Dialogue will be a bumpin’ night of performance and the People’s voice!  Come support your local Hiphop culture and raise funds and vibes in support of Sistahood Celebration and Battered Womens Support Services!!!

Kia Kadiri
DJ Su Commandante  (Hiphop/Dancehall/Reggaeton)
Toxic Slime http://www.myspace.com/toxicslimemusic
plus surprise artists!

Visual Arts
Balance of Power
Paintings by Martha Jablonski-Jones

Nomads
Photo-based Silk-screens by Anne Russell

Words and Symbols
Photos by Gena Thompson

$5 – 15 sliding scale
Fundraiser for BWSS and Sistahood Celebration

If you couldn’t make it to the screenings, come to the party!
If you came to the screenings, come to the party!

Emerge Vancouver

Corporations and people in power are force-feeding us a brand of hip-hop that isn’t true to its roots. We are taking a stand for some of the core values of true hip-hop. In the words of one of the first hip-hop artists, Afrika Bambaataa, it’s all about peace, unity, love, and having fun.

*HIP-HOP: BEYOND BEATS & RHYMES* is a documentary that examines gender roles in hip-hop through the lens of filmmaker Byron Hurt, a former college quarterback turned activist. Conceived as a “loving critique” from a self-proclaimed “Hip-Hop Head,” Hurt tackles issues of masculinity, sexism, violence and homophobia in today’s hip-hop culture.

During the day, Byron Hurt will be joined by Chuck D front man for Public Enemy in Vancouver teaming up with Battered Women’s Support Services to feature the film’s screenings and engage in talk-back sessions.
AT NIGHT, we party!

www.bwss.org
www.sistahoodcelebration.com

all photo credits- Vanessa Richards

]]> http://sistahood.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/the-remedy-sunday-march-30th-the-heritage-hall/feed/ 0 sistahood http://sistahood.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/cant-stop-wont-stop-tickets-on-sale-now/ http://sistahood.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/cant-stop-wont-stop-tickets-on-sale-now/#comments Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:36:27 +0000 sistahood http://sistahood.wordpress.com/?p=23 ]]> Just want to let everyone know that tickets are now on sale for Can’t Stop Won’t Stop at Beatstreet Records 439 W. Hastings St. (*Cash only for tickets*).

 Tickets are $7 (incl. service charge) in advance & $10 at the door.

2 weeks to go….

check out the Facebook event page here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=10014811306

Thanks

It’s Amber Dawn this is the third time I’ve participated in the Sistahood Cabaret: twice as a performer, and this year as a performer and co-director.

Something very eye-opening happened to me in 2006 when I first stepped onto the Sistahood stage. Let me give you a bit of background . . .

Since 2004, I’ve toured the USA each February with a radical and very controversial performance art show called, The Sex Workers’ Art Show. It is on this tour (and at other equally trangressive venues, such as Mondo Homo Dirty South/ Atlanta, GA) that I really learned to become an uncensored, over-the-top – with love – performer. I also came to believe that if I really wanted to bring the freak to the stage I needed to leave town to do it. In Vancouver I all to often felt like an ugly duckling that does vulgar things on stage that makes her audience wince a little. (Hey, we’ve all have our insecurities, right?)

. . . so as I was saying about 2006. I had just got home from touring and I did my first Sistahood show and realized that I love performing in Vancouver – or at least at Sistahood. This festival is make of hard-working geniuses, who’s art, like mine, isn’t a candy-coated easy swallow.

I give enormous thanks to the Sistahood founders and organizers who have built this house for all of our raw, challenging, political and beautiful art to live inside. It feels great to come home.

And speaking of raw and beautiful, I hope to see a full house at the Cabaret on Friday. We’ve chosen the theme Monstrous Beauty and are taking burlesque back to its roots: as it describes a caricature of women, a hyper exaggeration or grotesque or vulgar parody of womanhood. If you are a thesaurus nerd like me, you’ve most likely seen grotesque and burlesque paired as synonyms.
We’re returning to burlesque’s origins: hyper femininity to the point
of (hopefully) being challenging and thought-provoking to view. An
performative exploration of ways in which femininity is a burden or
vilified or glorified or overdone in this world.
Dig?