queer culture

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Thrift, Browse, and Haggle Your Way Through ‘Question the Market’

(Image courtesy of Eric Schmalenberger)

(Image courtesy of Eric Schmalenberger)

The House of Yes has something of a problem with their shimmering, funky, newish venue in Bushwick– they have a surplus of space, which is sort of a unique issue when it comes to digs in post-industrial-squatting Brooklyn. But as the performance collective settles into what’s by far their most functional and fanciest home yet, they’re filling up their calendar with even more events. Soon enough they’ll have every inch of the space and their time occupied by cool happenings. Take for example, the first-ever Question the Market (Saturday May 28 and Sunday May 29), billed as a new pop-up “queer design and arts market.”

“It will be shopping as nightlife, nightlife as shopping,” organizer Eric Schmalenberger told us. “I feel like shopping can be more than shopping. When given the right space, it can be more interesting and engaging, and the great thing about flea markets is that you, often, can engage with the maker.”

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New Queer Arts Magazine Posture is Trampling 'Trashy'

Issue #2 Posture Mag launches this weekend (Courtesy of Posture)

Issue #2 Posture Mag launches this weekend (Courtesy of Posture)

Winter Mendelson couldn’t wait to get the hell out of Georgia. “I graduated college and moved here, like, the very next day,” laughed the founder and editor-in-chief of Posture, a fresh-faced queer-centric magazine dedicated to gender, identity, and the arts. “I didn’t have a community there at all– it was like three lesbians and they were all dating each other, so it was kind of torturous.”
Arriving in New York City, she immediately realized things were going to be different. “I was so relieved and excited that there were people like me, like, everywhere. I was like, ‘This is a dream!”  And yet, she realized there was something missing from the scene. “I just felt like there really needed to be a platform that showed all kinds of voices and aesthetics,” she said.
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Boylesque Star Raises Funds and His Body Is Up For Grabs?

Stephen Plante (AKA Vic Sin). (Photo: Dmitri Wildfong-Nishman)

Stephen Plante (AKA Vic Sin). (Photo: Dmitri Wildfong-Nishman)

Stephen Plante’s stage persona, Vic Sin, is inspired by both masculine and feminine qualities, but is the Bushwick performer prepared to go full-on Pretty Woman to attend the Vienna Boylesque Festival? To help finance his trip, he created a GoFundMe campaign that offers intimate rewards, ranging from “a big hug!!!” to “MY BODY!!!!!” for “1 night only.”

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Vaginal Davis Returns to New York, Taking on Sculpture and Mozart

Vaginal Davis (Photo by Hector, courtesy of Invisible-Exports)

Vaginal Davis (Photo by Hector, courtesy of Invisible-Exports)

Vaginal Davis is undeniably one of the most prolific artists to come out of the ’70s punk scene. The black, inter-sex born, self-declared outsider artist is nothing short of a queer icon. And even though she’s from Los Angeles (South Central, to be precise), she has a special place in New York City, where she’s had a serious impact on contemporary underground culture– the Bushwick drag scene is particularly indebted to her, as Davis is one of the founding mothers of “terrorist drag.”

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Bring Your Own Body To This All-Trans Art Show

Mark Aguhar. (photo courtesy of Cooper Union)

Mark Aguhar, Making Looks, 2011. (Photo courtesy of the artist.)

What do DJ and New Museum darling Juliana Huxtable, a former member of industrial outfit Throbbing Gristle, and “drag mother” Flawless Sabrina have in common?

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Queer Film Happenings Galore, From Eisenstein’s Outing to Out-There ’70s Porn

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By the looks of things, October’s becoming something of a de facto Queer Film Month in New York City. Which is way cool, we’re always happy to see queer goings-on about town beyond Pride Month. And whether you’re a connoisseur of all things old and aging well, or live solely to soak up ever-refreshing nowness, we’ve got a couple of events that offer a slew of opportunities to attend LGBT movie happenings.

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Open Wide for Mouthfeel, a Queer-Punk-Food Mag That Goes Deeper

inside Mouthfeel issue #1

inside Mouthfeel issue #1

When first you glance at Mouthfeel and prepare to take it all in, you might think: it couldn’t get more niche than this. And in some ways, you might be right. A food magazine dedicated to queer identity and hardcore punk complete with recipes and sexy photos of dudes? Huh. That’s a first. But even if you’re not a pansexual chef who fronts a band called the Putrid Ooze Squad in whatever spare time you’ve got after prepping kohlrabi espuma all day, this magazine will probably be quite attractive to you.

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Bushwick’s Drag Festival Is Back — Hide the Kids! (Or, Heck, Bring ‘Em)

Macy Rodman performing at the inaugural Bushwig. (Photo: TheThinkTheater Queer Photography)

Macy Rodman performing at the inaugural Bushwig. (Photo: TheThinkTheater Queer Photography)

Bushwick’s vibrant drag community is gearing up for the third annual Bushwig Festival—a celebration of all things drag that has grown from a small, one-day affair with just 30 participants to a weekend-long extravaganza featuring over 160 acts.
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Help Fund This Drag Documentary Where the Filmmaker Starts Wigging Out

When I meet Adam Golub, under the elevated tracks of the M train on one of the hottest days of the summer, he’s wearing a sleeveless top, shorts, sandals (the Teva-esque type that all Israelis seem to own) and slightly chipped metallic blue nail polish.

Golub chuckles wryly about the electrifying effect the varnish often has on those around him. Who knows how these delicate passersby might react to his drag identity, Shalmuta (“slut” in Hebrew)—a Bayiou-born Southern belle with a hankering for fried chicken and a love of suspenders and tartan.

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