QueerCore Fest returns
QueerCore Fest will return for its second year at CitySpace on Friday, Sept. 12, and Saturday, Sept. 13. The event is a festival of hardcore music for the LGBTQ community, billed as “a promise – that we can and will continue to build worlds that affirm, resource and celebrate the brilliant humanity of all whose existence is pushed to the margins.”
Friday’s lineup includes Told Not To Worry, Film & Gender, Letters Of Marque, AFK, and Pageant.
Saturday’s lineup includes I Have No Mouth, No Man, Soji, Evan Greer, Sgraffito Kill, Bubble Scary, Sapien Joyride, and Loss Of Life.
The event will also have a vendor/maker market. Masks are required.
Proceeds will be donated to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund.
Name-your-price advance tickets are $10 to $30 for Friday, $20 to $40 for Saturday, and $30 to $50 for the weekend. For more information and to buy tickets (linked in the group’s Instagram bio), visit instagram.com/queercorecollaborative.
‘Queer and Trans Olympics’
Last Ditch, Greenfield’s lesbian bar, will host a “Queer and Trans Olympics” on Friday, Sept. 12, from 8 to 10 p.m., followed by a dance party (with tunes by DJ Tishhh) from 10 to 11:30 p.m.
The event will feature “wig snatching,” Jell-O wrestling, “pin the jock strap on the booty,” lesbian trivia, cigarette/joint rolling and hauling, pup play walks (bring your own collar and leash) as part of a relay race, “bandana code tug-of-war,” and a dance party.
The first place winner will receive a $100 cash prize; second and third place winners will receive local goods as prizes.
Masks are required.
Pay-what-you-can admission is $15 to $20 at the door; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
For more information, visit lastditchvenue.com.
Contemporary dance at 33 Hawley
The School for Contemporary Dance and Thought will host “Fall Into Dance,” its season kickoff event, at the Workroom Theater at 33 Hawley in Northampton on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 6:30 p.m.
A press release said “Fall Into Dance” features “bold, boundary-pushing choreography from some of the region’s most exciting and nationally recognized movement artists.”
Featured artists include Los Little Guys (Eriz Elizondo and Dimitri Kalaitzidis), Chloe London, Jen Polins, Francesca Baron, Ellie Goudie-Averill, Tori Lawrence, and Madison Palffy.
In a statement, artistic director Jen Polins said the event is “an invitation to celebrate the rich artistic talent right here in our community. These artists are not only innovators on stage but also dedicated teachers who inspire the next generation of movers and makers.”
Tickets are $17.85 to $28.52 via Eventbrite; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Author Mike Curato at Odyssey Bookshop
Mike Curato, author or the young adult novel “Flamer” and the new graphic adult novel “Gaysians,” will give a talk about “Gaysians” at Odyssey Bookshop on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m.
The book, based on Curato’s real-life experiences, is about the character AJ, a young, newly out gay man who moves to Seattle in search of a chance to live authentically, and the LGBT Asian American friends he meets – hence the title – as he starts to explore the gay community in real life for the first time.
Those friends include K, a renowned local drag performer and trans woman; Steven, who works at a nursing home; and John, who finds connection in online gaming. The group dub themselves “The Boy Luck Club,” whose name parodies the title of the famous Amy Tan novel about Chinese-American mothers and daughters.
The book is based on Curato’s real-life experiences as a young gay man and the friends he met in Seattle. When Curato spoke to the Gazette about “Gaysians” earlier this year, he said, “I was lucky that I had those people in my life to tell me ‘you’re OK’ and ‘you’re beautiful’ and ‘you’ve got this,’ and I want other Gaysian people to have that support,” he said. “I made this book for them – for us. I want them to feel at home in this book and feel seen.”
Admission is free, but register via Eventbrite.
Reggae/roots music in Hadley
The reggae/roots group ReBelle will perform at the Porter-Phelps-Huntington Museum in Hadley on Sunday, Sept. 14, at 3 p.m as part of the museum’s Wednesday Folk Traditions concert series.
The group, led by husband and wife Manou Africa and Kalpana Devi, performs music focused on liberation with the mission “Love for Humanity and Gaia.” A press release call their sound “eloquent compositions of pulsing rhythms and multi-instrumental arrangements, which combine Rasta, soul, folk, and poetry” with “a mystical mix of commanding African rhythms while their dynamic stage presence is internationally acclaimed.”
Africa told the Gazette in August, “The music we do, every time we play, it brings people together. It brings tears to their eyes. It brings people to tell us, ‘This is what needs to be played on the radio, because the music is full of messages.’”
“When we speak, when we play, the people come together,” he added. “The room becomes one room, one people, one justice for everyone.”
Admission is $12 for adults or $2 for children 16 and under at the door, cash only. Picnickers are welcome starting at 2 p.m.
Read & Resist Fest returns
Read & Resist Fest, a social justice and literary festival, will return for its second year on Saturday, Sept. 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Interlink Publishing (46 Crosby St.) in Northampton. (The rain date will be Sunday, Sept. 21, at the same time.)
The festival will have a book sale, LGBTQ and BIPOC vendors, workshops, teach-ins, food, music, screen-printing, zine-making, tie-dyeing, letter-writing, and children’s activities.
In a statement, festival organizers said, “We wanted to create a physical space where people who believe in social justice and collective liberation could come together, learn, and organize. After the 2024 election, more people have realized that injustice and oppression has been happening right here in our communities. It is more urgent than ever to come together and connect to work towards change. All of our struggles, and those around the world, are intertwined.”
Masking is required, but masks will be provided for anyone without one.
Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, visit sites.google.com/interlinkbooks.com/readandresist.
