Cherry Grrls, I don’t know about you, but there is little I prefer more than a fine butch. Such style, such complexity – in one human body. Une belle créature! une bête sexy!
Sigh.
So, imagine my squee-ful excitement upon hearing about the Butch Voices NYC Workshop, which is set to take place next week, 25 September (9a-6p), at the Queers for Economic Justice, Performance, and Conference Space at 147 W 24th St, 4fl.
The Workshop is non-exclusionary, so friends-of-butches (SCORE!) are allowed to participate in the day’s events.
I got in touch with Kelli Dunham, a spoken-word comic, and all around queer impressionado, who I met a few years ago when she MC’d the Philly Queer Rock Show. Kelli is one of the lead organizers of Butch Voices NYC, and so I asked her a few questions about this event and her participation in Butch Voices in general:
What is your role with butch voices?
KD: I am on the core organizing committee. There are seven of us (Paris Harris, Lea Robinson, Charles Meshmore, Emilie B. Seif, Kawana Bullock, Sinclair Sexsmith and myself) doing the main organizing work, and let me tell you, these are some hard working queers. They don’t want to talk, they don’t want to process, they don’t want to complain they are feeling left out, they just want to WORK. It’s really amazing. We also have the help of about a scillion other volunteers.
How long has Butch Voices NYC been active?
KD: There was a small ad hoc group that organized a fundraiser for Butch Voices national conference last year, but the current group has been working on this event for about five months.
Why “butch voices”? That is, what was the impetus for establishing this coalition of, ahem, fine looking ladies?
KD: Well Butch Voices, the national conference, was started by Joe LeBlanc last year with the help of a bunch of awesome masculine of center folks. Although I was also involved in the planning, it seemed like such a battle to get it going that I started to wonder if perhaps Joe was a little tipped in his insistence that we could make this happen. What? Butches? A conference? In this terrible economy? It just seemed like it was going to be us and five of our friends and even if we did get it together we’d be too busy pissing on our territory to y’know, do some scary shit like build community. And it was a total success in every way. Every event was sold out, the conference itself was very full. And I’ll be damned if it wasn’t one of the most amazing organizing experiences of my life.
I ended up having to stage manage/supervise the main evening’s entertainment event because Arnetta, the entertainment chair who had put together the show, had a family family emergency. And it felt like such a gift, to be back stage with all the butch/stud/ag identified performers and watch them look out at that huge crowd that came to see them perform not in spite of their masculinity, but because of it. That’s a tremendous feeling, that after wrestling on a daily basis with folks who don’t even understand “what” you are, who want to book you for something until they see a photo of you…you are enjoyed, desired even, for who you are.
And of course, there is the very real danger that lots of masculine of center folks face every day: on the streets, on the job, for not fitting in the rigid gender binary. It’s such relief to take a break from that and talk about strategies for living a full, safe life.
What are some of the hopes/objectives of each regional conference, and of NYC’s in particular?
KD: The general focus of BV national and then BV NYC is three pronged: community building, social and economic justice and mental and physical health. My hope? Every butch/stud/ag/masculine of center person would hug at one least butch/stud/ag/masculine of center person. Hopefully, without having to add quickly “no homo. no homo.” That the information and support they get at BV NYC 2010 would inspire every butch/stud/ag/masculine of center person who attends to get the preventative health care they’ve been putting off. And inspire them to drag their friends along as well. And that masculine of center folks would be empowered to do in the world what we have to do. I mean, c’mon if you look at the state of the planet, all this just has to go beyond just our individual identifies. Masculine of center folks are doing amazing things to make the world a better place and supporting each other is the only way we can continue to do them. (continued on next page)
