This series about queer identity, community building and dancemaking invites LGBTQ+ artists, activists, advocates, and historians to connect on local queer histories and the ways we use art to celebrate and cultivate our communities. We reflect on what it means to be a queer artist/maker and on why the movements we make or join matter, calling in the histories of those places, spaces, and people that have influenced our work and giving voice and vision to how our actions as artists can move our communities. Rooted in the creative work of Matthew Cumbie’s Growing Our Own Gardens, OUT & About (formerly Dancing with Pride) carries forward commitments to intergenerational dialogue and exchange, collaboration as an essential community building strategy, and celebrating the relationships between diverse voices of LGBTQ+ people and the places and spaces they call home.
Our inaugural conversation as part of Dance Place’s Free Form Virtual Presentation and Programming series, took place on Saturday, June 27 at 5pm, with a rebroadcast on Sunday, June 28 at 5pm. Featured local artists included: Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi, Elizabeth Johnson Levine, Gabriel Mata and Andy Torres.
To learn more about these artists, and see some of their work, click here!
Photo and images by, from top to bottom: Jesse Scroggins, featuring Matthew Cumbie; and courtesy of Dance Place