Archive for the ‘Festival’ Category

NORMS AS FOOD FOR THE MACHINE

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Between Morocco’s Almalhoun – urban sung poems from working men – and remarkable appearances in Egyptian music, queer artistic expression from early in the twentieth century tells of some magical state of art and being.

Who created this music? What was it about?

Moderated by Mustafa Sakr, Norms as Food For the Machine is a fascinating discussion with North African musicians and thinkers that engages with the questions “how was this creative expression oppressed and by whom?

FREE, register via booking link.

QUEER AT QUEEN’S 2020: 12th -14th Nov

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Drama Studies at Queen’s University Belfast serves up another great programme for Queer at Queen’s (Q@Q) 2020, with panels, discussions and performances around vital new work in queer, gender and performance studies.

All events are free and hosted on Zoom, with advance registration required.

New Northern Irish Scholarship in Gender Studies
Thursday 12th Nov 5-7pm

This panel brings together
some of the best emergent scholarship on queerness and gender in a Northern Irish arts context, to mark the ongoing growth in queer thinking and queer creativity in the region. The panel includes QUB doctoral researchers Sophie Anders, Ciara McAllister and Hilary McCollum.

Register in advance for this event HERE

This event is presented by Drama Studies at QUB in association with Outburst.

 

Artist Hours Fri 13th & Sat 14th Nov

We’re delighted to welcome a number of artist- scholars to this year’s – safely virtual – Queer at Queen’s events: performer and scholar Manola Gayatri, playwright and scholar Mojisola Adebayo and performer and scholar Nando Messias.

Each of these artists engages in work that is provocative, political and critically queer. Their work foregrounds queer modes of embodiment and desire and critiques the colonial, racist and homophobic institutions and structures that seek to shape bodies and desires.

Artist Hours sees these artists share work and thoughts on their practice.

For the final session, they’ll be joined in conversation with artist and scholar Hilary McCollum.

Friday 13th November

Hour 1:  Manola Gayatri   3-4pm

Register in advance for this event HERE

 

Hour 2:  Mojisola Adebayo  4.30-5.30pm

Register in advance for this event HERE

 

Saturday 14th November

Hour 3:  Nando Messias   11am-12pm

Register in advance for this event HERE

 

Final Roundtable session 12.30-13.30pm: with Manola Gayatri, Nando Messias and Hilary McCollum

Register in advance for this event HERE

 

This event is presented by QUB Drama and The Seamus Heaney Centre in association with Outburst, with support from Athena/SWAN at the School of Arts, English and Languages.

OUT Ame Launch

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Over the last five years, Outburst has worked closely with queer/kuir producers, artists, festivals and activists across South America, North America and the Caribbean to create Outburst Americas, an exciting network of shared learning and co-creation and through mutual support. Supported by British Council, the collective has given birth to some incredible ideas and powerful collaborations, as well as supporting training and new commissions for artists and developing touring connections that we hope will continue to expand for many years to come.

We wanted to share those connections and learning with an even wider network of queer artists, makers and thinkers around the world, so we are delighted to announce OutAme, a new website that will feature artists, projects, toolkits and other resources included in and inspired by the project.

To launch the site we’re excited to present a special video by Brazilian rap artist Dani Nega, also launching her first solo album which was produced with the support of Outburst Americas 2020 grants. An audience favourite at Outburst last year with her exhilarating political energy, Nega’s infectious and powerful work speaks of life as a black, lesbian artist in urban Brazil. She takes on racism, police brutality and lesbophobia but also shares the joy of being part of a caring, united collective of black and queer community. Presented in Portuguese and subtitled in English, her film for Outburst is a specially recorded live performance that includes images from street protests and amplifies awareness of young black people killed by State violence.

Dani will join other queer artists and producers live after the short screening as we start to take on the important question:

What can we do through queer arts right now, across the world, to address the issues facing our communities?

We invite you to join the conversation.

FREE but limited tickets, register via booking.

SPECIAL SCHOOL: Crip/queer programme

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Some of the most exciting queer art and thinking in recent years has come from where queerness and disability meet. Like queer, crip(ple) is an insult that has been radically reclaimed by some disabled people and, similarly, it questions the value given to being ‘normal’ – normal desires, normal bodies, normal minds – and imagines the future otherwise.

As part of our year-round development programme, we’re delighted to work with curator Daniel Bermingham on a series of events that explore ideas around crip/queer art and ideas. Special School is an online (for now) programme that will make space for conversation and artistic development through talks and screenings with queer and crip artists and practitioners. These sessions are for both artists and a general audience and will focus on the history of queer crip practice, providing a space for critical conversations about ideas such as abililty, accessibility, and non-normative bodies and pleasures.

We launch the programme during festival with a screening the film Yes, We Fuck (2015) with an introduction and a discussion after. Directed by Antonio Centeno and Raúl de la Morena, the film is a Spanish language documentary that follows the stories of six disabled people and their sexuality.” It explores not only what sexuality can do for the people with disabilities, but how disability can add to human sexuality.

FREE admission but booking essential via booking button.

Content note: film contains explicit imagery, 18+ only

100 mins, including introduction, screening & discussion.

Special School will continue in early 2021 with performances, screening and discussions – online and off – exploring the body, sickness, gender, desire and ability.

Daniel Bermingham (they/them) is currently an Assistant Curator, Young People’s Programmes at Tate and makes work as part of Liquid. They are formerly Co-Director of Basic Space and have curated work at Tate Modern, CCA Derry/Londonderry and Galway Arts Centre. Their practice is broadly concerned with sick/crip/queer ideas and experience.

DRAG EXTRA-VAGANZA

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

HEEL CAMP

Sun 22nd Nov

Outburst is delighted to support the start of a glittering new initiative for budding young drag artistes!

Heel Camp! is an online workshop for young folk starting their drag journey, facilitated by celebrated Belfast drag queen Electra. The interactive programme will enable the growth of skills, persona and attitude for the young participants, aged 14-16 years, with plenty of room to explore their own ideas and creativity. This starter workshop will support participants to establish their own drag personalities within a safely facilitated, age appropriate and fun environment.

The first workshop has been pre booked to full capacity but the programme will open to new participants in the new year, building upon the individual needs of young drag artists for their own personal development. Keep an eye on our website for news.

THE FUTURE IS A DRAG

Sat 21st Nov 7pm

Online Event

Drag has had a whole new lease of life over the past 10 years, with Drag Race and alternative queens taking it to a whole new level of mainstream popularity and fierce creativity.

But the drag world has not been without its critics too and now our queer sacred clowns are facing a testing time, with restrictions particularly tight on gay club and bar culture.

What is the future for our queens? What roles can they play in the current social and political climate and how do we support each other through this devastating time for cabaret and club performers worldwide?

Join Electra and a host of drag favourites to share your questions, thoughts and ideas in this panel discussion and open forum.

FREE but booking for link essential.

TRANSFORMING STAGES

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

In partnership with Transgender NI, Outburst 2020 kicks off a new theatre and script development initiative for trans and non-binary artists.

Supported by director Des Kennedy (Good Vibrations), with mentoring from writer Lisa McGee (Derry Girls), writer/director Pea Dineen and other stage and screen professionals, the initiative aims to support more trans creatives – writers, directors, performers and crew – in their career development through training, mentoring and peer learning.

The first part of Transforming Stages sees four talented emerging trans and non-binary writers working on new short scripts through October / November with mentor support, with a sharing event of the new in-development work at Black Box during the festival.

Keep an eye on our social media for more upcoming opportunities in the Transforming Stages programme.

Transforming Stages will be presented live at the Black Box for limited, socially distanced audiences, pending official regulations on the scheduled date. If presentation with a live audience is not possible, a version of the project will be available online for a limited time. If that happens, you will find full details here and all ticket holders will be notified.

Project supported by Belfast City Council, Goethe-Institut London and Public Health Agency.

BRING IT BACK Award

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

With the wealth of queer creative talent and energy emerging in the North, it’s more vital than ever that we give young artists the support they need to develop their skills and abilities.

Emerging from conversations between Outburst’s Director Ruth McCarthy and award-winning writer and film director Stacey Gregg, Outburst is delighted to launch a new annual mentorship award through the festival, with the aim of supporting local queer creative folx to step into the next stages of their professional careers.

Bring It Back will pair an established queer arts practitioner or company with an emerging queer artist, writer, director or film maker to support one-on-one mentoring, industry networking and participation in a major in-development project.

We are delighted to announce that Belfast-based film maker Caleb J. Roberts is the recipient of our inaugural award.

Caleb is an MA student in Film production at Queen’s University Belfast. He’s the Writer/Director and Art Director of the short film From His Perspective, developed and screened as part of BBC’s Two Minute Masterpiece. An alumnus of the BFI Film Academy, Caleb won the Royal Television Society NI Student Award for Best Short Factual Film in 2019 for his work as the Director of Photography and Producer on Childhood.

Caleb will work with Stacey in the development stage of a feature film screenplay due to shoot this winter on location in Belfast; he will also shadow director Prasanna Puwanarajah during the filming. The production is thrilled to be collaborating with BRING IT BACK, and Caleb will have access to all phases of production from start to finish

A conversation between Stacey and Caleb about film, writing, this award and more will be available here on our website during festival week.

BAD GAYS: Outburst Special

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

We’re absolutely thrilled to work with our favourite podcast duo to bring you an Outburst festival special.

Bad Gays is the acclaimed podcast all about evil and complicated queer people in history; people whose stories we might overlook in our search for LGBTQ heroes, but whose lives and misdeeds still have so much to tell us about how and why LGTBQ identities today are like they are.

From Roy Cohn to Ronnie Kray, Frederick the Great to Morrissey, hosts Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller have explored the stories of some familiar and some not so well-known figures in an informative and revelatory series of horrible homo histories.

In their online presentation for Outburst, Huw and Ben will uncover the homosexual history of colonialism, from James VI and Ito Roger Casement and beyond.

Join us on teh opening day of festival for a live chat with Bad Gays following the presentation.

Check out the Bad Gays episode archive HERE

WHAT AL-NADEEM KNEW

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

EXHIBITION POSTPONED

NEW DATES 14-18 December and 5-9 January

What al-Nadeem Knew is a multi-media storytelling project that uses collective memory and official and non-official records to unearth different meanings to the current political and economic predicament of Egypt.

Examining the symbolism of music and its performance, specifically that of iconic Egyptian singer and film actress Um Kalthoum, as being an essential part of the regime propaganda, the installation tries to reconstruct alternative stories about the past, while opening different possibilities to reimagine the future.

Concept: Ismail Fayed

Music/Sound Conception/Dramaturgy: Adham Hafez 

Video/Visual Score: Mohammad Shawky Hassan

Golden Thread Gallery will be operating timed ticketed admission, booking esssential.

FEAST OF SAXIFRAGE

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

We’re very excited to work with Belfast art collective FRUIT SHOP on a unique art and food sharing project.

In honour of the blooming of saxifraga fortunei during October and November, FRUIT SHOP presents a feast which brings together warm, intimate exchanges with the glut of the summer. Calling on the textures of froth, foam, sweat and other fluids, temperature and cultures condense to form the basis of this collective project.

Reflecting on the legacy of reciprocity and mutual support within queer culture and community, we offer a menu informed by public donations of fallen fruit and nuts grown or found within Belfast’s city limits.

With a fare based on the seasonal bounty donated, there are two ways you can participate in the ritual Feast of Saxifrage.

  1. Register before November 10th to receive a limited edition menu card for free in the post, then make the food yourself at home on the night of Tuesday 17th Nov.*
  2. Buy a strictly limited multi-course meal prepared by Fruit Shop, in one of two slots, for pick up at the project’s cafe at 438 Ormeau Road. Time slots for collection on the 17th: 6.30 – 8pm and 8.40- 10pm. If you don’t have the means to pick up, please contact us on book and we’ll see how we can help.

Half of the meals will be ticketed at £15, half will be ticketed at £3 for those on low income. You’ll also have an option to buy a pay-it-forward meal for someone in the community. All proceeds will go towards payments for queer artists.

Outburst encourages you to gather online with friends, family and chosen kin while eating, to reflect on ways to support each other in queer community. Share your thoughts with us online #saxifrage and keep an eye on our social media for info about our Zoom gathering at 7:30pm for those making food at home or partaking of the first pickup of the Feast.

Further details on our socials.

*Cards posted to Ireland and UK addresses only.

THE NEW LESBIAN SONGBOOK : Music & Book launch

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

The music that soundtracks our lives can mean a lot to us all but there’s something about the lesbian soundtrack that takes that to a whole new level.

Is it the glorious drama and coded lyrics? The powerful voices and “is-she-isn’t-she” guesswork that resonate with our own dyke lives? Or is it because we’ve mostly been invisible elsewhere that certain artists and songs have always played such a massive part in our sapphic identities, romances and social spaces?

The New Lesbian Songbook has some answers!

A brand-new Outburst publication featuring essays by people of all genders and identities, it takes a smart, funny and hugely informative look at lesbian, bi and sapphic sexuality in music and why it matters to us. With stunning illustrations by Fiona McDonnell, the writers explore everything from wimmin’s music to obscure 80s rockers, fantasy punk bands to being openly dyke/lesbian/bi/sapphic in music today.

To celebrate the launch, we’ve invited some of our favourite artists to record their version of a song from an older lesbian/bi artist to share with you online. Expect covers of everything from Joan Jett to Fanny, in a brilliant line-up that includes Problem Patterns, Strange New Places, Dani Larkin, Sister Ghost and Susie Blue.

Limited edition publication available HERE

HELLO, I AM ALIVE: A Queer Poetry Walk

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Most of us have seen more of Netflix characters than we’ve seen of our friends this year.

It’s been a lonely and relentless time, so we wanted to create some space for gentle rumination, a bit a fresh air and a beautiful excuse to reconnect with people in the city.

Taken from the poem of the same name by Dawn Watson, Hello, I Am Alive is a walkable / wheelable trail around Belfast city centre in search of stirring thoughts, generous words and reflective moments from contemporary queer poets, including

Colette Bryce // Jericho Brown // Mary Jean Chan // Andre Bagoo // Carol Ann Duffy // Dawn Watson // Anna Loughran // Mícheál McCann // Richard Scott // Will Eaves // Toby Buckley // Leeanne Quinn // Hashem Hashem // John McCullough

Curated by acclaimed Derry poet Mícheál McCann with mapping support from artist / curator Deirdre McKenna, the project brings together local and international writers for a literary treasure trail.

Call a friend. Ask a date. Take yourself out. Pick up a map and let yourself come alive again.

Limited edition poster maps available via booking link below, with pick up or postage options. Digital map download free with each printed copy, sent out from Nov. 9th

Check out our social media pages for pop up performances throughout the project.

A version of this project will take place in Saõ Paulo, Brazil in early 2021, in association with RISCO.

OUR PRESENCE IS OUR RESILIENCE: Carib Queer Creatives

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Presented in partnership with Belfast Design Week.

As LGBT people living in Jamaica, we are often forced out of spaces simply because of who we are or how we identify. Within the spaces we create for ourselves, we have learned one thing: to always be creative. Jamaican LGBT Creatives are breaking barriers in Style and Fashion, and when it comes to visibility and activism, our community must be included. Every day we are reminded that we are brave, because we are not free.
Our presence is our resilience.

In a new Outburst commission, we’re excited to present a unique on-street exhibition of images from Jamaican queer creative activists in the heart of Belfast’s historic Smithfield area.
Conceived in Kingston and shot in the city’s Waterfront area in October 2020, Our Presence is Our Resilience is a bold declaration of defiance and power that illuminates how Jamaican queer and trans folx have turned their passion for fashion into an exhilarating form of activism. Informed and inspired by style magazines and the fight for justice for black trans lives in Jamaica and beyond, Emani Edwards, Kyym Savage and their team have created images that speak to the faith and fierceness of taking up space.

Works will be displayed in the Smithfield car park and on frontage in Gresham Street and Winetavern Street.

Project supported by British Council and Belfast City Council.

Displayed in Smithfield by permission of Bywater, Ashmore and Smithfield Yard. With thanks to Haller Clarke.

PROJECT CREDITS & INSTAGRAM

Creative Director/ Stylist/ Model:  Emani Edwards @emanithegenderlessstylist
Creative Assistant/Model: Kyym Savage @Kyym_Savage
Model/Artist: Akeem Walker @Akeemwalker710
Make-up Artist: Nassive @Nasouvebeautybar
Make-up Artist: Khajay @emphasis_faces_by_khj
Hairstylist: Paris Lewinsky @i_am_paris_lewinsky
Style Assistant: Shauna Wilson @Shauna_k_fashionista_avoir
Photographer: Sasheina @Sasheina

NO TIME FOR QUIET

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Presented in partnership with Girls Rock School NI

Dir. Samantha Dinning, Hylton Shaw / 2019 / Australia / 82 min / All Ages

During a long hot summer, 40 girls and gender diverse youth aged 11 to 17 converge for the inaugural week-long GIRLS ROCK! MELBOURNE Camp. Greeting them are local female rock legends like Courtney Barnett, punked up teachers, students and youth workers, all keen to empower each of the participants through rock n roll. Over the course of the week, and months after camp, we follow three participants as they struggle to find their sense of belonging and identity through music.

No Time For Quiet shows the positive impact of immersive music experiences and spaces that embody a strong sense of community, reinforce belonging and provide support and mentorship for young people who feel disempowered.

This is an all ages event, presented in partnership with Girls Rock School NI, which offers workshops and mentoring in electric guitar, bass, drums and vocals to women and girls of all ages. GRSNI is part of a global Girls Rock! movement, united by the common desire for gender equality in the music industry. They are a small but dedicated collective, with each of the team giving their time all in the name of “empowering girls and women of all ages to riff, rock and roll!”

The film will be screen live at the Black Box for a strictly limited, socially distanced audience, pending official regulations on the scheduled dates. If presentation with a live audience is not possible, the film will be screened on Digital Outbursts on this website for a limited time.

KEYBOARD FANTASIES: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story

Posted on: November 1st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Presented in partnership with QFT

Dir. Posy Dixon / 2019 / USA / 63 min / 14+

Get ready to meet a new queer music legend, in a visual lullaby to soothe the soul in chaotic times.

Narrowly escaping hospitalisation for being lesbian in 1960s Philadelphia, classically trained Beverly Copeland fled to Canada where they became immersed in the emerging folk-jazz scene. Talented but still unsuccessful after a few albums, they lived for many years as a near recluse.

In 1986, sci fi obsessed Copeland wrote and self-released Keyboard Fantasies, a seven-track cassette recorded in an Atari-powered home studio, with a curious folk-electronica hybrid sound that was way ahead of its time. It remained in obscurity until three decades later when the musician – now Glenn Copeland – started getting emails from people across the world, thanking him for the deeply affecting music they’d recently discovered. Courtesy of a rare-record collector in Japan, a reissue of Keyboard Fantasies and plays by FourTet, the music finally found a cult audience two generations down the line, including fans like The XX and Courtney Barnett.

Keyboard Fantasies: The Beverly Glenn-Copeland Story sees Glenn commit his story and his music to screen for the first time, in an intimate portrait that spins the pain of prejudice into beauty and hope. Half aural-visual history, half DIY tour-video, the film comes hot on the heels of Transmissions, a career retrospective album released September 2020 that’s set to bring this gentle and joyful musical pioneer to a much-deserved wider audience.

Subtitles and Captions available

ASK ANY BUDDY

Posted on: October 31st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Presented in partnership with QFT

Dir. Evan Purchell / 2020 / USA / 78 min / 18+

Ask Any Buddy is a moustache and leather clad exploration of gay men’s social history, told through a collage of vintage gay adult movies. Long before films like Love, Simon and Call Me by Your Name became common fare at the multiplex, the only places gay men could see their lives depicted with any degree of reality on screen was at their local all-male adult cinema. Set on the streets and piers, and in the bars, cinemas, bath-houses and toilets of New York and San Francisco and using fragments from over 125 theatrical adult feature films spanning 1968-1986, Evan Purchell’s experimental documentary offers an unabashed, explicit and hot kaleidoscopic snapshot of urban gay culture in the era—or at least how it looked in the movies.

From tearoom cruising to actual police raids, Purchell excavates rare footage shot at dozens of real bathhouses, bars, movie theaters, pride parades and legendary hotspots like New York’s piers to explore the genre’s unique blend of fantasy and reality and its role in documenting a subculture that was just starting to come into visibility in the years immediately following the Stonewall Riots.

A clever, funny, and sexy phantasmagoric tribute to a bygone era  The Quietus

Content note: contains explicit imagery.

Look out for our special podcast associated with this screening… *cue sound of squeaking leather*.

MASS: THE PRELUDE – a queer ritual for change

Posted on: October 31st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Belfast Ensemble and Outburst Arts, in partnership with the Ulster Orchestra, bring you a very special new collaborative project featuring local and international artists.

Beginning with a short filmic meditation and call to action on the last day of the festival, MASS will culminate in a large- scale immersive orchestral performance with Belfast Ensemble, Outburst and the Ulster Orchestra for Easter 2021.

Written by award winning composer Conor Mitchell, with visuals by film makers from around the world, MASS is a series
of queer rituals for change. Responding to our rapidly changing social and political landscape and accelerating erosion of democracy, MASS invites us to contemplate what it means to come together en masse and to reflect on the vital responsibility each of us has within that.

Globally, we are in an unprecedented time of powerful mass social movements. From Black Lives Matter and climate justice protests, to white supremacists and the rise of the far right, the rituals of gathering and collective action are being played out; some with compassion and humanity, others with deceit and oppression.

One of the most famous forms in classical music, the mass has six movements, including the Kyrie (call for mercy), Glorias (praise) and Credo (affirming belief and hope), creating a musical ritual from dark to light.

Through this ten-minute virtual communion of music, words and visuals, we invite you to join us in closing the festival with a queer spirit of change, as we move into the dark winter nights and on towards the light of Spring.

Check out our socials for more information on how you can participate at home.

Music by Conor Mitchell

Visual contributions by Mohammad Shawky Hassan (Egypt) Mariah Garnett (USA) Madonna Adib (Syria), Simone Harris (360 Artists, Jamaica) Paulo Mendel & Vitor Grunvald (Blank Tape; FENDA, Brazil)

ROSA TRALEE: Artist in (Your) Residence

Posted on: October 31st, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Written by Rosa™, read to You©, delivered from Us®!
Order the future direct-to-your-door when you purchase, Youse, the Novelella™ that will voice-activate a generation. This just-in-time special offer means the artist really is at your residence with a live, distant, personalised reading!

Rosa Tralee / Patrick Scullion is a Biz Hound / a curious person. She / He / They live(s) in the northern jurisdiction of an island/ a very small country where technology / a rogue economic logic claims Data/Biz as its sole resource / commodity / currency. This could be a problem of existential consequence / a very exciting opportunity! This is the setting for Youse, their debut Novelella™, an even shorter form of novella. Inspired in part by Professor Shoshana Zuboff’s 2019 The Age of Surveillance Capitalism and the life and career of May McFettridge MBE, this is a book dedicated to the local futures which must prevail in the global fightback against instrumentarian power.

As publishers and official Art Pushers™, Outburst® is sending Rosa on a promotional book tour. To your front door. With limited time slots across festival week, you can book a 15-minute audience with the author/auteur for a private reading and dystopian gegs on your very own doorstep*. Chose your slot when you book.

* within the greater Belfast area

In addition to an Exclusive Reading™ for you and your loved ones, you will receive a signed copy of Youse and have great excuse to put some pants on for the first time in weeks.

Rosa will also perform less-exclusive excerpts from the Novelella™ at 3pm on Sunday Nov 15th at the Bandstand in Ormeau Park. If it’s not raining. Just have a look out the door. Sure, you know yourself.

Limited edition signed and numbered copies of Youse available HERE.

BEHOLD THE ENDURING PSYCHOSEXUAL POWER OF JEFF GOLDBLUM

Posted on: October 30th, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

Outburst is delighted to present a reading from a new Outburst commission by acclaimed playwright Raphael Amahl Khouri.

Behold the Enduring Psychosexual Power of Jeff Goldblum is a one-person work in development that explores the personal and historical relationship between trans people, theatre, plagues, plants, the anthropocene, Dionysus, Artaud, Queen Elizabeth I and Jeff Goldblum.

Following the reading, Raphael will be joined for a conversation on the work with translator and researcher Alice Guthrie, who is currently compiling the first ever anthology of queer Arabic writing, set to appear in parallel Arabic and English editions in 2021.

Raphael Amahl Khouri is a queer, transgender Arab documentary playwright and theatremaker living in Berlin. They are the author of several plays, including She He Me (2019), ICH BRAUCHE MEINE RUHE (2018) and No Matter Where I Go (2014). Khouri is also part of the Climate Change Theater Action. Their work has been published in Global Queer Plays (Oberon Books, 2018) and International Perspectives on Where Performance Leads Queer anthology (Palgrave, 2016). It will also appear in the upcoming International Queer Drama Anthology (Neofelis Verlag) and the Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays.

Commission supported by British Council.  Event supported by Goethe-Institut London.

THIS SHOW IS AN ACTION

Posted on: October 30th, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com
UPDATE:
THIS SHOW IS AN ACTION is a performance all about connection and being together as lesbian women.
Because being in the room together in real life is such a central part of the work, the artists – Danielle Carragher and Debs Gatenby – would prefer not to screen the whole work digitally, in light of restrictions on gathering.
Instead they would like to offer a short film “sharing”, with music and words, that they made this week to offer a little taster until they can bring us the full show.
The film will be available the week starting 23rd Nov and we will share it on this website in the DIGITAL OUTBURSTS section.
The full work will now be presented at a later date when it is safe to gather together in person and when the work will be able to bring us together in the way it’s meant to!
If you have already bought a ticket for the show, you will receive an email with full details on a refund.

This Show Is An Action started as a question between friends:
Has dyke culture ever been seen as vital, if seen at all, and is it maybe now more vital than ever?

Taking our cue from Outburst 2020’s The New Lesbian Songbook project, Outburst decided to put two lesbian artists from different generations together to see if they could come up with some answers.
Belfast based musician/songwriter Danielle Carragher and Manchester writer/comedian Debs Gatenby had never met before when they embarked on a series of video chats, WhatsApp conversations and short residencies over six months, to unpack a history of living, loving and organising and to put together a show from what they discovered.
What began as an exploration of social history, invisibility and identity turned into something much more intimate, experimental and expansive, as happens when you get dykes together with some old tapes, a big plate of cheese and an acoustic guitar.Sifting unflinchingly through the pains and joys of dyke life, existential Zoom meltdowns and asides about star signs, This Show Is An Action riffs on 1970s wimmin’s music, the power of community, lesbian kinships and faded political t-shirts.

What is dyke culture in 2020 and what can a new generation – all genders and identities – learn from what went before? Expect new songs, old songs and reflections on dyke life past and present, in an openhearted, inclusive, funny and timely call to collective action.

 

LOOKING FOR LOVE DURING LOCKDOWN

Posted on: October 30th, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

UPDATE: This work will now be presented in video format, recorded live at the Black Box on Sunday 15th November.

When you buy a ticket for a specific screening, you will have a three hour window between 7.30pm and 10.30pm that evening to view the work.

It’s never too late to look for love. Again.
But where do you even start looking in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic lockdown?
The personal ads? Tinder or Match.com? The Knock Marriage Bureau? Or pray to “Saint Anne, bring me a man…”?

It’s time to take off the mask and reveal your true self.

A master storyteller who brilliantly weaves modern gay experience with traditional Irish storytelling, Richard O’Leary has created some of the most memorable shows in the Outburst programme over the last few years. From There’s A Bishop in My Bedroom to Stories for the Month of the Holy Souls, his autobiographical tales are warm and entertaining, surprising and revelatory.
Richard’s latest one man show takes us by the hand through the Otherworld of online dating. Expect dates, sweets, granola and adventures with Tintin and Snowy.

Don’t forget to pack Barry’s Tea, fairy cakes, two glasses, plastic gloves and beard oil.

This is a fairy tale. My fairy tales are true.

 

 

I/MOTHER

Posted on: October 30th, 2020 by ruth.mccarthy@outburstarts.com

UPDATE: This work will now be presented in video format, recorded live at the Black Box on Saturday 14th November.

When you buy a ticket for a specific screening, you will have a three hour window between 7.30pm and 10.30pm that evening to view the work, or 2pm to 5pm for the matinee streaming.

There’s an awkward tension between being a radical queer activist and getting the child to nursery on time in a Seat Alhambra.

Gemma Hutton knows all about it.

Inspired by her first few years as a parent, she starting to write a comedy show about queer motherhood and heteronormativity which she shared in development for Outburst 2019. In the process of unpacking the so-called norms of working-class family life and parenting for the full show for Outburst 2020, Gemma became more drawn to stories and recollections of her relationship with her own mother and the show evolved into something unexpected and deeply poignant.

Mixing storytelling, theatre and trademark sardonic wit, I / Mother explores kinship, care and convention, holding the queerness of the mothering she experienced herself alongside the kind of motherhood she’s now experiencing with her own daughter.
As warm and intimate as it is sharp, I / Mother takes on the “hard to believe” in a one woman show that is as profoundly relatable as it is personal.

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