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Topic: Culture

The new items published under this topic are as follows.


Oct 03, 2008# News: Saint Petersburg Gay and Lesbian Film Festival Cancelled
Culture (Russia) Gay and Lesbian Film Festival “Bok o Bok” which was supposed to take place in Saint Petersburg from today and last until Sunday finally did not open after Fire Department Inspectors closed the place due to problems with fire security. In a phone interview to Project GayRussia.Ru, Organiser of the festival Irina Sergeeva said that the clubs “The Place” and “Sochi” where the screenings of the films were supposed to take place, were closed due to fire security reasons.
# Read more...

Feb 09, 2008# Quickie Link: Indian Group to Perform Gay Musical at Mardi Gras
Culture (India) - An Indian all-male group is set to stage a Bollywood musical at the Mardi Gras stage show in Sydney. The musical, Butterflies Of The Mughal Garden, based on a Gay theme, will premiere at Petersham's Metropolitan Community Church, Sydney on Feb 15. Group leader Raj Ayappan says that since there's no mention of the Gay undertones in the advertising, many Bollywood fans might get a bit of a shock after seeing the musical. "Some people might get a bit of a shock. Because often in the Indian subcontinent region, being Gay is taboo. You can be arrested and jailed," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Ayappan, as saying. The musical travels from the 16th-century Mughal empire to 21st-century Sydney, describing two parallel tales of 'forbidden love.'
# Note: Read more on Daily India

Jan 12, 2008# Quickie Link: Queer as a Hip-Hop Opera
Culture (Canada) - Before our story begins, a shout-out to Ralph Klein. The former Alberta premier is not exactly what you'd call a Gay icon, but he has inspired the queerest theatrical project to come out of Western Canada ever. Bash'd, a two-person Gay hip-hop opera, written and performed by Edmonton's Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow, grew out of a spike in Gay bashings in the province in 2005 that coincided with Klein's last-ditch battle to stop Gay marriage in Alberta. Klein's reign is one for the history books now, the bashings are mere statistics in the hate-crime folder and same-sex marriages have been legal in Alberta since July, 2005, but ever since it premiered in Edmonton in October, 2006, Bash'd has been unstoppable.
# Note: Read more on Globe & Mail

Nov 30, 2007# News: Russian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Film Festival to Open in 2008
Culture Saint Petersburg, Russia (PRWEB) November 30, 2007 -- In Fall 2008, Russia will host Side by Side ("Bok o Bok"), its first international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender film festival. Taking place in Saint Petersburg, the festival will run from 2-5 October, 2008, with films and events at the historic Dom Kino House of Cinema, one of Europe's premier venues for quality world cinema. The event, which is expected to draw visitors from over 30 countries as well as major international sponsors, will give film enthusiasts of all persuasions the opportunity to enjoy the very best in contemporary lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender cinema. Over 4 days, Side by Side will showcase work from around the world including feature films, innovative independent films, documentaries, experimental and short films.
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Nov 29, 2007# Quickie Link: Jane Rule, 76: Lesbian author was role model
Culture Novelist Jane Rule, whose life and work were a combined statement in support of social equality and personal generosity, died last night of liver cancer at her home on Galiano Island, B.C.

She was 76.

Rule was equally known for her fiction and for her status as a lesbian role model.

"She was the first Canadian woman writer to write about being gay as if it was part of the normal life," Toronto novelist Susan Swan said last night from her Toronto home.

"There was no self-consciousness about it. There didn't seem to be any need for her to wave a political flag. This female character as a lesbian – you picked that up by reading the story. You weren't reading the story to find out what it was like to be a lesbian."
# Note: Read more at The Star

Nov 10, 2007# Quickie Link: Edmonton's Queer Arts and Culture Festival
Culture (Canada) - Edmonton's Queer Arts and Culture Festival runs from Nov. 23 to Dec. 1. It will feature music, photography, theatre, literature and films by Gays and Lesbians from across Canada. Organizers were able to secure $60,000 in funding and in-kind donations from a variety of groups, including the city and the University of Alberta. Events will take place at venues throughout the city, including the Art Gallery of Alberta, Latitude 53 Gallery, the University of Alberta and Metro Cinema.
# Note: Read more on Edmonton Sun

Nov 04, 2007# Quickie Link: A Naked Revue? Not in Our Town!
Culture (UK) - A nude stage show from the producers of the sell-out New York revue Naked Boys Singing! is shocking audiences in this country ... or at least the posters for the show are. Several English local authorities are asking for the full-frontal images on the billboards advertising the show to be covered up with modesty stickers. Get Naked: The Boys are Back in Town is an all-male, all-singing, all-nude ensemble cabaret piece inspired by the hit off-Broadway show that has become a cult international franchise in the last six years. The posters, which feature the cast covered by nothing but the glow of the spotlight, have already drawn complaints at the start of a UK tour this month.
# Note: Read more on Guardian

Oct 22, 2007# Quickie Link: Yank! in New York
Culture (USA) - A love song to Hollywood's "it takes one of every kind" platoon flicks and to 1940s Broadway, Yank! tells the story of a war reporter named Stu and an army private named Mitch who fall in love and struggle to survive in a time and place where the odds are stacked against them. Suffused with songs in period style (swing, big band, boogie-woogie) Yank! explores what stories don't get told in wartime, and how WWII became the great catalyst in bringing Gay men and women together. With the hot-button topics of "don't ask, don't tell" military policy and Gay marriage currently poised to be at the forefront of US politics for the November 2008 presidential election, The Gallery Players' mounting of Yank! is timely indeed. The show features book and lyrics by David Zellnik and music by Joseph Zellnik.
# Note: Read more on Theater Mania

Aug 05, 2007# News: The Power of Art: Understanding David DeRosa
Culture As undefined as visual art can sometimes be there is still a measured structure to it which can resonate with a viewer so much so that it “pops” from the canvass into the psyche of a mesmerized admirer. Termed as pop impressionism, this style of artistic expression has been perfected by San Francisco artist, David Derosa, whose recent “Catachismic” series takes on a distinctly spiritual theme while using opposing shades of light and dark, positive and negative shapes with text that contain dual meanings of his subjects in everyday poses.
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Jul 10, 2007# Quickie Link: Lesbian Story Takes African Prize
Culture (UK) - The Ugandan writer who won the Caine Prize for African Writing with a story about lesbianism, often a taboo topic in Africa, says she is "very excited". Monica Arac de Nyeko beat four other finalists to get the $20,000 (£10,000) prize for her story Jambula Tree. It is about a relationship between young girls in a country where homosexuality is illegal. Jambula Tree was described as "witty and mischievous" by the judges. Her publisher Becky Ayebia Clarke said when she first read the story she thought "how brave" Ms Arac de Nyeko was to take on the subject. "In Africa these are not the kind of stories we're allowed to tell. She's taking on a theme that Africans have been in denial about - a theme about same-sex love."
# Note: Read full article on BBC

Jul 01, 2007# Quickie Link: Oppose The Mainstream: Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett
Culture It's hard not to love Owen Pallett. It's the music that gets you first. There is a fiercely compelling quality to the songs penned by the Toronto violinist. And once drawn in, small tastes of Pallett's personality - during live performances or radio broadcasts - has most listeners hooked. Deeply personable and amusingly self-effacing, the young musician is quite willing to spill his guts on all the biggies - whether music, sex, religion, cooking, pop culture and social theories. Pallett's solo project Final Fantasy (a tribute to the Japanese videogame series of which he is a fan) eases in and out of melodramatic baroque pop. Amidst the swells of evocative strings, the lyrics are intimate, sometimes confessional and always part of a bigger concept.
# Note: Read full article on www.xtra.ca

May 27, 2007# Quickie Link: Come to the Cabaret
Culture When the decadent Kit Kat Club featured in the musical “Cabaret” roars back to life next week, it does so in a most unlikely location: Atlanta’s Shakespeare Tavern. Gay actor Jeff McKerley stars as the Emcee, a character he says he always liked. McKerley’s Emcee leads us through the action set at a Berlin nightclub in the ‘20s, where outside the Nazi Party is rising into power. “The Emcee is a Greek Chorus kind of person,” McKerley says. “Sometimes he speaks for the others in the cast. He is an omnisexual kind of person. I like to think of him as the honest Everyman underdog.” McKerley also choreographs the musical.
# Note: Read full article on Sothern Voice

May 14, 2007# News: Gay-Themed IDAHO Poster Competition Winners Announced
Culture (Beirut/London) - Organisers of the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) have announced the winners of two poster competitions, one of them based in Lebanon. The anonymous winner of the competition organised by the Beiruy-based Helem (the Arabic acronym of "Lebanese Protection for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders) produced a striking poster in Arabic using the “rainbow colours” and barbed wire (see above).
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May 13, 2007# Quickie Link: Angels in America
Culture Fifteen years have passed since Tony Kushner completed Angels in America, his devastating, Pulitzer prize-winning epic about the Aids explosion of the 1980s. The world may have progressed from regarding Aids as a gay plague, but many of the other complex issues raised – racism, homophobia, drug addiction and religious oppression – are as pertinent as ever. Just witness last year’s gleefully documented downfall of the closeted congressman (and sometime Scientology fan) Mark Foley, or the recent free-speech debate triggered by the sacking of the racist radio host Don Imus.
# Note: Read full article on Times Online

May 11, 2007# Quickie Link: Coronation Street creator's jail fear
Culture The creator of Coronation Street has spoken out about the prejudice he faced as a gay man writing the soap in the Sixties. Tony Warren, who wrote the original episodes back in 1960, was openly gay before decriminalisation in 1967 - and says he lived in fear of what was going to happen to him. He said: "I never went past Strangeways jail without thinking, `Is that where I'm going to end up?' "Although I was out to other gay people at Granada, it was almost unwise to let people know." Tony said that although `a lot of creative people at Granada didn't care', he did face a barrage of homophobic remarks from some staff.
# Note: Read full article on www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

May 01, 2007# Quickie Link: A Sister With a Mission
Culture (Baltimore, USA) - Cherry Jones is either a disarming, self-effacing woman with an easy smile and a warm, down-home charm, or she's a dark and fearsome dreadnought, a monolith of cold, congealed, righteous wrath. The difference lies in whether she's herself, the 50-year-old, two-time Tony award-winning actress from Paris, Tenn., or Sister Aloysius, principal of a Catholic school in the Bronx, N.Y., in 1964 in John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer-winning play, Doubt, which opens tonight at the Hippodrome.
# Note: Read full article on Baltimore Sun

May 01, 2007# Quickie Link: Sir Elton Conquers Tobago
Culture (Trinidad and Tobago) - After weeks of gay-bashing by some pastors who were against his performance, which left an air of unease in the sister-isle, international pop icon Sir Elton John conquered Tobago at the Plymouth Jazz Festival on Sunday, in a 90-minute performance that left some in tears and others dancing in gay abandon to his music. Sir Elton’s performance brought the curtain down on the three-day festival which saw some of pop and rhythm and blues’ hottest international acts performing before thousands.
# Note: Read full article on News Day

Apr 16, 2007# Quickie Link: Living Out Loud
Culture (USA) - On the surface, an openly gay actor, one who majored in musical theater in college, may not run against the grain. But Eric Millegan is not one to be summed up and dismissed. The baby-faced 32-year-old - New Jersey native by birth, Oregonian by rearing - is full of surprises. Though Millegan is maintaining a pace that's allowed him no time off for the past two years, he's adding some support for the community into the mix. When the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund holds its seventh annual champagne brunch on Sunday, April 22, Millegan will serve as emcee.
# Note: Read full article on www.metroweekly.com

Apr 15, 2007# Quickie Link: Armistead Maupin lives!
Culture The world seemed very young when Armistead Maupin wrote "Tales of the City" in 1976. To thousands of lesbians and gays, newly arrived in San Francisco to revel in queer liberation, pension plans and grandchildren seemed utterly irrelevant. "I think a lot of people back then -- myself included -- didn't really think too hard about what it was going to be like to get older," Maupin recalls.
# Note: Read full article on Planet Out

Apr 14, 2007# Quickie Link: Web of illusion
Culture The contradictions at the heart of the spider's symbolism fascinated the Argentinian writer Manuel Puig (1932-90), who placed it at the centre of his most famous work, Kiss of the Spider Woman. This story of the unlikely friendship between two cellmates - Valentin, a Marxist revolutionary, and Molina, a gay man who sees himself as a woman - has gone through several incarnations. The novel was published in Spain in 1974, having first been banned in the author's homeland. In 1985 the film version, starring William Hurt and Raul Julia, earned Hurt an Oscar and brought the tale to a wider audience.
# Note: Read ful article on Guardian