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Homo a Go Go takes place in Olympia, Washington August 3-8. The biannual festival showcases some of the best independent queer musicians, writers, filmmakers and artists in the States. As well they should! Queers have always been an essential part of the underground music and arts scene. Tablet caught up with one of this year’s festival promoters and got Ed to fill us in a little about Homo a Go Go.
What's the main idea behind the festival?
One of the main goals of Homo a Go Go is to present a venue and lineup of queer non-mainstream and underground artists, musicians, filmmakers, writers and politically radical activists. By bringing together visual art, music, film, authors and activists we hope to broaden our community by building bridges between independent and DIY communities. One of our other goals is to create a national, and even international community based around an underground/independent/DIY queer culture and radical politics. We want to create culture and community that isn't represented by mainstream events like Pride. We also want to create an event with radical politics that is accessible, trans-positive, culturally diverse, non-classist and non-consumerist. We try to do all this while being a benefit for Olympia's Gender Variant Healthcare Project (GVHP). The GVHP provides healthcare referrals to gender variant people and trainings on trans issues to healthcare professionals.
How does this year's line-up stack up compared to 2002's festival?
We tried to not overbook this year with too many repeat performers from 2002. This year's standout event is the Team Dresch reunion featuring Donna Dresch, Jody Bleyle and Kaia Wilson all playing together for the first time in eight years. Marci Martinez and Melissa York will split the drum duties. We have some awesome music headliners including a surprise guest who is huge and never plays intimate, 1000-seat venues like the Capitol Theater. Other headliners include Davies vs. Dresch, the King Cobra, Mirah, the Butchies, the Gossip and Phranc. We also have tons of amazing new bands like Lesbians on Ecstasy from Montreal, hip-hop from Dead Lee and Katastrophe and more electronic acts like Tawney Hoof and Tracy & the Plastics. Spoken word highlights include Michelle Tea, Sara Seinberg and Letta Neely.
Besides the music, what are the other events/showings not to miss at this year's HAGG?
There are tons of great workshops and films. There are activist related workshops like challenging Zionism and racism. There are hands-on how-tos, like screenprinting, drumming and singing. There is a queercore history roundtable discussion including participants that have been contributing to queercore culture for over 15 years next to newer contributors. There will be visual art all over town at cafes and restaurants including portraits of trans-people by Mariette Pathy-Allen. We have shorts showcases curated by Ernesto Forando (Heartcore Records owner and filmmaker), Lisa Ganser (Flaming Film Festival in Minneapolis) and Silas Howard and Leslie Mah (former members of Tribe 8 and filmmakers). We have two awesome features including “Southern Comfort,” a film about the last year of Robert Eads's life. Robert was an FTM (Female to Male) who died of ovarian cancer after being refused treatment by over 25 doctors because he was trans. Our other feature is “Venus of Mars,” a documentary about the band All The Pretty Horses’ frontperson Venus. This film documents the transition of Venus and her relationship with her wife of 14 years. Special events include an amazing fashion show featuring roller-skating models and bridal wear, late night karaoke on Friday night, K'vetsh open mic on Thursday afternoon, a special performance by FTM performance artist and activist Imani Henry on Saturday night, a craft fair featuring 25 crafters on Saturday afternoon, and a big gay wedding to top off the festival on Sunday afternoon.
For more information about performers and ticket info, check out homoagogo.com.
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