"HOT! Festival is one of the best bets for the summer alternative theater season here in Manhattan." - The Examiner.
2009 marks the first year that HOT! will take place at the brand new Dixon Place theater facility at 161 Chrystie Street on New York's famed Lower East Side. The facility includes a state-of-the-art, 2 stories high, 120-seat black box theater and a small performance lounge and bar that comfortably sits 35. The lounge also features space for visual art exhibition. (Please note that the festival's opening exhibit - a series of photographs by Liz Liguori featuring downtown NYC performers - has already been booked.)
SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED. STAYED TUNED FOR LINE-UP.
Important Dates:
June 28, 2009 HOT! Festival PRIDE Contingent**
(Parade and Street Fair)
July 1, 2009 HOT! Festival Kick-Off Event**
(at Dixon Place, 161 Chrystie Street)
August 1, 2009 HOT! on the Trail: A Homo-a-GoGo Roadshow
(Closing event and kick-off to cross-country tour
ending up in San Francisco for Homo-A-GoGo.)
** All HOT! Festival artists are required to participate in our PRIDE
contingent
(parade and/or street fair) and the July 1st Kick-Off.
Walking into History / Moving into the Future - As we enter into an unprecedented and uncertain era in the history of the United States (and the world), it is clear that many of the 'advances' we've been sold have had deleterious consequences such that the Obama administration is looking back to the FDR Administration as it tries to negotiate the challenges. As queer folks, what lessons can the past provide to ensure our future survival? As we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots what can we learn from our history? What crucial lessons need to be re-learned and applied moving forward? Of particular interest is work that deals with Post-Stonewall queer liberation and a political world view that identified a common source of oppression amongst queers, women, latinos, blacks, etc…
Sub-themes / Programming Threads to Consider:
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Intentional Communities, Utopian Enclaves and Queer Performance |
| "Are you going to the gathering?" "See you on the playa!" "Did you get your festival pass?" All across New York queers of different stripes have their own ways of getting away from the city, connecting with nature, fostering community, recharging their batteries, and stimulating their creativity. From Michigan Women's Music Festival to Burning Man to Radical Faerie sanctuaries, some of our most urbane and sophisticated queer culture has its roots in dust and mud. |
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Negotiating Multiple Identities |
| With a bi-racial President in the Oval Office the topic of multiple identities has an international stage. In our queer communities how do people negotiate multiple (and often competing) identities? Are you queer before you're black? Are you a woman before you're a lesbian? Are you Jewish before you're transgender? Why privilege one identity over another? Or is that choice being made for you? (As in the case of our "black President.") |
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How The West May Save Us Yet! |
| With a title borrowed from a video program curated by Nick Hallett, this series features Bay Area performers and seeks to examine the differences between queer performance in San Francisco and New York. Where is there overlap? What are the key distinctions? What can one learn from the other? Confirmed artists include Sean Dorsey and his dance/theater piece on pioneering transgender activist Lou Sullivan; performer and author Kirk Read ("How I Learned to Snap;" and solo performer and comic Marga Gomez (pending). |
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You Can Have Manhattan! |
| Manhattan may loom large in literature, film and popular song, but more and more queer culture makers are living and making work in the boroughs. This series highlights artists who reside and do much of their work in the outer boroughs. |
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The Lost Generation |
| As Penny Arcade says in "Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore!, "I lost 300 friends to AIDS. I'm not the same person I would have been without them. I don't have the same future." As we seek to recover the lessons of history, we must grapple with the fact that an entire generation of queers was ravished by the AIDS epidemic - even as many more continue to struggle with the disease today. How did the epidemic affect the intergenerational transmission of knowledge? Beyond the lives lost, what have been the consequences for art and culture? The impact on relations between lesbians and gay men… the relationship between racial minorities the gay, white male "establishment," etc… |
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HOTTER Than Ever |
| Have you continued to develop a piece that you premiered at HOT! Festival in the past? If so, consider bringing it back this year to share your progress with the HOT! Festival audience. |
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A Who's Who of YouTube |
| Sure it's the YouTube generation, but we still like our performance in real time. If you're an online sensation and have the chops for live performance, consider submitting in this category. (Thanks to VGL Gay Boys Jeffery Self and Cole Escola for coining the phrase we've borrowed for this series!) |
Special Project
HOT! on the Trail: A Homo-a-GoGo Roadshow - We are currently planning to end this year's festival with a queer music and performance event that will become the kick off for a tour which will culminate at Homo-a-GoGo in San Francisco (August 13-17, 2009). If you are interested in participating in the show and/or the tour, please let us know.
Looking Ahead to 2010…
§ If your project requires a significant period of time for development and/or significant financial support, please consider submitting for the 2010 HOT! Festival. In addition to our ongoing Mondo Cané commissioning series, we are working to develop additional means to support the development of new work. We are also looking at including off-site locations under the auspices of HOT! If you're thinking outside of the box, contact us now. The more time we have to hatch crazy plans, the better.
§ New York in the 1980's… Berlin in the 2000's? - For 2010 we are exploring a programming track that looks at the relationship between queer performance and culture in New York and Berlin. Expatriate New Yorkers, Berliners residing in New York and other artists whose experience and/or work relates to these two cities should feel free to contact Festival Director Earl Dax directly by email at earl@dixonplace.org.
