Exciting news: Bi Request sold out! For the first year ever, we had a sold-out crowd at the Bi Request film program. Thank you to everyone who came!

Next on the agenda: if you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area next Sunday, come to this event.

Visible: A Femmethology
A reading at Pegasus Books
Sunday, July 5, 2009 6:00 p.m
* Pegasus Books Downtown 2349 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA *
http://femmethology.com/

Femme- an identity that has caused controversy, celebration and ridicule- is now the topic of a two-volume set from Homofactus Press and editor Jennifer Clare Burke titled Visible: A Femmethology.

Femmethology calls the LGBTQI community on its own prejudice and celebrates the diversity of individual femmes. Award-winning authors, spoken-word artists, and totally new voices come together to challenge conventional ideas of how disability, class, nationality, race, aesthetics, sexual orientation, gender identity and body type intersect with each contributor’s concrete notion of femmedom. Bay Area contributors Amy Andre, Sherilyn Connelly, Sand Chang, Daphne Gottlieb, Alex Holding, and Alisa Lemberg and Maria See will be reading.

I was out of town last weekend, and had limited internet access (and at times, no access!), so I wasn’t able to do my weekly blog update. But now I’m back.

Bi Pride is happening in San Francisco this Wednesday, so if you’re in the Bay Area, come and join the fun! All the details are on this flyer: www.amyandre.com/abcde.pdf, which you are welcome — and encouraged — to link to from your site/ twitter/ facebook/ etc. Thanks for helping spread the word!

If you’re thinking of coming to Bi Request, which is the bi film program at the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, here’s even more incentive: several of the directors and film stars will be in the audience! And we’ll be doing Q & A with them after the show. If there’s anything you ever wondered about what it’s like to be a bisexual movie star (or the star of a bisexual movie), now’s your chance to get your questions answered.

Here are a couple of websites to keep an eye on, if you’re not already a feed subscriber. These folks are setting the record straight, so to speak, with commentary on sex and gender politics. (Thanks to friends who brought these to my attention.)

Queer Subversion

Bi-Furious

And here’s a fun question for you: should I join Twitter? I feel behind the times not being on it already. But I can’t picture myself tweeting! Thoughts? Email me.

All the details are here: http://www.amyandre.com/abcde.pdf.

***Please Forward Widely! Buy Your Tickets in Advance!***

The 2009 National Queer Arts Festival presents:
Testimonies, Chisme, Spilling the Tea: An Evening of Poetry

Monday, June 8, 2009
Doors Open at 7pm; Show at 7:30pm
SOMArts
934 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA

Tickets: $12 - $20
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/66077

A literary event sure to sparkle, rectify and incite, as established & emerging poets scratch the page with literary histories — crossing generations, genres and borders of any and all imaginations. Join this intergenerational entourage of fierce queer writers and poets, as they testify to the piercing pleasures of textual promise in poetry.

Featuring Dorothy Allison, Ching-In Chen, Elana Dykewomon, Rigoberto González, Eloise Klein Healy, Cole Krawitz, D.A. Powell, Ely Shipley & Griselda Suárez. Hosted by Jewelle Gomez.

The event will be followed by a book signing & reception.

For full program information visit: http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/QFest09/Testim.html
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=78083877799

Co-sponsored by the Lambda Literary Foundation, Graywolf Press & Red Hen Press

My heart goes out to the Tiller family. It’s a sad day for them and a sad day for women’s rights.

My friend Joanne Herman directed my attention to this new website/ grassroots LGBT movement call to action, The Dallas Principles, which she was involved in creating!

Although I am disappointed that none of the 24 authors of the Principles are out bisexuals (at least, according to their bios on the site) — especially considering that in the US there are as many bisexuals as there are gays and lesbians combined — I’m glad that the Principles are inclusive of bisexuals in the movement.

It’s my hope that if any of the authors are bi, they’ll come out, as several of the authors who are gay and lesbian and trans have done. Considering:
a. the depth of biphobia and bi-invisibility in the community,
b. the fact that bisexuals have poorer physical, mental, and (yes) financial health than gays and lesbians, and
c. the fact that biphobia/ bi-invisibility and this poor health among bisexuals have a causal correlation,
I think it’s crucially important that bisexuals who are involved in movement politics — and there are many! — be as out as possible.

Closets make things harder for us all. Coming out promotes better health and well-being among bisexuals, because we need out role models; and this in turn promotes an increase in activism and community involvement by bisexuals, who, as I mentioned, comprise 50% of the LGB population. We bisexuals need our inspired and inspiring leaders.

It’s very sad to me to think that some might be closeted or reluctant to be out as bisexual, especially in the context of a group of individuals who are advocating for our civil rights. Think how much more we could accomplish if the B half of LGB were healthy and active and out — and fully vested in and recognized for their contributions to the movement!

In the meantime, until any authors who might be bi come out as such, please join with me in spreading the word about the Principles. We’re all in this together, closeted or out and proud, and our rights matter.

Wow! As of today, I have a master’s degree in business administration. I’m an MBA. Actually, combined with my MA in sexuality studies, I’m now: Amy Andre, MA, MBA. Which I guess could be pronounced, “Amy Andre, mamba”.

Big hugs to my friends family for cheering me on through the past two years of study, and to the Point Foundation and Haas School of Business for giving me the financial support — and other types of support — to make this day possible.

If you have even a spare dime, and you’re looking to donate it to a worthy LGBT cause, make a gift to Point. They give scholarships and mentorship to LGBTs, like me! I wouldn’t have been able to go to school without them.

And speaking of school, it’s time to head to my graduation ceremony and pick up all those extra letters for my name!

I’m about to graduate with my MBA (!), and I’m looking for a job. Wow, that’s a lot of stuff happening all at once. Please wish me luck on my job search! And, if you have any leads, please email me at amy @ amyandre.com. I thank you in advance for your awesome support!
And what’s new with you?

CALL FOR ACTORS!
“Translations” Queer People of Color Production
Debuts at National Queer Arts Festival in San Francisco in June!

AUDITIONS: Friday 5/1/ 2009, 6PM – 9PM
To schedule, for address/directions to the audition, or for more information, contact Nico Dacumos at nicodacumos@gmail.com.

THE STORY:
Friends are re-united through their family histories, discovering decades-long love affairs born during student protests in Mexico City, the height of Black Power in Oakland, and the battle against Martial Law in the Philippines. Queer histories and communities collide in “Translations,” a multi-genre theater piece produced by Nico Dacumos. Translations brings to the stage a collaborative script by DeWayne Dickerson, Natalia Vigil, and Dacumos with a cast of talented queer actors. The action drops us into the thick of experiences left untold for a generation, shining light on the legacies that bring us where we are today — in our hearts and identities, on the streets and under the sheets.

THE CHARACTERS:

SILVA – African-American, transgendered female. Early-twenties, but an “Old Soul” sort of lady. Present-day narrator.

TANK – African-American. Silva’s father in his mid/late-twenties. Masculine. Doesn’t have to be muscular, just big.

RAMAT – The North-African gentleman. Forties. British accent. Stylish, but not flashy.

MARGARITA (Marga) – Raised in a pueblito in Mexico. A “good” girl, but curious about the larger world.

ROSARIO (Rosa) – Marga’s friend and lover, ambitious and rebellious. An adult feminist.

MAGDI – A queer Chicana. Margarita’s present-day granddaughter.

PRECIOSA (Cee) – Present-day Filipina butch. Early/mid twenties. Shy.

ELENITA (Leny) – Cee’s auntie. Early/mid twenties. Filipina “tomboy.” Plays guitar. Fiery and unapologetic.

GRETCHEN — White woman. Serial dater of butches of color and current date of Cee.