Cabaret Mado’s 10^th anniversary continues

It’s been nothing short a drag festival at Cabaret Mado since the 10^th anniversary celebrations started April 26. The most famous queen of the village is celebrating her 10 years in business with all of the pomp and circumstance. With a finale this Sat, May 5, a host of stars will take the stage at the cabaret, with the big official party tonight, Thursday (May 3). All of the city’s most famous drag queens and female impersonators will come together to what should prove to be an unforgettable night: Michael Dorion, Jimmy Moore, Tracy Trash and the always wind-blown Miss Butterfly. Singer Kim Richardson will join the queens as special guest artist to top it all off.

Photo by Edson Emilio aka En Negro.

GayBash “Supermodel” Party @ Le Belmont

The nomadic and totally untamed GayBash duo of Sally and Tyler will turn the Belmont on the Boulevard (4483 St-Laurent) into a satiric runway for its zany crowd of fashionistas and “hors-village” superfags. ChoosingSupermodel for its theme, the Sat May 5^th edition of GayBash promises to deliver with DJ’s B’UGO, Rilly Guilty, Miami George, Ian Vincible and MSTR SSTR. Ad-hoc performance troupe STILLNOTFAMOUS will catapult all manner of kitsch on the catwalk, “sponsored” by Value Village. Outfit inspirations include “Thierry Mugler naked on Manhunt, Cindy Crawford’s mole, Deconstructive Clothing (BED SHEET REAL), George Michael, and Naomi’s ACTING CAREER.”

Designer undie give-aways by Sopa Body Care too!

Apollon’s TOP Video Fridays

Operating a giant video screen for DJ Steve Watt to play to (and with), the former producer for the likes of Moby and Shakira mixes a night of Top 40 with the videos to match.Friday, May 4 @ 1450 Ste Catherine Est.

www.apollonmtl.com

To mark the occasion of our 10th anniversary, we have chosen a crew of 10 personalities that have left their mark on the artistic, political, social, and intellectual matrix that is the homosocial world of Montréal and Ottawa. Ross Higgins, Tom Waugh, Matt Hays, Michael Hendricks, Rufus Wainwright, and Fo Niemi (for Montréal), along with Guy Bérubé, Jer Dias, and Shelley Taylor for Ottawa.

When 2B‘s first issue hit the stands, Rufus Wainwright’s Poses was charting, Pr. Tom Waugh was launching hisOutlines: Underground Gay Graphics from Before Stonewall, and the indomitable Michael Hendricks was in the first year of his suit against the government of Québec to win the right to marry his partner. Teen bullying, the hottest topic in LGBT news in recent years, was still not being talked about, but systemic oppression and homophobia were being opposed by the likes of Fo Niemi at the Human Rights Commission and CRARR. Terms like “queer” and “transphobia” were just starting to enter common use, “social media” had still not been invented, and pundits were predicting that the Internet would bring about the demise of print media (we showed them!).

The personalities that have made the last 10 years so exciting hold hints to what the next decade’s battles will be. The kind of struggles we must now wage under the backward conservative Harper regime are not unlike those which our forebears faced before us (maybe make a trip to Ross Higgins’s Québec Gay Archives if you don’t know what those were): to oppose the shaming and criminalization of sexual minorities; to stand up against all forms of censorship and oppression, whether it be here or abroad; but always, to highlight the members of our community who inspire, create, and facilitate a brighter future for GLBT people.

2B‘s 10^th Anniversary Exhibit Opening & Panel

w/ music by MONTAG and cupcakes by D-Liche!

Wed. April 11^th, 2012 – 5-8pm

Panel presentation at 6pm with Jason Crawford, post-doctoral fellow at Concordia University, Michael Hendricks, activist and Top 10 personality, and yours truly, Jordan Arseneault, 2Bmag Editor.

Écomusée du fier monde
2050, rue Amherst, Exhibit on display April 11-15, 2012

In conjunction with the Entre Elles 10th Anniversary Exhibit Opening & Cocktail, Friday April 13th @ 5pm

In collaboration with 2BMag.com

When you think of house music in Montréal, kids these days might think of Misstress Barbara, Mark Anthony, and the newer generation of sound artists like B’UGO. But before them all, and before house music was being played anywhere here, there was one name: Robert de la Gauthier. The Montréal native was synonymous with the downtown nightlife temple Le Garage, where he was in residence from 1980 to 1987. Gracefully approaching a remarkably zen midlife phase, Robert took a moment on a warm early evening in Little Italy to reminisce with me about what inspired him as a 16 year-old listening to disco, and where that passion took him.

“Back then the radio in the disco days of Montréal was really amazing, and I went to skating rinks and I heard how the DJ’s would beat match. I became so obsessed with mixing music that I ripped off the door of the cassette player I had at home and would use a pencil to slow down the tape and beat match to the radio,” he says with laugh, thinking about how low-fi it was even for then. “If I hear a song, I’m hearing another song in my head,” he admits. His talent for beat-matching allowed him to play different clubs without worrying about exclusivity. “Back then, the clubs would buy the records, and if they didn’t like you, they would fire the DJ and keep the vinyls. I started telling DJ’s to buy their own records to make it harder for them fire you for some stupid reason.” This independence allowed him to stay true to his style and never compromise on what he wanted to play.

“I was one of the first to play house music. People were not used to the BOOM-boom-boom so the owners only allowed me to play two house songs per night!” That quickly changed, as de la Gauthier became the arbiter of nightclub sound at the Garage, and later at Sécurité Maximum, where he would spin for a short few years before moving to New York City in 1989, at the harrowing peak of the AIDS crisis. “I attended [legendary nightclub] The Saint’s closing party. It was like 3 days non-stop, with the star projector and the dome over the dance floor… like the ancestor of the Circuit party. It was very special,” because it was at a highly emotional time in North American urban gay history. Although de la Gauthier would move to Europe soon after, where he lived in Holland and Germany with his husband Achim from 1993 to 2005, his connection to Montréal always stayed strong. He regularly played to packed dancefloors at Stereo, ARIA, and the Red Light.

The beat is what carries him, and has carried his audience of party-goers over 3 decades of late nights and those magnificent early mornings. One such early morning is indelibly marked in my mind: in a sweaty loft behind the Bell Centre, where de la Gauthier mixed his deep house beats to the soaring melodies of a live trumpeter, one of the many magical moments Robert has created over his eclectic career. “People don’t get surprised a lot,” he says of the current state of nightlife. “People like to know what they’re gonna get, but still, you can feel the spring of the underground coming to life again slowly,” he concludes with a smile.

This Spring, Robert de la Gauthier will be back at Stereo for Line Trepanier’s exhilarating Prana Yoga Jam (April 18), and will be serving a vogue-inflected set for ACCM’s ARTSIDA after-party. See you there!

Cause Célèbre Saturday, April 7, 10pm-2am with DJFrançois Guimond

Musée d’art contemporain, 185 Ste Catherine Ouest. Buy tickets online at www.artsida.org

www.robertdelagauthier.com

In collaboration with 2Bmag.com

While the DJs play an important role in guiding the clubbers through the 15-hour dance marathon, production values have been given the utmost attention in order to give the punters the most bang for their hard-earned buck. As was the case a couple of years ago with the sensory-overload backdrop of the ‘Boombox’ in the Trance Room, the folks from UK’s Godskitchen lend out their latest creation, the ‘Fusion Cube’: designed by the same guys who built the Boombox, the Fusion Cube defies description on paper yet is best explained by being “a next level concept of LED, projection and laser lighting.” Bring your shades (and not just for the morning after).

The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!

The return of the god-like Danny Tenaglia is reason enough alone for Montréal’s most discerning househead to attend. Headlining in the Main Room, Tenaglia will be joined by house notoriety Steve Angello and Fedde le Grand and a 22-year old Russian producer, Arty, who might just take the room by storm. What’s more compelling is that Arty had the trance community by the proverbial nuts with his modern-day classics “Hope” and “Zara” in 2010/11. He then caught the attention of the Swedish House Mafia with his house jam, “Around the World” quickly making him one of those genre-defying darlings of the electronic dance music scene. Jacques le Cont of Madonna’s “Confession on the Dancefloor”/”Sticky & Sweet Tour” fame – along with locals Paskal & Vesselinov – and Kingdom round out the Main Room.

Unicorn slayers, pretty boys and a queen of clubs

Over in the Trance Room, Markus Schulz returns to slay unicorns for the fourth year in a row with his big-room progressive sound becoming a new religion ever since his early morning sermons at the Bal in 2009/10/11. Those caught under the spell of the Fusion Cube will also be privy to newbies Beat Service and pretty-boy Jochen Miller, both of which accurately represent the ‘newer’ wave of trance. Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten, both who have a few Bal’s under their belt, will deliver their own sets of a sound they help to create to massive appeal back in the late 90’s. Back-by-popular-demand, closer Ben Gold, local DJs Insomnia and Omar el Gamal fill out the Trance Room. Both rooms will be treated to a vocal performance by the self-declared ‘Queen of Clubs’, Nadia Ali. While some thought the voice behind iio’s “Rapture” had turfed into obscurity back in 2001, Ali has been serenading dancefloors with her sultriness since hitting it solo in 2005.

After all is said and done, the question is, will you go? Even with all the fanfare associated with the event, one has to wonder if the price tag on the ticket is one worth paying for. While the $137 cover might make you go pale with shock, you just know that you’re in it for the decadence anyway, and you only turn 18 once, right?

balenblanc.com

In collaboration with 2Bmag.com

“ARTSIDA has grown, in four short years, out of a small community-organized event led by artists and activists into a sophisticated benefit gala,” Laura MacDonald and Erika Jahn expound in their pre-promo statement on the event. 2Bmag got a special sneak peak at two perhaps less well-known visual artists who have donated work for the auction that promises to be one of the biggest charity art events of the year.

Painter Daniel Barkley (his artwork on cover) and photographer Evergon have both given ont of their works for this year’s ARTSIDA. But 2Bmag also got a special sneak peak at two perhaps less well-known visual artists who have donated work for the auction that promises to be one of the biggest charity art events of the year. Jessica MacCormack and François Escalmel represent two very different approaches to why artists make images, but their authenticity and penchant for the enigmatic will make you look twice when they go on the block at the Musée next month.

Watch for these works at the ARTSIDA auction this year!

ARTSIDA: Sat. April 7, 2012 at the Musée d’Art contemporain de Montréal (185 Sainte-Catherine Ouest). The cocktail @ 6pm, auction 7pm, followed by a raucous after-party in the Musée’s Main Hall featuring the beloved DJ Robert de la Gauthier. For the full list of artists and works on the block, check out www.artsida.org

Revealing Mr. Maugham

Just by looking at the titles of his novels – The Painted Veil, On Human Bondage, The Razor’s Edge – it would be easy to guess that British novelist and critic Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was indeed quite queer. “Illicit love, celebrity, extreme opulence and hard luck were the ingredients in this eventful and controversial life,” we are told of British director Michael House’s French-made film in which he gathers commentary for such luminaries as Armistead Maupin and biographer Selina Hastings. The heart of the story: how Maugham chose notoriety over tradition to live as an expat with his younger male lover for 30 years.

Sat 17 March, 20h30 @ J-A deSève; Wed 21 March, 20h30 @ Grande Bibliothèque. Check out the trailer, here:

Monsieur Hubert de Givenchy

Fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy is given a very classic documentary treatment by Karim Zeriahen (whose Paul Morrissey, In the Flesh made festival rounds in 2008). Though the House of Givenchy he founded in 1952 is now headed by critical darling Ricardo Tischi, the 85 year-old aristocrat is still with us to reminisce about his mentor Cristóbal Balenciaga, and the divas he dressed in his reinvented “casual chic” couture: Jackie Kennedy, Lauren Bacall, and, of course, his muse, the iconic Audrey Hepburn.

Wayne McGregor: Thought in Movement

French filmmaker Catherine Maximoff turns her intellectual eye on British choreographer Wayne McGregor, famous for his invigorating productions for the Royal Ballet and his own company, Random Dance. McGregor’s “dense and extreme choreographic style” is his trademark, combining that oh-so-queer love of the high and low: abstraction and neuroscience meet raw creativity in this doc for dance-lovers who enjoy a challenge.

Jean Genet, le contre-exemplaire

“Thief, traitor, pederast, ghostwriter and social outcast…” Sounds like someone you want to meet? From New York slam artist Saul Williams to writer Juan Goytisolo and porn actor François Sagat, along with a colourful cast of “prison cell inmates, transvestites, and illegal immigrants” describe their relationships with the author of The Thief’s Journaland Our Lady of the Flowers to reveal how the words “declared public enemy” still resonate today. This remeniscence of JeanGenet, the quintessential enfant terrible, provocateur, and poet will make you want to be a rebel queer (again).

More soon from FIFA’s 2012 selection on 2Bmag

For the full programme: www.artfifa.com

2B: What motivated you to start projects like Meow Mix and Edgy Women?

MG: I life to feel like I’m proposing something different, that I’m contributing to the development of the community. I love to be surrounded by amazing artists and share my experience of their practice with other spectators. For 15 years now, I have organized the bimonthly Meow Mix night for the lesbian and queer community. As for Edgy Women, it’s a festival of female and feminist performance art: it’s one of Studio 303′s main events of the year, and it’s where my professional interests as the director of 303 meet with my more personal community projects. With Meow Mix and Edgy Women, I hope to create a space that celebrates non traditional identities, and to present artistic events that use humour and seduction to convey a message.

2B: What do you think of the lesbian art scene today?

MG: It’s not really possible to speak of a “lesbian art scene” per se, but it’s certain that the number and variety of artists has grown a lot over the years, both in the amateur and professional fronts. Lesbians are more and more visible, especially in the music scene (Djs and bands), in literature, stand-up comedy and film. I think that this identity is somewhat less apparent in live arts like dance, theatre and performance – and less still in visual art. I feel like lesbianism as a subject is a bit outdated! That being said, if you start talking about queer performance, the selection has become bigger and bigger. It wasn’t so long ago that Meow Mix (and le Boudoir) was one of the only queer cabaret nights in town, now there are a panoply of different events in numerous venues, highlighted by social media. It’s incredible, and it’s a good sign!

2B: Do you think lesbians offer an important perspective on feminism?

MG: Oh yeah! Of course, people who are marginalized within a given movement will always shake things up, and call certain ideas into question. They help deconstruct preconceived notions.

2B: How would you qualify your own of feminism?

MG: I’m an activist in my own way, but I don’t really go out into the street; however, all my work is to promote women and queer people. For me, feminism is an obvious choice. I don’t understand when people admit that they are NOT feminists!

This interview has been abridged from its original French version, available at www.entreelles.net, and published in collaboration with 2BMag.com.

Opening Party: Launch of Edgy Zombie with the GLSINS Collective (France)
@ Royal Phoenix Bar (FREE)

Edgy Women Festival
March 16-31, 2012
Presented by Studio 303
514.393.3771
www.edgywomen.ca

One look at the Facebook event for SIKA’s Colour Your Walls album launch, and you just know: this girl’s got it going on. The high-concept free show tonight will merge “interactive video” with her music and the projection of a documentary short about her trajectory from humble local folk-singer to queer woman of colour with a genuine and strong message, and a host of fab collaborators, including Jodee Allen of Solid State Breakdance.

Born in Porte-au-Prince, Haiti, SIKA’s sings in English, French, and créole, with a voice reminiscent of Tracy Chapman. The themes she expresses on tracks like “It’s Ok to be Alone” are meant to evoke “feelings, body heat, reason and colour tones,” and were carefully worked into a richly sonourous 6-song EP produced by Florida-based sound wizard Andy Barrow who has worked with up-and-coming créole artists.

The launch show’s “intimate live sensory experience” will be highlighted by interior design elements, as well as the soulful hosting of Nantali Indogo from Montréal hip-hop-fusion orchestra Nomadic Massive.

SIKA’s got it going on, and you won’t want to miss out!

SIKA: Colour Your Walls album launch
Wed March 7, 7pm
4012 rue St-Denis, Montréal
FREE

www.coloursandsound.com

In collaboration with 2BMag.com

Barry Adam is interested in “how guys perceive the game-plan of connecting up with each other,” he said prosaically, even though you get the sense from his vocabulary and social science background that he has a lot more going on. Known for his 2005 article in “Constructing the Neoliberal Sexual Actor: Responsibility and Care of the Self in the Discourse of Barebackers”, Dr. Adam has been published and cited in multiple journals on the topic of HIV risk and perceptions and conversations around safer sex between men. He currently works as Director of Prevention Research at the Ontario HIV Treatment Network, and has collaborated with such progressive organizations as the Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance (GMSH). When we reached him in his office at the University of Windsor, there was only one thing on our mind: THAT POSTER.

“I work closely with the ASOs in trying to make their work more effective,” Adams responded, as I fished for a comment on the alarmist diatribe unleashed on ACCM’s Facebook wall last month when one of its employees posted a photo of a Radical Queer Semaine demonstrator holding the now infamous I PARTY I BAREBACK I’M POSITIVE I’M RESPONSIBLE poster from the AIDS ACTION NOW! 2011 “Poster/Virus” series. Adam, who had spent the previous day sitting next to the artist and intervention worker Mikiki at a public health conference, cuts to the chase in talking about that heaviest of topics: stigma.

“When GMSH launched their HIVstigma.com site in 2008, thousands of men wrote in, neg and poz,” Adam recounts. “There’s a lot of pain on both sides,” he reiterates, referring both to the fear and anonymity lived by HIV positive gay men, and the concern and guilt that many HIV negative men have for contributing to the stigmatization of their friends, sex partners, and comrades who are HIV positive. “Neoliberalism and masculinity play a role in how we conceive of infectiousness. [They] create different kinds of outcomes in terms of generating vulnerability.” When I asked him what he meant by this, he described how when men are chatting or cruising, there are “standards” or myths about how men aresupposed to act (and talk) that affect our ability to disclose or ask about our HIV status, or about other STIs. The myth of the self-reliant man is called into question by HIV in a disturbing way: by admitting he is a carrier, the man must admit to another man that he has a physical vulnerability that is inextricably linked to his sexuality.

With this understanding in mind, Dr. Adam will “try and posit why infection rates aren’t decreasing,” during his March 15 lecture. Expect a very, very interesting Q & A afterwards.

Dr. Barry Adam: “Neoliberalism, Masculinity, and HIV Risk”
Concordia HIV/AIDS Lecture Series
Thursday, March 15, 6pm
1455 de Maisonneuve W.  H-110
aids.concordia.ca

It has been a busy day for D.J., a full time dance teacher at Canterbury High School; he snuck a workout in before the interview, and needs to be out the door in 27 minutes exactly so that he can make it to rehearsal on time.

“I know it’s cheesy to admit, but its my dream show” D.J. says as he sips his coffee. “Ever since it came out in 1996, I knew I would do it either professionally or within community theatre, it was just a matter of time.” Before becoming a teacher, he performed in a variety of professional productions including the resident Toronto cast of Mama Mia.

“The truth is, since Orpheus Theatre announced the production over two years ago, I have been preparing emotionally, physically and mentally.” Derek was chosen to play Roger Davis out of over 160 people who auditioned.

“I know a lot of people think I would have tried out for Angel, the drag character in the show, because of my familiarity with the culture and my vocal range. The truth is, I have a lot in common with the character, but I love a challenge. That’s why I do theatre – to explore other characters and other parts of who I am.  It’s all about the journey.”

He stops to think why the show is so important to him. Deep in thought, D.J. doesn’t realize he is still wearing his black Canada Goose jacket with the hood down and coat zipped up.

“It’s about passion, joy, friendship, disease, regret, life and death. And as a gay man these are things we have to deal with or at least acknowledge in our lives” he says in a heavier tone. “Especially my character, Roger, he is HIV positive.  Although I have never been directly affected, the disease became very real for me when a close friend of mine, Vicky Lawsuit died.”

Vicky Lawsuit was a drag queen who lived openly about her HIV status in Ottawa. She died in 2008, and was known for her sharp tongue, burlesque style of performance, and devotion to the community.

“When Vicky died I detached from the reality; I became afraid of HIV and disassociated myself with a lot of gay culture. The character I play is also going through this detachment. He is trying to cope with his diagnosis by detaching from reality and isolating himself. It’s a sorta punishment I think we all do to ourselves,” D.J. says reflectively.

Derek gets tested for HIV at least once a year. He says he find the instant before the results the scariest part because he knows that that it could instantly change his life. In spite of the fear he does it because he feels it is important to take care of oneself.

He also gives back at the school he works at full-time. “I am proud to say that I am out at school. I don’t announce it, but I don’t hide it either. I am, after all, a dance teacher.”  Derek recently participated in a meeting of the school’s Rainbow Alliance, a club that supports LGBTQ students. “The club’s organizing teacher had invited the colleagues he felt would be good Allies for students to introduce themselves to club members. I was happy to share that I was gay, and how I wished we had something like this when I was a student.”

Derek’s phone goes off again. It’s another text message, he has been ignoring them throughout the interview, but you can still hear the vibrations from his jacket pocket that he still has on. His coffee is only one third finished.

“I should probably also tell you that you need to see this show” Derek says, bringing the conversation back to RENT. “It’s not just about supporting local talent. I mean, I have been in lots of show, and I never do promo, but this time I am actually messaging friends and pushing them. I am really proud of what we have made.”

D.J. seems to brighten, “This cast has voices that are out of this world, and we gel so well. It’s hard to imagine we have only been rehearsing for a few months, I swear we are so close that we’re almost like family.

“The best part about the show is how it’s all come together. We had a rehearsal with the full band and the completed choreography and it’s just spectacular. You could not tell you weren’t watching it in New York.” Derek pauses, “But for me, the best part is the music, that is what it comes down to. By the second act the cast is in tears and the messages hit home for those watching. It’s so beautiful. We really feel it and I know the audiences will too.”

Orpheus Musical Theatre presents Rent

Friday, March 2 – Sunday, March 11
Centrepointe Theatre (101 Centrepointe Dr.)
Orpheus-Theatre.ca

By Jeremy Dias
Jeremy Dias is the Director of Jer’s Vision: Canada’s Youth Diversity Initiative & the International Day of Pink (April 11, 2012).  He is also board member of the Canadian Human Rights Monument & Housing Help.

For more information see: www.jersvision.org &www.dayofpink.org

In collaboration with 2BMag.com