OUTBURST 2010 will be happening in November. In the meantime, sign up to our mailing list for our occassional newsletter with details of great queer arts events happening in Northern Ireland throughout the year.

COMING SOON!

The 10th Belfast Film Festival 15th-30th April 2010 

Our partners at BFF have a brilliant line up of Same Sex Cinema at this year’s fest.

Booking now!!

Hands by your side and lift those knees higher!
It’s time to put on your dancing brogues for our very special opening night LGBT ceilidh, complete with trad musicians and the perfect opportunity to ask someone lovely “are ye dancin’?”
And don’t worry if you have three left feet and a Michael Flatley phobia, Gaylidh is dancing for everyone – less about technique, more about the craic. And we’ll even have someone on hand to make sure you know the moves…
So bring your friends and family and come help us celebrate the opening of this year’s festival, trad style. All are welcome.
(Over-the-top curly wigs and elaborately embroidered dresses optional but highly encouraged….)

OUTBURST is delighted to supportCrossword, the inaugural exhibition by Belfast-based LGBT photography collective, Lightwriters.
A multi-level display in a crossword style, the exhibition explores positive aspects of LGBT community life, inviting you to discover the visual clues given and think about the meaning of the evidence.
Most of the photographs have a hidden depth or meaning, often humorous and not immediately obvious but apparent when considered more closely.

The Lightwriters photography group formed in late 2008 to give a platform for the LGBT community to get involved in practical photography projects, exploring the technical aspects of the medium as well as the creative. The group operates on a collective basis, with a strong emphasis on inclusivity, creativity and fun.

For more information, visit the Lightwriters Facebook page or email lightwriters@hotmail.co.uk
New members are welcome.

OPENING NIGHT
(left to right) Martin Bowles,
Elaine Adair, John Barr from Lightwriters

NEWS! As tickets for BISON have almost sold out, there will now be an additional late evening performance at 10pm on Saturday night.

As part of the Queer At Queens programme of events, Northern Ireland’s first publicly funded gay theatre company, TheatreofplucK, proudly presents the EuropeanPremiere of Bison by award winning Sydney-based writer Lachlan Philpott.

Removing the rose-tinted spectacles reserved for TV portrayals of gay life, Bison delves beneath the surface to explore aspects of contemporary queer relationships such as virtual identity, monogamy, bareback sex, ageism, and social connection.

Fast, funny and moving, Bison boldly confronts the big questions about sex and love, commitment and freedom, emotional longing and the desire for pleasure and connection.

Having wowed LGBT audiences across Australia, Bison has been workshopped and redeveloped by director Alyson Campbell and an entirely gay cast, stripping back and examining the herd-like behaviour and rules that govern the ’scene’ the world over.

Book your tickets early for what promises to be one of the genuine treats of OUTBURST 2009.

Director: Alyson Campbell  Production Design: Niall Rea

CAST: Matthew Cavan, Miche Doherty, Christopher Sutton and Jonny McMillen-Patterson.  MUSIC: Nick Gillian

We invite you to join us at 6.30pm on Fri. 13th Nov. in the QFT to celebrate the opening of Untold Fables, a stunning new exhibition by photographer Daniel Holfeld.

Annie Liebovitz says she is not afraid ‘to fall in love’ with the people she photographs. Holfeld’s debut solo show comes from that same autonomous pursuit of desire.

Away from the scrutiny of society, Holfeld has turned his gaze towards creating intimate portraits, which evoke a paradoxical sense of mystery and brutal honesty. Together these portraits break down barriers of class and social stigma to reveal a contemporary representation of the gay male identity and question his everyday experience.

Irish born to German parents and now based in Dublin, Holfeld is rapidly making his commercial mark shooting fashion campaigns for Ireland’s top designers. Holfeld’s work will also be screened later this year in Oscar-nominated film director Amy Berg’s documentary on Benazir Bhutto, where Daniel was invited to create original photography for use in the film.

We couldn’t let Friday 13th pass without a queer nod to all things creepy and eeeeeevil…welcome to the OUTBURST late night horror film show!
Choose from one of two classic frighteners – spooky gay slasher flick Hellbent and cult favourite Vampyros Lesbos.

HELLBENT
Dir. Paul Etheredge / 85mins / USA /2004
10.30pm  QFT 2  £5.50

It is Halloween night, and the famed West Hollywood
Halloween Carnival is in full swing. Despite the news of a grisly double beheading in the area, four gay friends prepare for a wild night at the raucous party.
But somewhere in the night there lurks a relentless, devilish killer wielding a sickle and stalking their every move! Hellbent will grab you by the throat and leave you on the edge of your seat.

VAMPYROS LESBOS
Dir. Jess Franco / 1971 / West Germany / 89 min
10.45pm  QFT 1  £5.50

A cult masterpiece, Vampyros Lesbos is a tripped-out erotic cocktail of nudity, psychedelic softcore lesbianism, vampires and outrageous sets – all accompanied by a world famous retro soundtrack.
Countess Nadin Carody is a dark and beautiful vampire with an insatiable thirst for female blood, lures young women to her isolated island to love… and then kill in ecstasy.
Linda Westing is a young American lawyer, working in Istanbul. During the night, she has passionate dreams in which a sexy brunett makes love to her. A minor case forces her to travel to one of the small islands off the Turkish coast, where her nightmares come upon her…

(German trailer, will be in English)

In association with OUTBURST, Drama Studies at Queen’s University Belfast is hosting a conference and a weekend of related events. All events take place in the Drama and Film Centre, 20 University Square, Queen’s University. The conference will gather together academics and artists interested in exploring ideas about the place of queer performance – artistic, social or political – in contemporary society and the responses to these performances.

For more information on the conference and details on how to register, visit the Queen’s University Drama Studies page HERE

SATURDAY 14th
A series of panels covering subjects such as the political implications of Queer performance in Ireland, Queer theatre North and South and the politics of dancing. Papers range from an analysis of recent debates in the media in the South about the ‘performance’ of the LGBTQ community during and around Pride 2009 to the interrogation of sexual shame in dance performance Perverts! by queer and feminist collective PanicLab.

There will be a keynote address by Professor Brian Singleton, Trinity College Dublin, and the launch of Queer Performance in Ireland, a new collection of writings edited by David Cregan, (Carysfort Press).

Panel discussion  2pm
The Place of the Queer Arts Festival
(Free Public Session)

Speakers include Dee Heddon (University of Glasgow, author of ‘A Visitor’s Guide to Glasgay!’), photographer Daniel Holfeld, Predrag Pajdic (contributor, Queer Zagreb) and Ruth McCarthy (OUTBURST).

SUNDAY 15th
Rehearsed Play Reading  3pm
Smilin’ Through by Billy Cowan
(Free Public Reading)
Belfast 98. Peace? Not if mother-from-hell Peggy
Morrow has anything to do with it. But with her queer son on hunger strike and a singing Mountie wooing her with big musical numbers, will she be able to keep up the fight?
Directed by David Grant.
Followed by a panel discussion with David Grant, Billy Cowan, Sean Caffrey and Brenda Murphy.

One morning, after a heavy night of drinking cherry pop and cocktails, Koko woke up to find that she had oddly been transported through time from 1963 to 2009.
After the initial shock, Koko calmed herself down with SEVERAL layers of extreme black mascara and more glitter than one would usually adorn unless one was a christmas tree. Stepping out into the crazy mixed up land of Belfast, Koko heard many a lovely sound and song but none that made her feel really at home; so she found some friends, made up some dance moves, downed a couple of whiskeys and brought the sweet sounds of the 60’s back to 2009!
Join Koko and friends at The Black Box for this special gig filled with music, madness, mahem, special guest dancers and song after song that will make you get up off your feet and dance like you’ve never danced before!

Boop boop be don’t miss this hilarious funky cabaret of fun!

The wonderful Katie & the Carnival will be joining Koko and her guest dancers for the evening! Check out their video…

Who’s in YOUR family?
Mums..dads..brothers..grannies…sisters…dogs…cats…
OUTBURST and New Belfast Community Arts Initiative would like to invite you to celebrate LGBT families by creating a collaborative piece of art over an afternoon!

Pop in anytime, for 20 minutes or the whole session, and our experienced art facilitators from NBCAI will be on hand to help you create a family portrait, or just one of yourself, using oil prints (don’t worry, it’s washable!). Make a copy to take home and a copy to add to our LGBT family mural.

And OUTBURST is delighted to add that coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the finished art piece will be exhibited in the offices of the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People at Great Victoria Street, Belfast.

So bring your kids, your nieces and nephews, your sisters and brothers of all ages…and…ok, go on then…you can get mucky yourself even if you’re all grown up.

www.poetcasting.co.uk

QUEER POETRY SHOWCASE
Sun. 15th Nov.
Black Box
8pm  £3 at door
In partnership with poetcasting.co.uk

OUTBURST gets lyrical in partnership with acclaimed
poetry podcasting website, poetcasting.co.uk, as LGB poets step up to the mic for a fantastic chilled-out evening of readings that will be recorded on the night and later showcased on the poetcasting website.
We are also inviting new and emerging writers to take part, just come along to our workshop on the day before the event.

Performing poets include…

Paula Cunningham: Paula’s poems have been widely anthologised in Ireland and beyond. Her book, A Dog Called Chance, was published by Smith Doorstop in 1999.  She has also written plays for Tinderbox and Radio 4, and a short story appeared in Faber’s Best New Irish Short Stories 2004-5.

Vincent Creelan: Vincent describes himself as “an ex-gamekeeper, scientist and peeler, a parent and an activist with a small ‘a’.” He recently appeared on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Sq. as part of Antony Gormley’s art project, where he read his poetry, put the world to rights and challenged people to share the love.

Hayley Fox-Roberts: Liverpool-born poet Hayley pulls on your emotions and sensibility with her unique blend of lyric poetry, Goddess-worship and polemic rant. She has published two collections, Songs of Lust (Windows Publications,1985) and Nine Muses on a Night Out, (Bradshaw Books, 2001.

Pádraig Ó Tuama: Pádraig has worked as a community poet for a number of Corrymeela’s storytelling projects, writing poems about people’s experiences of Ireland and conflict. He likes poems that rhyme and poems with rhythm. Sometimes they have both. He has a new book coming out this winter and some of his poetry can be found at www.corkman.tumblr.com