Ballroom mashups, photography, Moor Mother, and more as Queer Arts Festival announces 2024 lineup

The theme The Ties That Bind explores family in all forms, with event set to run June 1 to 30

*Ayibobo III: Little Dollhouse on the Prairie.* Photo by Jeffrey Torgerson

VANCOUVER’S MULTIDISCIPLINARY QUEER ARTS Festival has announced a lineup of everything from a ballroom interdisciplinary show to American poet, musician, and activist Moor Mother, plus a range of visual-arts exhibits for its event, set to run June 1 to 30.

Anchoring the celebrations of this year’s fest, themed The Ties That Bind, is QAF’s expansive curated visual-art exhibition. This year’s group show examines the bonds and complexities of family, be it blood or chosen.

It officially kicks off with the annual ArtParty! on June 14 at the Roundhouse Community Centre, where visitors can check out the exhibit CRAWL SPACE, curated by the animation collective Flavourcel—a mix of projection, experimental animation techniques, and interactive installations to conjure a “house” within the Roundhouse Exhibition Hall.

Roundhouse’s Performance Centre will also host Ayibobo III: Little Dollhouse on the Prairie, a blend of dance and experimental soundscapes that delves into the realms of Black and queer identity; its ballroom performers draw on pop culture and Haitian Voodoo. Coproduced with the frank theatre, Danse Cité, and House of Barbara, it takes place June 15 and 16.

Outside of the Roundhouse headquarters, the fest events spread to the Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza, Malaspina Printmakers, The James Black Gallery, Fortune Sound Club, Ocean Artworks, and QAF's very own SUM gallery, where the group show Queer Eyes, Queer Lives features work from more than 60 LGBTQ2SIA+ youth, ages 14 to 29, from June 10 to 29.

QAF and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival join forces to present Moor Mother on June 21 at the Fortune Sound Club, where the Philadelphia poet-musician-activist fuses jazz, hip-hop, and spoken word.

Other highlights include Trace Elements, a program of short films curated by Kathleen Mullen, June 18 at the Roundhouse Performance Hall; a public reading of On Cuddling: Loved to Death in the Racial Embrace with critically acclaimed artist and curator Phanuel Antwi on June 20 at Or Gallery; and the festival’s closing party, Glitter is Forever, on June 25, featuring DJ Ziggy Zaya and local drag artists The Darlings.

For the full lineup and more information, visit queerartsfestival.com.

Now in its 17th year, the Queer Arts Festival is under the leadership of artistic director Mark Takeshi McGregor.

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Janet Smith

Janet Smith is founding partner and editorial director of Stir. She is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

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