The transnational queer underground is a project, which wants your voices to be heard. The private is political and everybody can write and create. We all should have the possibility to help shaping the world that surrounds us.

That is why I’m looking for your participation:

You want to interview a local musician/artist?
Write a concert/record/book/film review?
Let me know what and where.

You are organizing an event in you city and want more people to know about it?
Send an announcement.

You want to contribute pictures/drawings/illustrations to the articles?
Send them!

Also I would hate for this to be just an eurocentric page. I know that the situation for people that don’t fit into the heteronormative mainstream society is harder in some places than in others and people can’t always show their preferred way of life in public - wherever they are. But this is why writing for a transnational webmagazine might be a good way of letting more people in other parts of the world know about the situation in your area. There are many ways to contribute and I’m happy about any suggestion!

And please don’t hesitate, because you haven’t published anything before or you think that your english is not perfect. Don’t ever let anybody tell you there’s something you can’t do. You will get more confidence once you’ve started.

!!!LOOKING FOR CONTRIBUTIONS!!!
read more here

quEAR – The Transtonal Ear Festival

quEAR – The Transtonal Ear Festival

May 9, 2011 · by admin · in calls, events

quEAR – The Transtonal Ear Festival will take place from August 5 – 7
Location: on the grounds of “Schwarzer Kanal“ in Berlin-Treptow, Kiefholzstraße 74

quEAR, the Transtonal Ear Festival presents audio plays, oral performances, and sound installations with a “Trans*, Inter, Queer“ theme. There will also be Workshops. Call for performances: Please submit artistic contributions to audio(at)quear.org by mid June, 2011. This is a DIY Audiofestival.
quEAR is new in Germany. The intent is to create a forum for artistic exchange and discussion. It presents us with the opportunity to explore how sound as a multi faceted medium can be used for artistic and political expression. quEAR supports networking. The festival is free of charge. The festival is accessible to people with limited or no vision, wheelchairs, and other disabilities. Performances will take place out doors, on open air stages, in tents or containers.

quEAR is a word creation combining the two terms „queer” and “ear.” In this context, the meaning of “queer“ is not limited to “gay lesbian” or “gay lesbian bisexual transgender.” Queer is to be interpreted as “different from the norm” and thereby challenges and questions the boundaries presented to us by heteronormative society. The term “queer” is intended to encourage activity that goes beyond sexual orientation or individual identity. It is more than the negation of prohibitive or unbearable conditions. Politically, “queer” refers to a utopian space that may not yet exist but that can be defined and described and that we must continuously strive to create. Room for trans*inter und queer lifestyles and practices can not be taken for granted. Their space must continually be renegotiated. Discrimination and violence are not isolated incidents. They are the result of institutional, structural and cultural power struggles and thereby have a heightened political relevance.

www.quear.org
audio(at)quear.org

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The “transnational queer underground” emerged as a reference to the “international pop underground”, a convention initiated by Calvin Johnston (K Records/Portland/USA) in 1991 to take a stand against the sell-out of the music industry and also laid the foundation for the riot grrrl movement. In 2009 I was doing a lot of research on issues related to queer music for an article I was writing at that time and thought that the information I collected might be useful to some other people as well.

The articles that are posted here are mostly related to music, since that is my main topic, but as more and more people participate and help shaping the transnational queer underground I hope we will soon be able to offer a broader range of subjects. And I am always looking for people who would like to contribute something, either on a regular basis or just once. Go to the [PARTICIPATION] section to find out more.

Besides articles you can also find some basic information here. In the category [BANDS] there is a list of queer musicians, with links to their websites, so you can find out more about them. In the category [ARTISTS] you can find links to some visual artists. There are also a lot of queer [FILM FESTIVALS] worth checking out. [QUEER VENUES] offers you a list of places to go to in different cities around the world, recommended by people from those areas. In the [TEXTS] section you can find some links to (scientific) publications that are available on the internet. Finally there is a page called [LINKS] which I will have to work on in the near future to get a better structure.

There are a few things that are very important to me.
The history of queers has been widely neclected in the past and is still underrepresented in the present. So this is a small approach towards changing that.
The term queer, as used on this page, should be seen as a description for people or a group of people who do not act conforming to heteronormative rules and/or feel uncomfortable with categories implemented through a heteronormative society. This also means that there should be no references to biologisms, because they are constructed by society. There is nothing inherent about being a girl or a boy and you shouldn’t even have to define as either of these two, so there really is no need in reinforcing these categories here. And I see this the same way when it comes to sexual orientation, RACE, ethnicity or even nation states. We should question these categories and help deconstructing, instead of reproducing them.