This Friday night, Suppositori Spelling and DJ BUS STATION JOHN aregiving love, instinctively on the Touch dancefloor!
Comfort & Joy invites you
to the Touch 4 Year Anniversary
…featuring a special duet
by drag superstar Suppositori Spelling
with the classic bathhouse disco
sound of DJ BUS STATION JOHN
Called “the godfather of bathhouse disco,”, Bus Station John has been the musical conduit for a huge cultural reawakening among younger homos over the past decade. He’s revered throughout the dance music world for his fastidious attention to party detail and his inimitable blend of extremely rare 1970s and early ’80s soul, boogie, garage, …funk, Italo disco, Hi-NRG, and NYC no-wave.
TOUCH is a private danceparty fundraiser experience.
OUR PRIVATE VENUE has over 2500 square feet of luxurious, colorful and comfortable themed environments and saucy playspaces in a central San Francisco location. Our intimate dancefloor comes complete with a brass dance pole, cabaret stage, top-shelf sound system, beautiful plant-filled outdoor patio, several private lounges and plenty of space to circulate, flirt & enjoy. Friday’s special event features the debut of the saucy “PINK ROOM” right off the Touch dancefloor!
BRING your own buzz: Our fabulously decadent TIKI BAR offers only the freshest juices, water & botanical sodas created by Bay Area favorite Taylor’s Tonics; No alcohol served.
Yet complementary “bottle-check” IS available for those who BYOB.
Yes, we are open for registration! Want to be part of the fabulous Comfort & Joy Village Camp at 2012 Burning Man? Complete our camp census and pay a camp fee deposit by July 1st to secure a spot. Read more…
2012 Burning Man Camp Membership
Comfort & Joy is a radical queer collective dedicated to promoting queer culture, expression, self-actualization and community. Comfort & Joy is mutual-support society for our members to produce art installations and organize special events. Comfort & Joy is an umbrella organization with several wings & interest areas – there’s something for everyone. We work together to help each other!
We come together at Burning Man as a Village of like-minded individuals. The largest project of the year for Comfort & Joy is this Village. Membership in Comfort & Joy is open to queer-minded individuals willing to contribute to this Burning Man Village and help do the work needed to make it happen.
Comfort & Joy Campmate Expectations
It takes a lot of work in a variety of areas to pull together our camp – cooks, construction, performers, setup & breakdown, decor, guest services and many more! Our Membership Menu details the expectations of our camp mates. What this boils down to is:
We expect everyone to put in at least a few hours every day on the playa assisting with the running of the camp.
Before leaving the playa, everyone needs to help with some breakdown tasks (closing up structures, taking trash off-playa, etc)
On the census you’ll have the chance to join the various teams which make the camp happen. There are also many opportunities off-playa to help with camp fundraising which support our scholarship fund. See our events page for where you can plug in. Volunteering at pre-playa events is a great way to meet and work with your campmates before the burn. And if this is either your first burn or your first time camping with Comfort & Joy, these pre-playa events will help you figure out if this is the camp for you.
Camp Dues & Fees
Camp dues cover the roughly $30,000 cost of running Comfort & Joy for 12 days on the playa. Dues cover drinking water, 2 meals each day (snacks, brunch, dinner), shared infrastructure, truck rental from SF, storage for the rest of the year, etc.
Dues for 2012 are $300 per person as long as a deposit is paid by July 1. Dues increase to $350 after July 1 if no deposit has been received. Reduced dues can be requested by applying for a scholarship in the census.
A $75 deposit paid by July 1 holds your spot in Comfort & Joy. Camp size is limited!
Scholarship Info: Please pay the $75 deposit and when you complete the census please enter there what you can afford for camp dues. The first week of July we are hoping to respond to scholarship requests and will you know if a full or partial reduction was possible. (more details in a few weeks)
Fundraising events between now and the burn will help defray camp expenses as well as support the scholarship fund. Do volunteer at upcoming Touch and Afterglow events as the success of these events translates to a more fabulous burn!
Camp enrollment closes August 1.
Bonus!
If you put in 2 full days on the playa to set up the camp prior to gate-opening, you’ll get $50 back on camp dues (caveat – early arrival passes are limited).
If you put in 2 full days on the playa to take down the camp after the event closes (Mon+Tues after The Temple burn), you’ll get $75 back on playa (no special pass is needed to stay late).
RV Fees - RV’s with a footprint larger than a cargo van are asked to pay $100.
How to pay camp dues?
Cash : Jason Herschel and John Major can accept cash in person
Check in the mail: John Major @ 725 Shotwell St, SF, CA, 94110
Paypal : iamh2o@gmail.com
Census
Pay your $75 camp deposit fees and fill out the census by July 1 to be officially registered with Comfort & Joy. You can find the census here: Comfort & Joy Camp Census.
Upcoming Dates
Key events to meet your campmates, plug-in to the organization, and raise money for the camp
Camp Kickoff Soiree & BBQ: May 20, 2pm-6pm @ 725 Shotwell St
This is the last week for the campaign to support Transgender Tuesdays, a groundbreaking new documentary about the first primary care clinic in the U.S. (maybe the world) for transgender individuals. This film explores the opening of the clinic in the early 90′s, its trials and tribulations, and the extraordinary effect it had on the community it served. Transgender Tuesdays is a community supported project; we need you to make a donation today so the film has the resources it needs to bring this important story into queer consciousness.
Here’s a bit of what Mark Freeman, creator of Transgender Tuesdays and fellow C&J’er, has to say:
Hi, Mark Freeman here to ask your help with a groundbreaking documentary film about the first people who came to a little clinic called Transgender Tuesdays, back in 1993. At the time, I was a Family Nurse Practitioner and part of a team in San Francisco that was trying to reach out to the most underserved group in our region, and during the worst period of the AIDS epidemic to hit our city. We didn’t know then that what we were starting would turn out to be the country’s first Primary Care clinic aimed at transgender folks.
Through the merging of health care providers from this one small Public Health clinic, activists from every ethnic and gender group in the city, and actively participating trans folks, a whole new model of care for the country emerged. And what’s more, through bridging these groups, a truly unique and inclusive sense of trans community was born.
Now, by supporting this film, you’ll be helping to make a mini-feature length documentary that reveals – to everyone in its reach – the humanity of transgender people, particularly that of those who faced some of the worst conditions imaginable during the “bad old days.” These stories form the backbone of this film, and they are amazing. They are jaw-dropping, horrifying, infuriating, courageous– and they are bitingly humorous. This is not merely intended for a local or temporal audience, however. Editor Nathaniel Walters (“Survivor”) and our Consulting Editor Bill Weber (“The Cockettes” and “We Were Here”) are creating a polished, highly entertaining, educational film about trans history and current realities that will be useful for years to come, around the globe.
See an introduction to the film and the rest of Mark’s letter here.
Transgender issues have always been important to me as a queer activist. I’ve been lucky to have several close trans friends and consider the intertwining of the gay/lesbian/bi equality and transgender equality movements to be a true blessing for civil rights (two for one baby!). But, we don’t do enough. Discrimination, harassment and hurtful misconceptions continue to surround the transgender community. Even here, in our bubble of the bay, a transgender friend of the community was recently murdered in a horrific hate crime, just for being herself. In more than half the country, transgender people can still be legally fired or kicked out of their housing, just for being themselves. And medical care for the trans community is startlingly inadequate.
This is your chance to help. Make a donation of $20, the cost of a twelve pack of beer or five cappuccinos. There’s some great perks as thank you’s for your donation. Can you afford a bit more? Make a donation of $100. This project is grassroots funded so every little bit helps.
I’ve convinced you, right? Just in case not, here’s a short video of me talking about Transgender Tuesdays at Feyboy.
Next Sunday will be an exciting and wildly creative 3 hour audition/workshop in search of collaborators and performers for HOMO FILE: a new queer history performance project by Seth Eisen about the life of Sam Steward, (1907-1994), who was a college professor, a prolific author of homoerotic fiction, an influential tattoo artist, and Queer sexual renegade who lived his last 3 decades in the Bay Area.
Above: Drawing by Sam Shepard
Seth is looking to cast a diverse group of men, women and trans-folk, ages 25-75 who have an interest in Queer History, social justice and creating work in an interdisciplinary creative process. Especially looking for folks into or who have TATTOOS, or like the “sailor aesthetic”.
Seth Eisen will direct this ensemble of multidisciplinary performers/artists/collaborators and together we will create the new piece. Artists/performers/collaborators will receive an honorarium and the opportunity to work on this creative project with the possibility of a tour and longer run.
This Sunday, come for the experience and creative exchange even if just for the 3 hours. We will spend time working with improvised and set scores using text, music, puppetry, object manipulation and movement. If you are interested in attending the workshop or in a collaboration contact Seth to confirm or to discuss the possibilities. Please post and forward widely!!
seth@eyezen.org 415-786-9325
In 1948 the gay community as we know it did not exist. Homosexual was a word used only to describe those who were considered sick heterosexuals. Yet in that same year, one man had the visionary idea that homosexuals were a “cultural minority” that could be organized to create a community and fight for their human rights. Sixty years later that vision developed into a worldwide civil rights movement and inspired the creation of lesbian, gay and transgender communities on every continent. The man who had that exceptional vision was Harry Hay.
Above: Harry Hay in 1933.
On the centennial anniversary of his birth, the San Francisco Public Library is celebrating the life and visionary work of activist Harry Hay, who laid the foundation for the modern U.S. lesbian and gay rights movement, with a large exhibit at the Main Branch’s Jewett Gallery (next to the lower level cafe) at 100 Larkin Street. This fascinating exhibit chronicles Hay’s life from his early years through his labor activism and involvement with the Communist Party before founding the Mattachine Society and co-founding the Radical Faeries. The exhibit is open now through July 29th.
On Tuesday, May 8th, Guest Curator Joey Cain will introduce the exhibition with a special program, “Above All Else, Audacity!” featuring special guests Jewelle Gomez, Phyllis Lyon, Sally Hay (niece of Harry Hay), Will Roscoe, Mark Thompson & Malcolm Boyd. These colleagues & friends of Harry will discuss Hay’s contribution to the modern LGBT movement in the Main Branch Library’s Koret Auditorium. Special guests may include some surprises!
Comfort & Joy, the Astropups and Rocket Collective invite you to enjoy an electro explosion of color at GLOW ROCKET on Saturday, April 28th.
This gay blacklight discotheque features tons of glow-in-the-dark art, otherworldly performances from VAIN HEIN with Haus of urHEINOUS & BERNADETTE, acrobatics by BENN MENDOZA, and sound by Rocket Collective DJs Mat dos Santos, David Sternesky, Brian Maier, and Trevor Sigler.
Vain Hein premiered in San Francisco drag scenarios in August of 2011, and quickly became known for hir gender-blending, Gallagher/Leigh Bowery-esque shenanigans. Often appearing multiple times at once, Vain Hein operates as the muse, the mannequin, and the metaphor for San Francisco based artist Lukey B.’s most featured project, “HAUS of urHEINOUS.”
Glow Rocket also features a special acrobatic performance by Benn Mendoza.
* WHAT:“Glow Rocket” (a benefit for Comfort & Joy + Astropups) * WHEN: 10pm-2am, Saturday, April 28th, 2012 * WHERE: The Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell St in Hayes Valley, SF * FACEBOOK:Event Link
Before blasting off this Saturday with “Glow Rocket” for a fabulous deep-space-dancing experience, stop by Buffet Flats for the FEAST of the Pink Moon!
Buffet Flats is a San Francisco dinner-salon that’s part wild queer cabaret & part live cooking show,serving up an exuberant mix of artistic risk and sensual pleasures.
Hosted by racially diverse historical Queer personas, Buffet Flats creates a warm space to learn about local food, cuisine and ecology while enjoying a scintillating evening of live music and performance, wrapping up just in time to dance the night away at “Glow Rocket.”
FEAST OF THE PINK MOON celebrates the start of spring, serving up a crazy-delicious meal with food harvested from local farms and prepared by Skinnyfat chef Jayson “Frisk” Jaynes. Buffet Flats is hosted by Seth Eisen as Jean Malin (The Holy Ghost of Pansy Past) – and Juba Kalamka as Mr. Georg(e) Stanford Brown (Pullman of the Harlem Renaissance). Get your tickets now before they sell out!
Above: Frisk of Comfort & Joy (in pink) prepares super-yummy treats for Buffet Flats.
San Francisco’s Lorraine Hansberry Theatre in Union Square is proud to present Blues for an Alabama Sky: a tragic love story, set during the Harlem Renaissance, that takes a dramatic turn when religion, lies, and sexual orientations collide.
The play introduces a rich group of characters, scrambling to survive the early days of the great depression and make some sense of their overlapping love lives:
Angel (Shanelle Azoroh) is the tragic heroine, a Cotton Club chanteuse who has just been fired for chewing out her Mafioso boyfriend from the stage.
Guy (Tobie Windham) is her gay, costume designer friend, who takes her in when she finds herself homeless after the altercation at the club.
Leland (Joshua L. Green) has just arrived in Harlem from Tuskegee, Alabama, and has his eyes set on Angel.
Delia (Leilani Drakeford) lives across the hall from Guy, and is working to open Harlem’s first family planning clinic.
Sam (Robert Gossett, of TNT’s The Closer) is a physician, helping Delia plan and open the clinic, while finding she might be more than just a friend.
The Hansberry has made a special coupon code available for friends of Comfort & Joy. If folks go to www.LHTSF.org and click on any of the purchase links, they can use coupon code “COMFORT” and get $25 tickets (regular prices $43 to $53) to almost any performance during the run (not valid on closing night May 12, or a few other specially priced performances).
