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RFD, the national journal of the Radical Faerie movement, is featuring Comfort & Joy in a four-page magazine spread, with special launch party this Thursday!

RFD Bay Area Issue LAUNCH PARTY
next Thursday, June 25th
@ Tingel Tangel Club!

Special Reception 8-9pm
followed by performances & dancing all night.
$10 or $5 with a Frameline Ticket!

>> 2565 Mission St (btwn 21st & 22nd), San Francisco

For your aural pleasure, Space presents a new DJ mix in honor of Litha, the Pagan celebration of the Summer Solstice. Litha occurs right around the time of SF Gay Pride, and is traditionally celebrated with dancing, drinking, and bonfires. You can expect to hear Space play beats like these at TOUCH and AFTERGLOW.  We hope they will inspire you to shake your booty in dutiful observance of this most sacred Pagan tradition.

In the 7th century, Saint Eligius (died 659/60) warned the recently converted inhabitants of Flanders against these pagan solstice celebrations. According to the Vita by his companion Ouen, he would say:

“No Christian on the feast of Saint John or the solemnity of any other saint performs summer solstice rites, or dancing, or leaping, or diabolical chants.”

Detail of “Cat’s Cradle” by Twinkle Toes, 2006 (Photo by Tristan “Loupiote” Savatier)

Twinkle Toes is a longstanding member of the San Francisco art, radical faerie and Burning Man communites… as well as one of Comfort & Joy’s freshest collaborators!

At Burning Man in 2006 Twinkle Toes produced “Cat’s Cradle“, a large-scale interactive art installation that received a lot of attention. This year Toes developed a new proposal for large-scale playa art for this year called “Wheels of Reflection” (PDF), filled with fabulous illustrations.

Unfortunately, Twinkle Toes’s art piece was not funded by BM ORG this year, and so it will not be happening on the scale originally proposed. The good news is that Toes is planning a scaled down installation (still in the works) for the Comfort & Joy courtyard at Burning Man! We are very excited about the possibilites and will share more as this public art project develops in the weeks ahead.

Twinkle Toes also helped us secure the new Pink Saturday AFTERGLOW venue and will be site manager during Comfort & Joy’s annual blacklight discotheque gala fundraising event on Pride Weekend, helping us take full advantage of a fabulously large performing arts facility… which is amazing. So in the next few months you’ll be hearing a lot from Miss Twinkle Toes. And now you know why. Stay tuned!

One of Comfort & Joy’s more colorful members (Hysterica, above) is among the featured personalities displayed in the new “DRESSED AS GIRL” photographic exhibition of drag queen portraits by Christopher Boyd, on display at the Main Branch of the SF Public Library from May 23rd to July 2nd. Presented by the James Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center with help from Comfort & Joy and Friends of the San Francisco Library. Join us for a Free Reception celebrating the exhibit during Pride Week from 6-8pm on Tuesday, June 23rd.

Save These Dates!

Beltane is a traditional May Day celebration of fertility, renewal, awakening & new beginnings that heralds the arrival of summer.

At this time, life is renewing itself. Birds and animals are mating. In the fields, newly planted seeds are beginning to grow. We emerge from the darkness of winter and our eyes savor emerging natural abundance… rolling green hills, budding branches and tender shoots. Love is flowering. It is a traditional time for Handfastings (bonding couples together), and a time for couples to bless the crops and the earth by making love outside. This is a time to fertilize your dreams with action, and make a fresh start.

The Maypole is an important element to Beltane festivities. it is a tall pole decorated with long brightly colored ribbons and flowers. As dancers revolve around the base of the pole, interweaving the ribbons, a colorful pattern emerges that symbolizes union in community. We are those colors, woven in a interlocking web of amazing diversity, more fabulous together than apart. Beltane is a time to create new connections and renew familiar ones.

It is said that at Beltane the veils between the worlds grows thin… allowing the Faeries return from their winter respite, carefree and full of faerie mischief and faerie delight.

How does one celebrate Beltane? Form a wreath of freshly picked flowers, wear it in your hair, and feel yourself radiating joy and beauty. Dress in bright colors. Smile and give away flowers to strangers. Dance the Maypole and feel your connections with community grow stronger. Bless your garden in the old way by making love with your lover in it. Make a wish as you jump a bonfire for good luck. Welcome in the May with lots of singing and dancing!

SF URBAN BELTANE MAYDAY CELEBRATION

Calling all faggots & friends! Please join Chickpea, Mama, Dame Grey and your friends “Save the Gays!” for an Urban Beltane May Day Celebration… featuring Maypole MADNESS, food, drink, music and dance, starting at 2pm, this Saturday, May 2nd, and going into the night. Bring something for the BBQ, flowers and fabulous garments to 1433 Haight Street (@ Masonic), in San Francisco. For more info call 415-864-3971.