buy a festival badge | schedule | volunteer | theme | artists | our mission
Kay Turner
Lesbo shells by Karen Siegel
Flowacunt
Kay Turner (she/her)
Kay Turner is a lesbian feminist folklorist queer performer professor singer. In 1985, with Gretchen Phillips, she founded "Girls in the Nose" (GITN), the lesbian rock punk band that anticipated riot girl raunch with songs such as "Sodomy" and "Come and Die," producing two albums in 1989 and 1991. The band hosted the first "Lesbopalooza" in NYC in 1994 in conjunction with Stonewall’s 25th Anniversary. GITN reunited in 2015 to tour again and our Noses are still blowing. Turner's other projects include "Otherwise: Queer Scholarship into Song," with Viva DeConcini and Mary Feaster and a book and performance project "What a Witch," exploring the witch figure in history, folklore and popular culture. Her first book from that project (with Zini Lardieri) is What a Witch: Before and After (2021).She is the author of Between Us: A Collection of Lesbian Love Letters and co-editor of Transgressive Tales: Queering the Grimms. Turner recently retired from her position as Adjunct Professor in Performance Studies at NYU. She is a past president of the American Folklore Society. She lives in Brooklyn, NY and Austin, TX.
Caroline Berler (she/her) Caroline Berler is an award-winning documentary director and editor based in New York City. Her recent editing work includes The Lesbian Bar Project (2021) and the feature length film Mama Gloria (2020), which broadcast on PBS. Also, in 2020, she directed and edited a short film for T: The New York Times Style Magazine called The Renegades. Caroline won the OUTfest Film Festival Special Programming Award for her debut feature film Dykes, Camera, Action! (2018). She holds an MFA in Social Documentary Film from Scholl of Visual Arts and teaches in SVA’s BFA Film Department.
Rue Watson (she/her)
Proud woman of New Jersey, Rue Watson is a deejay supreme who has brought many a lezzie to the dance floor with her turns at the turntable. She has also documented lesbian culture in and around New Brunswick, NJ since the mid-1970s and maintains an amazing archive of her work. She lives in Princeton, NJ.
Show Description
A documentary dive into lesbian performance, Lesbopalooza: The Movie brings you front and center to Lesbopalooza, the epic lesbian variety show held at Dixon Place (NYC) in June 2019 as part of the Stonewall 50th Anniversary Celebrations. Hosted by Kay Turner and her band “Girls in the Nose,” (founded in Austin in 1985), Lesbopalooza features performances by iconic dykes such as Alix Dobkin, Carmelita Tropicana, Moe Angelos, Nedra Johnson, and Marga Gomez, along with Austin familiars such as Gretchen Phillips, Lex Vaughn, Joanna Labow, and Ann Cvetkovich.
The screening is followed by a panel discussion led by Kay Turner along with some of the Lesbopalooza performers and special OUTsider guests. We will take a look back on lesbian culture in Austin during the 1980s and 1990s and a look forward to consider how it’s changed, what it is today, and might be tomorrow. Panelists include Ann Cvetkovich, Joanna Labow, Gretchen Phillips, Lex Vaughn, Beth Schindler, and An Chen, who performs as FlowaCunt. Audience participation is greatly desired, hoped for, welcomed!
Flowacunt (An Chen) is a non-binary rapper, filmmaker and visual artist who makes art about their emotional experiences. Through these various modes of expression, they seek to embody the power of vulnerability and their own particular form of life's flow.
Kay Turner is a lesbian feminist folklorist queer performer professor singer. In 1985, with Gretchen Phillips, she founded "Girls in the Nose" (GITN), the lesbian rock punk band that anticipated riot girl raunch with songs such as "Sodomy" and "Come and Die," producing two albums in 1989 and 1991. The band hosted the first "Lesbopalooza" in NYC in 1994 in conjunction with Stonewall’s 25th Anniversary. GITN reunited in 2015 to tour again and our Noses are still blowing. Turner's other projects include "Otherwise: Queer Scholarship into Song," with Viva DeConcini and Mary Feaster and a book and performance project "What a Witch," exploring the witch figure in history, folklore and popular culture. Her first book from that project (with Zini Lardieri) is What a Witch: Before and After (2021).She is the author of Between Us: A Collection of Lesbian Love Letters and co-editor of Transgressive Tales: Queering the Grimms. Turner recently retired from her position as Adjunct Professor in Performance Studies at NYU. She is a past president of the American Folklore Society. She lives in Brooklyn, NY and Austin, TX.
Caroline Berler (she/her) Caroline Berler is an award-winning documentary director and editor based in New York City. Her recent editing work includes The Lesbian Bar Project (2021) and the feature length film Mama Gloria (2020), which broadcast on PBS. Also, in 2020, she directed and edited a short film for T: The New York Times Style Magazine called The Renegades. Caroline won the OUTfest Film Festival Special Programming Award for her debut feature film Dykes, Camera, Action! (2018). She holds an MFA in Social Documentary Film from Scholl of Visual Arts and teaches in SVA’s BFA Film Department.
Rue Watson (she/her)
Proud woman of New Jersey, Rue Watson is a deejay supreme who has brought many a lezzie to the dance floor with her turns at the turntable. She has also documented lesbian culture in and around New Brunswick, NJ since the mid-1970s and maintains an amazing archive of her work. She lives in Princeton, NJ.
Show Description
A documentary dive into lesbian performance, Lesbopalooza: The Movie brings you front and center to Lesbopalooza, the epic lesbian variety show held at Dixon Place (NYC) in June 2019 as part of the Stonewall 50th Anniversary Celebrations. Hosted by Kay Turner and her band “Girls in the Nose,” (founded in Austin in 1985), Lesbopalooza features performances by iconic dykes such as Alix Dobkin, Carmelita Tropicana, Moe Angelos, Nedra Johnson, and Marga Gomez, along with Austin familiars such as Gretchen Phillips, Lex Vaughn, Joanna Labow, and Ann Cvetkovich.
The screening is followed by a panel discussion led by Kay Turner along with some of the Lesbopalooza performers and special OUTsider guests. We will take a look back on lesbian culture in Austin during the 1980s and 1990s and a look forward to consider how it’s changed, what it is today, and might be tomorrow. Panelists include Ann Cvetkovich, Joanna Labow, Gretchen Phillips, Lex Vaughn, Beth Schindler, and An Chen, who performs as FlowaCunt. Audience participation is greatly desired, hoped for, welcomed!
Flowacunt (An Chen) is a non-binary rapper, filmmaker and visual artist who makes art about their emotional experiences. Through these various modes of expression, they seek to embody the power of vulnerability and their own particular form of life's flow.