Women's Words Film Festival on Sept. 15
Pride Films and Plays has announced seven short films and two episodes from tello films receiving their Chicago premieres during Pride Films and Plays Women's Words Film Festival at the Public House Theatre, 3914 N. Clark St., on Monday, Sept. 15.
The screening will start at 7:30 p.m. and will be followed by a brief talkback with a few of the filmmakers. The Pub Theater bar will be open beginning at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets are $10 and VIP passes are available for $15; visit www.brownpapertickets.com or call 800-838-3006.
Queer poetry event Sept. 4
The Poetry Foundation, in conjunction with the Lambda Literary Foundation, will host "Launch of Nepantla: A Journal Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color."
The event will take place Thursday, Sept. 4, at 7 p.m. at the foundation, 61 W. Superior St. Admission is free.
Duriel E. Harris, Ching-In Chen, Ruben Quesada and Francisco Aragon are slated to help the initial edition of a new literary magazine whose mission is to nurture, celebrate and preserve diversity within the queer poetry community. See www.poetryfoundation.org .
Reeling details unveiled
The organizers of Reeling, the second longest-running LGBT film festival in the world, announced a line-up of movies for its 32nd edition, taking place Sept. 18-25.
Reeling returns to the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., for its opening-night gala on Thursday, Sept. 18, and then moves on to its main venue, Landmark's Century Centre Cinema, 2828 N. Clark St., Sept. 19-25. The fest's home base, Chicago Filmmakers, 5243 N. Clark St., will also host select screenings.
Reeling launches with the presentation of Eric Schaeffer's Boy Meets Girl at the Music Box. The movie stars transgender actress Michelle Hendley. The closing-night film will be Patrik-Ian Polk's Blackbird, which stars Julian Walker, Mo'Nique and Isaiah Washington.
The complete festival lineup and schedule, including shorts programs and special-event information, are available online. Tickets may be purchased online at www.reelingfilmfestival.org or in person at Chicago Filmmakers, 5243 N. Clark St., starting Aug. 25.
Controversial 'RuPaul' performer in Chicago Sept. 3
The Illinois Humanities Council will present a conversation with controversial performer Alaska Thunderfuck 5000, a runner up in the fifth season of Logo's RuPaul's Drag Race on Wed., Sept. 3, at 7 p.m. at Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave.
Alaska, aka Justin Andrew Honard, is teaming with soul singer Jomama Jones and the Illinois Humanities Council's Angel Ysaguirre for a conversation about drag, gender, and building a community through performance. This is the fourth installment of Now What? a five-part series about current issues.
Alaska made a video earlier this year in which Alaska portrayed RuPaul shooting a transgender blogger in the head for her remarks against the phrase "tranny" being used. The person in the video is widely believed to be transgender writer Parker Molloy.
"I listened closely to a lot of the responses to my controversial 'Season 76' video," Alaska told WCT's Jerry Nunn. "In order to facilitate togetherness and peace among the drag community and the trans community I took the video down. In response I posted a video named 'RuPaul's Drag Race Season 77,' in which a Dolly Parton-esque Alaska and the previously murdered character Joy Less sing a happy song together in peace and harmony."
Event details are at www.prairie.org/events/28805/now-what-conversation-creators-alaska-and-jomama-jones.
