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Jenny Conlee, of Grammy-nominated group The Decembrists, will accompany a number of Ole Miss students alongside artist-in-residence Sarahfest Kelly Hogan for a performance on October 29 spanning music across the decades. Photo by Jason Quigley
OXFORD, Mississippi – This year’s Sarahfest celebrates the DIY ethic that has been at the heart of so many queer and feminist communities with its theme, “DIY Style”.
The annual festival, organized by the University of Mississippi‘s Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies, will feature artists who have served as creative pioneers in marginalized communities.
“Mainstream society has generally been hostile to queer and feminist communities; when the mainstream media noticed them, it was mainly to stereotype, slander and mock, ”said Jaime Harker, director of the Isom Center. “People in these communities had to create their own spaces, their own aesthetics, their own acceptance, because no one was going to do it for them.
“I remain inspired by the DIY ethics of these many communities, who refused to accept their rejection by mainstream society and created sassy, insightful, campy and beautiful art. These trends sometimes reach into mainstream culture, but their roots are firmly rooted in the queer and feminist communities that nurtured them. The more we understand these roots – like the Harlem drag culture that Madonna reworks in her song “Vogue,” for example – the more we appreciate the diversity of our artistic heritage.
The festival kicks off this week with Wednesday’s (September 29) pop-up art exhibit See Us Differently, at the Powerhouse Community Arts Center, followed by Thursday. “Thacker Mountain Radio Time” and a Friday night performance (October 1) by Indigo Girls at Lyric Oxford.
See Us Differently will exhibit books, paintings, mixed media sculpture and graphic narratives based on “Paradise Lost” and “Frankenstein,” all created by current and former incarcerated people taking free college courses through Common Good Atlanta.
Common Good Atlanta Academic Director Bill Taft will also perform a pop-up performance on Thursday’s “Thacker Mountain Radio Hour” alongside his band, W8ing4UFOs.
This year’s festival will also host Sarahfest’s first artist in residence, Kelly Hogan, who will perform on October 28 with a Sarahfest / “Thacker Mountain Radio Hour” special and on October 29 with music students from Ole Miss. and Jenny Conlee from the Grammy. – nominated group The Decembrists.
Students will be selected for the show through an audition process and then participate in rehearsals with the two acclaimed musicians before the show at the Sarahfest Club.
“This year’s theme invites us to explore what it means to create art, to be part of a group, to find that story and understand how to tell it, to be an agent of change and to think about what it can and could. look like. said Theresa Starkey, associate director of the Isom Center.
“You don’t wait for someone to do it for you, you do it yourself. You bring the margin to the center and to the point. This ethic is encouraged by a belief in collaboration and partnership.
The month-long celebration will conclude with the screening of the film “Marvelous and the Black Hole” at 7pm on November 3 at Malco Studio Cinema. The film was written and directed by Emmy-nominated writer Kate Tsang and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
For a full list of events and to find out more about the festival, visit https://www.sarahfest.rocks/.
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