BUTCH Voices Video Contest Results
We are grateful to all of our participants in the first BUTCH Voices Video Contest. For a look at all of the submitted videos please visit our YouTube Group.
1st Place
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec371YVeh5Y
Our 1st place contestant in the BUTCH Voices Video Contest is Linda Miller for her video, “I Know, I Know, I Know.” We felt this piece was an awesome example of the complexity that is Butch identity. In this piece Miller offers a song she’s written about a lover whom “she knows” she’s not right for, as she croons, “I’m not the one you need.”
I am a soon to be 50 year old. I am a medical professional, surgical technician to be exact. I have been a surgical tech for 28 years. I dabble at the singer songwriter thing here in Nashville, TN.
Top 5 Reasons
Top five reasons Butch Voices attendees should stay at the host hotel, the Oakland Marriott City Center:
5. Everything is at your doorstep: workshops, restaurants, public transportation, impromptu conversations, networking and maybe even a potential hook up or love connection too.
Hey, what happens at Butch Voices, stays at Butch Voices.
4. Easy access to your room, to have a quickie, a disco nap, or a refreshing shower before dinner or your night out.
Long days and/or long nights over the conference weekend? Naps or downtime in your room can prove to be just what is needed to help you decompress.
3. It’s really the only place to be with so many Butches, Studs, Aggressives, Tombois, Doms, and Allies – ALL in one place.
For the conference weekend, the Oakland Marriott City Center will be THE central place to see all of the attendees and presenters throughout the conference weekend. It’s OUR space, even after the sessions are done. You can run into each other in the halls, you can meet up for some coffee in the hotel restaurant before a session, network over a drink with your newfound friends in the evening – ALL without having to leave the hotel.
2. Roommates help to offset your housing costs.
Schon Wade is taking emails to hook people up with roomies at the host hotel. schonwade@comcast.net Add a rollaway bed to your room for $30 for the ENTIRE weekend, and split your costs with a fellow BV attendee.
1. By staying at the Oakland Marriott City Center, you’re actually helping the Butch Voices team keep expenses down by helping us to fulfill our room block.
Yeah, it’s not a sexy reason, but it is true. Butch Voices was able to negotiate our meeting spaces at lower rates by having a contracted amount of rooms set aside to be fulfilled by you, the attendees. So every room, even just for one night, helps Butch Voices.
Butch Voices needs all you local, hella cool Bay Area people, to come out and support us. We would love for you to spend a night or two in the host hotel, where all of the action is! In exchange, Butch Voices will cover your parking at the hotel during your stay. Just reserve your room before July 31st with the Oakland Marriott City Center. Then show your id confirming you are a local resident, upon check in at the hotel, to get your parking paid for by Butch Voices.
Take advantage of the reduced conference rate of $109 a night, today, as the cutoff date of July 31st is fast approaching. Online registration for the hotel is available here or by calling the hotel directly at 510.451.4000. Be sure to mention the Conference Hotel Code: bvcbvca.
We look forward to seeing everyone at the Oakland Marriott City Center.
Butch Voices Conference Raffle and Sharon Bridgforth
And most recently we’ve received donated copies of the Bull-Jean Stories by Sharon Bridgforth. If you don’t know who she is, you should totally check her out on her website. Butch Voices tapped Sharon to participate with us at the conference in Oakland this year, but unfortunately for us, she will be attending a writer’s retreat during that same time. Instead, she is offering up ten copies of her book The Bull-Jean Stories from Redbone Press, and three cd versions of The Bull-Jean Stories read aloud by the author, herself. She was also kind enough to send us this pdf version of her amazing essay, a wo’mn called sir, specifically for Butch Voices to “get it to the bois.” Enjoy Sharon’s essay and be sure to check out her books and website for more information about her upcoming performances and presentations.Sippin on Ink and Radio Boiz Radio Appearances
BV will be a guest on the Sippin on Ink radio show , Wednesday July 1st at 8pm EST. Please tune in and join the chat discussions as well as call in to support us on the show!
Can call in to join the conversation by dialing (646) 378-0402.
The show is aired LIVE and you can join the readers in the chat room at: www.blogtalkradio.com/Sippin-on-Ink
After the show is aired it is available for download at www.blogtalkradio.com/Sippin-on-Ink
BV was recently a featured guest on the Radio Boiz blog talk radio show. Check out the archived show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TheRadioBoiz (scroll down to the section “On Demand Episodes”)
Dyke March and Pride in San Francisco
Butch Voices will have a team of volunteers and steering committee members handing out conference flyers over Pride weekend in San Francisco.
If you’d like to join this team, send us an email butchvoices@gmail.com
Take advantage of the discount included on the flyer to use towards registration.
Click here to download flyers: Flyer 1 and Flyer 2
Save on Registration – Butch Voices Pride Flyer
Butch Voices Needs You!
Pride is upon us in many areas across the globe over the next two months. Butch Voices is looking to have street teams for flyering purposes to get the word out about the conference happening this August 20th -23rd in Oakland.
We’re offering $10 off the registration rate for those using the code included on the flyer. So we encourage everyone to hang on to the flyer and take advantage of the discount code when signing up to attend the conference.
We’re including this black and white pdf version that can be downloaded and printed on your end to distribute and let folks know about Butch Voices. We chose black and white as a cost effective version that we could pass on to you on the flip side in printing purposes.
We’re also going to be flyering in the Bay area over Pride weekend at the Dyke March and the Pride Parade with our own mass produced flyers. If you’re interested in being a part of the team who are distributing these, send us an email at butchvoices@gmail.com.
Call for Art
Butch Voices is interested in showcasing art created by Butches, Studs, Aggressives, and various transmasculine identified people attending the 2009 Butch Voices conference. Attendees are encouraged to bring art they have created for display to the 2009 Butch Voices conference in Oakland, this August 20th thru 23rd.
All forms of art are welcome, including: paintings, drawings, photography, multi-media works, sculpture, etc. Artists are responsible for their own shipping, installation and storage. Art will be on display throughout the conference meeting rooms and hallways for the duration of the conference.
We anticipate being able to accept up to 3 submissions per artist, space permitting. We may choose to decline pieces based on their size and/or space available. An artist’s reception will be scheduled during the conference, during which time artists will be able to discuss and explain their work with conference participants. Please also feel free to bring additional information such as an artist’s statements and any promotional materials.
If you are interested in having your art shown, please contact Jay Walls at jswalls@hotmail.com to secure your place in this Butch Voices art exhibition. Please include in your subject line “Butch Voices call for art”.
Please note that Butch Voices accepts no liability for any damage that be be sustained while art pieces are on display. Artists are advised to take reasonable precautions when displaying their work.
Programming Teaser
Here is a list of some of the amazing workshops that we’re hosting at the 2009 Butch Voices Conference:
Constructing Black Fe/Male Masculinity
Butch Images in Film
Class and Classism in Butch Communities
Bulldagger: A Discussion for Woman-Identified, Female Pronoun Using Butches
That’s Your Mom? That’s a Boy!
Writing Our Desire
The Possibilities and Pleasures of Faggot Play
Taking it On: Dealing with Our Internalized Misogyny
Body Modification and Identity
Light-Not-White
Reclaiming Butch/Femme: Who’s Heteronormative?
Intersections of Butch With Cultures of Masculinity
Butch Survival: Mentoring Gender Nonconforming Youth
Kinky, Butch, and Feminist?: Reconciling Our Desires with Our Politics
Butch in the Workplace
Creating Social Spaces for “Lone Wolves”
Improv Meets Activism: The Nuts and Bolts of Healthcare Advocacy
Getting What You Want: Sexual Boundaries for Tops, Bottoms, and Everything in Between
Anti-Butch, Anti-Femme: Responding to Stigma in Our Communities
and lots more to come…
Today, June 1st, is the last day to take advantage of the early registration discount. Register today to be a part of this fantastic event.
Register here. http://www.butchvoices.com/registration/registration-details
Reduced Conference Hotel Guestroom Rate
It’s not a secret that hotels are suffering a bit in our current economic times. Even the Oakland Marriott City Center has had to look at rate structures and lower its weekend rates in order to remain competitive. Thus we are now able to offer our attendees a reduced guestroom rate at the host hotel of $119 for the conference over the dates of 8/20 – 8/23 2009!
The changes will be made by end of day Friday 5/15/09 in their reservation system to reflect this change and all existing room reservations will be modified to reflect the new rate. If an attendee has already reserved a room and has provided an email address they will receive confirmation of this change.
So take advantage and book your room at the host hotel where most of the conference events and workshops will be taking place. The cut-off date for the conference guestroom rate is July 31st, so register today!
Online registration is available with the Marriott City Center’s website here or by calling them directly 510.451.4000.
Hotel Code: bvcbvca.
