SARASOTA – The Harvey Milk Festival opens its eighth season in Sarasota May 11 with a transgender media art exhibit inspired by a quote from the slain LGBTQ civil rights icon for whom the festival is named.
“Hope Will Never Be Silent,” Milk said after becoming the first openly gay person elected to public office when he was elected to the San Francisco County Board of Supervisors in 1978.
That quote is the inspiration for an exhibit featuring artists and activists who support diversity, reject discrimination, and promote equality for the LGBTQ community through their work.
“I had a specific vision this year to bring mostly queer artists,” Megan Swick, Harvey Milk Festival theatre and art director, says. “Having so many artists who are also activists really amplifies the intention of the festival, which is an activist intention.”
The art exhibit is a collaboration with Seattle-based artist Jono Vaughan’s “Project 42,” an ongoing project which raises awareness and honors 42 transgender individuals who were victims of hate crimes. The number 42 represents the life expectancy of transgender people in the U.S.
Vaughan transforms Google Map locations of transgender hate crimes into colorful dresses, which performers will wear during the exhibit.
“Vaughan has taken this horrifying event and transformed it into raising awareness and bringing hope to the transgender community. She is acting as a voice for these individuals who have been silent, circling back to Harvey’s quote, ‘Hope will never be silent,’” Swick says.
Dance and aerial artists Jessica Pope, Mackenzie Pierson and Melissa Marshall will be interpreting the stories behind Project 42 through movement. Video documentation of previous collaborations and the stories behind the dresses will be on screen during the exhibit.
The exhibit will also feature the work of three local LGBTQ youth artists who were awarded arts scholarships by the Harvey Milk Festival with the support of Our Sarasota Fund, The McCauley-Brown Fund and The Community Foundation. The scholarship recipients will feature their artwork and performances during the first hour of the exhibit and will be on hand discussing their works.
The festival continues May 12 with “Pioneer Winter: Alone Vignettes.” Pioneer Winter, Miami-based choreographer and director of the Pioneer Winter Collective, will be performing a series of vignettes in an evening of dance. Vignettes will include “PIE SOLO,” in which Winter examines faith in religion and culture through sexuality, age and queerness.
“I’ve been following Winter for quite some time, and I’m excited to see him doing vignettes from different works and weaving them all together into this really intimate and immersive production,” Swick says.
The music festival kicks off May 13 at Five Points Park and features a diverse group of both local and national indie bands including an opening ceremony by Fortner, who is debuting with her new band Astralis. Other performers include Tiger Fawn, Sarah and the Safe Word, Ess See, Vita and the Woolf, Ki: Theory, Magic Sword and more.
The music festival will also feature keynote speaker Steven Romero and a viewing of the film I Am Harvey.
