Dirty Bird Queercore Festival: BMM Night

4 pm: Reception at Artist’s Television Access, free
7-9 pm: Big Miss Moviola Night at ATA, $5
Doors 8:30 pm: Sister Spit spoken word at the Lab, $1 donation

 

As Charlotte Cooper recalls: “I wrote a book and spent the advance on a plane ticket to San Francisco with the intention of meeting the people who produced FaT GiRL zine and attending a queer punk gathering called Dirty Bird. […] I was 27. I made a very short clip as part of a workshop. We were invited to go into a little room, either by ourselves or with someone else. There was a video camera in there set up. We were instructed to switch it on and respond to the prompt: “Nobody ever told me…” I did this. Spontaneously I decided to take off my top and talk about how nobody ever told me it was ok to feel ok about my body, and that I had to tell myself. The video was screened during the event. Right there, so instant.

It was a time in my life when I felt very uncool. I was with the people didn’t hesitate to think of themselves as cool and I was doing cool things though with great imposter syndrome. I was really scared but felt compelled to participate. I felt as though I was burning up with things I wanted to say and do. When I reflect on that moment at ATA I can see it was significant in my life’s work of making sense of mine and other’s fat queer bodies. That whole trip was extremely intense, the first time I’d had sex with another woman as well as many other emotional/sensory/political/art shifts. That moment in that little room is, I think, me trying to synthesize something it has since taken me years to articulate. It was exhilarating!”

 

“Nobody Ever Told Me,” Dirty Bird Queercore Festival, San Francisco, 1996

Archivist’s Note: “Nobody Ever Told Me”; 1 minute videos July invited the audience to make at screenings, finishing the sentence with a piece of self-taught knowledge. Includes Charlotte Cooper, Nomy Lamm.