Queer Platform for Social Justice

a pittsburgh-based queer arts organization, laterally organized and liberatory in nature. we host the monthly Queerpunk Slamjunk open mics by and for youth aged 12-25.

[through-a-historic-lens]

4 Drag Queens pose at the Granville Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA, c. 1955.

[doppelbangin]

A Pittsburgh Photographer Captured Four Decades of Black Artists’ Lives Backstage

When Lena Horne performed at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh in 1944, Charles “Teenie” Harris was backstage to take her portrait. Horne, s

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we’re starting up again!

hey everyone! we’re officially making plans to try to hold in-person events again this spring--in a way that’s safe for our community, and is accessible for those who are high-risk for COVID.

additionally, we’re hoping to expand our events to include tracks for both youth programming and adult programming.

if you’d like to help shape where this organization is going; if you have ideas for events, places you want the community to go, et cetera, now is the time to join our discord server and come to our next board meeting! https://discord.gg/TZJX4CX

(meetings are still going to be held virtually until either COVID levels go down to a point where it’s safe to be indoors together, or until we can find an outdoor solution that is still accessible in poor weather.)

we really hope to get more voices on board!

[modern-politics111]

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QPOC Artist of the Month -  June 2021

QPOC Artist of the Month is a monthly spotlight on queer and LGBT+  artists of color, run by the Queer Platform for Social Justice in  Pittsburgh. It publishes on the last Sunday of every month. If you have  suggestions for a QPOC artist you want spotlighted, or want to write an  article yourself, contact us via asks or messaging.

Image courtesy of Hip-Hop Congress

Krudas Cubensi, or Las Krudas is a queer, feminist, Cuban hip-hop collective. It originated as a trio with Odaymara Cuesta, Olivia Prendes and Odalys Cuesta, they originated in 2000, and immigrated to the U.S in 2006. The group has since grown grown to include many other women and queer rappers in the Cuban diaspora.  They’re goal with their music is to bring awareness to the isolating experience of being a cuban lesbian, and their goal with their music is to bring rawness to cuban hip-hop. Their music is centered around more raw and and natural sounds. Their music stands explicitly a fuck you too racism, sexism, homophobia, and exploitative culture and nations. They are incredibly talented musicians and one of a kind in regards to what they do and how they do it.

check out their:

website

spotify

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QPOC Artist of the Month - May 2021

QPOC Artist of the Month is a monthly spotlight on queer and LGBT+  artists of color, run by the Queer Platform for Social Justice in  Pittsburgh. It publishes on the last Sunday of every month. If you have  suggestions for a QPOC artist you want spotlighted, or want to write an  article yourself, contact us via asks or messaging.

photo by Stefan Ruiz

Salman Toor is a Pakistani painter whose art explores and portrays queerness, brownness, and the ideas of living a dual life. Toor grew up in Lahore, Pakistan, and currently lives in New York City. Growing up, he found himself fascinated with the art that his grandmother kept on her walls, and began drawing and painting at a young age. Much of the uniqueness of his art comes from the fact that he paints in a style that is far more akin to paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries than to today’s modern art, while also depicting idyllic scenes only known in the modern world — such as a painting of a man laying naked in bed, staring at his smart phone.

Toor just finished up his first solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art last month; the exhibit was entitled “How Will I Know.”

Learn more about Salman Toor by going to his website, or check out the online exhibition from the Whitney Museum:

website

Whitney Museum of American Art exhibit

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QPOC Artist of the Month - April 2021

QPOC Artist of the Month is a monthly spotlight on queer and LGBT+  artists of color, run by the Queer Platform for Social Justice in  Pittsburgh. It publishes on the last Sunday of every month. If you have  suggestions for a QPOC artist you want spotlighted, or want to write an  article yourself, contact us via asks or messaging.

Photo from Album cover of We Carry Us

Bells Roar, or Sean Desiree is an “indie, queerpop” musician from Albany New York, their music is self described as a rally to empower QTOP musicians. Their music features a dreamy, transcendental sound with touching lyrics.

“The name bell’s roar symbolizes the focus held in ... (their) solo project. It’s a reference to feminist  writer bell hooks who speaks of intersectionality and solidarity in their work. Being a queer, gender nonconforming person of color Sean cannot isolate forms of oppression. The roar represents the fight to not be silent and to use their creative voice to stop ongoing domination.”   - From Bells’ Roar Bandcamp                  

Find Bell Roars music and info here:

Bandcamp

website                   

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Happy TDOV 2021 to all trans people, both in Pittsburgh and beyond. It's been a hard year, but we see you, and we love you, and we support you.

Tag us in your TDOV posts and we'll reblog them!

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QPOC Artist of the Month - March 2021

QPOC Artist of the Month is a monthly spotlight on queer and LGBT+  artists of color, run by the Queer Platform for Social Justice in  Pittsburgh. It publishes on the last Sunday of every month. If you have  suggestions for a QPOC artist you want spotlighted, or want to write an  article yourself, contact us via asks or messaging.

Photo by Matthew Ingraham

Yosoji Nobodi is a trans French-Algerian rapper. Much of his Music can be found under his previous performance name Pand’or. He has been passionate about words and music his whole life, and his music is inspired by the rap of the 90′s. His songs are about personal experience, social roles, and oppression. He hasn’t put out much music since 2017, which is likely why much of his music platforms haven’t been updated to his current performance name,  but he is active on social media and will likely create more at some point soon. So keep your eyes peeled I suppose.

Despite understanding functionally no french, I can very much aesthetically appreciate Yosji’s music, and if you ever have the time its worth pulling up the lyrics and looking at a translation.

you can find Yosoji’s music in these places:

facebook

Bandcamp

Spotify

[terminallytwee]

it’s not just the police; it’s the whole state of white supremacy! tear it all down! 

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QPOC Artist of the Month: February 2021

QPOC Artist of the Month is a monthly spotlight on queer and LGBT+  artists of color, run by the Queer Platform for Social Justice in  Pittsburgh. It publishes on the last Sunday of every month. If you have  suggestions for a QPOC artist you want spotlighted, or want to write an  article yourself, contact us via asks or messaging.

Chan Benicki  is a nonbinary, latinx singer-songwriter and the frontperson of the band Porch Cat.  They suffer from several chronic conditions such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and narcolepsy with cataplexy. Porch Cat’s songs are centered around queer identity, recovering from trauma, and dealing with racism, colonization, pain, and chronic illness. Above all that, they write about empowerment and love.

Porch Cat began as Benicki’s solo project, but has since had a rotating cast of musicians, with guitarist Emily Ayden becoming a constant. The project began as folk-punk band but has transitioned into fuzzy pop-punk.  Their latest full album came out in 2018, and was self titled; it deals primarily with the process of coming out of an abusive relationship. It’s a low-fi mix of folk and pop punk. They have since put out several EPs and demos, most recently in may of 2020.

Listen to porch cat on bandcamp

follow porch cat on tumblr

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thanks to everyone's generosity tonight, we raised a total of $191.60 for the Big Idea Bookstore!

the video is up permanently on our Youtube, so anyone who missed it can see these awesome performances at any time.

thanks so much for coming out and donating!

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[id: QPSJ, A Virtual Benefit Concert for the Big Idea Bookstore February 13th, 7pm EST. end id]

QPSJ is hosting a virtual night of music, poetry, and performance, all donations benefiting the Big Idea Bookstore, an anarchist bookstore and community space in Pittsburgh! The concert is open to the public, all-ages and no minimum donation to attend; our suggested donation is $5.

WE ARE STILL ACCEPTING PERFORMERS! If you’re a Queer performer, particularly local to Pittsburgh, disabled, a performer of color, and/or a youth performer, consider signing up for a 5-15 minute set!

CONCERT LINK: https://youtu.be/SHHSGzGmlko DONATIONS LINK: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=WWWV3Q7A6RLGG IF YOU WANT TO PERFORM: https://forms.gle/QT9o5uQ7ihqEKWEP6

The Big Idea Bookstore has been hosting our in-person events for over a year now. While we can’t use their physical space right now, we love the community work they do, and we want to give back to them in any way we can during this socially and financially difficult time.

Share this post and get the word out!

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Youtube link has been updated.

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QPOC Artist of the Month: January 2021

photo by Pax Ahimsa Gethen

QPOC Artist of the Month is a monthly spotlight on queer and LGBT+ artists of color, run by the Queer Platform for Social Justice in Pittsburgh. It publishes on the last Sunday of every month. If you have suggestions for a QPOC artist you want spotlighted, or want to write an article yourself, contact us via asks or messaging. Be Steadwell is a musician, filmmaker, and storyteller from Washington DC.  In her live performances, she utilizes looping, vocal layering and beat boxing to compose her songs on stage.  Be started singing when she was a teenager, joining a jazz band at age 14. The way she describes her music is that it “features earnest lyricism, and ​affirming LGBTQ content”. Be has said that her goal as a musician is “to make other black girls, queers, introverts and generally marginalized weirdos feel seen and loved”.

Her music is considered by her to be “queer pop”, the sound of her songs ranging from ethereal, to fantastical, to of course, pop, and a mix of them all. Her discography consists of a single and 5 albums as of last year-- her most recent album, succulent, released on april 1st, 2020.

Aside from her music, the short film Be produced in 2014, vow of silence, won best experimental film at the Black Star Film Festival. The film follows the story of an artist that stops singing and speaking when her partner leaves her and struggles to find her voice again after. It follows the brief documentary she produced in 2012 commenting on gender and style presentation amongst queer women in D.C.

Be also does workshops and master classes meant to educate and assist folx with songwriting and film making, among other things in her workshops. Due to the current circumstances of the world, however, the events she’s been holding have taken up a virtual residence and when she isnt planning events she can be found on her patreon.

listen to be steadwell on bandcamp

follow be steadwell on her website

support be steadwell on patreon

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[id: QPSJ, A Virtual Benefit Concert for the Big Idea Bookstore February 13th, 7pm EST. end id]

QPSJ is hosting a virtual night of music, poetry, and performance, all donations benefiting the Big Idea Bookstore, an anarchist bookstore and community space in Pittsburgh! The concert is open to the public, all-ages and no minimum donation to attend; our suggested donation is $5.

WE ARE STILL ACCEPTING PERFORMERS! If you're a Queer performer, particularly local to Pittsburgh, disabled, a performer of color, and/or a youth performer, consider signing up for a 5-15 minute set!

CONCERT LINK: https://youtu.be/SHHSGzGmlko DONATIONS LINK: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=WWWV3Q7A6RLGG IF YOU WANT TO PERFORM: https://forms.gle/QT9o5uQ7ihqEKWEP6

The Big Idea Bookstore has been hosting our in-person events for over a year now. While we can't use their physical space right now, we love the community work they do, and we want to give back to them in any way we can during this socially and financially difficult time.

Share this post and get the word out!

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Call for Performers

we are having a virtual benefit concert with all proceeds going to the Big Idea Bookstore.

the Big Idea has been kind enough to host our events for free for the past year, and now, with COVID-19 affecting their income, we’d like to help give back in any way we can.

the concert is February 13th and will be streamed virtually and publicly.

we are looking for performers of any kind (music, poetry, other performance) to do 5-15 minute sets. queer youth, QPOC, and neurodivergent and disabled queers to the front; local Pittsburgh performers will be prioritized but as it’s virtual you don’t have to be local to perform.

please share this message and link with anyone you think would be interested!

sign up to perform here: https://forms.gle/QT9o5uQ7ihqEKWEP6

more information for people interested in attending (but not performing) will be released in the next month!

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QPOC Artist of the Month: December 2020

photo by Joe McCann

QPOC Artist of the Month is a monthly spotlight on queer and LGBT+ artists of color, run by the Queer Platform for Social Justice in Pittsburgh. It publishes on the last Sunday of every month. If you have suggestions for a QPOC artist you want spotlighted, or want to write an article yourself, contact us via asks or messaging.

Aye Nako are a Brooklyn-based punk band co-fronted by Mars Dixon, a Black trans musician, model, and YouTuber, and Jade Payne, a Black Queer sound engineer and musician, also of the incredible band Fleabite. They sing “sad songs about being queer, trans, and black,” with a fuzzy emo sound reminicient of Superchunk and Cap’n Jazz. 

After forming in 2010, Aye Nako’s first full-length album Unleash Yourself made a splash in the DIY scene when it was self-released in 2013, before Payne’s introduction to the band. Since then, and with a new frontwoman, they released an EP and a second full-length project, Silver Haze, which after it’s 2017 release on Don Giovanni Records, garnered more acclaim and recognition both among audiences and critics.

In all likelihood, Aye Nako are no longer active- their social media is largely dormant and they haven’t toured or released music since 2017. However, their catalog of fuzzy punk songs centering around themes of societal navigation, personal trauma, Black and Queer identity, and anticapitalism still holds up beautifully. While the band’s sound certainly takes heavy inspiration from the 1990s punk and emo catalogs of Yoyo, Matador, and Jade Tree Records, their songs themselves are incredibly current, resonating just as well as- if not better than they did at their release. 

Listen to Aye Nako on Bandcamp

Follow Aye Nako on Tumblr 

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Call for Performers

we are having a virtual benefit concert with all proceeds going to the Big Idea Bookstore.

the Big Idea has been kind enough to host our events for free for the past year, and now, with COVID-19 affecting their income, we'd like to help give back in any way we can.

the concert is February 13th and will be streamed virtually and publicly.

we are looking for performers of any kind (music, poetry, other performance) to do 5-15 minute sets. queer youth, QPOC, and neurodivergent and disabled queers to the front; local Pittsburgh performers will be prioritized but as it's virtual you don't have to be local to perform.

please share this message and link with anyone you think would be interested!

sign up to perform here: https://forms.gle/QT9o5uQ7ihqEKWEP6

more information for people interested in attending (but not performing) will be released in the next month!