There’s less than 2 week until the bookfair! AUGUST 19, 2017 11 AM-6 PM!
Dear lovely queers,
Applications for the tenth edition of Queer Between the Covers are now closed, but you can fill out our application form for a spot on our waitlist!
If you or anyone you know wants to volunteer for this year’s queer bookfair, we could really use some extra hands! Contact us at queerbetweenthecovers(at)gmail.com if you want to help.
Here’s a list of specific tasks we need help with:
Queer Hosts:
We’re looking for queer and trans-friendly houses to host tablers coming from our of town. If that’s something your house could do, e-mail us with info about what you can offer! We’re looking for houses close to transit. We also need some sober housing.
Postering
Flyering day-of
Runners
Signs/decorating/sidewalk chalking
Support
Childcare
ASL interpreters
If you are available to help, we would appreciate the support!
Cheers and solidarity <3
Queer Between the Covers is organized by a collective of volunteers with the support of QPIRG Concordia. Through this event, we hope to provide access to queer materials that are otherwise unavailable or hard to find in the city, as well as draw attention to the role of queer bookstores in providing community space and supporting queer cultural production. The book fair is being organized as part of the tenth annual Pervers/Cité, a series of events aimed at providing a financially accessible and issue-based alternative to the city’s annual pride festival. This approximately 10-day programme will be taking place in early August 2017.
Last year’s book fair attracted several hundred participants and this year we are aiming to build upon this success. We are inviting local and out of town bookstores, publishers, zine distros, and individual zinesters and authors to bring queer books, zines, videos, and other materials to sell. Please visit our website to get more information about Queer Between the Covers’ mandate, how the collective functions and the types of queer production we prioritize. Every year we get applications from vendors and artists in a variety of media and we make our selection based on the following statement, which is at the heart of our mandate:
*We will prioritize spaces for applicants whose work most directly corresponds with our mandate, which means authors, zinesters and print media vendors whose voices have been traditionally marginalized and whose tabling content represents a variety of queer experiences. We aim for the bookfair to reflect our collective’s strong commitment to anti-racism, anti-colonialism, anti-capitalism, anti-ableism, and gender and body self-determination and feminism. Therefore, we will prioritize spaces for applicants who experience intersecting oppressions and whose work stands in solidarity with these struggles.*
QBtC is committed to creating a space that prioritizes those who experience intersecting oppressions and those who are acting in solidarity with them. As such, we encourage anyone who is planning to attend the bookfair to take personal accountability for the ways in which their choices of things such as clothing play into experiences of oppression. If you are someone, for example, who is white and chooses to wear dreadlocks or other culturally appropriative fashions (e.g., “native” art that is not made by native people, bindis, etc.), we encourage you to consider whether this might make BIPOC feel uncomfortable or unwelcome.
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of icons, rituals, aesthetics, and/or behaviours of one culture or subculture by another, particularly when the culture being appropriated belongs to or originates in groups that have been systematically oppressed culturally, politically, and/or economically. Appropriation happens when – intentionally or not – the cultural object or practice is used by someone without regard to or understanding of the legacy and history of that object or practice. The meanings and nuances of various cultural practices are often emptied or changed without regard or respect for their origins. More information on what cultural appropriation is, and why it is harmful, can be found at the links below.
QBtC does not endorse discrimination based on appearances. We acknowledge that it is not possible to assume the cultural identity of anyone based off of their visual presentation, and we do not endorse authoritarian attitudes or profiling in that regard. We respect each individual’s right to self-identity and bodily autonomy; we simply ask our community to be conscious of their choices, and to consider that engaging in what might be perceived as appropriation may contribute to folks feeling disrespected, and could potentially lead to uncomfortable discussions with other vendors and attendees. As always, our collective members and support volunteers will be available on the day of the bookfair to help negotiate any concerns that arise.
Links for further reading:
http://www.anarchistbookfair.ca/policies/statement-on-cultural-appropriation
http://shoutbackfest.tumblr.com/culturalappropriation
The Difference Between Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation
This White Feminist Loved Her Dreadlocks – Here’s Why She Cut Them Off
If you have any questions about how your material may or may not fit our mandate please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Please feel free to email back with any specific inquiries. We would love it if you could participate, and will do whatever we can to support your doing so. If you know that you would like to participate, please fill out our online form to reserve a table: https://www.queerbetweenthecovers.org/en/table-reservations/.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Queer Between the Covers collective