In this week’s episode we share our FEMME-FESTO and talk about what “femme” means to us.

Our incredible panel of Halifax-based femmes speak about how their race and queer identities intersect with their femme~ness, how their femme legacies influence their current brilliance, how we need to center trans femmes of colour to be “FEMME 4 FEMME.”

Music this week from:
Princess Nokia / Solange / Austra / Courtney Love / Willow Smith

Ep #3: Femme 4 Femme

This week we talk about the legacy and power of Pink Triangle Day and its connection to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Drawing from the brilliant Caleb Luna's 2014 piece, "On Being Fat, Brown, Femme, Ugly and Unloveable," Shaya and Rebecca discuss how white supremacy is pervasive -- complicating and affecting  romance, too. 

Pals and strangers in Halifax, Canada, and beyond share their odes, rants, and stories about radical friendship, online dating blunders, heartbreak, and the complexities of companionship. Thanks to all those who submitted. <3 Happy Pink Triangle & Palentines, babies <3 

Image art - Lora Mathis - http://loramathis.com/
Cale Luna's Black Girl Dangerous article: https://www.bgdblog.org/2014/07/fat-brown-femme-ugly-unloveable/

Music on this week's episode:
Kadhja Bonet -- This Love
Princess Nokia -- Tomboy
Kaytranada remix -- Solange "Cranes in the Sky"

Ep #4: Complicating Companionship

In this week’s episode, we speak with musicians and artists who are challenging racism/transphobia/homophobia/sexism/ableism/et al. in their communities. They’re fighting for safer spaces and creating their own to give voice and platform to QTBIPOC musicians and artists. 

We speak with documentary filmmaker Hana Jama of Ottawa’s Babely Shades collective about challenging racism in the music scene, backlash and support from the community, and working with promoters to get more women and femmes of colour at shows--as well as on stage. The Khyber Centre for the Arts Artistic Director Hannah Guinan joins us in the studio to discuss the work she’s doing with South House and Avalon to make the Halifax centre a safer space--which includes a comprehensive sexual assault policy and mandate and an upcoming town hall for community feedback on March 7. Co-host Shaya Ishaq talks about DJing as self-care and shares her experience at Intersessions, an “Inclusive Sound Initiative” that provides safe spaces for women, femme, non-binary and queer folks to learn from talented women and femme DJs and performers. 

Blank Canvas--a contemporary art space in Toronto,  particularly meant for black and diaspora artists--is hosting a fundraiser on Saturday, Feb. 25th to raise money for their new space. The gallery opened in 2016, and on New Year’s Eve, it was hosting an event which welcomed a range of artists, including queer and POC youth. During the event, a police check for a special permit to serve liquor in the space became violent. Police tasered Black Canvas’ co-owner John Samuels, and a few days later, the gallery’s locks were changed without any notice. Hana Jama and Shaya talk about how it has impacted the arts community in Toronto and especially BIPOC artists. 

Articles // Event links: 

Khyber Town Hall “Keeping Ourselves and Our Communities Accountable” March 7 event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1139831312810586/ 

The story behind Babely Shades collective: http://thesparkmag.com/artists/babely-shades/

The Veldt - more on Hana Jama’s documentary: https://noisey.vice.com/en_ca/article/white-music-for-black-people-the-veldt-band 

“Staying Underground”  DJ Shyshaya mix: https://www.mixcloud.com/StayingUnderground/collaborator-042-shyshaya/

Black Canvas is running an Indiegogo Campaign to help pay legal fees and fund their new space. You can support them here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/reinstall-blank-canvas#/

Music featured:
Princess Nokia - Tomboy
Chudi Harris - The Realist I
Everett - At Your Door
The Veldt - Everlasting Gobstopper 
Bambii - FADER mix

Ep #5: Making Space: Moving Toward Safer Music & Arts Scenes

Disabled femmes & disabled femmes of colour speak about everything from racism in the disabled community to love and sex, and the buzz-wordiness of "accessibility" in progressive spaces/organizations. Co-Host Rebecca Stuckey shares her personal story and experience with disability. Masuma Khan speaks about the stigma of being a young person with a cane and accessibility at work and the mosque. Author Kaleigh Trace shares a NEW piece of writing and speaks with us about how navigating consent is complicated when your body is medicalized. Kate speaks about her experience doing care work, as a traumatized femme with a disability and how important it is for her activism and feminism to centre folks with intellectual disabilities.
 
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Music on today's episode:

Jay Som - Lipstick Stains
Mitski - First Love/Late Spring
Vagabon - Mal à L'aise
Night Owl - Broke For Free

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Masuma Khan is a third-year Dalhousie student majoring in international development studies. She’s the outreach and campaigns coordinator at the Equity and Accessibility office for the Dal Student Union.

Kaleigh Trace is a queer, disabled writer and sex educator. She’s the author of the brilliant book Hot, Wet & Shaking: How I Learned To Talk About Sex and the blog The Fucking Facts. She used to work at Venus Envy in Halifax, where she led workshops exploring disability, desirability, resistance, sex toys and more. Now she’s living in Toronto, where she continues to do incredible work.

Kate is a queer, femme, disabled, and traumatized spinster-cat-mom. She has been caring, supporting and holding space for folks with intellectual disabilities for nearly 5 years. This has left her fiercely passionate and angry about accessibility and recognizing, honouring and holding femme magic and labour close.

Ep #6: "I am in love with this unpredictable body"

Host Shaya Ishaq and Guest Host Carmella Farahbakhsh look critically at western Classical music through the experiences of second gen Canadians. 

Carmella talks about the tension between "a love for their violin and a deep rage and heartbreak about not having access to my traditional cultural music." Shaya speaks with multi-instrumentalist Nick Dourado(Budi, Century Egg, Special Costello)about the Black classical tradition and the role improvisation has in disrupting and subverting western classical music. Carmella speaks with their sibling, Isaiah Farahbakhsh--a classically trained cellist and the host of 'With Strings' on CFRU 93.3 FM (Wednesdays @6pm)-- about their experiences navigating very white, upperclass, classical music scenes, and shares some jazz history. ~Femme FM twitter gal~ Lianne Xiao reflects on her time as a budding pianist, and her relationship with her mother.

~*~*~*~ Bios ~*~*~*~

Isaiah Farahbakhsh is a mixed race Iranian jazz musician and theoretical ecologist-in-training, studying at the University of Guelph. He loves composition, spontaneous co-creation and nerding out. A great passion of his is sustainability which he explores through the laws of physics, mathematics, food production and social justice. He hosts “With Strings”, a radio show on CFRU 93.3 FM, in Guelph. It features bowed strings in modern jazz, while speaking to issues of race and gender in music.
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Nick Dourado is a femme-y brown fairy, engineer, ocean scientist and music worker who expends his energy rockin' and fightin' like a tiny boat on a terrible ocean with a tiger in it. His priority was always making a big joyful sound and making it back to the beach so it's a wonder anything else gets done at all.
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Lianne Xiao is a second year journalism and creative writing student at the University of King's College in Halifax. In her spare time she likes to walk the dog, play the piano, and sulk because she cannot get paid to sit around the house in lingerie. She is strong advocate for unwashed fruit and blonde Kim Kardashian. She often finds herself falling in love with girls on public transportation. Find her on twitter here: https://twitter.com/blackvisababy

~*~*~*~Featured Music~*~*~*~
Tona Brown
The Aida String Ensemble
Black Violin
Cris Derksen
Tanya Tagaq
Princess Nokia
Charlie Parker

<3 Image Art: Jacob Baker-Kretzmar <3

Ep #7: "I Ache for Home Music"

Femme FM is a feminist radio show centering QTBIPOC folks in Halifax, NS. Hosts Shaya Ishaq and Rebecca Stuckey explore intersectional issues with rotating guests and topics. Allie Graham and Madi Haslam produce the podcast. Carmella Farahbakhsh does show outreach, script writing and visioning. Lianne Xiao runs our Femme FM twitter and Julia-Simone Rutgers is getting our tumblr up and running.

Femme FM

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