The fifth L-festival, dedicated to the transsexual, bisexual, lesbian and feminist communities, opened on Thursday evening at Rainbow House (the café and information centre for the LGBTQI community). It is being held there until December 2nd, as well as within other Brussels locations.
The festival offers debates, workshops, creative activities, lively evenings and even concerts. Ever since its creation, it has endeavoured to highlight gay women, enable interactions between them and increase the status of lesbian, bisexual and transsexual art.
For Thursday night’s opening, the preview of the artist-painter Rose Butch (Belgium) and the photographer Meg Allen (USA) at the Rainbow House honoured the “Butchs”, namely so-called masculine lesbians.
Amongst the various activities on offer, the L-Festival and Pullet Rocks are joining forces for an evening at Rainbow House under the label “Grrrl Power” on Saturday, with the groups Tuvalu (Belgium) and De Introns (the Netherlands). On November 29th, the Transsexual workshop, for those with a non-descript sexuality, will raise public awareness interactively of those who are transgender. Moreover this will show how the social constructs of standards and gender stereotypes can lead to the phenomena of exclusion and discrimination. Lessons in feminist self-defence will be given on November 28th at Rainbow House.
The conference “The Struggles for those of African Descent: Feminism, Lgbtqi+ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer and Intersex) and Antiracism” will take place on December 2nd at Riches-Claires cultural centre. It will provide an alternative view of feminism to that outlined by women who are, by majority, white middle class. The festival’s closing evening will take place in the Smouss café led by female DJs.
The Brussels Times
