#sanfranplan: Get Tiara to San Francisco for Creative Sexytimes! from Tiara The Merch Girl on Vimeo.
Transcript here.

Why San Fran Plan?

I have not heard many stories about being queer and in a minority that I could relate to. While I love performance art and burlesque, and admire queer performers who celebrate their sexuality and bodies in all their oddball glory, I didn't see many that came from a background like mine or who even looked like me. I grew up with very different ideas of sexuality, love, relationships, and the body compared to my peers and friends, and sometimes have a hard time reconciling my heritage and background with my current experiences and values.

Discussions and projects with other friends - especially other activists and performers - have brought up their experiences of not quite being able to relate, of being marginalised even in supposedly more "liberal" areas, of trying to navigate oft-conflicting values, perspectives, and ideas. My performance work and writing has connected me with others who thank me for sharing my voice, for adding another view to the community, for representing a side that often goes unheard.

Through this project I aim to come up with a number of performance pieces (and possibly work in other mediums, such as photography) that explore the issues I bring up, as well as some presentations of my work and learnings. I also aim to contribute as much knowledge, energy, and manpower as I can to my internships and volunteer projects, including building links between San Francisco, Brisbane, and other related networks around the world.

The San Fran Plan

Spend 3 months in San Francisco to further expand my skills, be involved in awesome projects, and create performance work about gender, sexuality, love, and relationships from the perspective of a female queer migrant minority.

I have a residency space with CELLspace from June to September. I'm also keen to participate in any events and festivals that welcome performers - here's a proposal for one such presentation..

I've also been offered internships with Femina Potens and Madison Young's own projects, as well as the Center for Sex and Culture. If/when I get more organised I'll post them here.

I've been in touch with a good deal of other organisations and performers around San Francisco and the Bay Area and some are interested in meeting up or having me volunteer. There's probably enough for 3 years worth!

Related Work

♥ Not Your Ex/Rotic: Diversity and Norms in Sex-Positive Performance

♥ Loyar Burok: Malaysia, Truly Asexual

♥ Racialicious: Exotic Taboo

♥ The Scavenger: Am I genderqueer?

♥ The Merch Girl: If Butch/Femme had anything to do with Bangladeshi/Malaysian culture

♥ Brisbane Festival Critical Mass: The Male as Sexual Object

♥ Next Wave Text Camp 2010: No Risk Too Great

♥ The Scavenger: Challenging traditional burlesque, Asian punk rock style

♥ Autostraddle: Race, Sexuality & Feminism: Autostraddle Feminist Roundtable Part 2

♥ The Merch Girl: Being Inclusive vs Not Being Exclusive

♥ Racialicious: Who's A Pretty Burlesque Princess Now

♥ Racialicious: On Burlesque

Crowdfunding Budget

I am currently crowdfunding via IndieGoGo for $5000:

• $2000 for return airfare BNE - SFO
• $1950 ($650*3) for CELLspace 3 months rent
• $1050 for living expenses

Besides crowdfunding, I am also adding in my own savings, looking for grants & sponsorships, and working various jobs. Any more resources and employment are always appreciated.