Woman launches queer arts festival in San Diego
San Diego will see an inaugural queer arts festival this month. A queer San Francisco Bay Area native is the visionary behind the event.Former Vallejo resident Desiree Cuizon, a 36-year-old Filipina woman, is co-director of the City in Motion's Queer Mvmt Fest, scheduled for June 24-27.The art festival will wrap up June's Pride Month and kick off San Diego's month of Pride events, said Cuizon, who is a lead artist with Disco Riot, the festival's sponsor organization.
San Diego Pride is July 9-17.Cuizon and fellow Dance Riot lead artist Trystan Merrick, a queer nonbinary ballet dancer, are bringing more than 25 queer artists, many of whom are Black, Indigenous, and people of color, from New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego to perform and host educational classes at the four-day virtual and in-person festival that will feature dance performances, panel discussions, and workshops."These artists are boldly confronting their intersectionalities through their movement art and I am in awe," said Cuizon, calling the artists "incredibly brave to perform, create, and be vulnerable" for their performances.
The Queer Mvmt Fest team also includes Disco Riot artistic director Zaquia Mahler Salinas, operations manager Gloria Lanuza, lighting supervisor Taylor Olson, and panel moderator Gibran Guido.The event will, in addition, host a screening competition of films from around the world.The film competition features different films, some of which will be seen at FilmOut, San Diego's LGBTQ film festival held in the fall, Cuizon said.
