Deadline Extended: Queer Appalachia, Wussy, and SFQP team up for 'Big Ass Telethon' for Southern Artists

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Mar 30

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While COVID-19 affects the lives and livelihoods of millions, rural Queers continue to turn to the internet and social media to showcase their art. We are excited to announce that we are teaming up with Queer Appalachia and Southern Fried Queer Pride to host the “Big Ass Telethon to End Metronormativity” -- a showcase of performance and perseverance below the Mason Dixon Line.

Metronormativity operates upon the false dichotomy of rural vs. urban queer existence. It assumes that while the two existences differ from each other, there is no difference between queer life in different urban areas, nor any difference between queer life in different rural areas – since, according to metronormative queer society, rural queer life does not exist.

Metronormativity erases rural queer life and visibility. We have seen this from the Gay & Lesbians Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) recently, in their choice to give the Vangaurd Award for making a significant difference in promoting equal rights for Queer people to Taylor Swift, despite her trainwreck of a music video “You Need to Calm Down”. This video promoted metronormativity and conflated rural life with bigotry, nasty stereotypes about being ill-educated and poor, and being directly in opposition to Queer life.

Metronormativity dictates that rural Queers do not have the resources and media coverage that many metro Queers are allotted. We fight against the idea that their voices are somehow less important and we choose to uplift their voices at this time, now more than ever.

--- ABOUT THE LIVE-STREAM ---

This special live-streamed telethon spectacular will feature drag artists, musicians, comedians, dancers, and more. The event will be used to raise money for the newly formed Appalachian/Southern Queer Artist Fund, an emergency fund set up to monetarily support the featured artists, not just during the COVID-19 crisis, but further and beyond in the form of micro-grants.

The Appalachian/Southern Artist Fund will be dedicated to our dearly departed friends and collaborators -- Bryn Kelly (1981-2016) co-creator of Queer Appalachia and Matt Jones (1991-2018) co-creator of WUSSY.

We are asking artists and creatives to submit a video for the telethon using a downloadable link. We believe that all art and expressions of creativity are valid. We are committed to inclusivity and diversity and strongly encourage artists and performers from all backgrounds to apply. Artists will be able to accept tips through their Venmo/ Paypal accounts during the telethon.

--- SUBMISSION GUIDELINES ---

- Keep your videos under 5 minutes.
- Must be NEW work, made during quarantine.
- Videos must not be posted anywhere else online.
- We are not currently accepting anything with nudity and sexually explicit content, due to Twitch guidelines. We hope to find alternative solutions to this soon!
- Submissions must be sent by April 11th at Midnight to https://forms.gle/7GtkVufCvSC1k7f5A