The Queer Salon is a safe space for QTBIPOCC and LGBTQIAA+ fabulousness & uplift, to find community, and for the co-creation of queer and trans joy. It’s a place to get resourced, dial into what you need (inside and out), expand social networks, and to deepen internal & educational strengths.
Get ready for three days of drag, queer and trans art, performance, skills-share, racial justice talk, youth and local resources and so much more.
We’ve got so many amazing things in store for you this May, use these quick links to jump to more about:
* MUSIC * NOWHERE FOUND LOUNGE * POSITIVE VIBRATION STATION * SANCTUARY * QUEER SALON * ASTRO MOJO DOJO * KIDSVILLE * HEALING OASIS * VISUAL ARTS * VENDORS *
May 2024 Queer Salon:
Tania “T” Hammidi, Queer Salon Curator (she/they): Weaving Wood, Weaving Community Daily Installation – FRI, SAT & SUN 11am
A playshop collaboration by artists Adriana Lopez-Ospina and T. Hammidi. Come participate in our collaborative community installation anytime throughout the weekend! Using bent wood as our frame, you will weave fiber and words into this live, emerging sculpture, expressing our interconnectedness. Fiber is defined as “a thread or filament from which a vegetable, mineral substance, or textile is formed” but also as “strength of character.” Fibers intertwine to create all forms of materials; we define people as forms of fiber who are connected and impacted by one another. By combining text and textiles, participants will have the opportunity to express themselves and co-create an amazing installation, through art and collaboration. The more interconnected we are, the stronger we are as a community!
T. Hammidi is a Joshua Tree-based artist who creates safer spaces for LGBTQIA+ people through art and programs for community education, participation and engagement. Via The Queer Salon, Hammidi creates an LGBTQIA+ homebase for fabulousness and growth, foregrounding workshops that transform us : gay ancestral work, art skill-shares, dance, tools for self- and community health, bingo and other live expressions of LGBTQIA+ joy. Hammidi holds a Ph.D. in Critical Dance Studies and M.S. in Community Development.
Stay connected with Hammidi and learn more about their current projects at IG @queerdesertarchive and @PAAC29Palms
– FRI, SAT & SUN 11am-6pm: Installation Wall
Adriana Lopez-Ospina: Weaving Wood, Weaving Community Daily Installation – FRI, SAT & SUN 11am
A playshop collaboration by artists Adriana Lopez-Ospina and T. Hammidi. Come participate in our collaborative community installation anytime throughout the weekend! Using bent wood as our frame, you will weave fiber and words into this live, emerging sculpture, expressing our interconnectedness. Fiber is defined as “a thread or filament from which a vegetable, mineral substance, or textile is formed” but also as “strength of character.” Fibers intertwine to create all forms of materials; we define people as forms of fiber who are connected and impacted by one another. By combining text and textiles, participants will have the opportunity to express themselves and co-create an amazing installation, through art and collaboration. The more interconnected we are, the stronger we are as a community!
Adriana Lopez-Ospina is a Colombian American mixed media artist currently working on a series of woven wool installations titled “fiber.” Adriana is inspired by her family’s Colombian heritage and culture. Born in the US, Adriana had to learn about her background from family and museums as she visited year after year. Family narratives and historical artifacts serve as a glimpse into the life and memory of the indigenous communities that live in present day Colombia. Adriana is only now starting to learn about the deep cultural significance indigenous communities have on Colombian culture as she continues to learn about her family’s homeland. While much of her work is a reflection of her ancestry, she also explores social and political issues that often peak her interest. She continues to explore new ways to weave figure and pattern to illustrate various moods and life moments as those who did before her.
– FRI, SAT & SUN 11am-6pm: Installation Wall
Brittany Delany: Free the Body, Storytelling & Movement Workshop – SAT 1pm
Explore how peace and freedom live within you and and your community. Enjoy dynamic creativity at the Queer Salon and let your body take flight. Open and welcoming to all levels and ages.
Brittany Delany is a Southern California based movement artist and co-director of GROUND SERIES dance & social justice collective.
– SAT 1pm-2:30pm: Main Lounge
Cindy Bookout (she/they): Making No-Sew T-shirt Green Bags – SAT 11am
Did you know making things together is relaxing and reduces anxiety? “No sew T-shirt green bags” are durable and a great way to save a cool T-shirt. With scissors and a few knots, artist and gentle upcyclist Cindy Bookout will teach participants how to create their own “No Sew T-shirt Green Bag” to take home ! Bring your own favorite T-shirt or use one of ours! Supplies provided. Join in the chillax revolution and make your own eco-bag at the same time.
Cindy Bookout aka Ranger TieDye, is a lifelong queer activist from Oklahoma who’s lived in Desert Hot Springs for 20 years. She’s passionate about healthy living, plant medicines, upcycling and building community. Come see her at the JTMF Queer Salon to make your own green bag from a cool T-shirt!
– SAT 11am-3pm: Main Lounge
Christi Waldon: How to Fall Safely and Dramatically but Gorgeously on Stage – FRI 1pm
Stunt choreographer/physical comedian and teacher, Christi Waldon, will share theater and performance techniques for the perfect mic drop. Come listen, participate, ask questions and express yourself through choreography and the stage! Our physical presence & expression through movement are part of the puzzle!
– FRI 1pm-2:30pm: Main Lounge
Warrior Training, Physical Presence and Power Embodiment – SUN 11am
Christi Waldon is back with techniques for channeling your warrior into physical embodiment exercises, explorations and areas of individual and collective growth. Bring water and be prepared for light exercise!
Christi Waldon is an actor, physical comedian, stunt coordinator/fight choreographer, and performing arts educator, who earned her BA in Theater at the University of Houston. She taught unarmed, single sword, broadsword, and rapier & dagger stage combat at AMDA College for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles for 11 years. She performed in LA’s longest running theatrical event, Point Break Live!, as well as Terminator Too: Judgment Play, and Tom Gun Live. She also toured with Point Break Live and T Too and debuted them at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN in 2014. She has played Marissa the librarian in the Netflix hit series, Stranger Things.
– SUN 11am-12:30pm: Main Lounge
Cintia Cruz: Ancestor Healing and Guided Dance – SUN 1pm
This ancestor work session will bring joy, connection, love, and healing. Alongside vipassana and jhana practice, Cintia has nurtured a healing relationship with their body and ancestors through dance. The session starts with a meditation and a circle where everybody can bring their intentions and focus. With Brazilian songs, we will dance to press the bottom for self-connection. We dance to find our flow. When we embrace our tune, we will dance with shared intentions with the group: carrying, pushing, loving, and dropping it (feelings and emotions). The songs will bring the earth, water, fire, and air elements to the room. We end with meditation. Anyone is welcome to the session.
Cintia Cruz is an Artist, Meditator, Phd Feminist Studies, Latinx and Afro-Brazilian. Her Ph.D. work on healing and spirituality explored self-esteem, race, gender and comparative study. Cintia has been training in mindfulness practices and ancestor work through dance, at the Dhamma Dena Buddhist Retreat Center in Joshua Tree, since 2022.
– SUN 1pm-2:30pm Main Lounge
Eva Montville: Love Anyway! Speaking to Heart Breaking, Healing and Transformation – SUN 11am
Providing a space to reflect and share how our hearts are broken, healed and transformed, through interaction with each other and sculpted manzanita “hearts” from the Heart Locker Installation.
Eva Montville is a Joshua Tree sculptor, has worked with wood for about 60 years. Eva’s most recent work is the Heart Locker, a mobile art installation born out of heartbreak over the planet-wide causes and consequences of Climate Change. Eva carves the “hearts”, then inlays them with copper, gold, turquoise and crystal, symbols of regeneration, and hangs them in the Heart Locker as an expression of hope that Love will prevail.
– SUN 11am-12:30pm: Dialogue Zone
Fruit and Friends: Fruit Mixer – FRI 4pm
Description coming soon!
– FRI 4pm-5:30pm Main Lounge
Jamie O’Neil (she/her): Cosmic Smash Booklet – FRI 1pm & SAT 11am
Cosmic Smashbooking isn’t really an art class – it’s a path of self discovery and exploration through creativity. In the process, you will make art, and discover what may be hiding beneath the surface! This journey will take place over two sessions, and you will learn what smash books are all about. You will leave with your own smash book, having already begun the journey. Come find out how to bring some of the magic inside, out! Supplies will be provided. If you’ve made a smashbook here before, bring it and create a new page!
Jamie O’Neil has been painting as long as she can remember. Inspired in her grandma’s tole painting class using oil paints, O’Neil expanded to acrylic, and painted on furniture, walls, wood, and textiles. “Artist” is her superhero persona; by day, O’Neil teaches video production to high school students
– FRI 1pm-2:30pm & SAT 11am-12:30pm: Art Space
The Lady Chilane: Drag Bingo – FRI 6pm
Lady Chilane is hosting a “family-friendly” edition of Drag Bingo at the Queer Salon. Join us for a chance to play and win fabulous LGBTQ+ themed prizes. We invite you to stop by and participate in a few rounds of this fun event.
Lady Chilane, originally from Tennessee, has been a Drag Entertainer since 2007. Currently residing in the Hi-Desert, she takes on the role of hosting Drag Bingo in Joshua Tree. Lady Chilane is also set to showcase her talent in the highly anticipated film, Willa Justice: Drag Queen Private Eye, which is scheduled for release later this year.
– FRI 6pm-7:30pm: Main Lounge
Lauren Bright (she/her): Queer Acts ! Playwriting Playshop – FRI 12pm
Queer Acts! Is a unique program designed to empower individuals through writing, acting, and performance. This workshop offers a dynamic platform for participants to explore their creativity, voice their narratives, and celebrate queer identity through the art of theater. Come discuss, immerse, offer dialogue, write your queer heart out! Over two-days, we will collaboratively write a queer play together and then perform it! No experience necessary.
Lauren Bright is a dancer, writer, activist, and queer artist. She co-leads Wyld Woman , an intersectional feminist art collective in the desert, turns food waste into soil to help save our planet, and loves her cats.
– FRI 12pm – 1:30 pm: Dialogue Zone
Queer Acts ! Transforming Our Words into Performance – SAT 11am
Day 2 of Queer Acts! We focus on acting and character, bringing the words to life through performance! Participants will showcase their talents, share stories, and engage with the audience intimately and authentically. Let’s use the power of theater for self-expression, community-building, and queer empowerment! No experience necessary.
– SAT 11am – 12:30 pm: Dialogue Zone
Lis Auston: Breaking Bread with Wild Bread – SUN 3pm
A hands-on edible workshop on bread making, community building, and alternative economies. Chapatis, tortillas, sourdough, laffa bread, milk bread, roti… since around 8000 BC people around the world have been making bread. In this workshop we’ll lead you through a sampling of bread making from around the world learning as we go about specific communities, cultures, and economies developed out of baking and breaking bread together.
Lis Auston is the owner and baker at Wild Bread, Pioneertown – a queer-owned sourdough micro bakery in the high desert. Lis and her partner established Wild Bread in 2020 after careers in education. As life-long-learners, they’re happy to report that if there’s one thing about making sourdough is that it always has something to teach you!
– SUN 3 – 4:30 pm: Main Lounge
Mayan Wish (he/him): Fairy Make-Up – SAT 4pm
Announcement! Designer and make-up artist, Mayan Wish, has a special touch, when it comes to fairy makeup. Join us and be adorned in bio-degradable fairy colors. The final “look” will reflect the best versions of your dreams! All ages welcome! Let’s primp you for the 6 pm Unicorn Prance!
Mayan Wish was created when the faeries bestowed the Mayans the gift of an amazing creature. His passion for the circus inspired him to venture on a creative path to explore with fashion and makeup. Mayan Wish is a dancer, clothing & costume designer, and circus artist committed to deliver style and performance with grace, joy, and environmental consciousness.
– SAT 4pm-6pm: Main Lounge
Scot Zeller: Queer Storytelling, Why We Should, and How to Begin Writing and Telling Our Stories – SAT 3pm
A workshop celebrating intergenerational storytelling within the LGBTQIA+ community to help us better understand each other, the community’s history, and its future. This workshop will include a live reading from Scot Zeller’s solo show “H@ppy F@ggot” followed by a conversation with the playwright about the writing process (how to get started, how to stay involved). The workshop will offer inspiration for free-writing and time to write and share our stories with other participants, in a safe LGBTQIA+ space. Join us!
Scot Zeller has helped create and produce theater in Los Angeles for 30 years but hasn’t been on stage for decades. That all changed in March of 2024 when he premiered his solo show “H@ppy F@ggot” after a ten year journey of re-examining and writing about his coming out experience during the 1980’s at the height of the AIDS pandemic.
– SAT 3pm-4pm: Main Lounge
UNICORN PRANCE – SAT 6pm
All are welcome to join our “LGBTQIA & Ally Pride” Unicorn Prance this May! Carrying a 15’ long red ribbon to unite us across differences, we celebrate with a joyful, prancing loop around the Festival!
– SAT 6pm: Main Lounge
