2024 FESTIVAL: GROUNDED

*SUBMISSIONS CLOSED ON FRIDAY MARCH 29

FRIDAY, MAY 17 & SATURDAY, MAY 18

SORENSON UNITY CENTER

1383 S 900 W, Salt Lake City, UT 84104

Transportation: UTA bus line 9 (California Ave / 900 W - Stop ID: 198489900) Plenty of places to chain up bikes and park

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE FOR QSAF 2024

QSAF acknowledges that we are grounded on the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Goshute, Shoshone, Paiute, and Ute peoples. We recognize that Indigenous peoples, the original stewards of this land, have been living, working, and residing on this land since time immemorial. We acknowledge the painful history of genocide and forced removal from this land, and we honor and respect the Indigenous peoples still connected to the land on which we gather. 

“does the ground have to authenticate itself to the feet?
does water have to substantiate itself to the tongue?

i have nothing to prove
my dignity is not up for debate”— ALOK in a poem “your wound is my garden”

“The trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective. Exactly how they do this, we don’t yet know. But what we see is the power of unity. What happens to one happens to us all. We can starve together or feast together.”— Robin Wall Kimmerer

The soft soil of the Earth is a site of growth and life but also a place of decomposition. Groundedness can mean strength and resilience, but it can look like rest, grief, and renewal.

We as queer people are embedded into the land and into stories. We have been here. We have withstood erosion and disturbances. We have built roots and connections. We are soil. We are breath. We are rooted. 

Perhaps you read this prompt and think, “I feel really ungrounded!” We feel that too. Let this prompt be a site of departure as much as arrival, and a place to pause along the way; let this be a kaleidoscope through which to consider your artistic inspiration.

The ground is also the dimension that defines what is visible and what is invisible - the hidden roots underground support the evident stem. Grounded can be the feeling of alignment between both realms. Art calls us to consider how we desire to connect and relate to our land, to ourselves, and how our sense of belonging depends on the ground we move in.

As we reflect on what it means to be grounded in queerness, to be grounded and queer, we think of 

• The alignment between what is visible and invisible 

• The ongoing practice of embracing identity and authenticity 

• Breath: both inhalations and exhalations 

• Intentional and continued decolonization work    

• Our root systems 

• Our relationship to the ground, to Earth, to home 

• The queerness of our own Utah landscape  

• The need to resist immediate oppression while also building resilience in the long term 

• Resistance and softness 

• Bold imagination 

The 2024 Queer Spectra Arts Festival is interested in exploring the following questions: 

• How do you think about place and home as a queer person?

• How can art create alignment within our authentic selves and experiences? 

• What is your ongoing relationship to Earth and environment? How is this informed by your queerness?

• How does queer art ground us? 

• What does queer art tell us about our needs? 

• What hidden dimensions does queer art uncover? 

• How does the act of “grounding” your art change it?

• What possibilities does queer art bring above ground? 

• How can you find grounding in your body? 

• How can we find groundedness collectively?

• How are you grounded in your local community? In Salt Lake City? In connection with the Great Salt Lake?

• How do you practice gratitude? 

• What are you sustained by?

THANK YOU

Queer Spectra Arts Festival is made possible by generous support from the following sponsors: