IndigNation 2014

The main organiser of IndigNation 2014, the tenth year of both IndigNation (Singapore's LGBT pride season) and ContraDiction, was Eugene Tan, better known by his cross-dressing persona of Becca D'Bus.

It was his maiden attempt at being the main organiser, taking over from Miak Siew as the latter headed overseas for a break.  The theme for the year was "One united people".

The graphic designers were Gary Lim and Kenneth Chee.



=Programme=


 * Events highlighted in pink are not IndigNation events, but the organisers thought that they would be of interest.

 

Opening event - ContraDiction: 10 year series
Held on Friday, 1 August 2014 at 8pm at Chamber at The Arts House.

Organised by Stephanie Dogfoot, Eugene Tan, Vanessa Victoria and Ng Yi-Sheng.

Event page of Facebook:.

It was advertised thus:

"This year marks the 10th Anniversary of Indignation and its annual queer literary night ContraDiction.

And we are going to start it with a bang.

ContraDiction - The Ten Year Series will celebrate a decade's worth of queer writing and performances at the Arts House. Come and celebrate with some of Singapore's most acclaimed LGBT writers who have read, written sung, performed and otherwise grown up with us over the past ten years!

Featured guests include poet Cyril Wong, artist Tania De Rozario, novelist Ovidia Yu, playwright Joel Tan, songwriter Iris Judotter, Stephanie Dogfoot, Jason Wee, Adrianna Tan, Fikri Alkhatib, Amanda Tee and Koh Jee Leong." The queer do was called "Pens & Pride" by I-S magazine and listed under "Essential Events " August 1- 14 (photo of article shot by Eugene Tan).  zQcEZCbgsBA  -zpU6huNp58&list=UUhEPNeVbeG3XvS1QFMF_d2Q  -WzbYRAkeDA&list=UUhEPNeVbeG3XvS1QFMF_d2Q  =qIdYCn01dSk&list=UUhEPNeVbeG3XvS1QFMF_d2Q  ugGhfWc0rvE&list=UUhEPNeVbeG3XvS1QFMF_d2Q  z67JTLnCNXM&list=UUhEPNeVbeG3XvS1QFMF_d2Q  1XloE6iconk&list=UUhEPNeVbeG3XvS1QFMF_d2Q  INKbR7ppgSg&list=UUhEPNeVbeG3XvS1QFMF_d2Q  6oq1wi93scU&list=UUhEPNeVbeG3XvS1QFMF_d2Q 
 * Watch videos of the performances recorded by Roy Tan:

Kenny Leck of Books Actually set up a table outside the event venue selling books and works by some of the performers at unbeatable discount prices.

An after party was held at 10.30 pm at Art Bar, ButterFactory, One Fullerton. Free Cover. Marla Bendini performed her personal favourite, t.A.t.U's "Not Gonna Get Us" at 12.30am.

Human worth and dignity: two stories of the LGBT community in Singapore


Sunday, 3 August 2014 from 1pm to 4:30pm in Function Rooms 4.1 and 4.2 on level 4 of the SMU Administration Building, Singapore Management University, 81 Victoria Street. Attendees who had paid were notified by e-mail.

Organised by the Humanist Society.

Event page on Facebook: and the Humanist Society website:.

The advertisement for the event ran:

"“I believe that everybody should be treated equally and also that we should all really try to get along, not judge people based on certain things you don’t agree with, or you don’t really know about.”

(Interview with gay activist- an excerpt from "Mobilizing Gay Singapore").

The Humanist Society (Singapore) presents a discussion on human worth and dignity, by looking at two perspectives of the LGBT community in Singapore. Tickets at:. As this is a ticketed event, Facebook RSVPs will not count.

Mr Alex Au, of the Yawning Bread blog fame, will present his personal journey as a high-profile member of the LGBT community, and how he continues in the face of the odds.

The 2nd speaker, Asst Prof Lynette J Chua, will present her new book: “Mobilizing Gay Singapore: Rights and Resistance in an Authoritarian State”, which analyzes the development, strategy and tactics of Singapore’s LGBT movement.

Asst Prof Chua will examine the meanings of rights that emerge from the book’s ethnographic study of Singapore’s LGBT activists and discuss how they influence the ways in which these activists continue to mobilize in face of legal and political obstacles.

The talks will be followed by a Q&A moderated by President of the Humanist Society, Mr Paul Tobin. Attendees are welcome to purchase the book: “Mobilizing Gay Singapore” at the event and join Asst Prof Chua for a special book-signing session.

$12 for Humanist Society (HSS) members and $15 for non-HSS members. Please RSVP to make payment and confirm your booking. Only 200 seats available."

eBLtochAbAY&list=UUhEPNeVbeG3XvS1QFMF_d2Q 
 * Watch a video of Alex Au's speech recorded by Roy Tan:

Seeking/Looking: A Sex Library | Marla Bendini: I'm Nervous
 The opening of the exhibition was on Thursday, 7 August at 6pm - 8pm.

The duration of the exhibition was from 7 August to 30 August 2014

Grey Projects (art gallery)

6B Kim Tian Road, Tiong Bahru, Singapore 169246

Tel. 6655 6492

Gallery Hours:

Wed - Fri : 1pm - 7pm

Sat: 1pm - 7pm

Organised by Grey Projects.

Event page on Facebook:.

It was advertised thus:

"‘Seeking/Looking: A Sex Library’ is an exhibition-as-library, and an open invitation for readers to contribute volumes of their favorite queer literature to this pop-up library.

The library cheekily suggests that even in our private reading spaces, one can be looking for sex and sexual gratification. For a brief moment, readers at the exhibition will be able to seek out these otherwise undisclosed sexual narratives.

'Marla Bendini: I’m Nervous' is the first solo exhibition by Marla Bendini, where in a series of daring photographs, she gives an intimate glimpse into an exciting and playful side of her public image as Butter Factory's Head Freak and transgender performer. The dance club becomes Marla’s social space where she plays with queer forms of self-representation, transforming herself through wildly expressive costume changes.

The exhibition is a development of her work from 'No Approval', the previous edition of Grey Projects’ annual queer show held in 2013."

The Boys in the Band


"The Boys in the Band" premiered in Singapore with an all-male, multi-national cast in the seminal hit which sparked the gay rights movement in America.

7 to 16 August 2014, 8pm at the Alliance Francaise Theatre, 1 Sarkies Road (tel: 8118 8432).

Presented by Tim Garner Productions.

Tickets available at SISTIC:.

Facebook page:.

Advertisement:

"Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band - the second in a series of LGBT plays presented by Tim Garner Productions encouraging discussion on diversity, equality, and inclusion in Singapore.

It’s Harold’s 32rrt birthday. A good time goes bad as the amiable turns fraught, prejudices are exposed, and true personalities are unleashed, ultimately leading us to question the characters’, and our own, concept of friendship.

Information and tickets: Timgarnerproductions.com"

Synopsis
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It's Harold's 32nd birthday. A good time goes bad as the amiable turns fraught, prejudices are exposed, and true personalities are unleashed, ultimately leading us to question the characters', and our own, concept of friendship.

Tim Garner Productions announces its follow-up to the critically and audience-acclaimed "Take me out" - the 2014 Singapore premiere of the off-Broadway hit play "The Boys in the Band", by Mart Crowley.

Described by The Wall Street Journal as "A play of real substance, one that deserves to be performed not occasionally but regularly" and "Witty, bitchy, revelatory and dazzlingly entertaining" (The New York Times), "The Boys in the Band" premieres in Singapore with an all-male, multi-national cast performing the seminal hit which sparked the gay rights movement in America.

Starring: Chris Bucko, Marc Checkley, Nelson Clemente, Tim Garner, Rob Jenkin, Rob Schilling, Andrew Sutherland, and Frédéric Soumaré.

Directed by Tony Knight

The Unofficial Pink Picnic


Saturday, 9 August 2014 (National Day) from 4:30pm - 7:00pm.

Symphony Lake, Singapore Botanic Gardens, 1 Cluny Road, Singapore 259569.

Organised by Gary Lim.

Event page on Facebook:.

The event was advertised thus:

"Hi Everyone,

It's that time of the year again for The Unofficial Pink Picnic! As it's the 10th Anniversary of IndigNation, let's make this a huge success by supporting it!

Just come by and join us on the picnic mattress for food, drinks and lots of gossips :p It's also a great way to reuse your Pink T-shirt from Pink Dot!

Please bring some finger foods (in order not to end up with boxes of KFC chickens, please 'chope' what you want to bring in the comments) and your own drinks.

Date: August 9th 2014 (National Day)

Time: 4:30pm

Venue: Botanic Gardens' Symphony Lake

Hope to see you guys at Botanic Gardens!

Much love,

Gary"

Dr Sketchy Birthday feat. Noris


Tuesday, 12 August 2014 at 8pm at Artistry.

Organised by Becca D'Bus.

It was advertised thus:

"Dr Sketchy is your favourite life drawing class with loads of drinking and drawing! And yes, there are prizes to be won too! August is the month of BIRTHDAY. Indignation turns 10. Singapore turn 49. Madonna turns 102. And our model Noris, she celebrates, err, one more year of his life.

Come DRINK, DRAW her and WIN prizes you won’t want to tell anybody about. Bring your own drawing supplies, we'll have a good time! Bring friends!

$10 at the door."

Pink Run
Saturday, 16 August 2014 at 9am.

Starting point: behind Nicoll Highway MRT station.

Organised by Nicholas Deroose.

Event page on Facebook:.



OCRed text of the poster:

5 reasons why you should go for the Pink Run

1. It's the perfect event to reuse your Pink Dot outfit.

2. You enjoy checking out the hotness that is usually at these events. And give you the suspicious

eyebrow if you say you don’t aka “I don’t check out people at the gym.”

3. It's a great way to meet people with similar interests. “Oh you like FBT shorts too?”

4. You enjoy the smell of the vodka/gin/whiskey from last night leaving your sweaty pores.

5. You will post about it on Secrets later.  The event's advertisement ran:

"7 years ago, the first and only Pink run was organized as one of the many events of Indignation. The run, a causal affair along the Singapore river, never officially happened. As we were about to flag off some 40 runners, plain clothed policemen came up to the organizers and told them that we were contravening the Miscellaneous Offences Act. The police did not cite which part of the act we were contravening but only that a gathering of four or more people is consider illegal. Fast forward to the present, we would like to try again and stage the second Pink run in Indignation's ten year history. What would happen? We don't really know but we would certainly like to find out.

An account of the original Pink Run:

We will be gathering behind Nicoll Highway MRT before the flag off. A detailed map of the route to be released soon.

More information about the rest of the 2014 Indignation event can be found here: "  2 weeks before the event, its organiser announced the logistics requirements on its Facebook event page:

6 marshals

2 photographers

1 rainbow flag

1 loudspeaker

1 first aid kit

A Long Table Discussion About Strategies for the Future
Saturday, 16 August 2014 at 8pm at Artistry.

Organised by Eugene Tan.

Event page on Facebook:.

It was advertised thus:

"How will queer activism create our future? What will we do now to make this possible? What do we want the future to be?

Join us and bring your voice and thoughts in a freely flowing conversation that will go wherever attendees want it to go in discussion that will be moderated by a table.

The room will be full of experts in the field, like you. Nobody has been appointed as speakers.

The discussion will be started by EugeneTan at 8pm sharp, do come earlier. At 10pm, Eugene will allow the person speaking to finish their comments and end the discussion.

The Long Table is a means of generating open discussion about a specified topic, using a stylized environment and participation protocol to heighten ordinary conversation. The Long Table experiments with participation and public engagement by combining re-appropriating a dinner table atmosphere as a public forum and encouraging informal conversation on serious topics. The Long Table format was created by Lois Weaver."

FACE featuring JuJuBee


Wednesday, 20 August 2014 from 8pm to 10pm.

TAB, 442 Orchard Road, #02-29, Singapore 238879.

The event was thus advertised:

"IndigNation is proud to present a 1 night only event!, JuJuBee from RuPaul’s Drag Race will be performing in Singapore!

You’ve seen her online, now see her live!

Serving you beauty and face and gorgeousness, JuJuBee might just read you for filth. YES! The Library is Open. And the penguins are out to play, community standards be damned!

Doors at 6.30pm

Showtime 8.00pm

Come early! Have Dinner!

Tickets:

VIP Tables - $400

Upfront reserved table. Includes 4 seats and a bottle

(Glenlivet 12 Years, Chivas Regal 12 Years, Absolut Vodka, Martell VSOP or Perrier Jouet)

General Admission (Online sales) - $25

General Admission (Door) - $30

JuJuBee will be supported by some of your favourite queens from Singapore in a show of songs that they never sang, and costumes that they may never have washed.

Mona Kee Kee is your favourite diva who will make you BELIEVE. Also she does magic better than what you get from that church in Marine Parade.

Noris is finally leaving the confines of those bars along Tanjong Pagar, be nice to her, she just turned … celebrated her birthday!

Becca D’Bus has never been happier to have been Stomped. She likes colour. And being stupid.

FACE is an event of IndigNation, Singapore’s Pride Season, now in its tenth year.

The event will raise funds for IndigNation ensuring its continued presence on the Singapore calendar.

Tickets at :

THIS IS AN 18+ EVENT"

Strategies, Successes and Failures: An overview of the LGBT movement in the US
Saturday, 23 August 2014 from 2pm - 5pm. (Venue to be confirmed.)

Hosted by IndigNation SG.

Tickets available at:.

It was thus advertised:

"In 2011, Hillary Clinton made a historic speech on LGBT rights that helped give the global LGBT movement a good kick in the butt.

Last week, Obama signed an executive order banning workplace discrimination against LGBT workers of federal contractors and the federal government.

To date, 19 States have marriage equality; 18 States have some employment non-discrimination act; 15 States have hate crime legislation for LGBT people. And in several States, LGBT history is made to be taught in schools.

Without over-glorifying the LGBT movement in the US, this session will seek to explore in-depth some of the key organizations that work on LGBT rights, their strategies, successes, and failures.

This session is being conducted by Vanessa Ho, who recently concluded a 3-week trip around the US sponsored by the Department of State to learn more about the LGBT movement in the US.

She met with over 30 different organizations in 4 different States (DC, Alabama, NYC, San Diego), and collected over 5kg worth of resources and information that she is eager to share.

Timeline:

2 - 2:30pm: Introduction to American Federalism, and key highlights and lessons learnt from the trip (Vanessa)

2:30 - 2:50pm: Q&A

2:50 - 3pm: Short break

3 - 4pm: Breakout Sessions (Groups will be formed according to interest areas, and resources will be divided accordingly).

4 - 5pm: Group Sharing and Discussion

Interest Areas to be covered:

LGBT Youth

Direct Services for LGBT

Legal Advocacy Strategies

Non-legal Advocacy Strategies

Political Lobbying

Religion and LGBT

Community Building

Education system and LGBT

Parents of LGBT

LGBT Allies

Trans* Rights Movement

This session is facilitated by Eugene Tan.

Register your interests here now! "

Mass Hysteria: Relapsed
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Sunday, 24 August 2014 at 3pm and 8pm

The Play Den at The Arts House.

Organised by Amok Collective and Sayoni.

This was the advertisement for the event:

"Attention: Health Notice

Mass Hysteria has spread beyond detention and secondary school graduation. There are no expiry dates, no LUGs, but some spectres continue to haunt.

Shrugging off uniforms and habits, the queerdos set their sights on the world outside, to re-act and negotiate the hysterical and the historical, great tropes and expectations, memory and homophobic violence, nightmarish dyke drama and the life cycles of lezbo love.

Come quantify the insanity. Come queer the jealousy. Just come.

Featuring words and performances by: Ad Maulod, Germaine Yeo, Mrylyn Tn, Rak Shakalaka, Sage Lee, Stephanie Dogfoot, Vanessa Victoria and music by: Illi Syaznie

Showtimes:

24th August, 3pm

24th August, 8pm"

Check-OUT: The Race 2
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Saturday, 30 August 2014 from 10am to 5pm at various venues.

Organised by SGRainbow and Young OUT Here.

Event page on Facebook:.

It ran 2 advertisements:

Old:

"What does it mean when someone asks you,“Who are you?"

Who are you? Somebody, anybody, everybody, nobody.

Join SGRainbow and Young OUT Here in a race across space and time in recovering the history, uncovering the present and discovering the future of Singapore’s LGBTQ community."

Updated:

"SGRainbow and Young OUT Here, will be organizing an amazing race, Check-OUT: The Race 2, as part of IndigNation 2014.

The objectives of the race are as follows:

1. Develop and bolster participants’ individual identity and self esteem as LGBTQ youths. 2. Strengthen friendships within participants and provide platform for participants to forge new ones. 3. Increase participants’ understanding of the various LGBTQ organisations and their roles in the community

The race will see groups of participants going around Singapore to various LGBTQ places completing missions.

This race is open to ALL and participants will have to form groups of 3 to 4 members.

On top of all the fun, participants will each get a goodie bag worth $100! Winners of this race will also stand a chance to win cash and prizes worth up to $1,000.

Details of the race Date: 30 August 2014 Time: 0930hrs to 1800hrs (Flag off at 1000hrs) Registration fee: $10 per person

For enquiries about this race, please contact the organisers at contact@checkoutrace.tk

Register here:

Places are limited, so hurry!"

Closing event - A minor ContraDiction
Saturday, 30 August 2014 at 8pm at The Reading Room, 19 Bukit Pasoh Road.

Organised by Ng Yi-Sheng, Stephanie Dogfoot, Eugene Tan and Vanessa Victoria.

It was advertised thus:

"To bring Indignation to a close, take a peek into the future of Singapore’s queer literary community as present you with a night of readings and performances by some of Singapore's most dynamic emerging LGBTQ voices. Raw, funny, honest, angry and hopeful, these young writers will show you what it means and how it feels to grow up queer in 21st century Singapore.

=See also=


 * IndigNation: Singapore's first gay pride month
 * IndigNation 2006
 * IndigNation 2007
 * IndigNation 2008
 * IndigNation 2009
 * IndigNation 2010
 * IndigNation 2011
 * IndigNation 2012
 * IndigNation 2013

=References=


 * The Indignation SG Facebook page.
 * The IndigNation SG website on Wordpress
 * An alternative IndigNation Facebook page:.
 * Sylvia Tan, "Singapore celebrates 10th LGBT pride festival", Gay Star News, 2 August 2014.

=Acknowledgements=

This article was compiled by Roy Tan.