My first visit to Lisbon, Portugal couldn’t have come at a better time as Berlin was engulfed in a temperal heatwave. At icky Schonefeld Airport I was surprised to find that Koen Claerhout of Haus de Kulture de Welt and pal would be on my flight on their way to Lisbon for a summer holiday.
The weather in Lisbon was warm but breezy and
I am not just talking about the 1971 film starring William Holden and Kay
Lenz. I arrived to the picqueresque Iberian
city onTAP airlines Portugals’s own Air Berlin which because the Portugese tend
to be dimunitive is one of the most cramped in terms of seating. The 3 hour and 45 minute trip seemed like it
was 6 hours long, but upon landing everything was Granada. Whisking me to the lovely Hotel Florida the festival
angelitos ----pretty&personable Magda and lovesexy suave Andre. Lisbon’s airport is conveniently located
within the city limits which is a major blessing.
Pedro Marum and Ricke Merighi the genius
curators/ programmers with Queer Lisbon and sponsor Africa Cont in
collaboration with the Cinemateca
Portuguesa and Galeria Ze’ dos Bois brought forth this fantastic art/music/film
congress Are You For Real? An Afro
Futuristic trip from blaxploitation to queer sonics and visual utopias. Now that’s a hairy eyeball mouthful eh?
After the horrible plane flight it was lovely
to relax at Hotel Florida for a bit before the welcome dinner. I loved how in the elevators of the hotel you
are joined by a life sized Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn. I had a great view from my 4th
floor Harrison Ford Room that looked upon an impressive square with a giant
statue, the next day I was changed to a much larger John Travolta Scientology
Suite with joyous street views.
The welcome dinner hosted by the sweet
festival artistic director Joao Ferreira and his crew of handsome Joao’s who
are part of the Queer Lisbon extended familia was at the family owned Adega Dom
Luis. I was told that the food in
Lisbon is divoon and was not disappointed.
After feasting we took a long walk back to the hotel and got a nice
flavour of the city and its nitelife with so many beautiful young people
partying in the streets.
The second day in Lisbon was the opening of
the congress with another VIP dinner at the spacious and delicious organic
boite Jardim dos Saberes(Garden of Flavours)
It was lovely meeting Will Sylvester from Bushwick New York who is the
post-production producer for the installation A Person is More Important Than
Anything Else by artist Hank Willis Thomas which weaves various audio, images
newsreel clips, speeches and interviews of go tell it to the mountain queen
James Baldwin. The soft spoken Mr.
Sylvester reminded me of a young Mrs. Michael Glass but with dreadlocks when Mrs. Glass was working as manager at the first location
of Amok Books on a side street in Silverlake.
Joining the din din was handsome and tall Afro German Dominik Djialeu
one half of the Berlin based party duo Stitch&Tchuani of the queer hippity
hop club Berries. I had met Dominik back
in February during the Berlinale when I was DJaning the Forum Party. In Lisbon Dominik DJed the opening party for
this art congress. Another guest was the
cute and cuddly Black British journalista Ashley Clark who has curated for the
BFI and The Brooklyn Academy of Music. I
love how these young modern straight black men like Mr.Sylvester and Mr. Clark are
super comfortable expressing a little sugar in their tanks and flit and float
quite easily in queer environs. Portugal is a tiny country but has a rather
large colonial presence throughout the world so its great that congresses like
this exist. Germany could learn a lot
from its deep south neighbour. After a
terrace garden wine reception at the Cinemateqa the opening screening of Are
You For Real?/Space is the Place starring Sun Ra expertly set the tone for
everything to come.
It was a juicy luxury to have a few days to settle in before my
performative lecture on Sunday July 5th at the Galeria Ze dos Bois
which is a former royal palace that is now a contemporary art institution. Was wonderful meeting Dona Amelia the 79
years young caretaker and muse of the art palace who riveted Liad Hussein
Kantorowicz and I with stories about living in Lisbon for the past 50
years. Pedro Marum took us for lunch to
a wonderous tapas on top of a hill with glorious views of the river and ocean
with the doppleganger of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. I was fortunate that I had the very talented
make-up artiste Ms. Rita Guerreiro who beat me a fine face so that I looked
immaculate infront of the very large audience that came out to see me that
included actress Maria de Medeiros(Henry&June) and Pulitzer Prize winning
black writer Wesley Morris. Special shoutout to Time Out Lisbon writer Bruno
Horta who wrote a full page article on me that really spurred the populaces
curiousity. After my lecturina the
standout performance for the evening was by Ms. Hussein Kantorowicz, the
Israeli/Palestinian artist who I have known for awhile as she was the long time
girlfriend of the late scholar and
artiste Tim Stuettgen. I was completely
WoWed by her disidentificative piece Running/The Better Half. Liad is certainly a startling new voice in
the performance art firmament. And the world needs a voice like Liad’s who
enchants on every level with her voice, body, video imagery---featuring a low
tech skype conference call with her younger self that was beyond geniustrata as
well as channeling of Jewish Mysticism with the power of Sheila.
At a frolicsome party after the two
performances Sunday eve I met a beautiful black woman scholar who is American
but was educated in posh boarding schools in London and her cute gaysian BFF
who is an artist in residence in Lisbon.
Needless to say when two black girls born the same year get together a
stylish hoot of a time is had by one and all.
Lisbon I already miss and adore you.
