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Queer Women to Watch: Fall 2008

Keeping up with all of the queer women doing cool things is a daunting task for some, but AfterEllen.com is up for the challenge. So every quarter, we’ll be bringing you Queer Women to Watch, an introduction to some of the up and comers in different fields of art and entertainment.

For our first edition, we chose women in comedy, photography, music and graphic novels. We’re trying to keep up with the ladies of the time, and they’re moving quickly!

Let us know if you have any suggestions for future Queer Women to Watch at [email protected].

Cameron Esposito, comedian

Being a lesbian comedian generally means there’s a lot of fodder for your act in daily life. Cameron Esposito takes full advantage of this and says being gay influences her comedic writing “in every way.”

“I talk about my girlfriend, past relationships, and add a ton of non sequitur and weird little observations,” Esposito said. “I feel the same about my being a female comic in a male-dominated field … I can’t possibly divorce either of those qualities from my act, because they shape how I see the world.”

The Chicago-based comedian has been working the stand-up scene for two years.

Previously she worked professionally in improv. Being able to quit her day job (which is the biggest accomplishment she says she’s had thus far) has allowed her to focus on her act full-time because, well, it’s a full-time job. When not performing, she’s hosting comedy gatherings at several other venues in the city and filming web shorts.

Esposito performed this summer in Boston, New York City and Cleveland, and in 2009, she’ll also be appearing at the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival.

Life wasn’t always fun and games for the funny lady, though.

“I grew up in a very conservative suburb of Chicago,” Esposito said. “I had a great childhood, and I have a very loving and open family, but I never met an openly gay person growing up. Forget never met – I had never heard of an openly gay person in my community. I came out during undergrad, at a good Catholic school, and was super devastated in the process. I couldn’t fathom how my life would change and what my adulthood would look like.”

A true comedian, Esposito has been able to turn her rough and tough times into hilarious anecdotes as she claims now to be living “a functional life.”

“I guess my goal as a stand-up is to be very open about my life, to draw my audience members into recognizing our similarities – whatever their orientation – and to be available as an example of how awesome things can turn out, for anybody questioning their own orientation in the audience,” she said. “Oh yeah, and to be funny. Very, very funny. And witty. And concise.”

Von Iva, band

Although they lent the theme song to Curl Girls, Logo’s series about lesbian surfers, and then played on the beach during an episode, musical trio Von Iva has managed to stay below the queer music radar.

“I think a lot of people don’t know that half of us are gay,” keyboardist Becky Kupersmith said.

As part of the queer half, she has been in a relationship with band mate, drummer Kelly Harris, for eight years. “It’s actually pretty good,” Kupersmith said of being in a band with her significant other.

They met playing music, and with singer Jillian Iva, the group is a cohesive effort that mixes the best parts of punk and dance music together. Songs like “Lala” from their self-released 2007 album Our Own Island are what have given Von Iva the opportunities they’ve received so far, from their guest spot on Curl Girls to an upcoming performance starring alongside Zooey Deschanel and Jim Carrey in the film Yes Man. A producer for the film happened upon their CD at a record store and liked their look. Once he heard the music, he was sold, and they were hired to become a band with Deschanel in the movie.

Von Iva’s shots received such good feedback in initial screenings that they’ve been brought back in to shoot additional scenes. It’s not a bad gig for an aspiring band, especially as they co-wrote the songs for the film and will likely receive much more play after the film releases this winter.

Harris, Kupersmith’s partner, says she would describe Von Iva as “high-energy” above anything else. “A lot of our songs in the live shows have gone from dance songs to organic rock jams,” she said in trying to put the glam trio’s sound into words.

After a short summer tour with Girl in a Coma, Harris said she enjoyed being in such a queer-positive atmosphere on the road.

“There are times when I feel really excited to be a lesbian in a band,” Harris said. “But I don’t feel like I have anything to prove to anybody.”

Look for an album deal for Von Iva in the near future.

Cristy Road, graphic novelist/artist

At right, a panel from Road’s Bad Habits: A Love Story

Photo credit: Amos Mac

Artist Cristy Road has been “working” since 1995 when she was self-publishing a Green Day fanzine and creating flyers and posters for bands she knew in Miami. It wasn’t until 2001, though, that she started getting paid to design for publications such as Bitch, Bust, Spread, Maximumrocknroll, Razorcake and Jane.

“It’s always felt pretty professional,” Road said of her work, which now includes three graphic novels, Indestructible, Distance Makes the Heart Grow Sick and her upcoming October release, Bad Habits: A Love Story (Soft Skull Press). All three books are very personal pieces of work, as most of her art tends to be, and topics she touches on more often than not are feminism, sexuality and race (Road is Cuban American).

“My individual illustrations/paintings are typically autobiographical, unless they’re commissions,” Road said. “Although, in the end – since it is visual art – it’s inevitably personal, so a lot of it ends up being autobiographical whether I choose to or not.”

Some of Road’s work can be seen on record covers for punk bands like Screeching Weasel and Teenage Bottlerocket, and she’s also designed for political organizations such as CIW and INCITE! But Road says finishing Bad Habits has been her biggest accomplishment to date, and it will most likely be what gives her more notoriety as a writer and artist of her own merit. She also hopes to return to the road with Sister Spit, Michelle Tea’s traveling tour of queer women in art, poetry, literature and music, which she traveled with in 2007.

“[I just want] to keep doing what I’m doing without engaging in any drastic changes,” Road said. “By drastic changes I mean the selling of my soul to a design firm. I’m sort of broke, but it’s totally OK.”

Megan Holmes, photographer

Photo credit: Megan Holmes

If you recognize either of the pictures below, you’re already familiar with the work of Megan Holmes. Seven years of photographing musicians for publications such as Venus, Spin, Paste, Rolling Stone and Alternative Press has given her the chance to share her joint passion for music and photography.

“When I first started out my goal was really simple: Take pictures of what you know,” Holmes said, “And what I knew was music. I would make lists of musicians that I wanted to take portraits of and work really hard to make it happen.”

Her most famous photographs (like one of Beth Ditto in their shared home city of Portland that has graced the cover of the quarterly lesbian publication, Girls Like Us) are generally those of female artists, and several of them happen to be queer, such as Sleater-Kinney, The Blow and Le Tigre. She’s also shot the legendary writer bell hooks.

“Now it’s a little more abstract,” Holmes says of her work. “I have been spending a lot of time immersing myself in the Northwest woods. I try to take my camera wherever I go.”

Beth Ditto cover for Girls Like Us (left) & Sleater-Kinney

Photo credits: Megan Holmes

Holmes keeps up a daily photo blog at www.meganholmes.com, and has had shows at both Newspace and Mark Woolley in Portland. Her newest work, though, is a book series that continues to draw from her experience working with musicians.

“I am really interested in creating historical photo books that reference queer culture in the times we are living in,” Holmes said. “I want to give the younger generation something they can look at and relate to and feel empowered by in relation to their sexuality. Team Dresch has a great song called ‘Remember Who You Are.’ I think I’d want it to accompany the book.”

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