FAME
FAME · Festival where Arts Meet Empowerment is a multidisciplinary, mixed media performing arts festival which displays a plurality of narratives, both fairer and more inclusive. It invites on stage works and thoughts produced by women and gender minorities.
It is a week-long festival that takes place in September. The line-up comprises a mix of theater, dance, performances from international and Belgium-based artists, works in French and Dutch, young artists and those established, or emerging. Aside from the stage performances, there are also conferences, workshops, concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, etc, in partnership with Brussels-based associations, researchers, collectives, and activists.
Who’s involved in it?
We are a team of 8 people working in a yearly-basis. All of us belong to the gender and/or sexual minorities.
What’s your origin story and your motivation?
First, gender minorities (and even more so POC) representation and representativity quite sucks in the theater field. They are more and more present (the so-called parity), but not in spots or in ways that matters ! Like, economically they aren’t in spaces/jobs that are well subsidized and there is a glass ceiling of upward social mobility ; Symbolically there still are reductive representations that maintain discrimination. So we want to disrupt these dynamics by giving the stage & the economical means to the systemically excluded people.
Second, despite discourse on such topics, there is a deficit of works and events that question what ‘feminist art’ or a ‘feminist programme’ can be. Like, should a feminist programme only be made up of female and/or trans speakers? It is about the meanings and representations of the works ? Of their themes ? Should feminist art seek activism? Is it political, and how so?
Could you describe the accessibility of your space?
FAME happens in various locations in the center of Brussels so we cannot give a straight answer. On our website, the accessibility of each venue is specifically mentioned.
Nevertheless, we do provide for sure : subtitles to all of our shows ; audiodescription for some of them ; TW for strobe light and content ; pay-what-you-can babysitting ; wheelchair accessibility ; most of the program is for free and hen it’s not it is on pay-what-you-can system ; other specifics accommodations are more detailed in our website
Where can we find you virtually and/or physically?
We usually happen in between 5-10 locations, all in 1000 Brussels. It changes every year.
Website
Facebook
Instagram
FAME, 2023
