Nectar: The Juiciest Thing for Women at Pride
By Cara Bruce • Jun 21st, 2001 • Category: Sex and CultureCan you believe that in the 30 years that San Francisco has had a Pride parade there has never been a stage dedicated to women? Shocking, yet true. But lucky for us, times are changing. This year we have Nectar — the first all-woman stage at Pride.
The San Francisco dyke scene is small considering San Francisco is the Queer Capitol of the world, and as anyone who has taken a girl (or two) home from the Lexington, will tell you, it’s also incestuous. Since the lesbian community is so small and tight-knit how come a woman stage has never happened before? And how did San Francisco, as the Queer City, let this happen? Why is the epicenter of gay culture not paying enough attention to its women?
As Teddy Witherington, the Executive Director of Pride says, “In order to put on a venue there needs to be need, will and resources. For the last three years that I have been working with Pride, those haven’t been combined. It’s been on the radar and there has been a shift in our policy to give greater visibility to underserved communities. We have a more diverse board of directors now and Pride is always a work in progress.” That’s fantastic but I never realized that women were underserved communities. It’s telling that the director of Pride refers to women this way. Don’t we deserve as much recognition as our gay brethren?
Finally, we have Nectar. And this isn’t just for dykes — it’s for all women. Nectar, the first of its kind, is a collaboration of some of the women’s community’s most successful independent producers. Four amazing women have done what no women have done before — got the cream of the lesbian crop to perform and represent the XX chromosomes at Pride. Kendall Nichols, Carmen Morrison, Sini Anderson and Andrea Burnett have worked long and hard to make Nectar a reality.
The women that are making the dream of Nectar into a reality are powerful businesswomen who revolutionize everything they touch. Kendall is the former Production Coordinator for San Francisco Pride 2000 and managed the Pride Parade. Carmen is an independent producer and club promoter in San Francisco, as well as an international business professional with companies such as Charles Schwab under her belt. Sini is founder of the legendary Sister Spit and one of this year’s chief Curators of The National Queer Arts Festival. Andrea runs her own PR firm and currently works with Good Vibrations. These credentials are nothing to sneeze at. The “will, need and resources” that Witherington mentioned only happened due to the hard work of these four talented women — who are all working on a volunteer basis. Nectar is a grassroots operation: all the money has come from donations.
Their hard work promises to pay off. Nectar promises to be diverse. It promises to rage. It promises to be the place to be.
Nectar will feature music, both live and DJ, spoken word performances, dance, poetry slams, comedy and an array of performances. With a line-up like: Me’shell Ndegeocello, Kinnie Starr, Melissa Ferrick, The Butchies, Bitch & Animal, Tribe 8, Marcus Renee Van, Kassy Kayiatos, Kindness, Once, Shelly Doty, Matuma, Betty, Sistah Boom, Medusa and DJ Olga T, it has to be a rocking time.
As organizer Sini Anderson says, “San Francisco Pride is highly recognized the world over by both straights and gays. As Nectar’s mission statement proclaims, this is ‘not just a musical/performance stage, it is a message to the world that women need proper representation and are coming en masse to ensure that it is accommodated.’”
Thanks Nectar! It’s been a long time coming and we’ll be savoring every juicy drop.
Check out Nectar’s schedule and line-up at http://www.nectarproductions.org.
Cara Bruce >> Cara Bruce is the author of this article.
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