Introducing The Front Festival 2023 Lineup: 36 Independent Artists, Musicians, Filmmakers & Chefs in Texas
The Front Fest is an end-of-summer festival, featuring musical performances, films and creative experiences curated by Future Front. Hosted annually in Austin, we put Texas women and LGBTQ+ artists at the front of our lineups.
In 2023, we’re welcoming 36 artists, musicians, filmmakers and chefs from the Texas South across four days of music and film in Austin, Texas. Keep reading to meet them all and support their work.
• FEATURED FILMS •
From Megz Kelli, little trumpet follows Javon, a 9-year-old kid growing up in the 7th Ward of New Orleans, dreaming of playing the trumpet in the marching band like his older brother while moving through grief and navigating the precarious social terrain of his neighborhood.
From Tracy Droz Tragos, Plan C follows a controversial visionary and a grassroots network's fight to expand access to abortion pills across the United States keeping hope alive during a global pandemic and the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Caroline Rose's recently-released album, The Art of Forgetting, is their most dynamic and raw work yet. Via a series of time-warped loops, the album-turned-sonic-film weaves together a story of Caroline navigating through a transformative heartbreak. Today, the short—directed by Caroline Rose and Sam Bennett—has won Best Music Video at Hollywood Shortsfest, is a semi-finalist at Cannes Indie Shorts Awards and Venezia Shorts Italy, and has been selected for HollyShorts Film Festival and several others worldwide.
✹ @carolinerosemuzak
✹ @samuelaaronbennett
✹ carolinerosemusic.com
From Liz Moskowitz, Down Home follows a sleep-away camp in Elgin, Texas that gives adults with developmental disabilities the opportunity to escape societal barriers, while having a good ol' time dancing, loving and feeling free.
In Meghan Ross’ Here To Make Friends, an anxious, aging millennial, Arab-American Austin transplant goes on a mission to find the platonic love of her life. After realizing she’s never had one lasting female friend, she will have to figure out how to befriend herself first.
From Deborah Valcin, Catharsis follows Deborah as she goes against her Inner Voice and expresses her rage in a very dangerous way. The story follows her cathartic decision to release the one emotion Black women are constantly told to suppress.
While on an odyssey to find her favorite childhood chicken fingers, Karen grapples with loss in a world that refuses to stand still. From Zoe Dahmen, Chicken Fingers is whimsical and absurd, with a sneaky emotional punch, suggesting that although life is ephemeral, it is also sweet. Like ice cream on a hot day.
From Alisha Banks, Mannequins depicts a group of actors showing up to an audition, only to find out they've been hoodwinked into being extras on a big budget film.
From Julia Barbosa Landois, Shell Composite uses video, photos, animation, and intimate family moments to explore humans' relationship to non-human life, the built environment, and what’s left to future generations. “Shell composite” refers to sidewalks in the artist’s mid-20th-century neighborhood that incorporate oyster shells dredged from Galveston Bay, a common practice until banned in the 1970s due to environmental impacts. Water footage was captured at Armand Bayou, one of the last non-channelized bayous left in the region.
From Julia Barbosa Landois, Sidesteps (Purslane) contemplates a common native plant as a symbol of resilience in the face of environmental and familial trauma. This video poem honors the oft-overlooked just under our feet with cut paper animation, narration, and amateur piano.
While witnessing the economic and social changes ushered in by the pandemic, MILEZ depicts eight Early Era Collective dancers inspecting the systems by which we abide, and the sameness required of average people to operate within those systems. Directed by Stephanie Patrick, and featuring Austin-based hip-hop duet Magna Carda, our artists must decide whether to stay within the boxes that confine them or break free.
From Millie Heckler, Pink Booth Confessions grapples with the complexity of being sexual human beings. We bring voice to secrets of shame through our music, dance and communion. We think that if maybe we spent more energy giving voice to our secrets, the weight our secrets carry might turn into something else. Honoring the confusing nature of trauma, we are reminded that answers lie in the effort of continuation and in the practice of speaking up to ourselves and to each other, in any way we can.
From Alexis Hunter, Attack of the 300 lb Woman! is part of multidisciplinary artist Alexis Hunter's current series, HAVEN’T I GIVEN ENOUGH??!!. HAVEN’T I GIVEN ENOUGH??!! challenges the policing of women’s bodies under the patriarchy and the misogynistic history of the world. This series is informed by several factors, one of them being the artist's life-long insecurities about her body and how she sees that experience intersecting with social constructs like western beauty standards and fatphobia.
From Victoria, A dreamer's discourse is a short film laid out in three acts; falling in love, birth, and heartbreak. Like a star in a silent film, Victoria set out to film without a script, letting their body language and set design do the talking. The audio overlaid, is in fact, a 2.5 hour conversation (condensed to 5 minutes) of Vic and their dear friend, Sheila discussing love and its potential.
• MUSICIANS + DJS •
Grace Sorensen (she/her) is one of the fastest-rising independent R&B artists in the Austin. Dubbed "Austin's Wonderkid" by the media, in her young career she has already landed features on both projects by Empire Record's BLK ODYSSY, opened for Diana Ross and surpassed 500K streams on her single "Digits.”
Dorian Delafuente, a.k.a. Babiboi, is an Austin-based, San Antonio-raised rapper, artist, and Ballroom commentator for ballroom collective House of Lepore.
Whitney Screwston (she/her) is a Salvadorian American disc jockey who has broken into the NYC scene thanks to her musical taste and talent. This Texas bred Brooklyn-based southern shawty uses an open format style to effortlessly flow between dembow, dancehall, amapiano, ballroom, R&B and hip hop to get the audience moving. Her DJ sets prioritize women in music hoping to honor their legacies and their contributions by cultivating community at her events.
Sussie Ramirez (she/her) better known as Suxxy Puxxy is a promoter, manager and DJ from Monterrey, Nuevo León. Suxxy (like her friends call her) started working in the underground party scene in Monterrey. Helped produce events with local artist focused in bringing international talent in town. That's how she met Peligrosa the Austin multidisciplinary Latin collective. She started to work with them by planning a tour around California in summer 2018 and then working in a series of releases for Discos Peligrosa which lead her to leave her hometown and move to Texas. Peligrosa members took her hand to start a new journey of her life which was the beginning of her Djing.
Between a mix of her melancholy of missing home and her passion for reggaeton, she started to throw Perreo parties, but what really set her aside was her way of mixing. After the pandemic, she officially launched Perreo Club, an inclusive Latinx party based in Texas celebrating the culture of Reggaeton & Perreo.
Poniboy is a Perreo Club DJ and nightlife artist, living and working in Austin, Texas.
Brandix is a queer Mexican-American vocalist and musician raised along the Texas-Mexico border. She performs an extensive setlist of diverse genres ranging from Nu-Metal to Neo-Soul to Mariachi. She creates genre-bending experimental music centered around themes of healing, self-exploration, and planet Earth.
Austin-based DJ Dreamchild (she/her) was raised by funk, jazz, and soul music, listening nonstop to artists like Earth, Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder. While growing up in Los Angeles, she filled her library with hip-hop, rock, reggae, and electronic music, inspired by the city's skate, surf, and rave cultures. She blends these influences together in energetic, bass-heavy sets that make listeners feel good and groove.
Clancy Jones (she/her) is interested in the application of sound and movement to explore the poetics and cultural parallels of dance culture as a revolutionary act of joy. Her dj work is akin to the work of translation. Often focused on the communicative inputs and outputs between mechanical languages and our human hardwares. She was born in Cali, Colombia, raised in Queens, New York and is currently based in Austin, Texas. Her sound reflects the intersections of her placehood in these landscapes and her identity as an immigrant woman.
• special guests, artists + POP-UPS •
Nicole Cardoza (she/her) is a magician and a storyteller. She’s collaborated with brands including Google, Patreon, and Soho House. She’s toured the country and performed at universities, exclusive venues, for corporations and private events. She’s also the founder of Reclamation Ventures, a venture studio creating and incubating ideas for our collective wellbeing. It also manages the Reclamation Ventures Fund, which provides philanthropic and early-stage investments in individuals and organizations making wellness more accessible. Over the past two years, it has granted over $500,000 in direct support to marginalized wellness leaders. Nicole’s first published book, Mindful Moves, a mindfulness book for children, was published in Spring 2021.
✹ @blackgirlmagician on IG, TikTok and YouTube
✹ blackgirlmagician.com
HOT, TEXAS SUMMER is a testament to the multidisciplinary and multidimensional roots of Texas art. Curated by Future Front for The Front Festival 2023, this temporary collection features vibrant pieces by Chantal Lesley, Steph Granillo, Tumi Adeleye, Tanya Zal, Darcie Book, Calder Kamin and Ani Bradberry on The LINE Austin’s lobby and second floor.
✹ futurefronttexas.org/linehotel
January is a Salvadorian-American performing artist and classically trained dancer from Houston, Texas that has been performing in drag for over 8 years in NYC. Using drag, dance, and music to compel her audience through storytelling she provides electrifying and high-energy performances. Through her drag showcases in 2019, digital livestreams in 2020, and upcoming events in 2023, January continues her collaborative efforts in the arts. She aims to bring attention to social issues affecting marginalized communities, including advocating for HIV testing. Each showcase centers and honors the work of LGBTQIA and BIPOC local drag queens, designers and multidisciplinary artists.
Throughout the festival, enjoy a textured installation in The LINE Hotel Austin, as an exploration of maximalism and queer joy, thanks to our collaboration with Dallas-based artist Molly Sydnor.
Simone Raquel Alexander (she/her) is a freelance artist, arts administrator, and arts advocate working in the nonprofit field and theatre community. She serves as Producing Artistic Director and Founder of New Manifest Theatre Company, where she has brought together an ensemble of interdisciplinary artists. Simone serves as the Senior Manager of Engagement and Accessibility at The Contemporary Austin Museum and the Development Director of Ground Floor Theatre. Simone Alexander’s artistic vision is dedicated to sharing the art of the people of today through storytelling from a diversity of uniquely specific voices, styles, and perspectives. Simone’s practice centers harm reduction tools and collective agreements as a funnel to tackle challenging themes and hold space for creativity and collaboration to thrive.
Viva Vidalia is a Houston-based Drag performer of nearly 15 years. She began her career in Long Island, NY performing whenever and wherever she could and soon started performing regularly all throughout New York City. She is known for her high energy performances, her colorful costumes and wicked sense of humor whilst hosting. In 2018, Viva began a small costume design business that very quickly grew. Her costumes have been seen on TV shows such as RuPauls Drag Race, Dragula, Camp Wannakiki and Dragnificnet as well as Drag and Burlesque performers all over the world. Currently you can find Viva Vidalia performing and designing costume all through Houston TX as well as Austin, San Antonio and New York City.
Miriam Conner (she/her) has curated and organized art and experiences for over a decade. She has been in Austin for 31 years by way of New Orleans, Louisiana. After graduating from St. Stephens Episcopal High School, she received a Bachelor of Fine Art in Photography from the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles. After college, Miriam came home to Austin and began managing the Pine Street Station (an Artist warehouse and gallery) for two years, and has since planned countless art shows, in addition to co-founding Topology Art Warehouse. She has also worked with SXSW, Art Outside, Forklift Danceworks, Six Square – Austin’s Black Cultural District, the City of Austin, and more. She is the founder of Creative Policy, a firm recognized for its community-focused strategy that bridges policy-making and cultural engagement to achieve meaningful systems change. Additionally, she holds positions on the boards of Preservation Austin, Big Medium, and Greater Austin Neighborhoods, and she has previously served as a commissioner on the City of Austin's African American Quality of Life Commission. She has been creating in the Austin Art community since 2008.
Liz Moskowitz (she/her) is a documentary photographer and filmmaker. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY she has lived in Austin, Texas for over fifteen years. Her work aims to honor the dignity and nuance of people, places, and issues. She approaches each individual and community that she photographs with intentionality and an open-mind. Her films have won the Judge’s Choice Winner at the SXSW Faces of Austin Film Premiere, been a Vimeo Staff Pick, broadcast on the PBS "Frame of Mind" series, and shown at Woodstock Film Festival, AFI Fest, Dallas International Film Festival, and Sedona International Film Festival.
Jay (they/them) is a drag king from Laredo, Texas who has lived in Austin for over 15 years. Their drag name “Bobby Pudrido” is an ode to Bobby Pulido, a Tejano artists who was a staple of their childhood. They are a member of Austin’s only drag king and gender diverse troupe, the Boyz of Austin. They have quickly established themself as a drag king and show host in Austin as the co-creator and producer of Brokeback Cantina, a monthly drag king revue showcasing Latine drag kings, as well as a monthly show, Drag Lab. Jay discovered their love for drag at the tender age of 32. Drag has been a way for them to explore their gender identity as a trans non-binary person and their culture as a person who grew up on the US-Mexico border. Their creative passion and favorite part of doing drag is creating spaces where queer Latine folks can feel seen and represented.
Sister Palm (she/her) Sister Palm offers traditional and astrological palm readings based on ten years of worldwide research.
By Chef Cibelli, LLC is a multifaceted, LGBTQ-owned culinary experience-driven company specializing in all kinds of fun stuff.
Women-owned, Calibrate Wellness offers gourmet, chef-crafted and legal cannabis products for your lifestyle.
The GoGo Yum Yum is a super cute, women-owned ice cream truck serving up classic ice cream novelties as well as vegan and dairy-free options.
Women-owned, Bakery Siena brings joy and smiles to people’s faces through cookies and Malaysian sweet cakes.