Unwinding the Butch Fight: BUTCH Voices Responds to Butch Nation

This afternoon I had a chance to chat with Krys Freeman, one of the members of BUTCH Voices who wanted to clairfy the *falling out between BUTCH Voices' boardmembers.

[*editor's note update according to BV PR: There was no fall out between BV board members. It is between a former board member and former steering committee members.]

Krys: Good Morning/Afternoon.

Moon: Ok lets start with the conference which is just around the corner, can you tell me a bit about what's being planned, how many panels, etc

Krys: There are about 40 sessions give or take. Friday and Sat will have full days of sessions. Sunday will have a half day. Friday there is a Film night curated by Des Buford and Alex C. of Frameline. Saturday we will have our second rendition of BUTCH Nation—our performance event which met capacity in ‘09. Our Keynotes are Sharon Bridgforth & Alice Y. Hom

Bklyn boihood will be doing an intergenerational session. Last year it was very small we could only fit about 120 + people—had overflow in the garden and many people were turned away. This year we'll have capacity for more than 350 people

We have BUTCH Tap back again and Kymberly Jackson a renowned flutist. We'll have comedy from Kat Aukat and Angie Evans. As well as Sassafras Lowrey from your neck of the woods, and one of my former colleagues. D'Lo will MC.

Sinclair Sexmith and DeAngela Cooks are two of our Spoken Word performers. On Thursday night we've got an Ally Performance during our opening meet and greet.

Rebecca Kaplan is scheduled to appear, and we will have performances from the likes of Kentucky Fried Woman, up and coming musician Jurni Rayne with DJ Lady Ryan on the decks. Oh how did I forget Lex Is Word who smashed it in 2009. Lex is awesome.

Moon: Were you a part of the original organizers for the '09 event?

Krys: Yes, I was. I joined the team in late 2008. I was the Logistics Chair, but worked closely with Joe throughout as we lost some folks due to other commitments or other personal situations.

Moon: Okay so now what happened? it sounds like the core group of organizers have split.

Krys: Actually the core is pretty in tact. There were two people who left the steering committee this year.