WOW Festival: New York City; October 2-19, 1980-present

New York City's WOW Café, Festival, and Theatre

Curated by Mimi McGurl. Copyright (c) by Mimi McGurl 2008. All rights reserve.

This exhibit focuses on lesbian theatre history with an emphasis on the story of New York’s WOW Café and Theatre. This exhibit will eventually provide a wealth of primary sources from the personal papers of the founders of the theatre. If you have any additional photographs, programs, or other materials about WOW, please email the OutHistory Coordinator at outhistory@gc.cuny.edu.

WOW Festival

From October 2-19, 1980, a group calling itself Allied Farces (made up of Pamela Camhe, Jordy Mark, Peggy Shaw, and Lois Weaver) organized and produced a 18-day long international festival highlighting the work of women as performers, musicians, dancers and artists. The popularity of this festival would eventually lead to the formation of New York City's highly influential year-round women's performance collective and space known as the WOW Cafe.

"The Festival celebrates the diversity of women and represents many different interests, ethnic groups and lifestyles. Whatever women are is what the Festival will be."

Also see: First Women's One World (WOW) Festival

Chronology

First WOW Festival, 25 St. Marks Place, New York City, October 2-19, 1980.

Second WOW Festival, 140 2nd Avenue, New York City, October 1-11, 1981.

WOW Cafe and Theater opens, East 11th St at 1st Ave, New York City, 1982.

WOW Cafe Theater moves to East 4th Street at Bowery, New York City 198?.

WOW continues to be active in the present.

Bibliography

Angelos, Maureen, Babs Davy, Dominique Dibbell, Peggy Healy, Lisa Kron. The Five Lesbian Brothers: Four Plays. New York; Theatre Communications Group, 2000.

Case, Sue-Ellen, ed. Split Britches: Lesbian Practice/Feminist Performance. London and NY: Routledge, 1996.

Hart, Lynda and Peggy Phelan, ed. Acting Out: Feminist Performances. Ann Arbor: U. of Michigan, 1993.

Hughes, Holly. Clit Notes: A Sapphic Sampler. New York: Grove Press, 1996.

Martin, Carol, ed. A Sourcebook for Feminist Practices. Routledge: London and New York, 1996.

Meyer, Moe, ed. The Politics and Poetics of Camp. Routledge: London and New York, 1994.

Muñoz, José Esteban. Dissidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics. Minneapolis and London: U. of Minnesota, 1999.

Troyano, Alina. I, Carmelita Tropicana: Performing Between Cultures. Boston: Beacon, 2000.

References

This entry is part of the featured exhibit WOW Festival: New York City; October 2-19, 1980-present curated by Mimi McGurl. As it is content created by a named author, editor, or curator, it is not open to editing by the general public. But we strongly encourage you to discuss the content or propose edits on the discussion page, and the author, editor, or curator will make any changes that improve the entry or its content. Thanks.