The second annual Gathering of Queer Nations festival on April 28-29 at Corpus Arts in Albuquerque was such a raging success that organizer Brad Charles of Bands in Action (BIA), a music collective in Shiprock, NM, is already on the hunt for next year’s GOQN3.

“We plan to do the event at Corpus Arts again,” Charles said, “but maybe to also include an extra evening and location that can accommodate the crowd we got.”

Though the suggestion has been made, Charles says he is not intending to create a Queer pow wow to compete with the Gathering of Nations. Rather, he’ll continue to grow the Gathering of Queer Nations as a supplemental satellite festival showcasing art, poetry and pop music, often with Indie punk influences.

“I organized the festival because I wanted the Queer Indigenous kids to have some fun and interesting things to do,” Charles said. “Hell, I wanted some fun and interesting things to do too. It was important to me that there be a physical space where we could come together and celebrate our Queer Indigenous selves.”

And celebrate they did, with an array of events that covered the gamut of alternative arts. Interspersed throughout many fine performances were soulful talks filled with intimate sharing about life as Queer Indigenous humans exploring issues of survival, identity and artmaking.

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