April 30th, 2027 West Broadway, Minneapolis, MN 55411 Capri Theater – Starting at 7:30
Celebrate Yourself Giveaway. We want to celebrate your authentic self with fun door prizes at the event!
Read More about what our young Coaching Project Manager, Lauren Edson, thinks about Gender Euphoria:
What is gender? How does the way we express our gender affect our daily lives? How and why would someone feel euphoric about their gender? My project explores these questions and more as we dive deep into understanding and celebrating the intricacies of gender expression.
My name is Lauren Edson and I am the Project Manager for Team Euphoria in the Coaching Project for a Better World. As a genderqueer artist, it was important to me to use my platform to create a safe space where one can feel accepted and celebrated for their identity with my art. Inspired by my theatre background, my coaches—Mark Jelinek and Susan Hensel—and I decided to create a fringe festival of sorts. And thus, the Euphoria Short Works Festival was born.
Every individual experiences gender in their own unique way. The format of a short works festival allowed us to collaborate with many different artists and see what their idea of gender euphoria looks like across various artistic disciplines.
But what exactly is gender euphoria? Gender euphoria is a phrase I’ve used a lot throughout this process, but many are unfamiliar with the concept. Simply put, gender euphoria is the opposite of gender dysphoria. It is the psychological state of bliss and comfort that happens when one’s gender expression aligns with their gender identity. At this moment in the media, there is so much focus on the negative and the bad, especially when it comes to gender-related topics. Those are most certainly important things to talk about, but I wanted to create a time with my art, if only for a moment, where we focus on the positive and the joy surrounding feeling comfortable in your own skin.
I’ve been working with local artists Zach Staads and Reanna Madson to create a video for the festival to explore the feeling of gender euphoria. We’ve designed spaces to encapsulate the stories we’ve collected about people’s relationship with their gender and the euphoria they’ve felt throughout their lives. Through this series of photos, we hope to express the wide range of euphoric experiences one can have in regards to their gender.
In just over a month, it will be time for the festival and I cannot wait to share all of the hard work that went into this project! Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 30th, and head on down to Capri Theater located at 2027 W Broadway Ave, Minneapolis, MN. The show starts at 7:30 pm and features several incredible Minnesotan artists. Hadar Isra will be performing a spoken word piece, Identity Crisis will be doing comedy, Candy Kuehn will be displaying wearable artwork, Eden Johnson will be reading poetry, Annika Hansen will be doing a dance performance, DIVAJ will be performing an original song, and Katie Weston will be sharing a short film.
If you’d like more updates on the festival, you can find us on all social media as @euphoriashortworks or on our website https://www.euphoriashortworksfestival.com. Once again I am so excited to share all of the hard work that has been put into this project and I can’t wait to see you all at the festival.
Read more about the Coaching Project for a Better World: https://www.arttochangetheworld.org/coaching-project-for-a-better-world/
