“Femme Voices” Artist Spotlight: Interview with Visual Artist, Avery Webster-Hobbs

Credit: Andre Cerezo

Avery Webster-Hobbs is our next “Femme Voices” feature interview. This artist uses bold colors to paint pieces that celebrate the feminine form. She focuses on a more natural aesthetic in her portraits, both with the backdrop and the figures that are the center of her “Femme Fuzze” designs. Avery’s art challenges the status quo on what is acceptable for those who possess a femme identity. As someone who values the support of a community, she uses her artistry to partner with small businesses in Brooklyn and encourages other artists to put their work out there as she has done.

Read below to learn more about Avery!

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“Femme Voices” Artist Spotlight: Interview with Alex Farr

Our next “Femme Voices” feature is Alex Farr, a multi-faceted artist who uses various mediums to express the intersection between femininity, queerness, and blackness and their own identity. For them, art is a way to explore how we view ourselves and find new ways to love and appreciate who we are. Alex’s collages, in particular, caught my eye with the way they capture the female form and all of its intricacy and beauty. Alex’s use of different means of expression allows them to bring their passion to many different audiences and increase visibility in spaces where representation is lacking or unrealistically uniform. Read on to learn more about this incredible artist and their work!

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“Femme Voices” Writer Spotlight: Fiction by Patricia Martin

A word from The Glam Femme founder and editor, Patricia Martin:

This week’s “Femme Voices” will be a little different as we are taking a very small break from the series for the “holiday” and featuring some of my own fiction work.

This piece is an excerpt from something I wrote more than a decade ago that I hoped would become a book in the future. I wrote it when I was reflecting on a time in my life and knew that I needed to put pen to paper, literally. I wrote much of the entire piece in notebooks and on scraps of paper that I saved for years along with my many, many journals. At the time I wrote it, I considered this to be my own version of “hood lit“, which was one of my favorite genres to read.

Although this book has been put on hold so that I can focus on my fiction that centers queerness, this piece is still dear to my heart. I hope you enjoy!

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“Femme Voices” Artist Spotlight: Interview with Illustrator, Decolonial Killjoy

Nandi (aka @Decolonial_Killjoy) is a very talented and passionate queer artist in Vienna whose art immediately caught my eye on Instagram. When I saw how she seamlessly infuses her creativity with social justice and empowering others, I knew that I had to share her work and her story with The Glam Femme community. Click below for her full interview!

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Finding a Balance: Tips & Tricks for the Side-Hustler

Being a side-hustler is more than just a job (or two), it’s a lifestyle. But just as with any other lifestyle, although you are driven by a desire to live it, it takes time to perfect. Since I have been working on my own side-hustle for a couple of years now, I wanted to share some of my tips:

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Fashion: A Creative Passion (Coverage of En Noire, Walk, and Small Boutique Fashion Shows)

While fashion can be glamorous and fun, the reality is it’s a lot of hard work that requires tons of dedication and persistence. Whether you’re a designer, a model, or a stylist, adding a bit of creativity and a lot of luck can give you a successful career. The past couple of months, I’ve attended several fashion shows and I got to see firsthand how fascinating, beautiful, and exhausting the fashion industry can be. But like other creative endeavors, it is a business that is fulfilling in its many rewards but cannot always be measured by traditional standards of success. Read on to see all of the fabulous runway looks and some behind-the-scenes interviews!

The Glam Femm*inist @ En Noir Fashion Show, Philadelphia

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Melanin Poppin’ – Afropunk Brooklyn 2017 with My Girls

For those of you who don’t know what Afropunk is, in just a few words, it’s a two-day alternative music festival that incorporates fashion, art, food, activism and other creative expressions of blackness. It originated in Brooklyn but now has festivals in Paris, London, Atlanta and Johannesburg, South Africa. Afropunk is a huge event that is a convergence of many different interests, but for me, the dress-up aspect is the most exciting part. Just do a Google search for “Afropunk fashion” or “Afropunk street style” to see what I mean. Or better yet, continue reading!

Last year was my first time going to Afropunk, although I had been wanting to go for several years. When I finally made it there, I ended up having so much fun and decided that I would definitely go again next year. This year rolled around and I was able to get my ticket early, thank goodness because the prices go up as it gets closer to the date. This is an issue for some since prior to 2015, the concert was free of charge. But one thing to note, whether you consider it a good or bad thing, once it stopped being free, the acts moved closer and closer to being mainstream. The concert still features alternative acts, but I think one difference is that Black alternative music is becoming more popular, as I mentioned in my post, “Is Alt-R&B a Thing? (What I’m Listening to These Days & a Review of Ravyn Lenae).”

Anyway, I was super excited about this year’s show, which would have, among other acts, a Saint Heron Stage that included performers curated by Solange herself. So I got a group of 6 of my closest friends and family together to go with me. We were going to have a mini girls trip! I even created a What’s App group chat for us to plan. For weeks, the seven of us chatted and laughed about what outfits and hairstyles we would be rocking for the big event. We sent each other Pinterest pictures for inspiration and thought of DIY ideas for accessories and anything else we could think of.

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Is Alt-R&B a Thing? (What I’m Listening to These Days & a Review of Ravyn Lenae)

One thing you should know about me is that I like listening to a variety of music depending on my mood – from 90’s-00’s R&B, to Indie-Pop, to Trap Hip-Hop. So I’ve been wanting to write a music blog post for awhile now. One of my favorite genres to listen to these days is what music know-it-alls are calling Alt-R&B, despite whether the artists themselves want to be labeled as such. Pretty much if the artist sings, their production has Hip-hop or R&B influences, and they aren’t mainstream, then they’ll probably be considered Alt-R&B. I feel like it should be deeper than that but that’s pretty much the trend I’ve noticed. Sometimes, these artists are characterized as Neo-Soul but, although I love the Neo-Soul of the early 2000’s, I don’t 100% agree with that characterization of the music today. I’ve even heard Electronic Soul or Future Soul as labels. I’m not sure about those either.

Anyway, some of the non-mainstream-R&B artists I’m listening to now are Sampha, FKA Twigs, Banks, Hiatus Kaiyote, The Internet (and Syd), Little Dragon, Kelela, Abra, Kilo Kish, Nao, and Xavier Omar (fka SPZRKT) – just to name a few. And I haven’t even gotten to the producers and DJ’s like Sango and Kaytrynada. These singers do vary from more of a jazz-funk sound to more electro pop and sometimes right there in the R&B lane. But what is most important to me is not the label, it’s that it’s not the stuff you hear on the radio (no shade) and it always gives me good vibes. To get an idea of the sound, think of the songs and artists you would hear in a coffee shop in Brooklyn, on the Insecure or Atlanta soundtracks, or at AfroPunk.

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You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover: The Urban Novel

 

Something that I have been wanting to write about for awhile is the plight of the urban novel. I love a good urban romance or street lit book, but there are so many nowadays that it’s a challenge to find ones that are written up to a certain standard. Even so, there’s the common misconception that poorly written hood fiction is a direct result of the skill level of the authors who write them, but this isn’t necessarily true.

Urban novels often get a bad rap, not only because of their “hood” content but because some of them are not written well. As I have been toying with the idea of self-publishing my own books, I’ve realized that much of this has nothing to do with whether an urban novelist is less capable of forming a grammatically correct sentence than a mainstream fiction writer. Instead, it has very much to do with the self-publishing process or, in the alternative, with underfunded publishing companies who sometimes can’t afford to hire a good editor.

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A Little More About Me: My Journey as a Writer this Past Year

I wanted to take some time out to write a little bit about what my goals for this blog and my personal goals are and my journey to get there. My vision is to create a brand for the multi-dimensional femme identified person that represents lifestyle interests and social justice as two things that are not mutually exclusive. More specifically, I want to create a blog that discusses art, fashion, pop culture, and socio-political issues from the perspective of a feminist, queer, woman of color. However, as I continue to build this brand, I’m not sure that I always make those things clear. It’s a work in progress. Now that I am writing full-time (at least for now), I have more of an opportunity to delve further into this adventure.

As those of you who have been reading this blog from the start know, it all began with me trying to figure out how to incorporate my desire to write into my life as more than just a hobby. Secondly, I wanted to figure out a way to return to my passion for social justice since my legal career unexpectedly took me in the opposite direction over the years. Neither writing or fighting for social justice are easy goals or things that would necessarily earn me a living, but last year, I decided that I was ready for the challenge. So, I started this blog,  began freelance writing, and have been learning so many things along the way.

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