Cachín Cachán Cachunga! Third Birthday.
7:00pm – 10:30pm
Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh College of Art, EH3 9DF
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Cachín Cachán Cachunga! A Multimedia, Multicultural, Queer & Trans Night of Dance, Film, Poetry & Music, featuring peformances by:

Jacqueline Applebee, Dr. Carmilla, Nathan Gale,
Glasgow Glam Bangers, CN Lester, Lily & Yamil, and Robert Softley
Short Film by Ania Urbanowska

DJ Stylings by Miss Leggy Pee
Hosted by Zorras

Cachín Cachán Cachunga! has been tickling Edinburgh audiences between their legs and ears since February of 2009. The event The Skinny calls “Edinburgh’s most consistently radical cabaret experience” returns on 11 February, 2012 – for LGBT History Month and its three year anniversary!

To celebrate, Cachín Cachán Cachunga! will feature sizzling Afro-Cuban dance from Lily & Yamil, velvety smooth vocals from singer-songwriter CN Lester, politicized smut from wordsmith Jacqueline Applebee, wicked dieslepunk cabaret from Dr. Carmilla, incisive poetry & monologues from Nathan Gale and Robert Softley, and the wondrous angry glam racket that is Glasgow Glam Bangers. You’ll also be treated to lounge music and disco from DJ Miss Leggy Pee, plus a short film from Cachín co-founder Ania Urbanowska. Co-founders and curators, Zorras, will host the night with their unique brand of “poetry-music-video-weirdness fusion. With megaphones.”

Cachín was originally conceived by Sandra Alland, Y. Josephine, Lily, and Ania Urbanowska, as a way to showcase the creations of both local & international queer & trans artists – with an added focus on disabled, Deaf, BME & migrant communities.

In 2010, Lily & Urbanowska stepped back from their organisational role (they still contribute artistically), and Cachín is now curated by Zorras (Sandra Alland & Y. Josephine). Each incarnation of Cachín features dance, poetry, music and film – sometimes all four at once! We also throw in a few burlesque and drag surprises.

Since 2010, Zorras have decided to programme Cachín at a different location for each incarnation. February’s event will be at Edinburgh College of Art’s Wee Red Bar off Lauriston Place, a fully accessible and well-equipped venue loved by Edinburgh’s underground musicians.

“…something of a phenomenon” – The List, Edinburgh/Glasgow

A Note on the Performers

Jacqueline Applebee is a black, bisexual, British writer who breaks down barriers with smut. Jacqueline’s stories have appeared in various publications including Best Women’s Erotica, Ultimate Lesbian Erotica, Best Bondage Erotica, Penthouse and DIVA magazine. Jacqueline has also penned An Expanded Love, a romance about open relationships. She hopes to one day to write a huge bestseller so she can quit her day job, buy a lighthouse, and live there with a few dozen adoring fans.  writing-in-shadows.co.uk

Dr. Carmilla is the brain child of Maki Yamazaki, a retrospective-futurist musician who plays a vast array of instruments to blend dieslepunk cabaret and visual kei. Or is it that Maki Yamazaki is really the clone of Dr. Carmilla? Dr. Carmilla is a lesbian vampire, in space, weaving tales of woe and beauty from the fabric of the universe itself. Maki, on the other hand, is human… we think. A trans feminist and advocate of queer and disabled people’s rights, Maki Yamazaki has been involved in human rights activism and social justice behind the scenes for quite a while now. She is also possibly the first openly-out transgender retrospective-futurist.  http://drcarmilla.com & http://carmilla.bandcamp.com

Nathan Gale is a gay disabled transgender artist who thought LGBT was a checklist. He is an acting and performance graduate and completed a law degree this summer. As a member of b)other Collective LGBTI disabled & Deaf artists, Nathan has shown his poetry and photography in seminal exhibitions at the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art and Birmingham SHOUT (Midlands Art Centre). He is proud to have performed at DaDafest, Cachín Cachán Cachunga! and Wigstockel in Berlin.

Glasgow Glam Bangers formed in 2004 as a cover band doing Bowie/Bolan/Sweet/New York Dolls songs but had too much to say about society, religion and politics to continue purely doing covers. The line-up consists of Paxton Andrews on vocals, Reginald Shite on bass, Piano Reeves on guitar, and the Alesis SR-16 on drums. The band have been regulars at Spangled Cabaret at Rio Cafe in Partick, Glasgow since 2008, and can be found there on the first Monday of every month commenting on current Tory nonsense in between their angry glam racket. Recently Glam Bangers have had a foray into 70s Dutch glam (their cover of Pantherman by Pantherman is available on their Soundcloud page) and written a sequence of acoustic songs about Alesteir Crowley.

 CN Lester is a singer-songwriter, classical mezzo-soprano, writer, activist and general work-obsessed overachiever. Their debut album, Ashes, is set for release in January 2012. When not composing, performing or blogging about trans issues, CN enjoys baking orgasmically good chocolate brownies. “Heart-wrenchingly beautiful” – Lashings of Ginger Beer  “Their impassioned, beautiful voice bathed the audience in a velvet loveliness” – Wotever World  www.cnlester.com & cnlester.wordpress.com

Lily, “The Pearl of Havana”, is a professional dancer, performer and dance instructor. With 22 years of training and performance, she can teach you any Cuban dance style, with a unique flavour of her own. Lily’s knowledge of ballet, contemporary and Afro-Cuban dance contribute to a beautifully integrated performance. Lily is also co-creator of Somos Cubanos and Cuban Cabaret Style. For Cachín she will perform with Yamil Ferrer and Y Josephine.  (Photo by Stuart Crawford)

Based in Glasgow, “spoonertastically named chanteuse” Miss Leggy Pee performs regularly with diminutive collaborator, Charlie M Montgomery, at a variety of cabaret and burlesque events. She is a regular at cult oddball night “Spangled Cabaret” and resident lounge-DJ at Heavenly Cafe Bar. Her musical tastes encompass everything from cheese to crackers.

 Robert Softley graduated from Glasgow University and bgan acting in 2002. He has appeared graduated from Glasgow University and began acting in 2002. He has appeared in The Threepenny Opera and Heelz n Wheelz (about disabled drag queens) – as well as for the BBC on both radio and TV. In 2005 Robert joined Birds of Paradise, which saw him shift focus to look at policy and training in arts and disability. He went on to become Equalities Officer (Arts & Disability) for the Scottish Arts Council. Robert is now co-director of flip – disability equality in the arts. Most recently Robert co-created and performed in the National Theatre of Scotland’s Girl X. Tonight’s excerpt is from If These Spasms Could Speak, a solo show created through a Creative Futures residency, which opens at The Arches, Glasgow on 22 March before touring. http://www.softley.co.uk/

Ania Urbanowska (short film, “Cheat”) was born in Elblag, Poland and arrived to Scotland in 2006. She graduated with First Class Honours from Film and TV at Edinburgh College of Art in 2011. Ania writes and directs experimental and surrealistic short films. She engages with subjects including the power of human subconsciousness and coincidence, fear, and sexuality. Ania is also researching the relationship between vision and sound, and how it affects the viewer. Currently she is working on music videos and developing the story for her next film.

Zorras are Scottish-Canadian poet, Sandra Alland and Belgian-Venezuelan musician, Y. Josephine. They have quickly become known for their unique mixture of text, sound poetry, percussion, singing, guitar, electric bass, megaphones and projected images. Zorras have performed widely throughout the UK, and are just back from Berlin, Canada, Birmingham and Liverpool. They often collaborate with other artists, including Ariadna Battich, Nathan Gale, Gord Disley and Holly Hayes. Zorras are also known for their micro publishing & for organising events such as An Edinburgh Zine & Small Press Fair and Faceplant.  www.blissfultimes.ca/zorras.htm

Access Info:

The Wee Red Bar is fully wheelchair accessible, including the stage area. There are two accessible toilets down the hall from the performance space; there are heavy doors leading to the toilets but our volunteers will be on hand to open the doors for anyone requiring assistance. Films are subtitled in English.