National Queer Theater Announces 2021 Criminal Queerness Festival For NYC Pride

National Queer Theater, in partnership with Open Culture NYC and the Stonewall Community Foundation, has announced the 2021 Criminal Queerness Festival, which will take place June 22-26 during NYC Pride. Now in its third year, the international theatrical event provides a platform to LGBTQ artists from countries that criminalize or censor queer and trans communities. This year, the festival will present work centering on the lives of LGBTQ individuals in Lebanon, Mexico, and Iraq. The Criminal Queerness Festival was co-founded in 2018 by queer artists Adam Ashraf Elsayigh and Adam Odsess-Rubin.

In recognizing the disproportionate impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on immigrant and LGBTQ communities, the 2021 Criminal Queerness Festival will be staged outside and socially-distanced to mitigate the risk of infection and in keeping with state and local regulations. Select performances will also be live-streamed so all can enjoy the festival from the safety of their own home wherever they are in the world.

The festival will take place on the streets of New York City near the United Nations in Manhattan. The exact address will be shared with ticket holders to prevent crowding.

Anyone interested in attending the festival should join the National Queer Theater mailing list at www.nationalqueertheater.org. Tickets will go on sale in the coming weeks. Members of the media who are interested in covering the Criminal Queerness Festival should contact Stuart Richardson at press@nationalqueertheater.org.

After a year of separation, come and witness how National Queer Theater is reconstructing a global LGBTQ community on the streets of New York at the Criminal Queerness Festival.