BIOS

Conference Chair
Jessica Eve Humphrey is a fat, femme, feminist, generally loudmouthed graduate student, teacher, and activist from a working class Italian-American family.  A native Washingtonian and California transplant, she enjoys writing about and giving workshops on gender, sexuality, political activism, size, identity, and drag; but truly loves Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Jessica is writing her dissertation on identity and memory in contemporary American popular culture and literature. She's a huge fan of science fiction and is currently a member of Ethel and the Pantyraids, a fat-positive burlesque troupe. < email >

Conference Coordinator
Christine De La Rosa is a Southern, Latina techno-geek, queer, dyke, lesbian, Femme living and loving in Texas. She is an entrepeneur with a twist of sass and an air of mystery. She devotes much of her "free" time to promoting awareness of the Butch-Femme community. She enjoys reading, listening to her iPod and karaoke under the right circumstances. A community activist, Christine is a co-webmaster of one of the largest and oldest gender queer internet sites.She has a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Arts from the University of Texas. < email >

Program Chair
Kathleen Young is a 40-something femme lesbian feminist .  She is a Clinical Psychologist and owner of Affirming Alternatives Psychological Services, a practice that specializes in treating women and Chicago's queer community. She is also on staff at Howard Brown Health Center, where she relishes the opportunity to train the next generation of LGBT culturally competent therapists. Her professional interests include trauma, eating disorders and same sex domestic violence. Her personal interests include processing things endlessly, yoga, feminism, butch women and pugs .
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Program Committee Member Marisa Klages is a fat, queer, femme from NYC. She is a PhD candidate at WVU working on medieval representations of pain and desire in mystical texts. When she's not writing her dissertation, Marisa teaches writing and literature at LaGuardia Community College in Queens.

Program Committee Member Ajuan Mance is an associate professor of English at Mills College in Oakland, California. A visual artist as well as a literature scholar, she is interested in exploring some of the ways that visual, literary, and musical texts have been used to shape and define prevailing notions of race, ethnicity, and gender.

Program Committee Member Kit Corbin is a happy-go-lucky queer power femme with an activist's channeled rage and a peace-loving kumbaya heart. Sound like a contradiction? Not really.   She's just a girl  - who loves the world and the people in it, and wants to make it a better place.  By any means necessary.   And what could make it better than empowered femmes overrunning the planet? A paralegal by day and a volunteer, activist, singer, writer, traditional crafter, mother and partner by night, Kit is excited and happy to be working with this community of dedicated, inspired and inspiring people, who are working towards making the femme/butch planet a better place.

Registration Chair
Angie Ward is a Southern born and bred author, activist, and ordained minister. Raised in the foothills of Arkansas by a pack of rabid sloth bears, Angie has devoted much of her life to all things odd and is forever in search of the perfect oddity to add to her collection of  teeth, bones, and preserved chicken feet. This red-headed bodacious babe believes that MAC lipstick is the cure for the common ailment, that Ranch dressing is the nectar of the Gods, and that Tori Amos should be inducted into Sainthood. She is the "down-home" conglomeration of June Clever, The Bride of Chuckie, Mae West, Etta James and maybe a little Maureen O'Hara. Southern, but not simple...There are Molasses in them thar' hills! < email >

Registration Committee Member Brandy Lynn Knightly is a Deeply Queer Femme residing in the Great Pacific Northwest with her partner of 7 years, two fussy little dogs and an ancient cat. She has done hard time in the Portland Community, where she learned that the Queer really do eat their young. Ms Knightly is employed in the Human Resources field and finds all people infinitely fascinating, even those with no personal or social boundaries. She is convinced that Leopard is a neutral and will someday be “The New Black”.

Lori Thomas is a Dancer/Choreographer, teacher & aspiring writer. She is a former Board member of National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and former President of Coalition of Lesbian/Gay Student Groups. Her commitment to working in social justice began with her involvement as President of GLSA while in University, on the Planning Committee for MoW 1993, and as a charter member of the Coalition of Lesbian and Gay Student Groups. Her interests include writing SciFi/Fantasy short stories and her first novel, being a Nia practitioner, studying alternative health practices, making playlists, photography, cooking, dancing, shoe shopping & designing the interior of the home she shares with her partner Ann and their 3 cats.

Logistics Chair
Cassandra Falby is a West Indian American feminist femme dyke who loves to exist in spaces that are seemingly contradictory. She is a fashion devotee and a lover of glam. Some might call her a femme fag. In 2001, she birthed a video short "The Texture of Honesty," a celebration of the natural, which has been screened at a variety of film festivals. She is the owner of DatGurl.com a clothing and accessories company for kick-ass fat gurls. < email >

Awareness/Accessibility Chair
kenya simone is a militantfem. northern born yet southern raised phat afri-native buddhist lesbian writer, activist, and idealist with the honor of being 2nd generation Femme with big feet and a long memory... burning sage and purple dreams..i feed my soul on various levels blending fat-positive, human positive, my beautifully colored femme/stud folks, and womynist politics that embrace the diversity of my 'role loving and labled' life. creator/guardian of a femme/butch of colors community HirShe....i attended the first femme conference and can't wait for this one to come into itself. < email >

Volunteer Chair
Ryn Hodes is a queer femme who came out at 40 and is aging gracefully. She is a third generation New York Jew from a family of lefty artists and academics. Ryn works as an advocate, trainer, counselor, and policy-wonk around issues of domestic and intimate partner violence. She also teaches self-defense to women, queers, and transfolks. Ryn is a writer, a social worker by trade, a self-defined old-school feminist on an anti-misogyny crusade, a lover of butch women, coffee shops, and second-hand clothes, and a profoundly proud parent. < email >

Media Chair
Gina Coffman is best described as a fat and sassy Asian queer feminist femme. Try saying that 10 times fast. By day Gee works as a graphic designer in the PR department of an amazing not-for-profit hospital. Her nights however, are her own and are devoted to a wealth of interests covering all manner of transgressive living. Two favorite obsessions are monkeys and pirates, with pirate monkeys heading the top of the list. She's currently nurturing her inner Grace Jones so that she can pull up to your bumper, baby. < email >

Sponsorships/Vendor Chair
Deborah Isadora Wade, a fat fiery flawed fabulous feminist femme, holds an undergraduate degree in theology and education, masters in social work, and masters in feminist women’s spirituality. Retiring from social work in 1999, she taught college for five years and wrote for Lavender Press, Of A Like Mind, and Berkana. Currently writing commentary for The Seasonal Salon at www.rcgi.org, teaching for the Women’s Thealogical Institute, and caring for her family as a hausfrau, she is in love with her life. She and Ian Coleman are Priestess/Guardian of The Fires of Avalon, a trans friendly Celtic guardian/priestess tradition. She lives outside San Francisco with her partner of 18 years, Schon. Deb, like the old crow she is, loves anything that sparkles, social gatherings, dancing, country western music, and is always up for anything that is fun!!!< email >

Keynotes Chair
Sonia Diaz is a Chicana Femme, who for the past decade has passionately worked as a Bilingual/Cross-Cultural Educator and advocate for students, their families, as well as teachers all over California.  She is currently finishing her graduate work in the field of counseling where her plans include working more directly with LGBTQ families and the therapists who serve them.  A few of Sonia's loves include: being a witness to her daughter's life, watching the sunrise, diversity training, reading too many books at once, remembering to dance...  and most currently, turning 40 with grace.
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Performance Co-Chair
Krista Smith aka Kentucky Fried Woman/Mrs. Miller is a proud fatass.  She received her BA in History at the University of Kentucky, where she also founded the Annual UK Women's Studies Graduate Student Conference.  She then attended the University of California, Santa Barbara where she joined the drag troupe the Disposable Boy Toys and co-founded the Fat Bitch Caucuswith Summer's Eve/Tony Celebrity.  After moving to Seattle in 2001, she founded the fierce, mix-sized body positive queer as fuck performance troupe the Queen Bees.  Kentucky Fried Woman has performed and conducted workshops all over the United States in an attempt to change the world one jiggle at a time. < email >

Performance Co-Chair
Kebo Drew is an award-winning poet, dancer, and writer whose focus is the African Diaspora in the Americas.

A Cave Canem Poetry Fellow, she has performed at venues all over throughout the Europe, the U.S. and the Bay Area, including Justice/Just Us, Poets Against Rape and Luna Sea Theatre. She was in the original Liquid Fire cast as a dancer and poet, and has also been the writing facilitator for different Liquid Fire workshops. She danced with groups like the Mambo Queens and Sisters of Substance throughout the world including Bogotà, Mexico City, London, New York and of course San Francisco. She's also been known took shake her considerable assets at Fairy Butch among other venues. Kebo has also appeared in films like “My Femme Divine” and “Desire: Exploring Butch/Femme.” She has also collaborated with filmmaker Madeleine Lim on the short experimental film “Dragon Desire.” Kebo was also the Art Festival Manager for the 1998 The Femme Gender Conference and the National Queer Arts Festival, curating such shows as “Kick The Door Off The Hinges” and “The Copa Cabana: A Femme Fatale Club”.

She will co-present “Rhythm & Resistance: Art IS social justice activism for communities of color” at the 2005 Creating Change Conference. < email >

Performance Committee Member Darshan Elena Campos co-Curator (with Kebo Drew) for films is an activist and educator and has been programming cultural events for more than a decade.  Her interests include reading trashy novels, performing abdominal exercises, and collecting antique jewelry.  She lives alone in Oakland, CA, and likes it like that.

Performance Committee Member Madeleine Lim is an award-winning independent filmmaker with over 18 years of experience and she has served as a consultant on over 70 film projects. Her films have been featured at sold-out theaters at international film festivals around the world, museums, universities and broadcast on PBS. Founder and Executive Director of Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP), the Singapore-born filmmaker is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco where she teaches Advanced Video Production.

House Manager - Mia Deanna Williams is a classically-trained harpist and music educator.  She recently returned to the Bay Area after working for a major record label and studying at NYU for her Master's degree in Music Business.  Her dream is to marry the Stage Manager for the femme2006 in the near future!

Stage Manager - Mina Marquette Hutchins is an educator with a passion for design.  She has done styling and set design for Bay Area musicians.  Mina has been a commercial actress and print model for the past ten years.