Coming Saturday Events

So we have a number of interesting, creative and fun events and workshops coming up in the next few months with FC!


-Sat 13th Dec 08 11am-5pm Gender Diversity & Trans workshop
Come and learn, discuss and ask questions about being trans, intersex and gender diverse

-Sat 10th Jan 09 11am-5pm Digital Storytelling session
Come do song/sound recording and filming to tell your stories and get them posted in the FC website's FreeXpress section!!!

-Sat 24th Jan 12noon - Sun 25th Jan 09 10am FC Sleepover Retreat
Come and do digital storytelling, cook up a storm, play singstar, watch movies and hang out with FC

-Sat 14th Feb 09 11am-5pm Sexual Health and Safer Sex Workshop
Come on National Condom Day and Valentines Day and learn all about sexual health and how to keep yourself safer in all kinds of sexual activities!


Check out the FC Calendar or email Dani at info@freedom.org.au for more info

FC Closing Times

FC will be closed from Sat 20th December (no Outspace that day!) until Fri 9th January for Freespace 4-8pm that day! It will be a bit of a welcome back bash with food and a theme - come dressed as your new year's resolution - or your goal for the year.
So you could come dressed in some kind of work or school uniform, as an artist, as a character you hope to play in a drama or dance piece, as a uni student, or anything that represents a goal you have for the year to come!
BE CREATIVE - and your outfits can be created AT FC as well if you want!

We also have some new Outspace sessions coming up!

Check The Calender for more details!!

FC in the PRIDE PARADE!

So last night was the Pride WA Parade!! And as usual, FC was in it! This year we all dressed in one of the pride flag colours and walked together as a HUMAN PRIDE FLAG!!
Thanks to everyone who joined us in the parade to support FC, TC and GLCS and also to everyone who watched and cheered us on!
Here are a few photos from the night!

FC Sleepover Retreat

On the weekend we had the Freedom Centre sleepover retreat. It featured up and coming talent on Singstar, displays of flexibility and strength on the Not so Straight board and various team and esteem building activities. A highlight of the night was home made pizzas and a beetroot chocolate cake in honour of the vegan in a ranks.

PRIDE MONTH EVENTS!

So the last couple of weeks have been busy busy busy at FC with our Fairday stall and the FC Open Day on the last two Sundays! Here are some photos of FC at Fairday and the FC Open Day

FC SONG Recording!!

So last Saturday we went and recorded the FC SONG!!! It's turned out great, and will be played as the soundtrack to the stills movies (using our photography from the Drag Workshops) which will be played at Pride Fairday this Sunday and the FC Open Day on Sunday 5th Oct 1-4pm. Come along to hear the FC SONG!

meanwhile, here are some photos from the day

FC Sleepover Retreat!

Ever wanted to retreat to FC for a whole day and night??
Now you can! And it’s FREE!!

2pm Sat 11th October – 11am Sun 12th October
@ Earthwise, 315 Bagot Rd. Subiaco

There’ll be great people, music, singstar, movies, food and a range of short workshops about healthy cooking, personal safety, self esteem, and dance. So come along and be FREE at the FC Sleepover Retreat!!

But you MUST REGISTER in advance so talk to Dani on 9228 0354/ 9482 0000/ info@freedom.org.au to register and get more info!

FC FORUM is now live! & we got DRAGGED with Strykermeyer!!

Stryker came and taught us all the secrets of doing drag makeup at Outspace yesterday!!

Come join us at Strykermeyer workshops #2 & #3! go to the FC website Dropin sessions page for more info.

AND the FC FORUM went live on Friday night, so click here to register and join the FC Online community!!

Night OUT with STRYKER

STRYKERMEYER WAS AWESOME!

On Saturday we had our night out at Clubwest's 18th Birthday Show featuring Strykermeyer! A HUGE THANKYOU to Stryker and Clubwest for donating tickets so the FC visitors and volunteers could see the show!! Here are a few of the photos (we had learnt about low-light photography earlier that day in Outspace!)


Book out the 5th Oct 1-4pm to come see these photos and many more at the FC Open Day for the PrideWA Festival. AND visit the FC stall at PrideWA Fairday on the 28th Sept for a sneak peak at our photography :D

OUT @ FC

At OUTspace yesterday we spent the day doing photography - check out our photos

These photos and more from other OUTspace sessions will be exhibited at the FC Open Day on the 5th Oct
For the FC Open Day we need to make some music for a soundtrack to this! Come to Freespace sessions in August to help make the soundtrack!!

Get DRAGGED with Strykermeyer!

Ever wanted to find your inner drag queen? or your inner drag king?? or have the opportunity play with gender expression??? Now's your chance with FC and Strykermeyer!

Strykermeyer was the makeup artist and drag queen consultant of Australian film 'The Adventures of Pricilla Queen of the Desert'. In fact the story of Pricilla was loosely based on his friend and fellow drag queen Cindy Pastel and he won a BAFTA for the makeup art on Pricilla!

Strykermeyer will be joining FC's Outspace sessions to teach us the ins and outs of Drag!
The times for the 'Get Dragged at Outspace' sessions are;
Sat 16th August 12-4pm
Sat 30th August 12-4pm
Sat 13th September 11am-5pm

You can come to as many or few of the sessions as you like and you can get involved however you like - we will be taking photos and filming the workshops, and you can get drag king-ed, drag queen-ed or both!

Strkermeyer will be helping us get ready for the Pride Parade too!

The 2008 Pride Parade is on Saturday 25th October. FC will be open from 11am that day so we can get all made up for the parade. Freedom Centre, Strykermeyer, Gay & Lesbian Community Services and True Colours will all be marching together! For more info about FC in the Pride Parade go to the FC events page

So come to FC and GET DRAGGED! But make sure you email Dani on info@freedom.org.au to find out what you should bring, wear etc. See you there!!

FC WEBSITE

...is SO great already, but soon it will be even better! We're currently changing the site to a content management system which will let us have a whole lot more, like;
-an FC FORUM
-a search function
-three new sub-sites for family, for professionals and students, and for friends or straight ally young people of LGBTIQQ young people
-even MORE info
-the second edition of Ama-gi - the FC Zine


All this will be live within the next couple of months so stay tuned to www.freedom.org.au :D

Freespace @ FC

Tonight we were running a muck @ Freespace @ FC and got the camera out for the FC Blog! :P

Don't forget about OUTSPACE sessions starting on Sat 12th July 12-4pm. go to the FC Drop In sessions page for more info :D

Hear what the FC crew think!

We're writing 2 articles for the StyleAID 2008 magazine, so we thought we'd do 1 about the people at FC! We got the visitors, volunteers and staff to answer a few questions and here's what some of us had to say;

~Tell us about yourself;
I am a 16 year old homosexual who is only ‘out'; to 3 people outside of Freedom Centre. Extremely looking forward to next year when I’m no longer in school and can come out.
~Why is Freedom Centre important to you?
Because it’s pretty much the only social life I have. It allows me to be myself, meet new people and gives me something to look forward to each week.
~What does ‘freedom’ mean to you?
To not feel pressurized by others to be someone who I’m not.
~What would you spend funds for FC on?
Bigger kitchen and a more practical location.

~Tell us about yourself;
I consider myself a liberated gay man. I’m a regular visitor to FC. Much of my enthusiasm for the centre comes from its composition of people: who I love completely!
~Why is Freedom Centre important to you?
It’s a very large, marginalising world that we live in. FC allows for us to come together to just be ourselves, without fearing judgement or prejudice.
~What does ‘freedom’ mean to you?
Liberation, breaking from the norm, being myself, allowing others to be themselves, and ultimately being at the Freedom Centre.
~What would you spend funds for FC on?
A more accessible location, to encourage attendance from closeted people… and a kitchen

~Tell us about yourself;
I am a young gay man and I have been visiting Freedom Centre for a few years, and now volunteering and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I wouldn’t be here without FC.
~Why is Freedom Centre important to you?
It’s important for young people on their emotional journey to have a guide throughout adolescence and if they have feelings that require help that schools can’t provide it’s good to know that Freedom Centre is available.
~What does ‘freedom’ mean to you?
Freedom means to me, that you don’t need/have someone shouting at you telling you how to live your life.
~What would you spend funds for FC on?
Resources and stuff to advertise FC a bit more.

Stay tuned for more of what the FC Crew said in coming weeks!

Freedom Centre at the StyleAID Photography Exhibition Launch!

Tonight was the night that the Freedom Centre Documentary was screened at the StyleAID Photography Exhibition Launch!

We started the evening at Turner Galleries where we saw the Exhibition and FC Documentary, then we moved on to see the Freedom Centre (conveniently across the road!) in all its glory with the new furniture, freshly hung art works from FC's 2006 Emerge Art Project, and shiny new pride curtains, hanging in front of the new storage shelving area!

Here are some pics from the event!!


Nadine Toussaint, Dani Wright, Meredith Turnbull & Chloe Britton - 4 generations of Freedom Centre Coordinators!

Freedom Centre gets a facelift!!

That's right! FC got all new furniture just in time for IDAHo (International Day Against Homophobia, May 17th)!!!

So after a couple of days of filling skip bins and constructing Ikea furniture, we can now relax on new orange & 'maro-bergine' couches, play Uno and put our cuppas on new coffee tables, use the computer on a sparkling new desk, sit on new chairs, and browse the library on its spacious new book-shelving!! And thanks to the new storage shelving, we don't trip over stacks of art supplies anymore either! What a wonderful world it is @ FC!!

A massive thankyou to WA AIDS Council (WAAC) for funding the new furnishings and an even bigger thank you to all the WAAC staff and FC volunteers who helped put it all together!

BEFORE














AFTER

Freedom Centre and StyleAID!

This year StyleAID are going to donate the proceeds from the StyleAID Photography Exhibition to Freedom Centre. At some of our sessions during May we will be filming at Freedom Centre. The footage will be used to make a (very) short film about Freedom Centre (about 5 minutes). This short film will be shown at ;

StyleAID Photography Exhibition
StyleAID Sponsors Night and
StyleAID Renaissance! (the biggest and best W.A. fashion show)

What we are hoping to capture in our short film are peoples experiences at Freedom Centre, what Freedom Centre means to you, coming out stories, staying in stories and anything else you can think about Freedom Centre that you would like to share. We are making it to show the wider community why Freedom Centre is so important, what we do, what we're about and to hopefully open peoples hearts (and their wallets) to our cause.

You can be involved as much as you would like to (which hopefully is heaps wink wink nudge nudge) and for you camera shy lovies you don't have to be on film or identified if you aren't comfortable. You can do a voice over if you like or write something that someone else could read out for you. Whatever you want to contribute you can!

Ciao!

P.S. For more information on StyleAID checkout their website www.styleaid.com.au

What Does Freedom Centre Mean To You?

The Glamfest film festival starts this week, showcasing a whole lot of queer films at Astor Cimemas (go to www.gayinwa.com.au for more info). GayInWA sought sponsors - Dr Christopher Kendall & Jeremy Curthoys - so we could run this ad at Glamfest. The photos are from FC's Emerge Art Project 2006. Check out our ad below, and if you'd like to tell us what Freedom Centre means to you, or what other things are important to you, we'd love to hear from you at FC blog.