Book about Red Dawns festival just released!

Tea Hvala (ed.): Rdečke razsajajo! Interviews with the organizers of feminist and queer festival Red Dawns (KUD Mreža, 2010)
Slovene / English, soft binding, 104 pages, 32 black/white photos, price: 8,00 € (+ postage)
Cover by Anna Ehrlemark

Red Dawns fest is breaking new ground in Slovenia. And that is really important: that a relatively known festival is opening new themes in the public sphere. Our international collaboration is important for the same reason. You have to bring people from abroad if no one here has thought about a certain issue yet! In addition, the international view brings awareness about the global nature of problems we are dealing with, like the lack of social justice. --Jasmina Jerant

The interviews collected in this book were made in 2009 when International Feminist and Queer Festival Red Dawns celebrated its 10th anniversary. The interviewees discussed Red Dawns' contribution to the visibility of feminist and queer (counter)publics in Ljubljana. Tea Hvala interviewed the following past and present co-organisers of the festival: Anna Ehrlemark, Mirjana Frank, Danaja Grešak, Ana Grobler, Jasmina Jerant, Ana Jereb, Anja Kocman, Jadranka Ljubičič, Urška Merc, Slađana Mitrović, Lidija Radojević, Nataša Serec, Tanja Škander, Suzana Tratnik, Daša Tepina and Vesna Vravnik.

The book is in Slovene, except for the interviews with Anna Ehrlemark and Jasmina Jerant which are in English. Tea Hvala originally made seventeen oral interviews for her MA research in Gender Studies, part of which can be read here (pdf.). In it, she discussed Red Dawns festival as a rare example of a grassroots feminist public in Slovenia. Association KUD Mreža, the co-founder and organiser of the festival decided to publish the interviews in book format primarity because in Slovenia, there are very few works where the specifictiy of (feminist and queer) counterpublic organising would be discussed by the people who make it possible, rather than by academics.

In Ljubljana, the book is available for sale in Azil Bookstore (on Novi trg 2 or at the Museum of Modern Art) and in Modrijanova knjigarna (on Trubarjeva 27). For discount price, visit KUD Mreža's seat on Masarykova 24, ACC Metelkova mesto. For mailorder, please write to rdece.zore@gmail.com.

The book release was made possible with the generous help of many donators as well as public funds, provided by Municipality of Ljubljana and the Slovene Ministry of Education and Sport.