Tipi Confessions presents Sexy Science Confessions  

SAVE THE DATE – May 9, 2024 – Vancouver, B.C. Area!

The Chan Centre for Performing Arts
University of British Columbia, Vancouver 

CALL FOR PERFORMERS DEADLINE to SUBMIT – March 29, 2024

We are looking for diverse voices from the Vancouver area to perform as part of Sexy Science Confessions – especially if yours often go untold.

Sexy Science Confessions Call for Performers

Call for Performers Announcement

In partnership with Global Indigenous Leadership in Genomics Symposium. Learn more at SING Canada.

Tipi Confessions has partnered with the Toronto Queer Film Festival and the Indigenous Curatorial Collective/Collectif des commissaires autochtones to bring you:

Tipi Confessions Turned On… Line

On demand streaming access begins Friday, February 25 6PM MST / 8PM EST and runs through until March 25. 

Tipi Confession is a storytelling event curated with performances and stories that expose the vulnerability, humour, confusion, and sexy details of sex and sexuality. Our performers are the soul of our show and your confessions are the heart.

Through this partnership, we’ve curated a line-up of stories and performances centering Indigenous women, two-spirit, and queer storytelling and experiences featuring Taté Walker, e.macias, JD Pet Wussy, Juniper Whispers, Tai Amy Grauman, Miss Odemiin Surprise!, and members from the Edmonton Indigenous Poets Society: K’alii Luuyaltkw, Chasidy Gray, and Sage Giroux. 

And our host and MC Tracy Bear reveals the details of your anonymously submitted confessions in between the performances.

We’re grateful for your support and that you choose to spend your time with us.

Watch the show here until March 25, 2022.

We are proud to partner with the Toronto Queer Film Festival and the Indigenous Curatorial Collective/Collectif des commissaires autochtones for this event.

Stay tuned for the upcoming Toronto Queer Film Festival, March 31 – April 3, 2022, and the TQFF Symposium, April 22 – 24, 2022. 

You can also find more details about ICCA programming on their website.

This project is funded by Canadian Heritage.

About us

The Toronto Queer Film Festival is a collectively-run, artist-centered, not-for-profit festival that showcases contemporary, innovative, queer and trans film and video art. We are especially interested in supporting formally experimental films and/or social justice-themed projects that center the experiences of Indigenous people, people of color, people with disabilities, transgender people, sex workers, porn makers, and other communities often marginalized in contemporary LGBT cultural programming and spaces.

The Indigenous Curatorial Collective / Collectif des commissaires autochtones (ICCA) is an Indigenous run and led non-profit organization that aims to support and connect fellow Indigenous curators, artists, writers, academics, and professionals through various methods of gathering. The ICCA engages in critical discourses, increases professional opportunities for our members, develops programming, and most importantly works to build reciprocal relationships with Indigenous curators, artists, communities and the institutions we engage with.

Tipi Confessions is produced by three Indigenous women: University of Alberta professor Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate), McMaster University professor Tracy Bear (Nehiyaw’iskwew from Montreal Lake Cree Nation), and University of Alberta PhD student, Kirsten Lindquist (Cree-Métis). We are an offshoot of the popular Austin, Texas show, Bedpost ConfessionsTM, founded in 2010. For more information, visit tipiconfessions.com

Financed by the Government of Canada

Toronto Queer Film Festival logo

ICCA logo

bloom community logo

Save the date & submit your story for Tipi Confessions: The Indigenous WorldView

Friday, May 8, 2020
Doors: 7:30PM / Show: 8:00PM
190 Auditorium OCAD U, 100 McCaul Street
Toronto, ON

Tipi Confessions, an Indigenized spin-off of the popular Austin BedPost Confessions show, is calling for 4 co-hosts to Indigenize our on-stage adaptation of the TV show, The View. For The Indigenous World View, we are looking for diverse Indigenous standpoints – across generations, backgrounds, lived experiences, and views. Like The View, we are interested in generating lively discussion, “mixing humor with intelligent debate.” Unlike the televised talkshow, our “Hot Topic” is centred around a frank multi-standpoint conversation on sex, sexuality, and gender, and how these give form to Indigenous intelligence.

In addition to our call for 4 co-hosts, we encourage submissions from performers and storytellers in the Toronto/Tkoronto area, and those who are attending the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) annual meeting (May 7-9, 2020).

In keeping with our mission for this show, we are prioritizing the voices and narratives of Indigenous, QTBIPOC, and two spirit folks. 

Submit your Story.​ Become a Tipi Confessions performer! We seek diverse voices from the Toronto area, as well as performers and storytellers attending NAISA, especially if stories like yours often go untold. We are an ALL-INCLUSIVE enterprise: we have featured storytellers and performers of all genders, races, sexualities, and abilities.

We encourage you to submit sexually-themed stories and performances. Your performance doesn’t need to be “erotic” (although we love well-crafted erotica), but it should pertain positively to sex and sexuality. Consider telling your story from a political, humorous, creative, feminist, or educational perspective. We want stories that fit our mission of ethics, education, and entertainment around sex, sexuality, and gender.

Types of Performances.​ Our shows have featured spoken word readings, personal narrative, memoir, fiction, burlesque, live musicians, and short theater performances/stage readings. We are also open to stand-up comics, video clips, and lively short lectures.

How to propose a concept. DEADLINE – MARCH 6, 2020. Describe and explain your proposed performance, but also include some context for us such as motivation and intent. If you have specific questions about our expectations, please ask. Your submission should be: 1500 words or less. You can submit your story here, and send any additional supporting documents/audio/video to tipiconfessions@gmail.comIf you are interested in becoming an Indigenous World View co-host, please provide a bio and a short description of your co-host persona (i.e. character type) and particular standpoint.  

The Review Process.​ DECISION BY – MARCH 20, 2020. Acceptances may be contingent upon an audition/interview (in person or via Skype).

Tipi Confessions is produced by three Indigenous women: University of Alberta professors Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) and Tracy Bear (Nehiyaw’iskwew from Montreal Lake Cree Nation), and PhD student, Kirsten Lindquist (Cree-Métis). We are an offshoot of the popular Austin, Texas show, Bedpost ConfessionsTM, founded in 2010. For more information, visit www.tipiconfessions.com and www.bedpostconfessions.com.

Join us for RED HOT Tipi Confessions, San Francisco, CA.

Friday, April 3, 2020
Doors: 6:30PM, Show: 7:30PM
BRAVA Theater Center, Main Stage, 2781 24th St, San Francisco
Tickets available soon!

Over 15 years ago, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm collected and edited a volume of Indigenous Erotica, Without Reservation, at a time when erotic stories in Indigenous literature were close to non-existent in print. Yet these stories existed and were taking form in fantasies, in whispered desires, on the mind, in the body, at the kitchen table… on the kitchen table. Pushing back on stereotypes and misnommers about Indigenous people, sex and sexuality, the volume brought to light the erotic in our experiences as “people who love each other, who fall out of love, who have lovers, who make love, have sex, break hearts, get our own hearts broken, who have beautiful bodies” (Akiwenzie-Damm 2003, xii). A few years later, in 2008, Akiwenzie-Damm reflected on W[R]ighting Indigenous Erotica in her essay,  “Red Hot to the Touch,” a reflective commentary on her own experience of love and desire, how to write about it, and that weaves in erotic vignettes. The essay further emphasizes the importance of reclaiming the erotic in Indigenous communities.

As a sexy storytelling show, Tipi Confessions also aims to bring the [stage] light to storytellers and performers. Over the history of the show, performances and confessions have ranged from hilarious to cheeky, poignant to healing. Co-producer Kim TallBear grounds Tipi Confessions in the idea that “decolonizing sexuality, and sex positivity and healing more broadly, is key to curbing violence in our society in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities”.

Indigenous erotica, either through writing or performance, has inspired and continues to inspire diverse expressions of Indigenous sexualities. In partnership with the American Indian Studies Department, San Francisco State University, and inspired by the work of Akiwenzie-Damm, we want to honor the legacies and evoke continued possibilities and iterations of RED HOT.

What does RED HOT mean to you?

Submit your Story.​ Become a Tipi Confessions performer! While we are produced by three Indigenous women, everyone is welcome in our tipi. We seek diverse voices from the San Francisco Bay area, especially if stories like yours often go untold. We are an ALL-INCLUSIVE enterprise: we welcome storytellers and performers of all genders, races, sexualities, and abilities. We encourage you to submit sexually-themed stories and performances. Your performance doesn’t need to be “erotic” (although we love well-crafted erotica), but it should pertain positively to sex and sexuality. Consider telling your story from a political, humorous, creative, feminist, or educational perspective. We want stories that fit our mission of ethics, education, and entertainment around sex, sexuality, and gender.

Types of Performances.​ Our shows have featured spoken word readings, personal narrative, memoir, fiction, burlesque, live musicians, and short theater performances/stage readings. We are also open to stand-up comics, video clips, and lively short lectures.

How to propose a concept.​ DEADLINE – FEBRUARY 14, 2020. Describe and explain your proposed performance, but also include some context for us such as motivation and intent. If you have specific questions about our expectations, please ask. Your submission should be: 1500 words or less. You can submit your story here, and send any additional supporting documents/audio/video to tipiconfessions@gmail.com.

The Review Process.​ DECISION BY – FEBRUARY 21, 2020. Acceptances may be contingent upon an audition/interview (in person or via Skype).

Tipi Confessions is produced by three Indigenous women: University of Alberta professors Kim TallBear (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate) and Tracy Bear (Nehiyaw’iskwew from Montreal Lake Cree Nation), and PhD student, Kirsten Lindquist (Cree-Métis). We are an offshoot of the popular Austin, Texas show, Bedpost ConfessionsTM, founded in 2010. For more information, visit www.tipiconfessions.com and www.bedpostconfessions.com.

Our partner for this show: American Indian Studies Department, San Francisco State University

I confess “………..”