The Hot Festival at Dixon Place kicked off tonight. Downtown producer and personality Earl Dax has put together a fantastic array of queer performance, film, events and more. According to the website:

2009 marks the 18th Annual Dixon Place HOT! Festival, a pioneering festival of queer performance and culture – and the oldest, continually running festival of it’s kind in the world!  The festival hub is the brand new Dixon Place theater complex at 161 Chrystie Street on the New York City’s famed Lower East Side.  The theater consists of 2 venues: a state-of-the-art 120-seat laboratory theater, and an intimate performance cafe. Throughout the month of July and the first week of August (July 1 – August 6), you’ll find an ecclectic array of free and ticketed shows and programs 7 nights a week! Clck here to view the full calendar of events.

I recommend checking out the work-in-progress showings of The Mattachine Project , which is a a devised theater piece exploring the origins of modern homosexuality and gay liberation by focusing on the much-overlooked history of Harry and Hay and the inception of the Mattachine Society from 1948-1953.  By examining the roots of the first American organization dedicated to achieving gay rights and legitimizing homosexuality they hope to initiate a dialogue about contemporary culture and the issues facing the current movement for LGBT equality.