COVID – Andro & Eve

We’re reyt chuffed to share that we have a theme for our new zine! Drumroll please…. Its JOY!

This was chosen by votes collected throughout June from the Andro and Eve community. Using the theme as inspiration artist Seleena Laverne Daye has designed a special session to bring a bit of queer joy to our community this July.

We’re delighted to share that on the 22 July, we’ll be hosting another online workshop, this time focused on textiles. Seleena will be sharing some simple techniques to make your own textile artwork creating a portrait of yourself or someone else that brings you joy in felt form. It’ll be sewing fun for beginners and those more advanced. Time to get crafty with your selfies and hang out online with fellow LGBTQ+ folk!

A set of 3 stylised felt portraits are laid on a table.

We had hoped to bring this session to a physical venue, but after liaison with our partner venue, Theatre Deli Sheffield, and consideration of current COVID infection rates we’ve decided to offer this session online.

Places are limited, but all materials will be provided, you just need to book your FREE ticket in advance if you want to take part.

Tickets are free thanks to funding from the National Lottery Communities Fund. More information on our zine project can be found here.

Find out more about this textiles workshop and book here.

If you can’t make this workshop, after the session we’ll also be sharing a special PDF worksheet for you to create your own artwork at home. Just sign up to our newsletter via the link below to get your hands on this resource!

We are sorry to say we will not be returning to host live, in – person events until Spring 2021 at the earliest. We have taken this decision in light of the ongoing situation with COVID-19 and the need to plan ahead as best we can.

As a queer – led social enterprise, which means we put people before profit, and care of the most vulnerable and marginalised at our heart, we cannot see a scenario in which we can bring properly safe and inclusive events to our community until next year. We know many of you, like us, are struggling with anxiety about returning to any sort of normal, and we recognise that we need to adapt.

We have spoken at length with our partner venues about the measures in place to maintain social distancing, and keep audiences and workers safe. Sadly, the capacities allowed in venues would in no way enable us to cover the costs of producing the events we have become known for. We also have the health and wellbeing of our artists, staff team and volunteers to consider. A Reyt Queer Do and The Kingdom Come are meant to be joyous and cosy events. We would rather wait and bring these events back when it feels much safer to do so. Right now, we couldn’t in good faith, host live events indoors when so many people are still shielding, or taking extra precautions to protect those around them.

A crowd, underneath lots of umbrellas hanging from the ceiling at Theatre Deli Sheffield, some seated and a lot standing click their fingers at the live drag artist on stage. — The crowd at A Reyt Queer Do 3, no social distancing needed back in 2019.

Under lockdown we are proud to have continued to support queer artists, delivering a range of creative activity and developing talent in the North of England. It’s been been wonderful to see new and familiar faces at our online workshops. We will be applying for more funding to continue to adapt our offer during these challenging times.

We know this has been a tough time for so many. We plan both to continue to offer online and remote activity, and take time to develop the organisation. We may start hosting in person workshops in Spring 2021, but we also realise there are many unknowns.

We’ve got plenty plans in the pipeline and will share those with you as soon as we can. If you’d like to support our work you can do so by donating via our website. Your support ensures we can continue to support LGBTQ+ artists in these difficult times.

Our new zine, CENTRE, will be launching in October, so make sure you’ve signed up to our newsletter to be the first to get your hands on a copy and hear about a special online event to mark the occasion.

We can’t wait to return with a bang when it is safe to do so. Till then, we hope you can join us online soon.

With love and solidarity

Andro and Eve x

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