CELEBRATING QUEER CULTURE

Women and The Word

On Saturday 27 January we curated and produced a special event in Sheffield focused around the film, The Revival: Women and The Word, directed by Sekiya Dorsett. We originally saw this documentary at SQIFF in 2016 and fell for its warmth, humour, honesty, and unique perspective on an often overlooked part of the LGBTQIA community. The film follows a group of Black lesbian poets on a salon style tour of the US organised by creative force and entrepreneur Yaani Supreme fka Jade Foster.

Revival_6
Jonquille Rice aka Solsis and Bea Steadwell. Credit: The Revival: Women and the Word

Documentaries like this allow you to imagine a different world, one where Black, queer womanhood is centered, celebrated and given space to breathe. We felt it was important to not only show the film, but make sure the Black British community was celebrated, while giving our audience a taste of the talent that exists within the UK, by showcasing poets of colour on this side of the Atlantic.

To do this we worked closely with Manchester’s Rainbow Noir and Sheffield’s Our Mel to programme artists, and help Andro and Eve reach new audiences. We cannot praise Rainbow Noir’s organisers enough for their generosity and support of our aims for this event. It was also awesome to work with another grassroots organisation in Sheffield, through Our Mel, and realise we have many of the same ambitions of creating special events where our communities feel free to express themselves.

Annalisa of Our Mel hosting the event

As massive lovers of zines and indie publishing we also curated a stall selling the words of women of colour.

_V3A4434
Classic zine stall

The event sold out a week in advance, and on the night over 70 people from across the UK turned out to our specially chosen, (and secret) Sheffield venue to enjoy the evening. As ever, we were thrilled that so many people had made the journey out on a cold night to attend, and we want to say thank you for those who supported our work in this way.

_V3A4588
Some of our wonderful audience!

Thanks also to all the people who have been contributing to our accessible ticket fund. This was the first event where we were able to offer discounted ticket prices for those on low incomes, and we can say it certainly encouraged some new faces to attend.

_V3A4818
DYLEMA (Do You. Let Every Man Adapt).

The poets, Ella Otomewo, from Manchester and DYLEMA from East London, performed their captivating poems after the film, making quite an impression on our audience and us. It was so rewarding to listen to the comments from those that had gathered together for this event, and realise the hard work had paid off.

_V3A4762
Ella Otomewo performs her poetry

We’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking, but special thanks should go to Rainbow Noir, Our Mel, LAS Sheffield, QTIPOC Notts, Enjoy Your Homes Press, our fabulous volunteers, and last but no means least, photographer Ndrika Anyika, whose images you see in this post.

_V3A4532

If you missed this event, hopefully we’ll see you at The Kingdom Come #3 on March 10th! Tickets are on sale now. 

_V3A4399

_V3A4831Some of our awesome audience members! _V3A4528_V3A4524_V3A4511_V3A4526_V3A4553_V3A4534

The Kingdom Come #2: Holiday Camp!

On June 3rd we returned to Walkley Community Centre to produce the second edition of our Drag King night, The Kingdom Come. This time the theme was ‘Holiday Camp’ and our audience and drag performers sure brought the tropical, gender bending vibes!

rsz__v3a8378.jpg
Adam All and Apple Derrieres, flamingo style.

The cabaret – style evening was hosted by Adam All and Apple Derrieres, scene superstars and founders of Boi Box London,  and featured drag kings Romeo De La Cruz, Luke Warm, Oliver Assets and Oedipussi. They all brought their A Game and had us howling with laughter and delight in one heck of a fun filled evening!

rsz__v3a8527
Luke Warm remembered to pack his toothbrush...

We want to say a huge thank you to our audiences for supporting our event, and making SUCH stellar efforts with their own fancy dress.. And thanks to those who donated towards our collection for the End Period Poverty project. Once again, we’d like to thank our volunteers who are vital to making our events a success, and the Walkley Community Centre volunteers, and of course the performers for making it such an entertaining night. Check out the photos by Ndrika Anyika below. More photos can also be viewed by heading to our Facebook Page.

rsz__v3a7670
Nicely Nautical audience members.
rsz_1_v3a8684
Oedipussi makes an entrance
rsz__v3a8600.jpg
Romeo De La Cruz is.. The Mask
rsz__v3a7879.jpg
Apple Derrieres is oh so tropical!
rsz__v3a8079
Oliver Assets living his Disney dream
rsz__v3a8229.jpg
Adam All. Pecs.
rsz__v3a7634.jpg
Yass Queen! Yass King! 
rsz__v3a7946_1
Oedipussi lets his light shine..
rsz__v3a8932.jpg
Andro and Eve in drag take to the stage..

Our fabulous audience!

rsz__v3a7516
What an outfit. Tropic like its hot queen. 

rsz__v3a7704rsz__v3a7546rsz__v3a7761.jpgrsz__v3a7527.jpgrsz__v3a7755.jpg

Finally, host Apple Derrieres shows us ALL how to pose.

_V3A9029

Keep in touch

Sign up to our newsletter to keep up-to-date with our latest news, events and offers.

Donate

Your donation will be used to help us continue to support queer artists and culture.

  • £ 0.00