LGBTQ+ History Month Event / Archive Special
This years history month has been focusing on Octavia Hill, Ivor Cummings, Anni Kenney, Charlie Kiss and Olaudah Equiano and we are celebrating these amazing people during this evening and sharing artwork, poetry and zines we have created over three recent workshops with S.L Grange, Linnea Maertens, Remi Graves, E.M Parry and Adae Bajomo.
As part of our BFI/Film London funded queer archive project we invited artists and writers to delve into the archives and share some of their finds. Writer Remi Graves will be introducing a short film called Ajamu Directed by Topher Cambell and E.M Parry and Adedamola Bajomo will be talking about and screening a selection of archive clips about drag king pioneer Hetty King and other finds from the archives!
About the artists
Remi Graves is a London based poet and drummer. A former Barbican Young Poet, their work has been featured on BBC Radio 4, at St Paul's Cathedral and in various anthologies. Past commissions include ‘don’t text me, i’m dreaming’ for Apples and Snakes and ‘On Breathing’ for Barbican. Remi was longlisted for the Merky Books New Writers’ Prize in 2020 and their debut pamphlet, with your chest, was published by fourteen poems in 2022. Remi is the short form winner of the inaugural 2024 Prototype Prize. They have led courses at The Poetry School and facilitate in schools and community spaces around London.
E.M. Parry is a trans*disciplinary artist and award-winning theatre maker, working across scenography, live art, cabaret and drag, squinting at history, flirting with ghosts and the things that go bump in the margins. They recently completed a PhD exploring queer and trans history through creative practice, and are currently working on projects with the Museum of London and Greenwich Maritime Museum
Adedamola Bajomo aka Mr Wesley Dykes has been in the Drag King game for well over a decade. Their experience and interest in the politics of perception and aesthetics has pulled them across various spaces including Audio Description, Theatre and Barbering. You can catch them next at 21 Soho for drag king night “My Prince Will Cum” - a valentine fairytale cabaret…
This event is supported. by Film London / BFI and Lewisham Council