Channelling Our Queer Elders - making a zine

This workshop *for queers of colour* (aka LGBTQIA+ people who identify as part of the Global Ethnic Majority) is an invitation to explore and reflect on our elders’ knowledge and stories, and collate this sharing into a collective zine. 

What can we learn about everyday resistance from Global Majority elder women, queer, non-binary and trans family and friends and their experiences of post-colonial resistance?

If we channel our queer elders now, can we hear inspiration, determination, nurturing and/or practical magic to support us in a time of increasing resource extraction, health inequalities, climate collapse, under-employment in light of AI, rising polarisation and fascism?

Women and LGBQT+ movements across the Global South have always been at the heart of collective organising, resistance to authoritarian regimes and played significant roles in decolonial thinking and practice. 

You are invited to share objects, stories, memories of your queer elders of colour - these elders might be mothers, aunties, grandmas by birth or relation, or chosen kin. The stories (small or large) might be about the everyday, or the macropolitical, because the kitchen, the living room, the yard and the street are all sites of learning and resistance! 

Together we will discuss, draw and write to share, remember and connect our stories. 

Texts and items from Margate Queer Library collections will be selected as prompts for discussion and reflection. We will create a collective zine that can be included in the Margate Queer Library zine section. 

Access notes: This workshop takes place in a basement down one flight of 10 stairs with a bannister.

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This workshop is organised by Dr Cecilia Wee (she/they), Margate-based Chinese Peranakan social practice artist, independent curator, researcher, equalities activist and union organiser. Their research-based practice utilises printmaking, sound, text, creative pedagogies and performance to create experimental dialogues of resistance connecting generations, histories and futures. Cecilia has curated exhibitions, edited books, and led research with organisations including Arts Council England, NHS Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service, Resonance FM and Tate Modern. She is part of collaborative duo (CWxWC), with artist and activist William Crosby, investigating ecologies and economies through sound and listening. Cecilia is Tutor (Research) at the School of Communication, Royal College of Art. ceciliawee.com