Abandon God restored my faith in comedy as a remedy for despair
Memuna Konteh responds to Fringe comedy split-bill Ayo Adenekan and Alvin Bang: Abandon God, putting expectations aside to enjoy stand-up that adapts to important societal moments.
Longing for a child and waiting for a moment
In this Response to Rat Tails (WIP) by Jeremy McClain, Eilidh Akilade details the journey of art criticism, from the inception of an idea in June, to the witnessing of an Edinburgh Fringe show, before the long bus ride home in August.
Allowing waters and truths to sluice in
Shivanee Ramlochan discusses Michelle Mohabeer’s Coconut/Cane & Cutlass, a mythic/poetic rumination on exile, displacement, and nationhood from the perspective of an Indo-Caribbean lesbian who migrated to Canada twenty years ago.
Moving through manipulated pasts
Shirine Shah responds to Flesh and Paper (1990), a lyrical exploration of the sense and sensibilities of Indian lesbian poet and writer, Suniti Namjoshi, directed by Pratibha Parmar.
Longing for the homelands of our imagination
Asyia Iftikhar responds to (Tending) (to) (Ta), a dream-like journey across parallel dimensions that imagines a world without capitalism, by interdisciplinary artist April Lin 林森.
Home is the horizon
Hayley Wu (胡禧怡)
“It feels like there’s no good place to be these days,” my friend tells me over lunch. We are in a quiet corner of Hong Kong, thinking about the dozens of friends and acquaintances who in the past year have left the city, looking for a new home. From what we hear, no one has found one elsewhere yet.
Hiding in Plain Sight
Andrés N. Ordorica responds to Batería, a film by Damián Sainz Edwards that captures the raw beauty of a disused military base just outside of Havana, a refuge for gay men for cruising, connection, and imagining better futures.
The power of orating our histories
Georgina Quach
Still We Thrive, written and directed by Campbell X, ensures we never look away from the past. It brings together contemporary Black actors speaking to camera with archive footage of Black history from the Caribbean, United Kingdom, United States and the African continent. As poet Elizabeth Alexander said, for so long, communities of colour have had to “carry around knowledge and stories in our bodies,” because resources were not devoted to preserving the spaces that held those stories and culture.
Embracing stillness to conceive the Soft Bwoi
Arusa Qureshi
Beyond the constructs and confines of gender, the divine feminine exists deep within us all. It’s the energy that allows for compassion, nurturing and devotion; an embracing of softness and stillness in all its varying guises. In Danny Bailey’s short film Soft Bwoi, the notion of the divine feminine is beautifully encapsulated through the use of folklore and imagery from Caribbean carnival culture and queerness.
A quiet, queer reclamation of nature
Theophina Gabriel responds to black queer nature poem for khadijah (and all of us), a gentle performance film by Mae Diansangu and one of Fringe of Colour’s 2021 commissions.
Unravelling gender through nature and mysticism
Rho Chung responds to Selkie, a visually sumptuous short film exploring issues of identity and belonging through visual and oral storytelling, by collaborative siblings Niall and India Moorjani.
Rising, falling and unfurling within our queer identities
Theophina Gabriel responds to Bloom, a queer Kenyan pole dancer’s surreal adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by A.T, and a Fringe of Colour 2020 Commission.
Exploring the queer nature of healing
Asyia Iftikhar responds to plant portals: breath, a film by Nicky Chue who presents an experimental meditation on the concept of “rest” and asks: “Can nature heal us?”
Paying homage to the Black queer dancefloor
Elete N-F responds to CLUB, a vibrant exploration of queer black women forging space for themselves against the landscape of London's nightlife, by Esme Allman.