This Friday Late features a programme curated by BLM Fest, commissioned by Counterpoints Arts and the V&A during Refugee Week 2022. BLM Fest was founded by Kayza Rose, and is a celebration of Black lives. BLM Fest is an invitation for everyone to take part and an exciting model of cultural production that fairly compensates Black people for their ideas, time and labour.
Masculinity does not exist, only masculinities. Identity doesn’t exist, only identities. We live in a promising world of gender expression and exploration, where how you define yourself can take on multiple forms. In this plural world, On the Verge explores the tipping point, highlighting the artists, designers, and performers, questioning the norms of masculine and feminine identity and the possibilities to come. Let a thousand genders bloom.
@blmfest
All events are free, and places are designated on a first-come-first-serve basis unless stated otherwise. Filming and photography will take place at this event. If you have any access requirements, please let us know in advance by emailing disability@vam.ac.uk
Poetry Workshop
Europe 1600–1815 Galleries
The Salon, Room 4
18.45, 19.45, 20.45, drop in
Poet, educator, cultural curator and activist, PJ Samuels leads this workshop where you’ll work together to interrogate issues of autonomy, race, gender, patriarchy and identity and explore belonging. Originally from Jamaica, she is passionately vocal about human rights, mental wellness, stigmatisation and inequalities. PJ Samuels founded ‘Weather the Storm’, an LGBTI Refugee peer support group she started in 2015.
@pjsamuelspoet
A Taste of London Ballroom (C)
The Raphael Cartoons,
Room 48a
Talk at 19.15, Workshop at 19.45,
Performance at 20.45
A 3-part dip into Ballroom and the art of Voguing hosted by Kayza Rose. Delve into the living roots of UK Ballroom with a history lesson by London’s OG Harliyana 007. Then let your body do the talking as Pop-Dip-Spin extraordinaire Bronze 007 teaches a beginner’s voguing workshop. Followed by a performance by Tiffany 007, aka The Banji C*nt (She/They), and Bronze 007.
@kayza_rose
@swarovskibae_
@tiffany.the.mannequin
@groingthroughit
Screening of VISIBLE and Panel Discussion (E)
Hochhauser Auditorium,
Sackler Centre for arts education
18.30, 19.00, 19.30, 20.00, 21.00
Panel discussion at 20.30
Film duration: 20 minutes
VISIBLE, directed by Campbell X and produced by Kayza Rose, challenges common misconceptions about LGBTQI+ Black and People of Colour. The film calls upon inspirational ancestors, contemporary artists and activists working to challenge mainstream perceptions and the sanitisation of LGBTQI+ legacies. At 20.30, hear from founding director of Mzz Kimberley’s LIFE, Kim Tatum; writer and performer Keith Jarrett; and international athlete and advocate for diversity and inclusion, Corinne Humphreys in a panel discussion chaired by Kayza Rose, founding Director of BLM Fest.
@campbellx
@kayza_rose
@keithjlondon
@cdhumphreys
@mzzkimberley
Memoirs of a Masculine Man (G)
The John Madejski Garden
Durational performance throughout the evening Rwandese born, British movement-based artist, Ishimwa Muhimanyi delivers a site-specific performance in the central garden of the museum. For Ishimwa, masculinity is synonymous with fragility. Ishimwa’s work will explore the cracks in the masculine. Butt cracks, emotional cracks, spiritual cracks, and temperamental cracks. Using movement, fashion and furniture, Ishimwa will take you on a journey of a man.
@ishimwa
