In this collaboration with Curious Arts, three person theatre collective 'Bonnie and The Bonnettes' talk all things LGBT+. Hattie Eason, Cameron Sharp and Becky Glendenning share what they've been up to during lockdown, the people they look up to as Queer Artists and how their relationships in and out of the collective have developed.

Please consider giving to this ko-fi link to support artists www.ko-fi.com/curiousarts

This week on Audio Queer, check out the brilliant Trans poet and writer AJ Mckenna. AJ opens up about her process writing, the drive toward changing representation of Trans characters on stage and her new found discovery creating Youtube content. 

This project is a collaboration with the fantastic Curious Arts, to celebrate LGBTQIA+ artists in the North East of England. To support their work and this project, please donate to the following link: https://ko-fi.com/curiousarts

Jennifer Cerys is co-artistic director of Lemon House Theatre alongside Samia Djilli. During the current pandemic, Jennifer and Samia have created 'Lemon Lounge'; a podcast chatting to Queer artists and artists from the MENA diaspora about their experiences, and the ways in which the theatre industry needs to change so that, when doors re-open, there’s still a space for their stories.

www.lemonhousetheatre.com/lemon-lounge

Check out on Spotify 'Lemon Lounge' for more content.

In this weeks collaboration with Curious Arts, I chat to Alternative country and Folk singer Gem Andrews (she/her). Gem's latest album North is a gorgeous blend of memory and pain. 

We talk about the reality of the mainstream music industry and building her own collaborative process. Her beautiful relationship with her daughter and developing the idea for Muma Moonshine Festival (full of Gaybies apparently). https://ko-fi.com/curiousarts

Episode 11 of Audio Queer is with the wonderful Mandy and Danni from Sail Creative. In this conversation, we discuss the vision of pushing forward their continued activism in Sail Creative's collaborations with brands such as IWeigh and Curious Arts, the struggles growing up in heteronormative coastal towns and their journey to self-acceptance. These two are true creative rebels. 

www.ko-fi.com/curiousarts

This week meet choreographer, dancer and performer, Patrick Ziza (he/him). We discuss actively bringing social justice and change as a community back into main house theatre spaces. We also chat about the power in using movement as a form of therapy and Patrick's work bringing Dandyism to the streets of the UK.

The conversation is a powerful reminder of the power in collective strength, bringing Queerness to all types of audiences and unifying against competitive narratives. ww.ko-fi.com/curiousarts

Meet Catrina McHugh MBE, Artistic Director of Open Clasp Theatre Company. As a Lesbian Woman, Catrina has used her own experiences growing up to bring Queerness into the work she creates. Open Clasp collaborate with women and young women on the margins of society to create bold and innovative theatre for personal, social and political change. We talk about a whirlwind of topics; her uncomfortableness coming out, the joy of being part The Camp Vamps band and how activism is a central aspect of her work.

In Episode 8 of Audio Queer, we meet Jamie Tansley and Zoe Murtagh. These two creatives collaborate in the roles of dramaturg, director and writer. 

We discuss their collaboration on the project 'Iconography', the power of Drag as a means of exploring gender identity and the responsibility we have as a collective to learn from and inspire/be inspired from our young people. It's an open dialogue of how we learn and the shared responsibility we have as a community to pave the way for a better world.

Richard Bliss is a socially engaged artist whose works in Textiles allows him to unpick identity. He is currently working on The Quest for the Perfect Shirt (questforperfectshirt.com) a project exploring masculinity one shirt at a time. 

In this chat, we hear about Richard's role models, his journey to understand the masculinity in his own household and what it means to wake up everyday and change the world.

In this collaboration with Curious Arts, we meet Gobscure. Gobscure are a Bisexual and Disabled artist working with poetry, sound art and visuals. 

In this chat we learn about Sergei Parajanov, Mary Wollstonecraft and imagine Jacob Rees-Mogg in a petticoat. Gobscure shares their understanding of oppression, their creative ways of rebelling against authority and even performs 'Rose Carved in Rain'. This conversation is a poignant blend of authenticity and exhaustion. It cracked open my heart and mind.