Celebrating LGBTQIA+ History Month with the arts

There is something truly infectious about queer joy and I often find it best experienced through the arts. Our entire history is teeming with examples of our community using the arts as a means of expression, of communication and of protest. It makes us feel seen and heard in ways that are hard to put words to. There is such power to be found in the arts and there is so much power to be found in queer joy.

This power and joy was on display in full force last Saturday when we attended an event put on by the Stockport LGBTQ+ Network showcasing a range of mediums inspired by this year’s LGBTQIA+ History Month theme: activism and social change. Sat in a cosy corner of Cheadle Hulme Library, we gathered and were treated to poetry, paintings, readings and moving conversation about our past, our present and our future.

The event itself was hosted by our very own Vanessa, who did an amazing job of bringing together people from across Stockport and beyond. We had poetry inspired by break-ups, art inspired by how we now view famous paintings of feminine beauty seen only through the male gaze, and a wonderful reading from a young person who at only aged 7, was brave enough to read to the entire group from a book that they feel is important because “it teaches us to be kind and to look after each other”: Silvia and Marsha Start a Revolution by Joy Ellison.

There was conversation about the future of our young queers, about how we engage with those who would oppress us and stories of queer resilience such as The Blood Sisters of the HIV epidemic. There was time and space to talk individually and make connections and introductions. It was truly inspiring.

Something I took away from the event personally, was an almost immediate desire to create something. Anything. To put to paper something to mark how I was feeling in that moment. My own piece of queer history. 

I was inspired by a really thought provoking conversation I had with Hayley Pryke, who had some of her art showcased at the event (@hprkye_13 on Instagram if you’d like to see any of her work) and another attendee. I came away from this conversation thinking about masculine softness and how I experience it as a trans-mascluine non-binary person and also how it is experienced in society. Where words didn’t seem to be enough to describe how I feel about my own masculine softness, I was drawn to create instead.

So as soon as I got home, the paints came out and I sat happily playing with colours and shapes as I created something on paper that felt like it came from a place of pure happiness as I allowed myself to celebrate a part of myself that sometimes even I don’t fully feel like I have a solid handle on.

We so often forget the art of play as we grow up. Hustle culture has us thinking creativity has to be marketed and sold in order to be a “worthy” pursuit. But there is peace and happiness in making and playing with art, just for the sake of doing it. Creativity is something I strongly advocate for when working with clients, especially when a feeling or an event is hard to pin down and tackle with words. 

Queer art has been used to inspire throughout our entire history. From the ballrooms of Brooklyn, to the thousands of signs at every Pride event every year, to my kitchen table on a Saturday afternoon in February: art marks a moment and creates history.

Max x