Ode to my family

The family experience isn’t always a walk in the park. There are arguments, disagreements, jealousy, fights, tears, but also love and laughter. Our family is like any other, with as many individualities as there are people in it.

Takasa: Rescue Our Truths Through Cleansing and Consciouness

In May/June 2017 I visited the coastal region of Kenya in a joint collaboration with Kenyan QLGBTI activist Laura Wangari. Specifically we visited Mombasa, Malindi, Kipini, Lamu and Kilifi towns where we met with QLGBTI identified people. Our conversations over the three weeks centered on the many challenges faced by QLGBTI peoples and the spiritual practices they embraced as a way of negotiating the complexities and contradictions of living a queer life. From our conversations and travels along the coastal towns, we recognise that doing queerness looks different within Kenya, and within the intersectional realities of gender, class, economic access, religion, culture and moments in time. Artistically, our intent is to show a shared love, and understanding, as we engage with the possibilities open to the non-normative black body. At the same time, it is important for us not to engage in a queer ‘mis-reading’ of what we witness, and assign western notions of identity in a search for the African Black queer body. As a collaborative project, we speak only for those of us who are contributors.