After a decade of showcasing the best LGBTQI+ arts from across the globe, GFEST – Gaywise FESTival is reshaping the annual celebrations. Come and join us at the free entry GFEST 2018 Launch, featuring a spirited star studded soiree by performers of ‘The Cocoa Butter Club’, artists Roxana Halls, Shalicefinds, Charan Singh, dancer Sanjay Shetty, digital artist Katy Jalili, and acapella act TStarNay, LGBT Poet Laureate Trudy Howson, My Genderation film and many more…

It is an absolutely “unmissable and MUST” evening full of LGBTQI+ arts, videos, music, performers, spoken word and live acts. GFEST is co-ordinated by arts charity Wise Thoughts.
Food and drinks are available at the bar.

Mon 12 Nov 6 pm – 8.30 pm. Performances start at 7 pm.

Free Entry.

Check GFEST 2018 events #GFEST2018 theme is #SociallyEQUAL.

Alexandra Palace, Transmitter Hall,
Alexandra Palace Way, London N22 7AY
Public transport: Bus W3, from Finsbury Park and Wood Green.

Soufiane Ababri
Solo Exhibition, SPACE
28 Sep – 24 Nov 2018
Opening: Thur 27 Sep, 6-9pm
Gallery hours: Mon – Fri: 9-5pm, Sat: 1-6pm

SPACE is excited to announce the opening of Soufiane Ababri’s first UK show in its main Mare Street gallery on 27 September 2018. The exhibition will present a new body of work by the Tangier-born artist, the culmination of a month-long residency at SPACE. For this commission, SPACE is working in partnership with Glassbox gallery in Paris to generate a high-profile exchange between London and Paris in support of Ababri’s work.

Ababri’s work confronts homophobia and racism in order to dismantle mechanisms of domination — from post-colonialist to patriarchal power structures — while aiming to thwart oppressive social dynamics. His intimately drawn, erotically charged scenes are inspired by images of his family and friends, online sources and art history. The artist highlights the influence of violence on the forms of art history and on cultural identities. Appropriating everyday moments, street scenes, press photographs and intimate acts, he explores themes of anonymous sex, gay icons, post-colonial exoticism and relationships of domination. His evocative drawings, installations and performances contribute greatly to contemporary art discourse on race and sexual identity.

Coeval Magazine says of Ababri’s artwork “The fearlessness of his boundary-pushing work ignites with flying colours much-needed discussions about the convergence of discriminations for the LGBTQI community.” (Coeval Magazine, May 2018)

This project is generously supported by Fluxus Art Projects

Image credit: Soufiane Ababri, from the series “Bed Works”, coloured pencils on paper 24 x 32 cm, 2016 – ongoing

The films in this programme celebrate inclusivity, diversity and freedom regardless of gender, religious background or age. Followed by drinks. In association with GFEST – Gaywise FESTival.

On My Way Out: The Secret Life of Nani and Popi (dir Brandon Gross, Skyler Gross)
Having celebrated their 65th anniversary with their children and grandchildren, Nani and Popi seem happy and content. It comes as a shock for everyone, therefore, when a short time later, Popi, aged 95, comes out as gay. Or almost everyone: as it turns out his wife knew about it all along, but decided to keep her family together at the cost of her own happiness. On My Way Out tells an extraordinary story about relationships, family and the sacrifices we make to keep them intact.

Summer (dir Pearl Gluck)
Two teenage girls experience their sexual awakening together while at a Hassidic summer camp.

Sunset (dir Katie Ennis, Gary Jaffe)
A young man is torn between his sense of duty to serve his country and his wish to stay with his male lover in New York in the days following Pearl Harbor.

Starboy (dir Joëlle Bentolila)
A young married Hassidic man questions his identity and the nature of being, turning to the study of the Kabbalah and quantum mechanics – with irreparable consequences.

The Rabbi (dir Uriya Hertz)
A yeshiva-bocher confesses a secret to his rabbi-teacher awakening disturbing thoughts in him.

As part of TIC Film Club Queer screenings, there will be showing of A Fantastic Woman by Chilean director Sebastián Lelio, the winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, will be screened on Wed 21^st November to mark Transgender Day of Remembrance. The opening short is the Swedish No More We directed by David Färdmar. A Discussion with organisers and public rounds up the event. Doors open at 7 pm. Tickets £5.

A Fantastic Woman is about Marina, a waitress and singer. She and Orlando, an older man, are in love and are planning for the future. When Orlando suddenly falls ill and dies, Marina is forced to confront his family and society – to show them who she is – complex, strong, forthright, fantastic.

A part of GFEST 2018 events

Panel Discussion
Beautiful Fruit: LGBTQI artists on challenging normativity through their work
Thu 15 Nov, 7.30-9pm
£3/5 (price includes drinks)
Book here

Panelists: Katy Jalili, Gaby Sahhar & Charan Singh
Chair: Niranjan Kamatkar

SPACE and GFEST 2018 have partnered to bring you a panel discussion by contemporary visual artists that expand on this year’s GFEST theme #SociallyEQUAL. The event is part of GFEST and the public programme at SPACE for the current exhibition ♪ Here is a Strange and Bitter Crop ♪♪ by Soufiane Ababri.

The event takes its name, Beautiful Fruit, from the title of Ababri’s 6 intimate and erotically explicit drawings which are central to the exhibition. Beautiful Fruit connects the wider question of social equality for the LGBTQI community with Ababri’s work that aims to thwart oppressive social dynamics and normative gender roles by highlighting the influence of violence on the forms of art history and on cultural identities.

The panel discussion is chaired by GFEST and Wise Thoughts artistic director Niranjan Kamatkar and is hosted by SPACE. Artists on the panel, Katy Jalili, Gaby Sahhar and Charan Singh, will present their work and artistic practices in relation to the question ‘how can the LGBTQI+ community achieve social equality?’ before discussing these ideas between themselves. This will be followed by a Q&A with the audience. The exhibition will be open late especially for attendees of the event.

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Katy Jalili (Katayoun Jalilipour) is a genderqueer Iranian born multidisciplinary artist, performer and writer. Katy has previously written for Shades of Noir (2016-17) and now writes freelance. They graduated from Performance: Design and Practice at Central Saint Martins in 2017 (First class Hons) with a research focusing on how queer femme bodies claim a performance stage. Currently their continuing their research on queer ancestry for people of diaspora which lead to the making of their first short film #Familiar #Touch #Lost #Figures, screened both nationally and internationally. They are currently an artist in resident at Wotever World, where they are commissioned to make new performances showcased on a monthly basis at Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Katy was named as one of the top 5 queer artists in 2017 by i-D.

Gaby Sahhar is an artist whose works mostly takes the form of film, activism based painting and performance. There practise aims to analysis the power imbalances that occur within public and private space within London caused by forms toxic masculinity. Sahhar practise aims to expose How these traits of masculinity can filter through the architecture of the everyday within a city penetrating its landscape leading to ‘genderfication’ and oppression within queer communities in London. Sahhar is also founder of LGBTQi+ project space, artist support network and gallery: Queerdirect, in the past Sahhar has worked with galleries such as the TATE, Arcadia Missa, Almanac Projects and Somerset House.

Charan Singh (b. India, 1978) lives and works from New Delhi and London. He is currently a PhD candidate in Photography at the Royal College of Art, London. Singh’s photographic practice is informed by HIV/AIDS work and community activism in India, along with a formal study of the history of art and photography. He is interested in the representation of desires, identities, gender, sexualities, relationships, loss, trauma and recovery. Simultaneously, he questions notions of the genre of self portraiture, however the principal common thread of his works are memory, story telling, and masculinity. His work has been exhibited at Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi (2014), The Photographers Gallery, London (2015), FotoFest, Houston (2015), GFEST, London (2015) and SepiaEye, New York (2016).

Niranjan Kamatkar (b. India) is artistic director of Wise Thoughts—an issue-based arts charity working with LGBTQI and BAME artists, filmmakers, and practitioners—and London’s LGBTQI cross art annual event GFEST – Gaywise FESTival. He works tirelessly with leading organisations, such as the BFI, to showcase LGBTQI work and is an established filmmaker and artist in his own right.

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GFEST – Gaywise FESTival® (known as GFEST) is recognised as an annual LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex ) cross-art celebration. Over last 10 years the festival has presented LGBTQI films, music, performances, art exhibitions, interdisciplinary art, poetry, book reading, workshops, participatory events, debates, etc. events each November.

SPACE is a leading visual arts organisation providing creative workspace, advocacy, support and promoting innovation.

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This event is supported by SPACE and jointly organised by the Wise Thoughts /GFEST team and SPACE

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Image credit: Soufiane Ababri ♪ Here is a Strange and Bitter Crop ♪♪, 2018, photo: Tim Bowditch

Queer Question Time returns this November with The BAME edition.

This will be the last #QQT of 2018 and is part of the annual LGBT arts festival GFEST – Gaywise FESTival.

On the Panel are
Councillor Rhoit Dasgupta – Labour
Chloe Davis – Activist
Rhys Hollis (Performer)
Sadie Sinner (Performer)
1 other panellist TBC

Chaired by Son of a Tutu
Produced by David Robson
6.30pm arrival for a 7pm prompt start.

Now in its 11th year, GFEST – Gaywise FESTival is an annual LGBTQI cross-art event in November that showcases fresh alongside established talent including a focus on BAME people, every year. From 2018 GFEST is now open, enabling other groups to organise their own LGBTQI cultural events under its banner in the middle of November.

About #QQT Queer Question Time is a community-led discussion event that debates current LGBTQ issues as well as local and national politics. This is an opportunity for YOU to ask those in power about the issues that concern you the most.
So please do send in your questions to put to our panel. Until then please share, invite your friends and join us for an evening of discussion. Getting to the heart of what matters most in the community #QQT