Q&A- The Sacred Power of Queer Spirituality
Finding queer spiritual community is a challenge for our times. We are often times excluded and demonised by religious institutions. Yet there is tremendous power in the queer spiritual path and reclaiming that power will be the focus of this discussion.
Queer Spirit Festival took place for the third time this summer in the UK and is a magical space where the queer community can come together free from judgement and the policing of the outside world to explore and express their divine selves in a multitude of different ways and connect to a community in which to do this with.
A super heart charged thank you to our amazing speakers and those of you who turned up in every sense yesterday. It was such a soulful, enlightening and thought provoking discussion. I hope the ripples from it spread out this week and beyond.
Q&A- Queer Migration Stories
After the success of our launch in April we were back with discussion number two. It was beyond inspiring hearing these amazing humans speak yesterday, thank you so much to you all for being part of it. These stories need to be told and heard, open up your ears, hearts and minds to them. With unity amazing things are possible. And huge thanks to Migration Museum Project for hosting us, you are a gift to the community.
As London Refugee week concluded on the weekend we did deep dive in to the extremely important theme of queer migration stories. With the hugely troubled and turbulent world we live in this is a topic which is relevant to millions of people across the globe, most of whose voices never reach our ears and whose stories remain untold.
In order to heal ourselves and the world around us we need to hear each others stories and learn from them and queer migration stories are sacred ones. It was beyond inspiring hearing our amazing guest speak, thank you so much to you all for being part of it. These stories need to be told and heard, open up your ears, hearts and minds to them. With unity amazing things are possible.
And huge thanks to Migration Museum Project for hosting us, you are a gift to the community.
Resources
- Micro Rainbow-providing safe temporary housing and support for LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers
- Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group-supports LGBTQI+ people through the asylum and immigration process
After the success of our launch in April we were back with discussion number two. It was beyond inspiring hearing these amazing humans speak yesterday, thank you so much to you all for being part of it. These stories need to be told and heard, open up your ears, hearts and minds to them. With unity amazing things are possible. And huge thanks to Migration Museum Project for hosting us, you are a gift to the community.
As London Refugee week concluded on the weekend we did deep dive in to the extremely important theme of queer migration stories. With the hugely troubled and turbulent world we live in this is a topic which is relevant to millions of people across the globe, most of whose voices never reach our ears and whose stories remain untold.
In order to heal ourselves and the world around us we need to hear each others stories and learn from them and queer migration stories are sacred ones. It was beyond inspiring hearing our amazing guest speak, thank you so much to you all for being part of it. These stories need to be told and heard, open up your ears, hearts and minds to them. With unity amazing things are possible.
And huge thanks to Migration Museum Project for hosting us, you are a gift to the community.
Our guest include:
Mazharul Islam, is a LGBT activist from Bangladesh who left his country in 2016 after the murder of two LGBT activists by Islamic extremist in Dhaka. He was one of the pioneer management board members of Bangladeshi’s first online LGBT group named Boys of Bangladesh which is considered the first LGBT online platform for Bangladeshi LGBT people. Maz is also an artist and he had group exhibition of his paintings in Bangladesh, Nepal and Japan. He moved to London on 13 November 2016 with the support of his present employer. Maz is one of the winners of Attitude Pride Award 2018 and he has been nominated for this award for making a protest here in London in front of Bangladesh High Commissioner, asking Justice for his two LGBT activist friends who were brutally murdered.
PJ Samuels, is a poet, educator, and LGBTI human rights activist. She is a Christian and the facilitator of ‘Weather the Storm’ an LGBTI Refugee peer support group she started 2015. Originally from Jamaica, she is passionately vocal about human rights, mental wellness, stigmatisation and inequalities. She is included in the 2017 ‘I am a Refugee’ campaign which celebrates refugees and their contributions to the UK. She is contributor to the Anthology ‘Black and Gay in the UK’, ‘Sista!: An anthology of writings by Same Gender Loving Women of African/Caribbean Descent, Spoken Word London Anti-Hate Anthology. She continues to write poetry that interrogates challenging issues of race, gender, patriarchy and identity and explores facets of belonging.
Moud Goba, is a Zimbabwean lesbian and refugee residing in the UK. She is an LGBTI and human rights activist with more than 15 years’ experience in working with BME LGBTI grassroots community groups. She was one of the founding members of UK Black Pride and is currently their Director of Community Engagement. Ms Goba passionately supports LGBTI asylum seekers and refugees, especially women in immigration detention centres. She has previously worked for UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group. She currently works as a Project Manager for Micro Rainbow International, an organisation that addresses LGBTI poverty worldwide. At MRI, she focuses on the organisation’s safe housing project, providing accommodation to homeless LGBTI asylum seekers in the UK. In South Africa, Ms Goba supports The Fruit Basket, an organisation working with trans migrants and refugees. In 2015, Ms Goba was named one of the top 100 most influential LGBTI people in the UK by The Independent and was the recipient of the Attitude Pride Award.
Bojana Asanovic, is the chairperson for UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group who provide vitally needed legal support and advocacy for LGBTQ+ asylum seekers as well as being involved in research, policy and training in this area. Bojana is a barrister and has a wide-ranging practice in immigration and asylum matters. Her specialist interests include sexual orientation and gender identity and trafficking.
Q&A- Queer Spaces
This was our first ever Q&A discussion (whoop). It was held on Sunday 28th April, 2019 at the delightful new LGBTQIA+ pub The Apple Tree and the theme was: Queer Spaces- homes for the different expressions and intersections of queerness.
Our guest included:
Ryan Lanji, multi talented curator behind London’s hottest queer Bollywood night Hungama, see Hungama in the Guardian.
Josh Cole, creator of the spectacular queer Jewish bonanza Buttmitzvah, see them featured in Time Out.