Artsadmin

Skip links

  1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to search

Queer Clash Diary

A grid of square pictures of artists: Asifa Lahore, Alizée Ndiaye, Aurelie, Ray Young, Symoné, Seyi Osi, Fraserfab, Travis Alabanza, Bilansu, Jasmine Kahlia, Danny Bailey & Alizée Ndiaye, Sheperd's Bush, Wet Mess, Nene Camara, Katy Baird & Ben Walters. Overlayed, a black and pink Queer Clash Diary logo, with text reading Arts Networking Day

Everyone’s favourite queer arts networking day, Queer Clash Diary is back for 2024! This year Raze Collective and Artsadmin are teaming up to bring you a jam packed day of talks, presentations and a whole host of creative activities.

The day will focus on making connections and having conversations. Get practical advice on Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice applications, take part in our queer arts speed dating to meet future collaborators and hear from some of the UK’s most innovative & exciting queer artists.

Queer Clash Diary brings together promoters, producers, venues, performers, artists and collectives from across London’s queer performance scene. It is an opportunity to meet your peers, share projects, make plans for the future and play!

12pm: Doors open 

12.30 – 1.30pm: Talk: DYCP Top Tips! with Nene Camara from Artsadmin & Raze Collective’s Fraser Buchanan (Theatre)

1.30 – 7pm Digital Screenings featuring pieces from Bilansu, Wet Mess and Palace of the Dogs (Fire Room)

1.30 – 7pm: Badge Cafe with Ben Walters (Artsadmin Canteen)

1:30 – 7pm: Pochette Making with Alizée Ndiaye (Fire Room)

1:30 – 3pm: 20 minute 1-on-1 interactive showings of Highway to Infinity Final Level with Symoné (Backstage Theatre)*

1.30pm – 7pm: Organisation stalls including: Artsadmin, Raze Collective, Malborough Productions, The Hale, Chisenhale Dance Space and Battersea Arts Centre (Court Room)

2:30 – 5:30pm: Tarot with Aurelie aka Soulful Queen (Fire Room)

2pm – 3pm: Zine Making with Jasmine Kahlia (Court Room)

2pm – 3pm: Queer Arts Speed Dating with Asifa Lahore and Shepherd’s Bush (Studio 3)

3.30pm – 4.30pm: Artist Talk: Autobiographical practice with Travis Alabanza, Katy Baird & Ray Young hosted by Seyi Osibamowo from Raze Collective (Theatre)

4:30 – 5.30pm: 20 minute 1-on-1 interactive sharings of Highway to Infinity Final Level with Symoné (Backstage Theatre)*

5pm – 6pm: Queer Arts Speed Dating with Asifa Lahore and Shepherd’s Bush (Studio 3)

5pm – 6pm: Zine Making with Jasmine Kahlia (Court Room)

*There are only 5 slots to see Highway to Infinity Final Level. Bookings will be released to people holding tickets for Queer Clash Diary via email on Friday 1 March, and are first come first served.

Pricing system
We have priced our tickets on a means-based Pay What You Can band system, based on a model developed by Buzzcut, SQIFF and Glasgow Zine Library. We know that ticket price is a huge barrier for some, and this model offers people who can afford to pay the higher bands a chance to support others who can’t.

FREE
We offer free tickets to people otherwise could not afford a ticket to this event. Please only select this option if you need it.

Band 1 – low income
Choose either option if:

  • You frequently stress about basic needs and don’t always achieve them
  • You may be underemployed or unemployed
  • You rent low-end property and require assistance from government and/or voluntary assistance including food banks and benefits
  • You have little or no expendable income
  • You likely cannot afford a holiday or could not take the time off without financial burden

Band 2 – paying the price
Choose this option if:

  • You regularly meet your basic needs such as rent and food
  • You have access to financial savings or have the ability to save
  • You are part-time or full-time employed
  • You may buy some new items and others second hand
  • You have expendable income
  • You can take a holiday annually or every couple of years

Band 3 – feeling generous
Choose this option if:

  • You rarely stress about meeting your basic needs and are comfortably able to meet them
  • An organisation is paying for your ticket, or sponsoring you to attend
  • You have access to financial savings
  • You are employed or may not need to work
  • You own your own property or may rent a higher-end property
  • You have expendable income
  • You can always afford to buy new items
  • You can afford to take an annual holiday
  • Our building is wheelchair accessible. Read more about Accessibility at Toynbee Studios.
  • All toilets at Toynbee Studios are gender neutral. 
  • Ear defenders and earplugs are available and can be collected from the reception desk.
  • There is a quiet space located on the 4th floor which also includes a pair of ear defenders.
  • The first-floor accessible toilet has a wheelchair-accessible shower with a fold-down shower seat and an ergonomic sink that is adjustable in height. 
  • We will have two floating Access Support workers on hand during the day to assist with any questions & queries and offer support getting around the building.
  • BSL interpretation is available on request plus an Audio Describer will be on hand on the day. Email access@artsadmin.co.uk or call 020 7247 5102 to arrange this or any other access needs, and please allow at least a week’s notice. 
  • Caption
    • 12.30pm -1.30pm: DYCP Top Tips
    • 3.30pm – 4.30pm: Artist Talk

Queer Clash Diary is presented by Raze Collective in partnership with Artsadmin. Raze Collective is a charity established to support, develop & nurture LGBTQ+ (queer) performance in the UK. Their mission is to increase access to participation in the arts for LGBTQ+ audiences & create life-changing development pathways for LGBTQ+ creatives.

Relaxed Activities


Ben Walters  – Badge Cafe
Badge Cafe offer crafty utopian hangouts where people can relax, create and connect by reusing old books and magazine to make badges. It’s welcoming, easy and fun and you can stay for as long or as short as you like, making as many or as few badges as you like. You might just surprise yourself. 
@badgecafe

Aurelie aka Soulful Queen – Tarot
Aurelie aka Soulful Queen Tarot is a Tarot Reader and Life coach student from the South of France, with Cameroonian Heritage.
She has called East London her home for the past 10 years, and dedicated 4 of those years to studying Tarot and symbolism.
Her sacred purpose is to allow people to find guidance and to uncover sides of their story that they might not be aware of (yet), with a life coach approach.
After an encounter with her, querents leave clear-headed, happier, and with more hope than when they came to her
@soulfulqueentarot

Alizée Ndiaye – Pochette making
Alizée, a Multidisciplinary Creative/ Culture Curator  from France, shifted from social work to London’s creative scene in 2019. She founded Don’t Touch My Heritage (DTMH) to uplift black and brown artists. Co-directing The Palace Of The Dogs since 2022, she focuses on costume/set design and Art curation. Her works focus  on decolonization and positive storytelling, aiming for equity.
@alizeendiaye

Jasmine Kahlia – Zine making
The work of acclaimed Audiovisual Artist Jasmine Kahlia has been shown across the UK and abroad in Spain, Germany, and the USA. Jasmine has made a substantial contribution to the UK arts sector since 2016, and some of the biggest institutions in the country have platformed Jasmine’s work, despite Jasmine avoiding press and social media.

These include Wellcome Collection, Centrala, Britten Pears Arts, Haringey Culture, Resonance FM, Rich Mix, London Metropolitan Archives, Theatre Deli, UAL, Sage and BALTIC Gateshead, Lighthouse Arts Centre, Sound UK and Alexandra Palace, amongst others.

Jasmine’s proved excellence within music, short films and literature and has had work archived at Iniva, London Metropolitan Archives and been commissioned by Haringey Council, Sound UK, Tiata Fahodzi and Raze Collective. Jasmine works across around 19 different artforms to bring work to life. Jasmine has led many successful installations, commissions and exhibitions, and has been recognised for the standout pieces:

  • 5 WAYS 2 RUN [Edinburgh Fringe of Colour] August 2021
  • Everythin is Temporary [2018], Archived in: Goldsmiths, UAL, Baltic Gateshead, Sittingbourne Library, Wellcome Collection and Iniva Library, amongst others.

Read Jasmine’s zines online here.

Organisation stalls

Battersea Arts Centre is a home for extraordinary artists, young people and communities. Based in the old Battersea Town Hall near Clapham Junction, it programmes word class theatre and performance.

Marlborough Productions is a catalyst for queer culture and community. They are a leading UK producer of queer-led, intersectional performance, parties, heritage and radical community gatherings. Led by Co-Creative Directors Tarik Elmoutawakil and David Sheppeard, Marlborough Productions is a pioneering organisation that advances equality and social justice through producing intersectional queer culture.


Artist Talks

Travis Alabanza
Travis Alabanza is an award winning writer and theatre maker. Their recent work includes Sound of the Underground at the Royal Court, and the Khalak Prize winning memoir – None of the Above.
@travisalabanza

Katy Baird
Katy Baird is an artist and her new solo show ‘Get Off ‘ will be at Battersea Arts Centre in May. Katy is also a producer and is the Artistic Director of Home Live Art. She lives in hastings and proudly identifies as an ‘old, queer, fat, femme deviant’ 
@thenewlookkatyb

Ray Young
Ray Young is an award winning trans-disciplinary performance artist, theatre maker and writer. Their practice exists at the boundaries of activism, queerness, race and neuro-diversity, holding space for those at the intersection of multiple realities, through collaboration and resistance to traditional form.
@rachaelraymck


Speed Dating

Shepherd’s Bush
Shepherd’s Bush is a Drag Sheep exploring what it means to be human and all of the quirks and eccentricities that go with it. Shepherd’s Bush is the alter ego of queer transgender woman Claudia Coelho. Claudia is co-founder of LGBT+ Safe space Their Majesties and manages Queer Croydon, a network that amplifies queerness in the borough and beyond.
@itsshepherdsbush

Asifa Lahore
Asifa Lahore is a drag artist, performer, singer and DJ. She performs across  the UK and internationally, pushing the boundaries of what it means to be LGBT, South Asian and Muslim. Asifa was featured in Channel 4’s documentary Muslim Drag Queens, and film & television credits include Queer Parivaar (Iris Prize winner) and Always (BAFTA nominated). Asifa is passionate about disability rights. She is severely sighted and suffers from Retinitis Pigmentosa. Her activism on intersectionality, race, sexuality, gender, disability and religion has led her to speak at Lost Lectures, Channel 4 Diversity Festival, Women of the World Festival and the British Library.
@asifalahore



Highway to Infinity Final Level (mixed reality installation)

Meet Ish (they/them) and help unlock their memories on a surreal road trip video game about identity, nostalgia, and memories. Highway to Infinity is a work in progress videogame and one part of a 30 minute immersive mixed reality-audio experience created by Symoné in collaboration with Sammy Metcalfe

This is a one-on-one experience lasting 20 minutes. There will be 5 slots to experience it, with one audience member allowed in at a time. Booking slots will be made available to people with tickets for Queer Clash Diary via email on Friday 1 March, and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Each audience member may bring along one guest – either a friend or an access support worker.

The experience is partially captioned and includes sensory experiences such as: moments of darkness, loud noises, physical touch/interaction, redistricted eyesight (if eyes are covered), low lit setting, audio/headphone experience. It is led by the participant, and is slow paced.

Funded by Arts Council England, Attenborough Arts Centre, and Marlborough Productions 
Supported by Raze Collective and Screen South

Age: 16+
Content Warning: Brief nudity and glitching screens

Symoné
Symoné is a Guinness World Record-holding interdisciplinary artist, cabaret performer, alt-circus artist, visionary game designer, theatre maker, and a member of Pecs Drag King Collective. She has performed in 10 different countries from the West End to India with La Soiree, Peaches, Kurt Geiger, Jon Hopkins, and Chris Cox. In addition to her circus and cabaret practice, she has also created 2 theatre productions commissioned by Arts Council England, The Place, Trigger Stuff, and Cambridge Junction, Euphorica, a queer-nature movement and costume based performance and UTOPIAN (t&c’s apply) a surrealistic pop-circus adventure about power roles. Symoné is currently engaged in the development of a mixed-reality installation piece, “A Dream Within A Dream,” in collaboration with Sammy Metcalfe.
@symoneforever


Digital showcase

Three Years Old, Bilansu

A poignant movement piece that encapsulates my journey through eating disorder recovery. It serves as a culmination of my efforts to embrace facets of myself that I’ve long concealed, granting them the freedom to occupy space and simply be in their authentic essence.

Bilansu‘s artistry spans mediums—photography, film, and installation—infusing self-portraiture & storytelling into their work. The allure of self-documentation drives them inward. Amidst perceived stasis, they delve into introspection, unraveling ideologies transcending binary structures, illuminating the human experience.
@bilansu


Yard Gal, The Palace of the Dogs and Don’t Touch My Heritage

Yard Gal, an eco project, linked  a previous movie called  SoftBwoi exploring masculinity. In Yard Gal, we concentrate on Black Femininity and its influence by the white and male gaze on black fem today. With a decolonial approach, Yard Gal challenges expectations, authentically portraying how black fem experiences in a raw and genuine manner.

Don’t Touch My Heritage (DTMH) and The Palace of The Dogs are creative platforms dedicated to empowering black creatives. Through various mediums such as pictures, films, music, and events, these platforms actively showcase and celebrate black culture, providing a vital space for black artists to express themselves and emerge as culture creators. Established in 2019 by Alizée Ndiaye, DTMH is a platform created for and by the diaspora, embodying a commitment to fostering creativity within the black community. 

The Palace of The Dogs, founded by Danny Bailey, emerged in response to the limited artistic freedom in the acting industry. This platform aims to dismantle colonial practices through its engagement with media and art.
in 2023, these two platforms joined forces as sisters, collaborating to curate  exhibitions, thereby solidifying their shared mission to elevate and amplify black voices in the creative sphere.
@thepalaceofthedogs @dtmh___

Bodiless Thing, Wet Mess

Horny for confusion, more chaos, more unknown than known, our mannerisms maximized by a thousand. The ego, the bodiless thing, the crotch grabbing, rubbing its quivering flesh against the rough surfaces of the city scape. Wet Mess exposes us to the euphoria and the alienation of oneself in a frenzied yet blasé pursuit of masculinity. A Bodiless Thing takes us on a muscle fuelled carb killing search for belonging, which makes us question to what extent our material existence determines who we think we are and how we fit into the world. Can we really be that horny, sweaty, binary defying, ridiculously camp person beyond our flesh suits? Cum join the escape and get ready for this transcendental mess.

Wet Mess is an artist who works across visual art, drag, dance, theatre, including choreographing videos for Will Young and London Grammar. Recently they were part of Travis Alabanza‘s Sound of the Underground (Royal Court) which received 5 stars in the Guardian; and winner of Not Another Drag Competition (RVT) 2021. Their film work has been funded by Jerwood Arts and screened at London Short film festival, ICA and The Photographers gallery.
@wet_mess

Date and time

3 March 2024
12–7pm

Please note
This is now a past event.

Venue

Toynbee Studios
London
UK

Top