Yona Wallach

Yona Wallach

Harper-Hugo Darling

For the second article in our celebration of women’s history month, we look at the controversial feminist poet, Yona Wallach. Yona Wallach was born in Israel, and she had a significant impact on both the artistic and political climate of the country, partly due to never leaving the country. She used her poetry to challenge the borders of gender and sexuality, often touching on more taboo content, and because of this we will give a warning before our exploration of her work and life; we will discuss sexual content. If that is something you are not comfortable with for any reason, we will have another article coming out next week.

Bricktop

Bricktop

Harper-Hugo Darling
Happy Endings, World War 2

To wrap up Black History Month, we are going to do another two-part article looking at a woman who was the center of the night scene in Paris during the 20’s. We will look at a woman who was not only talented in her own right, but also fostered the talent of the people around her, and made connections with some of the most incredible rising stars of her day. We will discuss the impact of a woman who was loved by almost everyone she interacted with. 

Dwayne Jones

Dwayne Jones

Harper-Hugo Darling

In our third article for Black History Month, we will be moving to a more difficult topic, and discuss the life and murder of Dwayne Jones. Before we begin, we want to give a trigger warning; we will be discussing violent homophobia, transphobia, and death, so anyone who finds those topics potentially triggering- our next article will be out in a couple of days, and we'll make sure to find a happier topic. We will indicate where we explicitly discuss the details of her death with an asterisk when we start, and one when we move on from the details, but there will be discussion around the event for the entire article. Please do what is best for yourself, whatever that may be.

Rotimi Fani-Kayode

Rotimi Fani-Kayode

Harper-Hugo Darling

As our celebration of Black History Month continues we have the privilege of looking at another incredible black queer person in the queer community’s history: Rotimi Fani-Kayode. As with many of the people, we write about, Rotimi was an artist. A photographer, more specifically, whose work was revolutionary for his time and remains so today.

Brenda Fassie

Brenda Fassie

Harper-Hugo Darling

This week we are excited to begin our celebration of Black History Month! To start, we will be looking at some more recent history, specifically the life and times of Brenda Fassie. Fassie was a South African pop star who gained international fame for her work and for the many media storms that built up around her. She was the niece of the famed activist-turned-president, Nelson Mandela, and also held many of the same political stances throughout her life. A number of her songs were even banned in America. She was incredibly influential during her lifetime, exchanging the safety privacy could have offered her for a dramatically public life. It seems only right that we explore that life now.

Kiyoshi Kuromiya

Kiyoshi Kuromiya

Grace Wordsworth

Hello, all! This is the last article for the month of January and the last article that’s going to be written by Grace – Laura is coming off hiatus in February so Queer History can celebrate Black History Month!

Federico Garcia Lorca

Federico Garcia Lorca

Grace Wordsworth

This week we’ll be looking at the life, poetry, and activism of Federico García Lorca. While his romances rarely ended well, Lorca made waves by being unapologetically queer in the face of a vindictive, bigoted, and aggressive Spanish government.

Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen

Grace Wordsworth

Wilfred Owen was a war poet who served in the First World War; his experiences on the field led not only to the aforementioned mental illness but also to some truly evocative, anti-war poetry and a romance with fellow poet, Siegfried Sassoon.

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

Grace Wordsworth

Virginia Woolf is a complex and problematic character. Like many of the aristocrats of her time, she was deeply racist and anti-semitic. Her queerness does not excuse these prejudices. However, her queerness and struggles with mental illness are still worth exploring. These aspects of her personality, as expressed through her relationships as well as through her writing, allow modern readers of her work to find not a role model, but rather hints of their own struggles in a pillar of the past.

Tamara de Lempicka

Tamara de Lempicka

Harper-Hugo Darling
Happy Endings, World War 2

When writing an article about an artist, one expects to have some discussion of the art created by the person in question, but in this case, that is going to be avoided. Tamara de Lempicka was a highly controversial artist, and there is no lack of people studying her work, no matter which side they fall on in regards to its worth. But we are not going to be looking at that, as we are not art experts, and have never claimed to be. We are going to be looking instead at her life, and it is an extraordinary one to discuss.

Reinaldo Arena

Reinaldo Arena

Harper-Hugo Darling

To paraphrase the great Terry Pratchett, it is a curse to live in interesting times. Thus, as the world is once again witnessing a great change, we at Queer History are unable to remove ourselves from current events. It is impossible to ignore the connection between what is occurring now in Cuba and what once occurred. This week, this relationship between past and present is found in two deaths: that of Fidel Castro on November 25th, 2016, and that of Reinaldo Arenas on December 7th, 1990.

Rita Hester

Rita Hester

Harper-Hugo Darling

When I write my articles, I try to keep them from becoming personal. I replace the I’s with we’s because I am not representing myself, but my community. This week, that didn’t feel possible. I will go back to that format next week, but this week, the article is deeply personal, and it would be a lie to pretend otherwise. Transgender Day of Remembrance is a one-day event, not a week or a month, like Pride. When researching this article, there is a very clear reason for that: because it is too much. It is too much for any person to bear to have a full week of scrolling through the names. I have also found, throughout this week, that everyone who witnesses the names is affected by something different. My fiance was affected by those without names, the ones with the least information, the ones that were hardest to remember because information about them was so scarce. My mother was affected by the words “thrown out of a moving car” repeated so often throughout the list. A friend was left sitting alone after the rest of the room at my local pride center had moved on because of one particular name: a name that was not on the list but deserved to be. Another friend was paralyzed by a name they recognized. 

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Harper-Hugo Darling

Today, as most of you are aware, is Transgender Day of Remembrance. This day has been set aside to memorialize transgender people who have been killed in the past year. The Transgender Day of Remembrance was launched in 1999 by Gwendolyn Ann Smith in honor Rita Hester, who had been killed the year before, on December 4th. Since then, it has since grown in momentum, leading to candlelight vigils held worldwide to honour those we have lost. It’s common, at these gatherings, for a list of names to be read out, so the names of those we have lost will be remembered and their lives meditated on. This year, though, we want to go beyond the names. 

The Ladies of Llangollen

The Ladies of Llangollen

Harper-Hugo Darling
Happy Endings

This week, we find ourselves again surrounded by political turmoil. In moments like these, we always have to consider if our voice is needed in the dialogue. If we could say anything that hasn’t already been said. This week we found there is nothing we need to add, so instead we will take this time we have with our dearest readers and tell you all a love story. The story of the Ladies of Llangollen, Eleanor Butler, and Sarah Ponsonby, two Irish women who fell in love, and lived happily ever after. A type of story that is all too uncommon in our history, but we are happy to share with you now.

The Future of Queer Media

The Future of Queer Media

Harper-Hugo Darling
Queer People in Media, Happy Endings

With this final article in our series on queer representation in media, we will look at where we want to see queer media go in the next decade, wrapping up our queer media series. Researching this final leg of the series was difficult, as it's hard to research the future, but we did our best. We interviewed the main team of a project in production, and the Executive Director of Represent, all of whom gave us insight into the present state of queer media, and using our research into the patterns of our past we can get a glimpse of what the future holds.

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