We sang, Queer Christmas, December 2013
What Is Queertawe?
Christmas 2013: theatre-maker Bethan Marlow and Mess Up The Mess presented a show-stopping production with 100 members of Swansea’s LGBTQI+ community.
Ten years on. The environment and culture of Swansea has changed tremendously. But its queer history is being erased.
Queertawe will connect the queer communities of Swansea in 2 years of creative activity, exploring and learning from each others’ individual and collective journeys and histories. Bringing together professional artists, queer creatives and the LGBTQI+ community, through writing, performance, visual arts and music, this inter-generational project will establish creative and inclusive spaces where queer Swansea can celebrate itself and its stories, all coming together in a Creative Explosion of events in Christmas 2024. Queertawe will create a legacy of lasting connections amongst individuals and organisations, establishing a network of queer creative activity long after the project ends.
Our Shared Objectives
- Reduce loneliness and poor mental health amongst LGBTQI+ people by establishing creative inclusive spaces for them to gain confidence to be their authentic selves.
- Create a queer safe space for all LGBTQI+ people, including those for whom the ‘scene’ is a barrier, being inclusive of disabled people, Welsh speakers, people from a global majority background, recognising their particular needs and insights.
- Increase understanding of queer people, countering hate crime by bringing a creative queer experience to life across the City, claiming a space for queer voices in the story of Swansea’s communities.
- Build resilience of grassroots LGBTQI+ organisations, increasing their membership and interconnections.
- Leave behind a longterm legacy of queer creative activity sustained by an active network of individuals and organisations
