With the help of funding from the European Cultural Foundation, Busy Being Black presents a series of conversations exploring queer Black solidarity across Europe during the Covid-19 crisis. Alongside stories of resilience and solidarity, these conversations make clear the important sociopolitical and historical context that makes solidarity among queer Black communities in Europe such a necessity in the first place. The series is complemented by artwork from British-Nigerian artist Efe Oyadah, as well as Anthology/Appendix – a multimedia project from artist and activist Isaiah Lopaz centred around queer Black fiction – exploring themes such as migration, faith and belonging.
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The Conversations
The Cradle and the Fist
Liz Fekete is the Director of the Institute of Race Relations and head of its European research program. She has worked with the Institute since 1982 and specialises in contemporary racism, refugee rights, far-right extremism and Islamophobia across Europe. We discuss her nearly 40 years working for the UK’s leading race relations educational charity, her mentorship under the late and great A Sivanandan and how the anti-racism movement here in the UK has changed since the 1980s. Importantly, she provides some necessary historical and sociopolitical context for our current moment, including how the rise of the far-right in Europe over the last 30 years has made our communities more vulnerable to Covid-19 today.
A Wednesday Affair
In a foreign land, two women vow to remain together as they discuss flight, rescue, tragedy and chance while waiting in line to see if they will be admitted into an exclusive club. “A Wednesday Affair” explores migration, faith and mental health, and is voiced by Isaiah Lopaz.
Softness Is Our Birthright
Adeola Aderemi is a multilingual Afro-Greek and multi-format artist, scholar, activist and healer, who spends a great deal of time amplifying the voices of and fighting for marginalised women. We explore her research on violence against women, her key learnings during her John Lewis Fellowship in Atlanta and the moment she became Black. She pushes back against the narrative of Europe as a post-racial project and suggests that Europe does its Black citizens a disservice by pointing to problems abroad it has yet to address at home. As well as her insights about fighting for and defending the Afro-Greek identity and the ways conversations about citizenship and representation differ in England and in Greece, she also calls us to ancestral healing and a softness that is our birthright.
In the Eyes of Our Mothers
On opposite ends of the city, one mother attempts to atone for not accepting her daughter as they play tv catch up, while another battles and belittles her daughter at a family dinner. Both daughters live peacefully and poetically together, but must separately navigate the visions of the women who carried them. "In The Eyes of Our Mothers" explores love, compromise and family ties, and is voiced by Isaiah Lopaz.
Bearing Witness
Olave Nduwanje is an artist, author, legal scholar and activist working across anti-racism, LGBTQ rights, anti-capitalism and disability movements – and she calls us to an understanding of Blackness that is capacious and that contains within it the possibilities of everything we are and can be. Olave discusses how her trans body is read by white and Black people alike, as an indication of some promised future; how she’s using her artistic practice to explore intra-communal conversations about intimacy and race; and why solidarity isn’t solidarity, unless you’re willing to give something up. Olave suggests that when we die, we’ll care more about whether we showed up for people than the things we surrounded ourselves with.
On Not Dying in Germany
While waiting for her sons to visit, an old woman speaks to her long-gone husband about the secrets shrouded in their union, her desire to die at home and her fear that she will be buried not once, but twice. “On Not Dying in Germany” explores secrets, assimilation, colourism and loss, and is voiced by Isaiah Lopaz.
Nosotrxs No Escogimos Este Futuro
iki azaid funes is a Venezuelan migrant and anti-racist activist currently seeking international protection in Spain. She’s a survivor of Covid-19, and her experience fighting Covid-19 and the regime of white supremacy in Europe offers important insights to help us all understand how people like iki so often fall outside the bounds of who is considered human and thus protection, solidarity and citizenship. She suggests the pandemic we’re living through now began with the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492, pushes back against assumptions of the inherent radicality of Black trans bodies and says that pursuing love and pleasure is an essential part of her resistance. Throughout this conversation, iki and I speak in both English and Spanish, a testament to our communities’ on-going commitment to communicate across borders, language and experience.
The Impossibility of Europe
Fatima El-Tayeb is professor of Literature and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego. She’s the author of three books, including European Others: Queering Ethnicity in Post-national Europe; was active in Black feminist, migrant and queer of colour organisations in Germany and the Netherlands, and was one of the co-founders of the Black European Studies Project. She expands upon the connection between Black uprisings in Germany in the 80s and the movement for Black lives now; the differences between European and American racism; the moments she was radicalised and the importance of correcting the historical record. She explains the importance of a queer of colour critique in our thinking, organising and action; sheds light on the construction and function of Islamophobia in Europe; and shares a story about meeting and turning down a dinner invitation from the late and great Audre Lorde.
The Return of the Prodigal Father
An email from a long lost father consisting of four words – “Hi, I love you” – conjures worry, doubt, anger, and unrest. What does he want? The son’s theories point to one answer which consistently appears after each equation: whatever his father asks of him, it shall be done. “The Return of the Prodigal Father” explores loss, unyielding love, family, and forgiveness and is voiced by Isaiah Lopaz.
A Future Beyond Labels
Dr S Chelvan is a globally recognised legal expert on refugee and human rights claims based on sexual or gender identity and expression. His Difference, Stigma, Shame and Harm (‘DSSH’) model is a positive tool to determine an LGBTQ asylum claim, and is endorsed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. We explore Dr Chelvan’s entry point into the UK and into law, and he shares with us his motivations for defending the human rights of LGBTQ asylum-seekers. He discusses his adolescence as a young brown man encountering his sexuality in the age of Section 28, his role as storyteller and translator and how he’s learned to be human from those he empowers and serves.
Me and My Old Man
The love that they have for one person places two men – one a friend, the other a lover – in constant conflict with one another. While waiting to celebrate the achievements of a person they both love deeply, two people have the most honest conversation they’ve ever had. What are the unspoken words hiding behind half hearted greetings, snide remarks, and silent displays of resolve? “Me and My Old Man” explores class, ageism, jealousy and the secrets which often remain quietly kept – and is voiced by Isaiah Lopaz.
