These 15 people are being prosecuted for standing up against an inhumane, illegal and abhorrent deportation system being carried out by the Home Office. The government is saying to all of us that if we try and protect those who are vulnerable by standing up or speaking out, we will risk being accused of terrorism. It’s so unbelievable. But it’s happening and it will take all of us to stop it.
Read moreSissy Scum: femme fronted fury
Since February the femmes have been REVOLTING every other month at Sissy Scum. Scurrying up from the sewers of East London, Rodent has been summoning femme ferocity and revolting monstrosity to shake and wail and scream in the face of banality.
VFD's Phoebe chats to Rodent to discover what is at the roaring core of Sissy Scum:
Phoebe: What, or who, is Sissy Scum?
Rodent: Sissy Scum is a live art party and performance platform for queer femmes who aren’t interested in playing nice, being respectable or following rules. Honestly, I started the night for myself so that I could experiment more with club performance and my own arts practice in ways that might not work in other venues but then to also break that open to be a platform for other artists.
It’s also an absolute response to, and rejection of, cis culture and a refocusing of nightlife through a femme, trans non binary lens. It’s about celebrating difficult work and difficult bodies that don’t want to be made good, they just wanna scream and dance.
OMG YES!!! This month's Sissy Scum is all about the TANTRUM. What's got you raging?
Fucking. Everything.
I started thinking about Tantrums earlier this year as a response to how I felt I was being accused of being a bully or an unreasonable brat for taking up space and asserting myself as a nonbinary person. There was such a huge uproar in a particular pocket of London queer culture against “they/them” pronouns, and I was just baffled at the idea that myself and others were being labelled as the cause of the queer communities problems, making cis gay men feeling marginalised in LGBT spaces purely by existing and wanting to be recognised. Boo. Fucking. Hoo.
Tantrum is all about being that brat and taking it to an extreme to ridicule the idea that a bunch of disenfranchised gender fuckers are threatening cis queers. But it’s evolved since then to be more about coping mechanisms and trying to create a way to (un)successfully navigate all the problems in the world that are so vast and out of control.
Also, I feel like at the moment there’s a tendency in our society to shut down emotional outpourings and displays of sensitivity and vulnerability. “Snowflake” is the accusation de jour coming from the right against any display of compassion and emotional depth. “Facts not feels” they tweet, completely lacking in self-awareness as the right’s political machine completely deconstructs truth. So the tantrum is also about rejecting that and giving queer people a space to be an productively or unproductively emotional as they want.
Holy shit you're on fire, i'm so so into this. I literally don't know how to follow that...
Hahaa
I love that you're creating a space for queers to be both vulnerable and fierce, because we find ourselves often being forced into being one or the other - or even more often we're not allowed to be truly either.
Absolutely. I’ve been reading Maggie Nelson lately and in The Art of Cruelty she discusses artists making work out of their own issues and describes a way of making work that just loudly proclaims the artists personal issue without accusing the audience of being complicit or trying to wake them up to it. That’s kind of what I’m trying to do here as well. Emancipate the audience and the artists.
Oh I love love love that book. I think it's so important to think critically about cruelty. Especially as so much cruelty in our daily lives - from transphobia, homophobia, classism, racism, white supremacy etc. - is devastatingly accepted as the status quo. So when people to act up, or stand out, or perform something out of the ordinary they are often making visible that violence which can be shocking to witness but also emancipatory and empowering. Oh god you're getting me distracted cause I could talk about that book forever- but what I mean is that I think it's this idea that we're not singling out people for being complicit but instead recognising that these systems at work. However those systems are just people and we can disarm them by acting differently.
Maybe we should get back on track though!? I feel like lots of the joy, anger and filth of Sissy Scum erupts during the performances. I have so many favourite moments previous shows - like Ellis D spurting paint across the floor whilst trying to teach us to control the weather, johnsmith as wallpaper delivering a technomagic lipsync and you smashing a melon to shit with a baseball bat. What should we expect to explode this Friday?
I’m so excited about the lineup for this weeks party! A lot of artists are showing brand new material which is amazing. I’ll be workshopping how to have the most useless tantrum possible, screaming love songs to my sissies and whingeing whingeing whingeing. I’ve gone much bigger this time round with more live artists, two film screenings and two DJs joining the fray. It’s going to be a big amazing mess that I am just itching to roll around in.
Me too! So, if I was gonna rat-trap you in the Basement with 8 music tracks to keep you company - what would you choose?
I’m into this desert island discs moment! Right now I think it’d have to choose:
Cease & Desist by Alice Glass //
invisible light by Scissor Sisters //
She will be a relic one day by Macy Rodman //
Heavy Metal and Reflective by Azealia Banks //
Phone Sex (Unicorn Kid Remix) by BloodPop and Grimes //
StoneFist (Boize Boize Remix) by HEALTH
You can come to Sissy Scum this Friday 24th August! it's only £5 before 11pm (£8 after) and joining Rodent for a night of petulance and pleasure are:
Performances: RHYS’ PIECES // MYNXIE MONROE // THE NIGHTBUS // LUCIA DRACO // HERMIONE CALLOW
Films from: DANIEL COX // BENAISSA MISERY
Soundtracked by: FLIRTY.LOLLYPOP33 // ORNOGRAPHY
Door Queen: Ket Moss
Here comes MØNSTER QUEEN!
VFD is super excited to have MØNSTER QUEEN move into the basement for the first time this Friday 3rd August with a night that promises to 'slay your souls' by 'bringing to life your most dark and twisted fantasies.' Phoebe chats to Lais and Aarron, the creatures of the underground behind this powerful night...
Hi Lais and Aarron! We’re super excited to have Mønster Queen at VFD on Friday 3 August. When did you start Mønster Queen together and what was your motivation?
Mønster Queen was realised on the 4th February, in a pancake cafe, and later summoned on May 31st for its debut night to provide queer alternatives with a place to dance, explore and network.
The motivation behind risking our lives to summon such a demon was for reasons dear to our heart. Essentially we felt London needed more choice and more safe spaces to explore their identities.
Aarron (left) and Lais (right)
Who are your Mønster Queen inspirations?
We have been inspired by so many incredible talents and influences such as Dragula, Vander Vonn Odd, the 80s new Romantic and punk era's, The Blitz, our DJ’s and friends.
What do you feel that you both bring to a Mønstrous night?
Love that question! Well, we both bring various elements that are supplementing, we are somehow always on the same page when it comes to the ever growing vision.
Apart from great synergy we both bring a total of 15 years of experience between us, either with running nights and events or creating networks.
We also have to say that we bring you some incredible talented DJs such as Jon Coco, Parma Ham and Samantha Togni - who play the music that every one else is too scared to play.
What do you look for when booking Mønster Queens for your night?
We look for entities that are not afraid to freak out the freaky and who explore queerness to the furthest reaches.
If Mønster Queen was cast away on a desert island, what 8 tracks would they take with them?
OMG Such a difficult question, how could you?! **Luckily we scooped an extra track along the way ;)
Lucretia My Reflection - Sisters of mercy
Eurythmics – Sweet Dream (Are Made of This)
Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen
Who should come along to Mønster Queen?
Anyone who has inner demons to either exorcise or exercise ;)
Anyone who needs a place to be themselves, dance the way they want, talk and flirt with whoever they want.
Mønster Queen is unleashed at 10pm on Friday 3 August 2018 in Dalston at VFD, 66 Stoke Newington Road, N16 7XB.
Only £5 (!!) if you click 'attending' on Facebook here
Our Souls Have No Gender
AN INTERVIEW WITH MADELEINE BOTET DE LACAZE
“There is nothing more powerful and healing than tapping into our souls - the deepest source of life in human kind”
Read moreIn the window: Project Indigo
This window display was made by local LGBTQI+ youth group Project Indigo.
The quilt explores what it’s like to be young and queer at home, and the placards are our protests.
Read more