So much has changed for queer people over the past thirty years that the landscape for some is almost unrecognizable. A superficial view of the world of queer folk in the UK would see nothing but progress, marching forward inexorably. But such a view underestimates both the complexities of the present, when many still face obstacles to living their best lives, and of the past, with its often right-out-in-the-open moments of joy.

Queer Stories Today and Yesterday brings together two award-winning and award-nominated writers, Seni Seneviratne and Afshan D’souza Lodhi, for an intergenerational look at what the stories we tell reveal about queer lives both then and now.

We will start with a queer story from right now, by Manchester-based playwright Susan Kerr.

Event Time: 1 hour 30 minutes including a Q&A

Free, Suggested Donation £10

Book a Conference Pass & receive access to all Black Writers Conference events for just £30

Access: This event will have AI-generated auto-captioning. Please e-mail radhaika@cultureword.org.uk with any questions.

www.culturewordconference.org

Bios

Seni Seneviratne, born and raised in Leeds, is of English and Sri Lankan heritage. Published by Peepal Tree Press - Wild Cinnamon and Winter Skin (2007), The Heart of It (2012), Unknown Soldier (2019). Her latest collection, Unknown Soldier (2019) is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation, a National Poetry Day Choice and was highly commended in the Forward Poetry Prizes 2020. She is a fellow of the Complete Works programme for diversity and quality in British Poetry and has collaborated with film-makers, visual artists, musicians and digital artists. She is one of ten commissioned writers on the Colonial Countryside Project: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted. She is currently co-editing a Bloodaxe anthology of post-independence Tamil, Sinhala and English poetry and working on her fourth collection. She lives in Derbyshire and works as a freelance writer and creative artist.

afshan d’souza-lodhi was born in Dubai and bred in Manchester. She is a writer of scripts and poetry. Her work has been performed and translated in numerous languages across the world. afshan is currently a LabFellow for Global Performance and Politics at Georgetown University. afshan has been commissioned to write and direct a short film for Channel 4 (An Act of Terror) and a radio play for BBC Sounds (Chop Chop). afshan is currently a Sky Writes writer-in-residence for Rotherham, a partnership between Sky Studios and New Writing North. She is also currently developing a TV series with Sky Studios.

afshan has edited many anthologies and has an essay featured in Picador's collection by Muslim women called Its Not About The Burqa. Her debut poetry collection ‘re:desire’ (Burning Eye Books) has been longlisted for the Jhalak Prize (2021). Her most recent play, Santi & Naz (co-written with Guleraana Mir) described as “tender yet sharply political” by The Guardian, won the Vault Outstanding New Work Award in 2020. As well as writing, afshan sits on the boards of Manchester Literature Festival and Pie Radio and is also a Young Trustee Ambassador for the North West. afshan also guest lectures in creative writing for undergraduates.

Susan Kerr is black and queer and has finally found the courage to tell her stories. She loves writing poetry, short stories and is currently working on a play, a section of which is being shown, script in hand at HOME on 6th November 2021 as part of the PUSH festival.

Susan is also making a short film about the experiences of older queers/lesbians. Herself and a friend wanted to put on record the experiences of voices rarely heard and faces seldom seen.

It has taken her a long time to dare to share. Racism taught her the lie that her thoughts and ideas would always be inferior. It has taken time and lots of help to challenge and melt away that particular poison and to rid her of the shame that homophobia generates.

What she is left with is the joy of writing and expressing some of the complexities that she has felt and witnessed coming from her unique perspective.