Valerie (Vimalasara) Mason-John - once known as ‘Queenie’ on the LGBTQI2 scene - was once named one of Britain's Gay Icons. She was the co-author and editor of the first two books to document African and Asian Lesbians in Britain, a journalist for the Pink Paper, was the Artistic Director of London Mardi Gras Arts Festival, and was one of the promoters of the National Lesbian Beauty contest screened on Channel Four, and of the National Drag King and Queen show. In 2003 she retired from the queer scene, and was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Community in India in 2005. She is now the author of 9 books, her most recent I Am Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin was voted as one of the best poetry books published in Canada in 2020. She works as a public speaker and is one of the leading African descent voices in the field of Mindfulness for addiction. She is also a founding facilitator of Compassionate Inquiry, and has a private practice.

Valerie will be interviewed by Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, nucleus of the award-winning celebration and protest that is UK Black Pride. Widely known as Lady Phyll – partly due to her decision to reject an MBE in the New Year’s Honours' list to protest Britain’s role in formulating anti-LGBTQ penal codes across its empire – she is also the executive director of Kaleidoscope Trust, an organisation working towards the liberation of LGBTQ people around the world, a community builder and organiser; an Albert Kennedy Trust patron, and a public speaker focusing on race, gender, sexuality and class.

www.valeriemason-john.com

www.ukblackpride.org.uk