Conversation by (future) Legends: In October and November the discussion about Zwarte Piet and institutional racism erupts. In recent years, the BIPOC LGBTQI+ community has made an enormous contribution to raising the issue of racism and discrimination, one of those pioneers is Naomie Pieter, part of Black Pride and KOZP. She and many other queers have fought a huge struggle for an equal and inclusive society in recent years; but what does that world look like, is the central question. And how do we ensure that the most marginalized voices have a place in the fight against racism and discrimination? What about the position of undocumented migrants and refugees? At the same time, we see a huge growth of the far-right, which means we see more incidents against Jews and Muslims. How do we ensure that we join forces in the fight against racism?
Queer City x Pakhuis de Zwijger
Queer City is an initiative of Fite QLub in collaboration with Pakhuis de Zwijger. The program arose from the urgent demand to increase the visibility of BIPOC LGBTQI+ people in Amsterdam. It is for and by the BIPOC LGBTQI+ community, with the aim of increasing the visibility of this group, promoting ownership and empowering the community. We do this by giving a stage to the most marginalized groups in our society.
QueerCity will be a recurring event in Pakhuis de Zwijger. In this series, FiteQlub wants to offer the queer “rioters” and “legends” a stage and share queer art with a wider audience. By creating a “safer-space” we want to offer the possibility to facilitate these artists and rioters in sharing their art as a form of resistance; wonder, celebration, and self-actualization.
Background information BIPOC LGBTQI+ alliance
The BIPOC LGBTQI+ Alliance was created as a result of a new subsidy scheme (diversity and inclusion) of the municipality of Amsterdam. This new arrangement involves forming an alliance to promote empowerment of the bicultural LGBTQI+ community in Amsterdam. The scheme has a period of 2 years, from 2021 – 2023.
The BIPOC LGBTQI+ Alliance consists of 10 Queer and trans BIPOC collectives that have joined forces to tackle five social problems in Amsterdam. They do this jointly, but also independently of each other, by organizing activities throughout the year to promote empowerment and education, with the aim of building a queer movement and queer community.
