Y Gair #6
The Dyddiau Du newsletter
Howdy, tummy pain gang.
It’s the day after Valentine’s Day, and we are feeling a love hangover after how many people at our V-Day themed Collage Club! Seriously it was like a Game of Thrones style banquet here with the amount of tables placed end-to-end - and just as much mess to clean up afterwards!
We also had the wonderful Ash Brockwell and Kestrel Gaian from London-based and trans-owned publishing press, Reconnecting Rainbows Press, join us on Sunday 12th to talk about the publication of their new book, Twenty Eight! This was a super intimate and lush event, and it was really interesting to hear readings from the book, how it came together, and the aims of the press with every book they publish. We were very proud to have hosted the only Welsh date of their book tour - y’all missed out big time!
Get your copy of Twenty-Eight here, and check out their other publications while you’re at it!
NEXT EVENTS
Our next Transaidcymru social for non-binary/intersex/trans folks is 20th February, 1-4pm!
Bring board games, crochet, flick through our books and magazines, meet new queer friends!
Our 2nd collaboration with the brilliant Queerdos is on Wednesday 22nd, 6-8pm!
A night of music and poetry, we’ll be joined by Cups of Te, our very own Hard-Boiled Wormo, Christina Thatcher, Max Modell, and Del Haf! Check out the Eventbrite for all artist descriptions and book your tickets. We’ve ran out of open mic slots but there’s still room for attendees — it’s shaping up be a truly queer time!
Neighbourhood
Don’t forget our current exhibition ‘Neighbourhood’ is ongoing throughout February, until Sunday 26th!
Almost 40 artists who predominantly identify as queer and/or neurodivergent, covering sculpture, photography, textiles, zines and more. Come check it out — everyone’s welcome in our neighbourhood!
We’re currently planning a small event on Sunday 26th to close the exhibition. More news on that then (keep your peeped on our socials)
Featured Poem
It’s that time again! This week we have ‘White Poem’ by SL Grange, as chosen by Rhys Shanahan:
“This is a poem that rejects a single way of composing. Rejoices in being both off kilter and in tune. It is full of the real, the social, food, lovers. But also the ethereal, ghosts and disembodied fingernails float through the page. To be sure, it is definitely 'full of portent'.” — Rhys Shanahan
SL Grange is a queer writer, theatre-maker and multi-disciplinary artist. Their recent work includes A Note to Mary Frith, commissioned by Shakespeare’s Globe for the Notes to Forgotten She-Wolvesseries; and of his family commissioned by Improbable for Fly the Flag 2020; and Wou D’Ulzecht, an audio-walk project with composer Catherine Kontz commissioned for European Capital of Culture 2022. They are currently engaged in a PhD exploring more ethical ways that we might ‘do’ Queer history, and in turn how that history might do us, which involves a conversation across 400 years with cross-dressing performer and trickster Mary Frith.
The winning entry of the Poetry Wales Pamphlet Competition 2021, bodies, and other haunted houses is available from Seren.
Book of the Month
Queer Square Mile — Parthian
What I, Joshua, has to say about it:
“Queer Square Mile doesn’t just present a chronology of linear queer liberation, or a history lesson, but instead provides a queer canon of literature that celebrates lives lost, hidden, and forgotten. Like all good stories, the ones collected here reflect contemporary (queer) experiences; people living everyday lives, with all the nuances of love, sadness, catharsis, and complications that entails.”
This was taken from my review for Wales Arts Review, which you can read in full here.
As always, our Featured Poems and Book of the Month are from our library, so you can pop in and read them for yourselves!
Thank you for reading, and we hope you all received beautiful bouquets of supermarket flowers.
Joshua, Freya and Rhys x
Dyddiau Du
Thurs-Sat 11-6pm, Sun 11-4pm
Capitol Centre, Queen Street, Cardiff, CF10 2HQ
dyddiaudu@gmail.com
Twitter & Instagram: @dyddiaudu
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