Quaer was curated and hosted by James Massiah, an electric young poet of London who set up The A & The E, a platform for the discussion of culture, philosophy and the arts. In addition to hosting spoken word night Spaeking in Peckham, and club night Daencing in Dalston, The A & The E is always looking to produce critically engaging work. Hence, Quaer 2015, which filled up the basement of Shoreditch’s Ace Hotel last Friday.
With sixteen poets on the list, the night was divided into segments and breaks, before a DJ-lead party after the performances finished. We couldn’t help but notice that the list was determinedly female-centric (or ostensibly female names) but perhaps even that was a political action of its own (there have been voices of dissent in queer culture recently claiming that LGBT has been appropriated by white gay men). Regardless, the performers at Quaer gave beautiful, universal sets that we call be proud of, whatever our sex or gender.
One of the first poets up on the stage was Liv Wynter, who’s been making an impact on the London scene with rap battle videos against misogynistic straight rappers recently. I was expecting a hissing, spitting battle of a performance, but Wynter proved her mastery and versatility by displaying power blended with a soft, lyrical beauty. She spoke of not knowing herself, trying to find her path, and of queer relationships in our time.
A shaven-haired American poet of colour read out her chapters of a book through one or two sentence ‘scenes’: a remarkable love story collection of imagery mixed with word play. A description of the sea swelling mixed with the word ‘swallow’ sticks in the mind, although sometimes the one-sentence descriptions fell into cliché rather than originality: ‘we made love.’
Undoubtedly one of the firework performances of the night came from Bethany Norris, who performed her poem ‘My First Day at School’, as a schoolteacher trying to inspire her school kids who have nothing in Tower Hamlets. Jessica Murrain was utterly awesome and a pleasure to watch, telling the story of her girlfriend with strength, humour and a good old dash of Annie Lennox. And a theatrical sketch involving a girl scooping dog food into her bra was intriguingly bizarre. Other performers of note included Travis Alabanza and Krishna Istha.
The real power of last Friday’s night came from the wonderful poets but also the varied, eclectic audience of queer people, of all sexualities and genders. It was a tough audience at times – Massiah’s question on trans issues roused a hard response – but it was also a people coming together.
• The Ace Hotel, 100 Shoreditch High Street, E1 6JQ
• Friday 22nd May
