LM Talks: The Importance of Inclusive Clubbing Spaces

Love Muscle presents the first of hopefully many discussions around the importance of inclusive clubbing spaces, the people that run them and what they mean to the communities that they serve.

We are starting by meeting 4 influential party starters from Leeds & Manchester and asking them about their experiences and why they do what they do.

Mandy & Friends (She/Her)

Mandy & Friends has been DJing for just over a year now and has experience playing out to a diverse set of crowds. She came up through DJ workshops and recognises the importance of these events in platforming underrepresented groups in club culture. As an autistic, working-class, genderqueer artist she might not have been able to get into this were it not for the accessible DJ workshops.

Mandy & Friends is also co-founder of the techno fetish club night Flesh in Tension. FIT twists the usual fetish space by decentering white cis masculinity and instead invites you to embrace its roots in the Queer and PoC communities that the party is inspired by.
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Rebecca Swarray (She/Her)

Rebecca Swarray is founder, curator and resident DJ of the vibrant and exciting events’ collective RebeccaNeverBecky.
Rebecca debuted onto the Manchester scene earlier last year showcasing and executing some super cool and game changing events across Manchester that champion diversity and inclusion within the Manchester LGBT+ scene and beyond. Most recently curating an event for Manchester International Festival 2019 on Festival Square.

Rebecca’s DJ influences derive from 90s RnB and Hip Hop, UK Garage and House, as well as cross genres. She has played many venues across the city and is a sure fire energy to get any crowd hyped.

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Claud Cunningham (She/Her)

Claud was one of the few people on the gay scene in Manchester in the early 00’s to actively seek to provide a space that embraced racial diversity rather than relying on the stereotyped images and aesthetics that ultimately whitewashed the scene.

Beginning at Vanilla in 2000, long before it became acceptable to play contemporary black music in a gay venue, Black Angel introduced R&B, Soul and even Bhangra to the Village. While the relationship with Vanilla was short-lived the night went from strength to strength gaining a reputation for being friendly, safe and truly diverse, eventually gathering up a string of imitators along the way.

By stepping away from the clichéd aesthetics of the Village Claud moved Black and Asian queer women from the periphery of the scene to the fore by centring them in everything she did. While she achieved true diversity in the crowd it was still apparent that, although a marginalised group themselves, the gay community is more than capable of prejudice.

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Suzy Mason (She/Her)

Suzy is currently the founder of the Speedqueen Foundation, a formal charity launching in the city this summer.

In 1992 Suzy co founded the widely acclaimed The Kit Kat Club in Leeds as a reaction to the rave scene and the misogynistic and aggressive club spaces of the time. The KKC had a cigarette girl, blue cocktails and cheap champagne, a variety act most weeks, a cage for dancing in and some very glamorous clientele.

After witnessing and experiencing a lot of prejudice, lack of opportunities for female DJs and blatant and accepted homophobia she went on to create Vague to directly address these issues, explore identity and support local talent .

Suzy went on develop this work in Leeds and launched Speedqueen with Kas Shaw as a Social Enterprise (before it was a formal business model) that hosted weekly club nights and ran a non-gendered, DIY, fashion boutique specifically to explore identity through dress and give opportunities and support and nurture new local creative talent in the city. It also acted as a drop in centre for support and communication.

Speedqueen was designed specifically for Leeds to break down gender, social, racial and age barriers and had a members’ programme to support local charities and as a result of this they were invited by NATO’s stabilisation force SFOR to tour Bosnia as part of an integration programme to engage displaced young people from Croatian, Serbian and Muslim backgrounds through music after the genocide that took place during the war there. Speedqueen organised music workshops and parties in nightclubs, refugee camps, primary and secondary schools and children’s homes across Bosnia.

Suzy also has over 20 years international teaching experience in Higher Education in Leeds, Huddersfield, Ecuador, Paris and Singapore

The event will be chaired by Love Muscle’s own Gabi Kessie & Michael Upson
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This is a FREE event and will be on a first come first served basis. We will be starting bang on 8.30 so please arrive on time.

Finally a massive shout out to Our Space who part funded this and helped us find some of our panel!