Written by Sonia Thakurdesai
Sleepy early morning eyes and caffeinated buzzy brains. Stomping down the streets of Paignton with friend and colleague, Amy Mellows in our rainbow dungarees, chanting “gay is okay”. A Pride-flag cape dancing through the wind…laughing at the surrealness of the situation….
I was warned about Torbay.
“Torbay’s different, it’s not like other places”
“It’s not very accepting or diverse”
…
Yet here we were on a summer’s morning, out and proud, visible as ever, about to launch into the first ever LGBTQ+ Takeover at Paignton Library. A day full of celebration, education, and community.
So what actually happened that day?
In the morning, set up in the cosy reading nook of Paignton library we had an LGBTQ+ friendly storytime session where we read fabulous tales celebrating difference and accepting different sexualities and gender expressions (see image below).
We had the The GayBC’s by M.L. Webb, Frockodile by Jeanie Willis, Pirate Mums by Jodie Lancet-Grant which is about a child who’s embarrassed of their mums but not because they are two mums but because they are pirates. And one of my all-time faves, Laxmi’s Mooch by Shelly Anand which is about a South Asian girl learning to love her hair!
Following these gorgeous stories, we had themed face painting, so we had pride flags, glittery moustaches, and more! We had an array of crafts activities organised for our little ones to let their creativity flow free of gendered expectations.
We revisited our Wonderful Wig-making workshop where we had a glorious selection of wig shapes, sizes, colours, and accessories to decorate to their hearts desire. We then showcased our designs parading down the library catwalk with the gorgeous backdrop of LGBTQ+ books that the library had gathered and set up.
Along with our arts and crafts stalls we were joined by Devon-based Queer writer & artist, Sirisha Damarla who had a market stall with various prints on sale as well as a live drawing station.
Here’s what she had to say about the day: “It was a very safe space and everyone was taking consent, that was very important to me because a lot of places you go, you don’t get that. Children were given the privacy they needed and consent was always taken for photographs. I really enjoyed the poetry event at the end, the set up and the people involved. It felt really well executed and I’d definitely like the see more of those events happen. The happiest thing I saw was parents and children being so involved in it because you don’t get to see that a lot down here so it was good to see people of all ages coming together to celebrate what is important that is equality. I’m glad that this was the first place I had my stall because it felt okay to make mistakes, to take my time. It was a very good starting point because I was invited by Proud2Be to Totnes pride as a sketch artist to have a stall. It was a very wholesome day and I made lots of connections.”– Sirisha Damarla
We were also joined by the lovely Maya and Clay from Proud2Be who had a stall in the marketplace and kicked off our series of Queer-led workshops in the afternoon. Proud2Be are a grassroots user-led social enterprise supporting LGBTQ+ people in Devon and beyond, to lead empowered, fulfilled, and authentic lives. They led an excellent workshop with our young people on co-creating a safe space. Proud2Be run various workshops and groups for young people as well as awareness training to organisations and schools so be sure to check them out and follow them on Instagram here.
Following this were two excellent workshops by Doorstep Arts Associate Artist, Amy Mellows. The first workshop was a ‘Pride: Graphic Design Workshop’ in which Amy shared her digital expertise in design to empower young people to make their own graphics. The second was a workshop on LGBTQIA+ representation in arts, media and culture drawing upon the much-loved Heartstopper series by Alice Oseman and Proud: Stories, Poetry and art on the theme of Pride’ by Juno Dawson. Amy also read some of the stories in the morning.
“This was a beautiful event that offered something that Torbay hasn’t seen before. It felt brilliant to be able to create a space that was as safe and creative as possible for local young members of the LGBTQIA+ community and allies, to come together to celebrate and express themselves. I loved being a part of it and introducing inclusive queer children’s books to young audiences felt ground-breaking. Torbay and the UK needs more events like this, to remove the taboo around queerness in young people and educate friends and families in an aim to prevent homophobia and promote positive mental health and a sense of community in local queer youth.” – Amy Mellows, Associate Artist
Creative Administrative Assistant, Rebekah Daws, assisted in the planning and production of the event.
“One of the things that blew me away was how articulate and honest a lot of these young people were with their opinions and feelings, they gave me such confidence without even realising it”. -Rebekah Daws, Creative Administrative Assistant
It was such a joyful day and felt really special….I want to note though whilst it’s crucial for us to celebrate visibility, it’s equally important to acknowledge the very real concerns that come around safety and being out and proud. The harsh reality is that as a queer person I can’t guarantee my safety in certain spaces, and I have to make a choice about how ‘visible’ I want my queerness to be. There is a very real fear in the LGBTQ+ community in Torbay of having to face discrimination, ‘make yourself a target’ which shouldn’t be the case. And for some, that fear alone is a big enough barrier to attending an event like this. Similarly, I can’t guarantee I’ll be safe wherever I go as a person of the Global Majority. Unlike my queerness I can’t hide the colour of my skin… Anyways, a lot of thought went into trying to make this as safe a space as possible and a big question that came up was how can we be out and proud and unapologetic whilst also ensuring safety of our community? I was conflicted because I wanted this event to be unapologetically out and proud. I knew that visibility for our community was important and lacking in Torbay, but I also knew that there was a possibility of facing backlash from the public or trolling on social media, and that for many young LGBTQ+ people they might feel that by attending the event they risk ‘coming out’ when they aren’t ready to or don’t feel safe to. And so, it was important to emphasise that this event was for everyone, and that attendance wasn’t a reflection on your gender/sexuality.
There is more to say about risk assessing and the challenges when trying to programme work that is different but that’s to talk about another time. Right now, I want to celebrate what a successful and joyful event this was and one of the things that made it so successful was the partnership between Doorstep Arts and Paignton Library. It felt like everyone was equally invested and excited about this event and recognised it’s importance. The library team were styling it out on the day wearing a colourful array of wigs and had brought various craft activities to the table including DIY pride jars. They also had a market stall set up selling crocheted and felt pride-inspired art made by the team themselves!
“Paignton Library is an inclusive space for all, we were so proud that Sonia and Doorstep Arts chose to hold the LGBTQ+ Takeover at the library. We really enjoyed getting involved and hope to do more events in the future.” – Lisa Headon-Cooke, Paignton Library
The library has hosted various LGBTQ+ focussed activities so do check them out and give them a visit and a follow-on social media.
Rounding off the day was an open mic which felt beautifully wholesome. We had a range of acts from spoken word and Shakespeare, to a sneak-peak of TOPS’s showing of Kinky Boots, original music and ukulele playing, and a range of ages as we can see here a particular toddler had taken the spotlight..
Ex-Doorstep Youth Theatre Member, Tilly Croose, shared some of their original songs with us. See what they had to say about the day:
“Sonia, the Doorstep team, and all those involved in creating and facilitating the LGBTQ+ takeover did an expert job at creating a safe and welcoming space for all attending, regardless of age. The stalls and activities stationed around the library were eye-catching and showcased the wealth of queer creativity that is often hidden or overshadowed in the southwest. It was inspiring to see so many out and proud LGBTQ+ people embracing themselves and those around them. As a recently out queer person, it was so validating and exciting to be surrounded by people ‘like me’. I really hope that this event will be repeated in the future, it’s exactly what Paignton and places like it need.”– Tilly Croose, Doorstep Youth Theatre Member
Finally, I want to say thank you so much to everyone involved and to the Doorstep team for supporting this event. I hope that we can start to see a shift in Torbay culture and have more safer spaces for our communities where we don’t have to be afraid to celebrate ourselves.