The rukus! cultural archive: 'Black history and black LGBTQ history are one and the same'
news.sky.comLGBTQ(lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) in Britain is being brought to life through pamphlets, posters, books, photographs and prints, audio-visual material and memorabilia as part of the archives of rukus!
Federation Limited.There are black lesbian fanzines from the 1980s created by poet Dorothea Smartt, works by club promoter, writer and activist Valerie Mason-John - also known as Queenie - from the 90s and Black Steam T-shirts - an adults-only men's event held at a sauna in the 2000s.The LMA spent two years categorising all the items - which date from 1976 to 2010 - to create the rukus!
cultural archive, with the help of 30 volunteers. It's the first of its kind to be held there and the first of its kind in Europe.For artist and award-winning filmmaker Topher Campbell, who co-founded the archive, it's an attempt to record stories that have often been historically erased.Campbell tells Sky News: "The idea of being black was not associated with being LGBTQ.
So, in this sense, the twin pillars of homophobia and racism conspire to invisibilise the community."But my experience as a young man was that it was a big community and it was really happening - club wise, community events, magazines, parties.
