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Without social spaces to find one another and become who we need to be, our health as LGBTQ+ people is put at risk. Our spaces at QUEERCIRCLE, we believe, enable us to cultivate our collective health and well-being through a range of programmes that we co-develop with our partners and community groups.
Queer creative health rejects normative understandings of health, acknowledging ‘how our health is intimately bound up with the health of others - near and far - in communities, social structures and institutions’. At QUEERCIRCLE, we aim to offer safer spaces for sharing and dealing with difficult feelings, such as grief and shame, as well as celebrate pride and joy.
QUEERCIRCLE developed the idea of ‘queering creative health’ through a zine devised by MJ Barker and a report written by Yasmin Jiang (University College London). Our findings align with broader health justice movements that see health not as an individual problem - remedied by medical institutions once we become sick - but as something that should be proactively embedded at structural and community levels.
The Queering Creative Health Network meets three times a year to share and discuss topics relating to health and well-being as they specifically relate to LGBTQ+ communities.
To find out more, contact Frances@queercircle.org
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Somatic Practice
One of the ways in which we are developing our health programme is through testing somatic, or embodied, approaches. These involve working creatively with our bodies in some way, be that through yoga, dance, movement or simply becoming more aware of what we are feeling in our bodies.
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Queer Carers
Who is described as a ‘carer’ and how does being LGBTQ+ influence perceptions of this role? How do we navigate institutional systems of care that don’t recognise our chosen family relationships? How do we cope with a failing social care sector or organise together to bring about change?
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Make Time
We value the idea of everyday creativity, not just ‘high art’ - and believe that everyone has intrinsic skills and potential to express themselves through creative making. QUEERCIRCLE offers free, weekly workshops where people can meet over a diverse range of making and craft activities - be that through sewing, working with clay, collage or zine-making.
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