Date/Time
Date(s) - 20th Sep 2024
10:00 am - 5:30 pm

Location
University of Westminster - Little Titchfield Street Campus

Categories

• Foundation Events

 

 

Using Tom of Finland as a starting point for his undeniable global contribution and resonance as a radical, revolutionary and a progressive force for equality, tolerance and wider acceptance of minorities, Art as Social Justice is a public symposium which aims to investigate Tom’s immense artistic revolutionary influence, championing acceptance, liberty, equality, freedom of expression and fundamental social change, particularly pre-decriminalization of homosexuality.

For the first time in the history of Tom of Finland Foundation, and to mark the 40th anniversary, the Foundation is presenting this international symposium in partnership with lead funder The Finnish Institute in UK and Ireland and The University of Westminster. This one-day event features keynote speakers, screenings, and three panel discussions for featuring a diverse array of notable academics, activists, artists, and guest speakers.

10:00-10:30a – Participant registration

10:30-10:45a – Welcoming introduction

• Durk Dehner (President & Cofounder, Tom of Finland Foundation)
• Dr. Gary Everett (curator & U.K. Producer, Tom of Finland Foundation)
• Dr. Jaakko Nousiainen (Director, Finnish Institute UK & Ireland)
  • Presenting welcoming remarks, acknowledgements and special recognitions while providing introductory context for the day’s proceedings.

10:50-11:40a – Screening of Tybyra and the Harlequin (2022, 37 minutes)

• Susan Thomson (writer, visual artist, filmmaker)
  • Tybyra and the Harlequin is a dance docufiction based on two stories told together in dance, poetry and documentary, featuring performance artist Ombá Yîàrá. The story of Tybyra is documented in the book Gay Indians in Brazil: Untold Stories of the Colonization of Indigenous Sexualities by Estevão Rafael Fernandes and Barbara M. Arisi. This film was made during an artistic residency with Instituto MESA, Brazil, supported by the British Council’s Plural Program.

11:45a-12:40p – Pride and Prejudice: LGBTQ+ Lives and the Long Shadows of Empire

• Pippa Catterall (Professor of History and Policy, Westminster of University)
  • The European empires that spread rapidly in the nineteenth century were complex cultural-legal constructs that involved hierarchies of race, class, gender and sexuality. This talk will explore the emergence of these hierarchies and the continuing baleful effects of their legacies on LGBTQ+ people today.

12:45-1:15p – Lunch break

1:20-2:15p – LGBTQ+ Asylum, Pride and Freedom

• Rohan Williams (Refugee Campaigns & Communications Officer, African Rainbow Family)
• Bahareh Ezzat (Grants & Monitoring Officer, African Rainbow Family)
• Alex Farrow  (CEO, Kaleidoscope International Trust)
• Moderated by Dr. Gary Everett
  • The panel will explore the worsening challenges across the UK asylum system for LGBTQI+ individuals compounded by the increasing global human rights abuses, persecution, and torture experienced by LGBTQ+ communities in hostile states.

2:20-3:10p – State Sponsored Homophobia and Transphobia

• Rémy Bonny (Executive Director, Forbidden Colours)
• John Kaye (SETA Finland)

3:25-4:10p – Pride, Protest & Diplomacy

• Dr. Senthorun (Sen) Raj (Former Chair, Amnesty International UK)
• Dr. Daniel Conway (Reader in Politics and International Relations, University of Westminster)
• Emmett E. Sapp (Foreign Service Officer, United States Embassy, London)
• Moderated by Dr. Gary Everett
  • Featuring a digital exhibition of photographs by Dr Daniel Conway exploring the intersections & diversity of Pride programmes in South Africa, Mumbai and Hong Kong.

4:15-5:15p – Some Men in London: Queer Life 1945-1959

• Peter Parker (writer)
• Pippa Catterall (Professor of History and Policy, Westminster of University)
  • Writer Peter Parker in conversation with professor Pippa Catterall with a Q&A to follow.

5:20-5:30p – Closing remarks

 

Participants:

 

 

Rémy Bonny (Executive Director, Forbidden Colours) – Rémy Bonny, executive director of Forbidden Colours, is a human rights defender focusing on LGBTQ+ rights and democracy in Europe, exposing anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives by ultraconservative regimes.

Pippa Catterall (Professor of History and Policy, University of Westminster) –  She co-authored the Royal Historical Society’s 2020 report on LGBT+ Histories and Historians and her current research focuses on Queering public space.

Dr. Daniel Conway (Reader in politics and international relations, University of Westminster) – Conway’s work is situated at the intersection of Feminist International Relations, political sociology and queer theory, focusing on the politics of LGBTQ+ rights and activism. Conway held a 2018-19 Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship studying The Global Politics of Pride: LGBTQ+ Activism, Assimilation and Resistance, and conducted comparative fieldwork on LGBTQ+ Pride events across Africa, Asia and North America.

Dr. Gary Everett (creative producer, cultural activist and curator) – Dr. Gary Everett has worked in live art & theatre as a director and producer since 1989. He founded the international arts & heritage organisation Homotopia in November 2003, (coincidentally at the same time Section 28 was repealed) which was a key highlight of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture 2008, and for 19 years was artistic director.

Bahareh Ezzat (Grants and Monitoring Officer, African Rainbow Family) – Ezzat moved to London with her family aged 5. Ezzat has lived experience with the UK Asylum process. Ezzat  has been the Grants and Monitoring Officer at the African Rainbow Family since May 2024 and was originally born in Iran.

Alex Farrow (CEO, Kaleidoscope Trust) –  Alex Farrow (he/him) is a seasoned campaigner and civil society leader with extensive experience in international development and UK advocacy. As the former director of influencing and engagement at NCVO, he has collaborated with the UN, Commonwealth Secretariat, and international agencies to support the development of national youth policies around the world. Farrow led the UK Youth Climate Coalition, was an advisor to CIVICUS, and has worked with activists worldwide on human rights and democracy. A passionate advocate for LGBTI+ rights, he has supported organisations under threat and mobilised resources for youth activists globally.

John Kaye (SETA Finland) – “Now labelled extremists and terrorists, Russia’s Queer community is at great risk of arbitrary persecution. Finland and other states at Russia’s borders must offer those in need a safe haven. SETA and TEMA work to make this possible and support LGBTQ+ asylum seekers to integrate.”

Dr. Jaakko Nousiainen (Director, Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland) –  Dr Jaakko Nousiainen (he/him) has 30 years of experience in strategic leadership and coaching roles in the arts, digital design and media. In his current job he builds bridges between British, Irish and Finnish cultural and societal change makers.

Peter Parker – Peter Parker was born on a farm in Herefordshire, and was educated at the Downs School in Colwall, Canford School in Dorset and University College, London where he studied English. Of his education Parker has said, “From a certain distance we like to think that our school days have little bearing on our present life.”

Looking back to his years at Canford, however, Parker sees all sorts of patterns. The seeds of both biographies he has written were sown during my schooldays. It was not only his first book The Old Lie that was shaped by his time at Canford.

Part of Isherwood and Ackerley’s attraction for him as biographical subjects was that they had at an early age come to distrust authority and rebel against the prevailing values of their time, and they continued to do so, both personally and professionally, throughout their lives.

Dr Senthorun (Sen) Raj (Reader in Human Rights Law, Manchester Law School) – Dr Senthorun (Sen) Raj is an academic human rights lawyer who teaches and researches at Manchester Law School.

Raj is passionate about glitter, community building, and social justice. His academic and activist work takes an intersectional approach to the rights of LGBTQ+ people and people who seek asylum. Raj was previously a Lecturer in Law at Keele University, UK and a Scholar in Residence at New York University’s Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, USA. He has also worked as the Senior Policy Advisor for the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby in Sydney, Australia.

Raj is currently the chair of the AIUK Section Board. He has been a member of Amnesty International for 14 years and served on the AIUK Board since June 2018. Prior to moving to the UK, Sen served on the Board of Amnesty International Australia.

Emmett E. Sapp (Foreign Service Officer, U.S. Embassy London) – Emmett is an American Foreign Service Officer currently posted to the U.S. Embassy in London with prior assignments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mexico, Italy and Paraguay. He has worked on political and human rights issues as well as aid and development projects. He grew up in a small town in Washington State, USA, and has studied at Georgetown and Princeton.

Susan Thomson directed The Swimming Diaries (2024) based on her memoir which was exhibited and sold at Artbook@PS1 MoMA, New York. They continue to direct the award winning Ghost Empire (2014-2024) a series of films which follow constitutional challenges to anti-LGBTQ+ British colonial laws.

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