User:KennyKetchum/Queeruption

The article I will be looking at for History of Sexualities will be the page for Queeruption. Queeruption is a music festival that started in the 1990s that highlights queer punk, or queercore. The article is a stub in LGBT studies, and was even considered being deleted in 2012. The reason for this was because of a lack of sources and also a user argued that it was not that relevant of a event to LGBT activism. However, others argued back saying there are journal articles and sources out there about the topic and that it was and still is relevant, just in a more underground sense.

From some research it seems that music was just a small part of these festivals/gatherings. Rather they were spontaneous, radical, and very similar to zaps. Music and art were just a part of it, which can be seen from zines at the time.

Sources I'm looking at:

Organizational Practices and Prefigurative Spaces in European Queer Festivals

The Origins of Queer Festivals in Europe

Geographies of Sexualities : Theory, Practices and Politics by Jason Lim, Kath Browne, and Professor Kath Browne

Zine archives: https://maydayrooms.omeka.net/collections/show/32

News Article: https://bicommunitynews.co.uk/5406/queeruption/

Zine from 2004: http://www.qzap.org/v5/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=444

Queeruption
Queeruption (a compound word of queer and eruption) is a direct-action gathering organized by radical queer groups that started in 1998 in London. These gatherings are designed for radical queer groups and indivuduals to exchange information and art, network, and organize, all with "do-it-yourself (DIY)" ideas and ethics. Shows featuring queer punk bands, performance artists, and other entertainment are put on at night. Workshops and demonstrations take place during the daytime. Queeruption generally takes place in a different city and country each year. It has contributed to anarcho-queer (queer anarchist) movements. The groups that organize each event, even within the same city and event, may have disagreements over the changing queer anarchist politics and ideas on display at that Queeruption.

Information for Queeruption has typically been spread through zines. In more recent years, the information has been spread online, such as the now defunct Queeruption website or Instagram for the 2017 Budapest festival. The moto of Queeruption is "Queer mutiny, not consumer unity," and generally these events stand for a display of queer expression that the groups argue diverts from the conventional Gay Pride events. According to the 2004 Queeruption Zine, the gatherings in the past have included "vegan meals, political discussions, direct action, skills, workshops, bands, spoken word, dressup and cabaret, dance parties, film screenings, radical sex, spontaneous haircuts, and more."

Although framed as a festival, Queeruptions' main purpose is community acitivism and outreach within queer communities around the world. Squatting has been an important part of past Queeruptions, as the first one in London was founded upon squatting in a gentrfiied area of South London. The justification behind squatting is the reclaiming of "public spaces" in order to use them as political, educational, and artistic spaces by queer individuals. Inherently, Queeruption participants see this squatting and gathering as an act of resistance against capitalism.

Origins
The first Queeruption was held in London in 1998 by a network of radical queer anarchists. According to the 2004 Queeruption Zine, the first Queeruption started with several queer activists in London squatting in a building one weekend with the goal of a "politically inspiring and educational gathering." This squatting and gathering of queer anarchists was the result of gentrification in a neighborhood in South London. This same zine states that the first Queeruption was in the Spring of 1998, however an article from Bi Community News in 1998 conflates this, determining that the first one occurred in a weekend in September. According to this same article from Bi Community News, the first Queeruption in London involved many different performances and presentations from various personalities and acts such as the performance artist The Divine David, bisexual writer Charlotte Cooper, queercore band Mouthfull, artist Sexton Ming, and playwright Marissa Carr.