Last night, Charleston Farmhouse celebrated queer lives with an event that spanned history and explored identities. This joyous evening offered something for everyone, bringing a sense of community in a beautiful setting.
The evening started with an event called ‘The Moment’. Bringing together queer writers Travis Alabanza, Shon Faye, and Jodie Mitchell, the discussion took place outdoors in the lovely courtyard. Each writer was asked to prepare a short piece, using their personal circumstances to highlight how they felt the world was treating queer people at this moment. Expertly facilitated by Neil Bartlett, the discussion covered a wide range of topics, using humour and storytelling to give depth to the experiences.
The evening then allowed everyone to explore and enjoy the Queer Fayre, where the house and grounds of Charleston were transformed into spaces for art and performance. The house itself was the highlight for us. Each room had been subtly enhanced, including life-sized cutouts of people from Duncan Grant’s artworks, a dancer claiming the space as their own, and protest pieces. The main gallery space, which usually holds some of the most famous pieces from the Bloomsbury Set, had been expanded with some of the originals from Grant’s private collection. Thought to have been lost or even deliberately destroyed, these erotic and sensual pieces were displayed for the first time alongside the rest of the art, revealing the house’s hidden history and its role in queer heritage.
The gardens were alive with performers Symoné, Brian Lobel, Emma Frankland, Subira Joy, Samson Dittrich and Charlie Wood. We were invited to reenact scenes from Sex and the City by an artist who directed from inside a paddling pool, watched the unravelling of crochet in a strange, entrancing dance, were encouraged to try life drawing, and were able to wander the grounds, where provocative statements were displayed. The warm summer atmosphere and stunning dahlias were the perfect backdrop, allowing people to observe, join in and just soak up the variety around them.
The community then gathered for a moment of silence and clarity as twilight descended. The stillness of the walled garden was enhanced as the celebrant spoke a few words to bring us together, distributing lavender and encouraging us to smell the sensual flowers. They explained lavender’s significance to the queer community and how the word has been reclaimed to celebrate queer identity. It was deeply moving, both collective and personal and a perfect transition to the rest of the evening.
The final part of the night was focused on a mid-summer party. With a large barn transformed by DJs into a space for cabaret and debauchery, the community gathered again to dance and express themselves. Compered by Billie Gold, the evening featured a spectacular roller skating hoop-a-hoop performer, and the crowd then danced into the night.
Organised by Marlborough Productions in association with Queer Heritage South, the event was a joyous, uplifting evening. Taking the resonance of Charleston, a place where queer identity flourished but in private, and filling it with a diverse audience expressly there to mark queer identity made perfect sense. The mood was reflective, respectful of the historical artefacts and yet forward-looking and unapologetically happy. By including so many forms of art in the evening, mirroring the Bloomsbury Set’s own acceptance and exploration, the evening felt like an act of acceptance and exploration that Duncan Grant himself would have approved of.
Future events organised by this group are listed on the Queer Heritage South website.
For information on visiting Charleston Farmhouse and other events here, please visit the Charleston Website.
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