Support Transnational Queer Underground

Transnational Queer Underground was founded in 2009 in a small Ukrainian town. At the time I was doing research on an article on queer music and realised that there was no network for queer artists and activists that operated outside of the mainstream or western context and therefore a lot of artist were very hard to find. 

 

At that point I started out with just a couple of interviews, lists of links, and some articles, in order to make the research I had done available to others. Now, 10 years later, transnational-queer-underground.net is an online platform full of stories and art that gives insight into different realities as they are experienced by artists and activists themselves. 

 

In the last two years I have organized five exhibitions for TQU in five different countries. #TheGalleryProject was an exhibition series that presented the artworks of 47 artists from 27 different countries. Everyone who came to the exhibitions were touched by it in some way. Some of the artists, like Felix d’Eon, already made a name for themselves in the art world, for others it was an opportunity to show their art for the very first time, because it would be illegal to do so in their home countries. 

 

Since #TheGalleryProject our reach has grown and our structures have solidified. Since last year we’re a registered NGO in Germany, and monthly we host events in Berlin. 

 

The website has grown as well. We host regular photo contests, which are quite popular, and it’s exciting to see what people submit for each topic. OUR_STORY is full of lively stories about experiences and fantasies. It is a successful attempt of taking the writing of our histories into our own hands. With Shifting Traditions we have a new call out for stories that talk about the changes we all experience in our environments wether we stay in one place or are more nomadic. 

 

And there is so much more to discover on TQU. 

 

But with a growing network the responsibilities for me, as the founder, and for the other volunteers, have grown as well. It becomes increasingly difficult to keep up the quality and answer an expanding demand without reliable financial support. 

We would like to reach more people and give more people a chance to participate as well as have a bigger audience to enjoy the content which we think is really important. For this we need your support and would already like to thank you for it. 

 

#TQULOVESYOU