A NIGHT OF DIVERSITY, INCLUSIVITY AND PRIDE

(February, 2020)

It’s Friday the 7th of February just before 5 PM. The corridor of the Conference Centre in the West Wing of St.Pancras hospital is still not quite crowded. It is going to change in a matter of 30 minutes as Loudest Whispers' opening night is about to start. At around 5:30 there was no spare meter on the floor as visitors flooded this cameral and unique exhibit space. Not even organizers expected such frequency as instead of an estimated 100 visitors, the quadruple number of people arrived. Words such as "spectrum", "diversity" and "inclusivity" are the ones that dominate conversations of the audience in the following hours. It’s the biggest celebration a drag, non-binary, gay and trans communities in the UK (according to the chief of the Forum+ Foundation - Charles Dean).

Loudest Whispers: Midwinter Nights Dream is a 2020 edition of the event that currently presents works of 51 artists and functions from 11 years. The title of the exhibition is a clever wordplay of Shakespeare’s well-known comedy ”Midsummer’s Night Dream”. Pater Herbert, curator manager of the Loudest whispers, in an interview described the unique factor of this year's edition as an emphasis on ”how an LGBT person feels and thinks about themself.”Exhibition is organized by The Arts Project with big support of Forum+ Foundation which helps victims of hate crimes, Camden and Islington’s division of NHS Trust Foundation which provides mental health support, and councils of both of the boroughs mentioned earlier. It’s the exhibition that strikes with its variety in a form almost instantly. Visitors can see varnish on vintage porcelain, impressionist paintings, sculptures made of paper mache, intimate photographic collages and lots of touching poetry. Every single exhibit tells a completely different story with a deeply personal angle. Presented art is at the same time incredibly cohesive in its mission and message; to raise awareness about LGBT+ communities to the general public. 

It’s a great platform to promote up-and-coming artists as well. Many of those who appeared during the humble beginnings of Loudest Whispers decided to stick with it for longer. One such artist is Simon Croft trans-man and a conceptual artist. Simon represents his angle on the theme of trans people in art. He tries to get away from a strictly physical aspect as a way to fight society’s common misconceptions about being trans. In an interview, he mentioned he tends to focus rather on good than on a ”victim narration”. His piece ”Gender Various” shown in the second gallery represents precisely those positive values Simon perceives as important with phrases such as ”gender gifted” appearing on it. That positivity is pretty visible among people at the opening of Loudest Whispers.

The opening of the Loudest Whispers is a time of celebration, cheering and clapping as the mayor of Camden and deputy mayor of Islington appear on the stage. Deputy mayor of Islington Troy Gallagher said in his speech that our borough ”has always been a leader in LGBT rights”. It is true as Islington was always a home for LGBT+ communities, however, in 2019 our borough reported 113 homophobic hate crimes making it the sixth-highest number in whole London. Gallagher’s call to stand-up to ”fascism and homophobia” might be more relevant than ever before in the context of prejudice towards gay people in Islington that had risen in recent years.  

It’s an afternoon on Thursday, 13th of February, Mr.Peter Herbert along with one of the most established artists from the exhibition - Mr.Marius Els are currently arranging space for the spin-off exhibition of Loudest Whispers. Blue Tack and small printed papers with names of the authors are used by them at the moment. Even though they are visibly busy Mr.Herbert agreed to talk with me. He is the driving force behind the exhibition from the very beginning. I asked him about the role of his curated project in challenges that the LGBT+ community has to face in Islington today. He described it as a way of breaking barriers between the health system and art. ”We’re staging it in a healthcare environment which is a bit unusual,” he said. Even though they organize it ”on a shoestring” Loudest Whispers provides a one of a kind experience. It’s symbolic and literal cooperation of NHS and LGBT+.

The relation between these two was and still is quite difficult. According to statistics 46% of transgender people in Islington had to hide their non-binary identity in contact with the NHS in 2015. Mr.Croft told me at the opening of the exhibition that when he originally transitioned NHS didn’t have a particularly good reputation but they have improved since that time. He also said, "if you're a non-binary then the NHS is slowly starting to get an idea that it's a thing". So it's a work in progress. This can also be seen in NHS’s Trust Foundation activity. They educate their staff, patients and the society with such events as Mental Health Matters. On 27th guest speakers will investigate potential barriers that LGBT+ people have to face in contact with local services and how to remove those barriers.

Loudest Whispers ends on the 9th of April. One should just hope that promising cooperation of the LGBT+ community and NHS won't end with it.

Appendix:

Statistics used in this article were taken Islington Council’s annual report

”State of Equalities in Islington” for the year 2019.