You know Josephine Baker, but what about the Forgotten Senegalese Star of the Parisian Stage?

François ‘Féral’ Benga glances at us from black-and-white photographs, immortalised in a sculptural pose, large soulful eyes turned skywards as if to say, I am indeed a celestial creature. Hard to believe, but this lithe of limb and cacao-butter-sleek heavenly vision of a man was in fact an earthling from Dakar, Senegal, who used his…

A Sapphic Sartorial Study of Lady Troubridge

Rest assured, the roots of fashion have never really been straight. Weaving in and out of contemporary culture, lesbians have been creating sapphic waves of influence on the mainstream style codes for generations; quietly, but surely. You know Una “Lady Troubridge” Vincenzo, even if you don’t think you do; her unmistakably sleek bob, the tux, the…

When Will Queer Bravery Become Part of the World War II Narrative?

When Willem Arondeus said, “Let it be known, homosexuals aren’t cowards’’, on the eve of his execution in 1943, he was speaking for himself and countless others who gave and risked their lives to end the tyranny and oppression that the LGBTQ community faced under Nazi rule. It is only in recent years that their…

Brushstrokes of Brilliance and Queerness: Unlocking the Leonardo da Vinci Code

While you’re almost certainly familiar with his unrivalled genius as a painter, inventor, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor or architect, there is a little-known aspect of Leonard da Vinci’s life rarely taken into consideration in the context of art history; one that could potentially paint the great master as an unrealised icon of LGBTQ history.…

Vita, the Insatiable Muse of Virginia Woolf

The antics of those with blue blood don’t shock us, in fact we covet their blatant flaunting of taboos and we (albeit secretly and with much envy) gag at what seems like their infinite potential and unlimited opportunities for fornication, frolicking and cavorting. Having said that, within the ranks of nobility there are those who…

The Many Faces of a Forgotten Gender-Neutral Hero

Who was Claude Cahun? As ambiguous as an empty page, a radical and an indefinable surrealist who traversed social construct; artist, performer, photographer, sculptor, writer, WWII resistance fighter, female, male, other; Claude Cahun was all of these things, or none of these things. As a largely unknown early pioneer of queer culture, Claude found later…

A Brief Compendium of Third Genders

Expanding the concept of gender is a big conversation in western culture today. It can be viewed as a revolutionary act of freedom, or, on the other end of the spectrum, something to be feared and discredited. But the world is wide and history has its surprises – in the 1920s, pottery shards from Ancient…

Cape Town’s Lost District, through the Eyes of its Transgender Darling

Once upon a time, at the southernmost tip of Africa, nestled in a hollow between the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and slopes of Table Mountain lived an awesome bourgeoning community of thespians. District Six was home to bohemians, artists, merchants, preachers, students, business people, gangsters and everyone in between. Think New York’s Greenwich Village…