REUNION 79:21 - Revisiting Black Queer London Clubland

For a short run of five days queer club culture returns to Soho with an archival exhibition exploring over four decades of Black queer nightlife and community in London.

Whereas focus is often placed on the white gay scene, this exhibition showcases the history of Black queer club culture from the late 1970s to the present by documenting lived experience, collective memory and self-representation through previously unpublished images and memorabilia sourced from public and private archives.

In the 1980s Black queer and trans people in the UK began to attend underground parties as sanctuaries from discrimination, creating community through music and dance. Inspired by the queer collectives in Chicago and Detroit, the London nightlife scene combined US musical forms with home grown genres.

Brothers Steve and Dave Swindell were at the heart of London clubland, Steve running successful nights like ‘The Lift’ and ‘Jungle’ with Dave documenting the emergence of Black queer visibility. His intimate imagery is shown alongside Jason Manning’s photographs taken in the bolder years that followed.

REUNION 79:21 is complemented by a programme of films and talks that expand on themes of kinship and shared belonging, HIV and early LGBTQ activism, and the fight for individual sovereignty at a critical time in the UK.

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