Asterisk Internationalist draws its inspiration from the Black Lesbian and Gay Centre’s newsletter (published 1985-2000), asking how text can best serve these communities today. After working on a screening of Veronica McKenzie’s revelatory documentary Under Your Nose (2014), we were compelled to look into and re-imagine the paper archives that it featured. Used in the film as testament to the media-based forms of communication and organising that had been undertaken by Britain’s queer racialised communities in the ‘80s and ‘90s, they spoke to our interest in the aesthetic and editorial elements of community mobilisation while helping us better understand and connect with the labour, struggles and provocations of our predecessors.

The original newsletter was a vital tool for transmitting news, announcing gatherings, sharing eulogies, missed connections, lonely hearts, international reporting, job listings and housing solutions, as well as supporting grassroots organising. Though the context has shifted, the newsletter’s purpose–to connect and inform– remains just as relevant. The BLGC was effectively dismantled by Thatcher-era austerity, an ideological project whose deployment has only intensified in its contemporary iterations, with social spaces, cultural output and marginalised communities first in the line of attack. Meanwhile, our understanding of the umbrella terms ‘LGBT’ and ‘black’, as well as their intersections, has evolved and continues to invite interrogation and redefinition.

This project embraces the value of long-form text as a space for reflection—both playful and serious—on the pressing issues affecting these communities. Revisiting the radical aims of the original publication, it brings together contemporary writers, artists, and activists to create a critical, internationalist exploration of queer, racialised experiences in both their artistic representations and lived forms.

✱ Abiba, Aarushi & Saundra
Brixton Community Cinema + Em—Dash