Events
Stories do more than tell us where we’ve been. They give communities a shared language, make our experiences visible, pass knowledge between generations, and help us imagine where we might go next.
Join Proud Spaces and the Singapore Queer Memory Project (SQMP) for an afternoon bringing queer Singapore’s past and present into conversation.
Come hear what we’ve been learning through SQMP, discover contributions created with members of our community, and take part in two intimate sessions exploring different facets of queer life and culture: from Singapore’s ballroom scene to changing experiences of dating and cruising across generations.
12-12.30PM — SQMP: What We’ve Found
What happens when a community starts documenting its own stories?
We’ll begin the afternoon with an update from the Singapore Queer Memory Project (SQMP) and a look at some of the new research and findings that have emerged from the project. Hear about contributions and collaborations with community members and arts groups including The Opera People and The Chorallective.
12.30-2.00PM — Carrying and Building Singkuntpura with Sha Sharif
This sharing traces the beginnings, growth and development of Singapore’s underground Ballroom scene, shaped by individuals, Houses and collectives propagating its performing forms and independently organising functions. It reflects on watershed periods and initiatives that heightened relational care, physical space, community education, dialogue and the hard/heart work necessary for the Singaporean scene to grow to its current state, and embedding itself into the wider geography of the culture.
The talk will then follow up with a community teach-in; an engaging and fun session exploring how to serve Face with attitude and confidence, as well as the basics of walking and pumping on the Runway. Get a feel of that unmistakable Ballroom essence and unbridled self-possession!
Sha Sharif is is an educator and para-academic organiser. Her interests include institutional critique, ludic and parodic interventions, anthropologies of and from the margins, vernacular and musicking cultures, movement studies. She has organised and led book talks and interviews with scholars, experimental presentations and performances, and curated various visual art projects.
2.00-2.30PM — Tea Break & Mingle
2.30-3.00PM — SQMP: What’s Next?
Get a first look at where SQMP is heading next. We’ll also share more about Proud Spaces’ plans for the year ahead and how you can be part of making them possible.
3.00-4.30PM — Dating, Then and Now with Charles
This session invites you to share and listen to stories about cruising and connection across the decades, with the place histories of Fort Road in focus.
Listen to and discuss the intersections between community and technology, the changing language of safety and self, as well as how we have built friendship, connection, and intimacy over the years.
4.30-5PM — Closing