Salon Kewpie: The Legacy Project is fundraising to run its fifth annual education programme
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY COURTNEY RABBIT
Help empower LGBTQIA+ South African youth of colour through education about their queer histories by donating to Salon Kewpie: The Legacy Project today. This annual education programme is looking to raise £3,400 to run its fifth iteration of The Legacy Project, giving another generation of queer young people access to their own queerstory.
Started in 2023, The Legacy Project was created in collaboration between the Salon Kewpie collective, the GALA Queer Archive, and the District Six Museum. The week-long educational programme helps to connect LGBTQIA+ young people in South Africa with their gay, queer, and trans histories. 15 participants from far-flung communities, who are often displaced from urban centres by apartheid policies of segregation, take part in academic and practical workshops.
A previous participant shares: “It’s like I’ve returned to my own planet. Falling in love with myself and the community has been amazing.”
One of the key ways The Legacy Project immerses these young people into their history is by focusing on the Kewpie Collection, an archival resource that depicts life under apartheid for the LGBTQIA+ community of District Six in Cape Town. Participants are able to learn about this history from members of Cape Town’s ballroom community, as well as receive practical workshops about voguing and the histories and fundamentals of ballroom.
All workshops are facilitated by key members of South Africa’s LGBTQIA+ communities, bringing together the younger generation with their queer elders. This week-long programme helps to create a much-needed sense of community and solidarity, showing the next generation that they can strive for a better future.
In order for The Legacy Project to continue, Salon Kewpie is aiming to raise £3,400. This money will fund transport, accommodation and meals for participants as well as payment for community facilitators and mentors.
To donate to Salon Kewpie: The Legacy Project, please visit gofundme.com/f/joy-is-the-resistance-help-keep-kewpies-legacy-alive
For further information about Salon Kewpie: The Legacy Project, click here.
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