We Exist

Aim

For many LGBTQ+ folx COVID-19 has exacerbated existing inequalities and separated us from the spaces and places that connect us.

For LGBTQ+ folx COVID-19 has exacerbated existing inequalities and separated us from the spaces and places that connect us to our wider community. We Exist aims to reclaim space with and for the LGBTQ+ community.

For one month from mid September, We Exist aims to set up a pop up Queer Community Coffee Shop on Kingsland Road. 

The space will be somewhere to gather for members of the LGBTQ+ community with coffee and bun, access vital information & resources including sexual, mental and trans* healthcare and to connect with members of our community during the ongoing pandemic. We will exhibit and sell work from local queer artists and host dry events such as drag story time, readings and intimate small gigs, all whilst sticking to the guidelines for COVID-19. 

We ask that you exist with us in helping raise the money to start our first pop up in mid September running for one month in Dalston, London. £2500 will allow us to set up the space & acquire all the stock and resources we need. This includes a £1000 refundable deposit that will go directly into a newly created ongoing healthcare fund to facilitate much needed healthcare for trans* people; a crisis further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

All profits made will be split between labour costs & this trans* healthcare fund. 

We Exist is organised by Sophie Gwen Williams & Jo Alloway. Sophie is a multidisciplinary artist, activist and community organiser. She previously  ran a radical queer space in Belfast & creates work cantering the queer experience. Jo is a community organiser, activist and club promoter who co-founded the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre project.

This project successfully funded on 25th August 2020