Robert Taylor Photographer

Robert came to photography in the mid 80s via the British Royal Air Force, the English Bar, and publishing adventures in Nigeria. His work, exhibited and published widely, is held in several permanent collections including the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Royal Society, and several Oxbridge colleges. His practice has always been divided between two disparate realms: portrait collections commissioned by major academic and scientific institutions, while his more personal work is mostly in exploration and celebration of identity, beauty, and the joys of aesthetics.

His early work included many contributions to LGBT+ human rights campaigns, and HIV prevention projects, in collaboration with key LGBT rights organisations, and a major safer sex education book with the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. For the last 15 years he’s specialised in commissioned collections of portraits of women of outstanding achievement in academe and STEM.

His return to full time living in London has been marked by a renewed engagement with projects exploring LGBT+ and Black Queer experiences through art-based projects. ( Permissible Beauty 2023: https://permissiblebeauty.le.ac.uk/)

Other active interests include rehabilitation through the arts in UK prisons via (Koestler Arts), jewellery (making and wearing), and collecting art.

Welcome to 2023 Q list this conversation is with Rhona stace

We talk about Rhona, films, Artist and media

Rhona Stace

a veteran police officer, a parent, a poet, and an active member of her local Anglican congregation, Rhona says she lives semi-rurally with two cats, a goat, and a chicken and just happens to also be transgender

A conversation with Sidney

Sidney Gig-Jan Wong 黃吉贊 (he/any) was born in Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai. His ancestral villages are in Szeyap, Dunggun, and Fatsaan. Sidney has familial links to Hong Kong and Macau. He now lives in Ōtautahi with his partner. In the community, Sidney advocates for and supports LGBTQIA+ communities across Aotearoa through his role as chair of the Ethnic Rainbow Alliance and Qtopia. He is also part of the governance boards for the Christchurch Heroes, Bad Apple Gay, and the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Health Advisory Group (CHAG) at Pegasus Health. Sidney has a broad range of professional interests with an academic background in linguistics and data science. He is a community advocate and researcher. Sidney is currently working towards a PhD in Linguistics with funding from the Geospatial Research Institute at the University of Canterbury. He previously worked at Stats NZ as a Senior Design Analyst – Te Ara Takatū working alongside hapū, iwi, and Māori across Aotearoa to support their data needs and aspirations

The Q-List

An exploration of Queer intersectionality

Each week during PRIDE 2022 we explore intersectionality through the experiences and stories of the people we profile.

Kara Areta Alice Beckford

Ngāti Whakaue, Jamaican-Maroons

she/her/they/them/ia

A Black (afro-Caribbean) Māori (Ngāti Whakaue) takatāpui Queer moko, daughter, sister, friend and partner. Kara is a mental health and LGBTQI+ advocate, poet and over-thinker who is writing her PhD thesis on the capacities of BIPOC communities in Aotearoa to be well and live full radical lives. She is persistent in the pursuit of healing, love and wellness as social justice for the communities that she belongs to, including herself. Some of her favourite things are being on her marae, watching b-grade films, kittens, babies, deep and meaningful conversations with strangers and playing her new 1950’s fire red Fender Squire electric guitar! Some of her favourite people, past and present, are her mum, siblings, grandparents and hot Bajan fiancé.

The Q-List

An exploration of Queer intersectionality

Each week during PRIDE 2022 we explore intersectionality through the experiences and stories of the people we profile.

Songs

Lauryn Hill’s entire Miseducation album is quite phenomenal. It gives me power and hope while also making my want to cry.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1BZoqf8Zje5nGdwZhOjAtD : Album

- I will clear a dance floor with ‘Doo Wop’

Lauryn Hill - Doo-Wop (That Thing) (Official Video)

- I will cry listening to ‘Tell Him’

Lauryn Hill - Tell Him (Audio)

- I go into a trance listening to ‘Nothing Even Matters’

Lauryn Hill - Nothing Even Matters feat. D'Angelo

I grew up on indie and rock in my teenage rebellion years. My favourite Indie rock song is by Biffy Clyro- their first album Blackened Sky- specifically the song ‘questions and answers’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3XM0WtW7Uo

- Stormzy’s ‘cigarettes and cush’, ‘shut up’ and the diss track he did about Wiley are fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLXQHThL3FU

I’m not much of a reader but

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche’s ‘Half of a yellow sun”’

https://www.bookdepository.com/Half-of-a-Yellow-Sun-Chimamanda-Ngozi-Adichie/9780007506071?redirected=true&utm_medium=Google&utm_campaign=Base1&utm_source=NZ&utm_content=Half-of-a-Yellow-Sun&selectCurrency=NZD&w=AF7CAU998CSBM7A8V3XD&gclid=Cj0KCQiA6NOPBhCPARIsAHAy2zBOBhPbZPTiJNEJ0vZCOxi4EJ__Xov9cR40zQCt_rdlhwrLTf0qeRMaAhBFEALw_wcB

We should all be feminists | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie | TEDxEuston

‘Purple Hibiscus’, Chinua Achebe’s

https://www.amazon.com/Purple-Hibiscus-Chimamanda-Ngozi-Adichie/dp/1616202416

‘Things Fall Apart’ Akala’s ‘Natives’

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36352480-natives

educated me on all things race and colonization in the UK and Nigeria. They are also major influences in my life, like have changed my narrative and heightened my understanding of identity politics.half of yellow sun

Films that influenced me -

‘Disclosure’

https://www.netflix.com/nz/title/81284247

‘Paris is Burning’

PARIS IS BURNING Trailer

really made me think about the race and queer intersection.

Same Same but Black is proud to present at PRIDE 2022

A conversation with Rafiqah

The Q-List

An exploration of Queer inter-sectionality

Each week during PRIDE 2022 we explore inter-sectionality through the experiences and stories of the people we profile.

This is an online series giving voice to LGBTQIA and QT- BIPOC and the wider Queer community.

Rafiqah Sulaiman Binti Abdullah is a 30 year old Filipina muslim transgender woman from Manila. She is a social justice advocate based in Tamaki Makauru tackling racism, xenophobia and raising awareness on achieving mental health well being, LGBTQIA+ rights and social equity. She is eclectic in her music tastes, enjoys a buffet of world cuisine, an appreciator of nature’s diversity, a makeup lover and passionate for culture and justice.

Same Same but Black is proud to present at PRIDE 2022

The Q-List with Donald Hollingworth

An exploration of Queer intersectionality

Each week during PRIDE 2022 we explore intersectionality through the experiences and stories of the people we profile.

This is an online series giving voice to LGBTQIA and QT BIPOC and the wider Queer community.

Donald Hollingsworth NgatiHine Ngapuhi Takatapui, Gay, Queer. Donald a style makeover king or queen, depending on the day, working in fashion, television and celebrity for the last 35 years. Growing up in a tourist town, Rotorua, Aotearoa, he grew up battling the locals because of his natural effeminacy. In 1987 when Aotearoa introduced a gay and lesbian law reform at aged 16 Donald was there protesting. Lover of Electronica and 80s boy bands and pop art.