The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
An innovative multi-arts hub in the heart of Blacktown City.
Kolour Me Kweer
Kolour Me Kweer
Uncover some hidden gems with Kolour Me Kweer as we showcase our black, queer take on the world!
Celebrate our diverse LGBTIQA+ community from Blacktown and western Sydney in this series of workshops and performances, featuring stunning First Nations Kweens Tyra Bankstown, Shannan Marino, Nova Gina, Josie Baker plus special guest Liam Benson.
This community is loud and proud. Although we come from all over Australia, we are staunchly western Sydney. We have our own take on queer culture expressed through drag, fashion, art, music, writing, advocacy, activism, and performance that is uniquely First Nations, queer, diasporic, and grounded in kin and Country. Western Sydney is home to the largest First Nations population in Australia, which includes almost 9,000 First Nations people in Blacktown. By extension, western Sydney is also home to the largest First Nations queer community in Australia.
Welcome to Kolour me Kweer
Drape yourself in red, black and yellow… Swim in blue, white and green… Paint the town pink… And Kolour Me Kweer!
Launching on 8 June 2020, the online parade will serve up fabulous entertainment and workshops, hosted by our stunning First Nations Kweens.
So get ready to go west and sashay the Blacktown way!
Kolour Me Kweer: ‘Pink Lemonade Lewk’ makeup tips with Shannan Marino
Dharug and Maori makeup extraordinaire Shannan Marino is a quadruple threat: singer, dancer, actor and look queen artiste. Learn how to make your eyes pop, your lips plump and your skin glisten in the hardware store or the dance floor.
Kolour Me Kweer: Head piece accessorising with Liam Benson
Design and create your own unique headpiece by experimenting with simple materials from around your home.
Liam Benson guides you through creative play as you combine shapes, colours and texture to transform something special into the spectacular.
Kolour Me Kweer: Fast Fashion with Josie Baker – How to make a sequinned face mask
They said ‘wear a face mask’, no one said it had to the boring surgical type. Bring some sparkle to your protective wear with this under one-minute how-to tutorial on making a sequinned face mask with Josie Baker! Happy creating!
Kolour Me Kweer: Walk Walk Fashion Baby – How to make your own summer dress with Josie Baker
It’s never too early to start planning your summer wardrobe. To keep you on trend in what is sure to be sweltering Western Sydney heat, Ms Baker will show you how to run up a summer frock in four minutes. So fire up that old Janome and pull out your hot glue guns, it’s fashion time!
Kolour Me Kweer: Stage presence & a quick Q&A with Nova Gina
Veteran drag superstar Nova Gina answers all your burning questions during a quick Q&A and even imparts her ancient knowledge of stage presence, charisma and audience seduction. In this short video, Nova will teach you how to command a stage, secrets of a lip sync assassin and how to keep it real in the blinding spotlights.
Kolour Me Kweer: First Nations Kweens perform LIVE
Watch as our First Nations Kweens – Josie Baker, Nanna Miss Koori, Nova Gina, and Shannan Marino – with special guest Liam Benson showcase their individual style and talents. They sing and lip sync their hearts out, burn up the dance floor and celebrate our love for community and Country.
Kolour Me Kweer: Brush Challenge
Watch as the Kweens transform into glamorous divas with the stroke of a blending brush.
Bios
Steven Lindsay Ross (Stevie) is a queer man from the Wamba Wamba Nation and has cultural and family connections to the Wiradjuri, Mutthi Mutthi and Gunditjmara Nations.
Throughout his career Steven has worked in various public servant roles in local government, Indigenous policy and rights and arts coordination.
Steven was also a dancer at NASIDA in the 1990s and is a cultural producer, curator and a published writer. His written works have been published in Archer Magazine, ABC online, The Guardian and contributed to anthologies of writing including The Death Letter Project, Colouring The Rainbow published by Wakefield Press and Queerstories, which was published by Hatchette in 2018.
As well as curating a series of community exhibitions and events for Yarkuwa Indigenous Knowledge Centre from 2010-2012, in 2016 co-curated with Liam Benson a LGBTIQA+ exhibition and performative night Mosiac at the Parramatta Artist Studios.
In 2018, Steven also worked on a collaborative commission for an event for Barangaroo Development Authority called Celestial Picnic, with AliciaTalbot and Simon Wellington.
Steven also successfully produced the first Kolour Me Kweer at Blacktown Arts in June 2020.
‘Kolour me Kweer’ was published June 2020.
This project is presented by Blacktown Arts, produced by Steven Ross and supported by Blacktown City Council and the NSW Government through Create NSW.
