In honour of LGBTQ+ history month, we wanted to spotlight a number of artists in the LGBTQ+ community, who through their work are bringing light to important conversations and movements and represent the challenges the LGBTQ+ community have been historically faced with and still face today.
Travis Alabanza
Travis Alabanza is an award-winning writer, theatre-maker and performer based in London. Their work focuses on changing mindsets and conveying what it’s like to live with racism, transphobia and homophobia every day.
It all started with a burger…well this story does anyway. One day Travis Alabanza was walking on Waterloo Bridge when someone threw a burger at them and shouted trans abuse. That was shocking enough, but what happened next, started the conversation. Out of the 200 people that were walking past that day, no one stopped to help or ask if they were ok. From this experience, Travis created a political, poetic and passionate theatre piece, Burgerz.
BURGERZ first premiered at Hackney Showroom in 2018 and has since sold-out shows at the Southbank Centre, Sao Paulo Brazil, HAU Berlin & won the Edinburgh Fringe Total Theatre award in 2019. Travis reflects personal experiences of trauma in their show and uses it as a way to overcome and heal from those challenges. But the real onus is on everyone, to take responsibility and protect everyone, not only those who conform to societal norms.
Travis Alabanza has held conversations across the UK, offering a space for gender non-conforming, queer and trans people to discuss and talk about their experiences. They have also given several workshops in schools using the arts and performance to talk about gender and race. Not to mention their numerous talks to universities around the globe.
Learn more about Travis and their work here.
