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BLACK CAPTIVIST NEWS – MAR. '19

IN THIS ISSUEA hand-made placard against the background of a trans flag. The placard has a drawing of the Black Cap and the words 'This is our safe space & we will never give up'.

WELCOME
LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH
TRANS DAY OF VISIBILITY
A NEW CHALLENGE
ACTIVISM AT THE HUB
FOURTH ANNIVERSARY
... AND MORE

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD

Welcome to the March issue of our every-two-months-ly campaign newsletter! (Why not subscribe if you haven't already?)

With our LGBT+ History Month activities in February and gathering evidence in March about how the Black Cap was used, we’ve been thinking about the past lately. But we never lose sight of the future of the Cap and our community, so this issue also features our recent activism workshop and our plans for a special vigil in April. For more on all of this, read on!

LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH 

Activism was one of the themes of LGBT+ History Month 2019, so on Monday 18 February we looked back at four years fighting to protect and re-open the Black Cap.

A photograph from the exhibition: people chatting next to a wall of pictures.A fabulous display of photographs of the campaign, from the first huge protest to the present day, was expertly selected by Peter Herbert of the Arts Project and Chris Barlow and Michael Chan of Outings in Art and shown at Castlehaven Community Association. Alongside those photographs were an assortment of campaign placards and accessories, videos of performances at the Black Cap, and a selection of David Collingwood’s gorgeous portraits of the Cap’s drag stars, first shown at the Camden Image Gallery in 2016.

The exhibition drew a wonderful turn-out of old friends and new, and also doubled as our monthly turn to co-host Castlehaven’s LGBTIQ Hub. And although it wasn’t specifically a fund-raising event, we did leave a donation bucket or two lying around andA photograph from the exhibition: people chatting and looking at pictures. David also generously donated some of his prints to be sold, so we collected a very handy £65.78 for our campaign fund. (Remember you can always donate online if you want.) Thanks to everyone who came!

We also had a lovely time at the ‘Back to the Black Cap’ reunion at the Edinboro Castle on Sunday 24 February, where a good 40 or 50 former regulars, staff, and performers gathered to reconnect with old friends and recapture some of the magic of a lazy Sunday evening at the Cap. And we loved the mention of the Black Cap in ‘Patrick’s Story’, part of the Opening Doors blog for History Month.

TRANS DAY OF VISIBILITY

For trans people in the UK, safe and supportive spaces are as vital as ever. In a video made a few days after the Cap’s closure, Reubs Walsh explains why ‘the Black Cap is the only LGBT venue where I, as a Christian, autistic, genderqueer trans woman feel completely safe’. We want the Black Cap to re-open and offer a place for trans people to relax, celebrate, and thrive.

Sunday 31 March is Transgender Day of Visibility, and we’ll be marking the occasion on social media. If you’re trans and the Black Cap is important to you, tag us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook and tell us why!

A NEW CHALLENGE

The Black Cap has two important legal protections that help prevent it being turned into luxury flats, a cafe, a burger joint, etc. One is its hard-won Asset of Community Value status, but equally important is its ‘sui generis’ planning classification. This reflects the fact that the Cap is not just a pub (part of the ‘A4’ planning class) but a fusion of pub, cabaret, and nightclub – and a distinctively queer one, too. It means that, unlike a normal A4 building, it can’t be turned into a generic pub or bar without permission from Camden Council.

This protection is now under attack. Steve Cox, whose company Kicking Horse owns the building, has applied for a Council ruling that this protection only applies to the ground floor. The basement, first, second, and third floors, he argues, are just a normal A4 pub. If this succeeds, it may pave the way for him to block off the ground floor and turn the rest of the building into flats. To succeed, he has to show that the ground floor was used as essentially a separate establishment, rather than an integral part of the whole business.

To fight back against this move, we spent most of March working hard to help Camden Council gather first-hand evidence of how the Black Cap was really used. As well as circulating a questionnaire devised by the Council, we also spent many hours talking by phone and face-to-face with some of those who knew the Black Cap best, including staff, management, and long-time customers. The results will be available on the Council’s website once all personal information has been redacted.

The Council are now reviewing all the submissions and will then consider whether they need more evidence or have enough to make a decision. We’ll keep you informed. Meanwhile, a huge thank-you to everyone who completed a questionnaire or agreed to have a chat with us. Every contribution has made it more likely that we’ll defeat this latest attack on our beloved Black Cap!

IDEAS FOR ACTIVISTS AT THE HUB

About once a month we join the Outside Project to co-host the Monday evening LGBTIQ Hub at Castlehaven Community Association in Camden. Our March session was a lively evening sharing our experiences of activism and exchanging ideas for changing the world! Over cups of tea and plates of biscuits, we chatted about moving from anger and outrage to identifying goals and devising ways to achieve them.A group of people smiling at the camera and holding up various protest signs.

To try out our ideas, we had some fun imagining our own Hub campaign. We decided it was unfair how LGBTQ+ people are expected to ‘come out’ but others aren’t. So we set a goal that straight and cis people should also be required to come out! We came up with slogans (‘Staying In Is Boring’, ‘It’s All Coming Out Now’, 'Closets Are For Clothes'), painted some placards, and thought up actions like a 'coming out' day when allies would video themselves confessing to their families or friends that they're cis or straight.

The Hub is every Monday at Castlehaven, and our next turn as co-hosts will probably be in the second half of April but watch our social media for details.

FOURTH ANNIVERSARY VIGIL

12 April marks the fourth anniversary of the Black Cap’s closure. The next day, Saturday 13 April 2-4pm, join us outside the Cap for a special anniversary vigil with music and camp fun from Alex Green and the Loud & Queerly troupe, fresh from their brilliant new monthly cabaret night Flirtura at the Chelsea Pensioner. More details to come on our social media!

If you can’t come along, why not mark the anniversary by taking one action to help the campaign – persuade a friend to sign the petition, write to Camden Council, local MP Kier Starmer, or Mayor Sadiq Khan, or post on social media to say why the Black Cap must re-open!

MORE CAMPAIGN TITBITS

The Black Cap, and our campaign to save it, features in a new exhibition opening on 2 April at the Whitechapel Gallery. ‘Queer Spaces: London, 1980s to today’ features rare archive material and newly commissioned artworks.


We didn’t manage to squeeze it into the last edition, but in January Alex and Zeze from the campaign team were interviewed by Rory Boyle about the campaign for Transmission Roundhouse radio. Have a listen! (Also features the marvellous Cocoa Butter Club, founded by Sadie Sinner who you may remember from the Black Cap’s stage.)


In our last issue we told you about Faucet Inn, a company run by Black Cap owner Steve Cox, going into administration. Since then, the administrators have confirmed they don’t think the company can be saved. Meanwhile Mr Cox has moved some of its assets to another of his many companies: we’ll see how long this one lasts! As for his claim that a mystery buyer was going to be taking over the Black Cap imminently: as we predicted, nothing has happened, and this look increasingly like yet another of his numerous ‘false alarms’. Of course we continue to watch the situation closely.


Our sister campaign Friends Of The Joiners Arms are doing a short survey to find out what the LGBTQIA+ community want from the new Joiners. Please spend a few minutes to give your views! You could even win a prize.


In the next issue we’d love to feature a contribution from one of you. If you’d like to tell other campaign supporters what the Black Cap means to you, or share some pictures or souvenirs from the Cap, get in touch!

Copyright © 2019 Black Cap Community, All rights reserved.


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