On Saturday afternoons, queer young people, i.e. young people with different sexual orientations who are not heterosexual, their friends and allies (supporters) meet at 2 pm at the KJK Sandgasse. During the regular meetings, the idea of a joint workshop was born and so the young visitors to the Queers&Friends Café experienced a special creative adventure in which they were able to develop their own skills and visually "bring their voices to life": For ten days during the summer vacations, they were able to try out their skills under the guidance of Katharina Hantke from Fem Circle Studio and Laura Hantke at the Klingspor Museum; the second part recently took place, this time lasting five days and also at the Klingspor Museum. The workshops were sponsored by "Meinland-Zeit für Zukunft" and the sponsoring partner "Türkische Gemeinde".
Focus on queer history and identity
Typography and lettering art have a home at the Klingspor Museum and so the participants were able to discover various printing techniques during the workshop part. From Lego and riso printing to kitchen lithography and collages, they got to know the diverse possibilities of expression, which were then supplemented with Polaroid and Quickprint cameras. This resulted in diverse and impressive collages, riso prints, Lego prints, drawings, zines and much more, which were exhibited at the Queers&Friends Café at the end of August.
The workshop did not end there, but continued over three weekends in November. This gave the young people additional space and time to further develop their work and engage more intensively with queer history. At the beginning of each session, there was a short keynote speech that provided important information about queer history and invited participants to reflect on their own identity. These ideas were then individually translated into posters.
A special highlight of the workshop series was the joint visit to the Eat-It drag brunch in Frankfurt. The Freitagsküche space at Mainzer Landstraße 105 has been hosting regular meetings, performances and a place for queer art and people for over two years. Eat-it is a safe environment and so everyone had fun. Not only that: the communal experience also strengthened the group's cohesion. The young artists have now confidently joined forces as the "Queer Creatures of Offenbach" group and presented their posters in an exhibition at the Intercontinental Gardens in Bismarckstraße and the district office on Mathildenplatz on November 23. Together with other young people, the art conquered the public space and sent a strong signal for visibility and queer diversity.
An exhibition of the works from all the workshops is being planned for next year in the town hall on Berliner Strasse.