Queer@Queen’s & Drama Studies welcomed artivist Va-Bene Elikem to the Brian Friel Theatre
Va-Bene spoke about her life and work, the queer phobia that she experiences in Ghana and the racism that she has experienced in Europe, and ways in which she is using her artist body and its vulnerabilities to protest the Ghanaian bill.
Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi is a Ghanaian performance artist and transwoman who uses her body as the material of her activist art practice – she is an ‘artivist’. As well as being an artist, an artist mentor and philanthropist internationally and in her hometown of Kumasi, Ghana, she is currently focusing her artivist work on resisting the incoming anti-LGBT legislation, known as the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights And Ghanaian Family Values, which will mean criminalisation not only for trans and queer identifying people, but also for those who advocate on their behalf. Va-Bene came to the Brian Friel Theatre on the 17th November for an event that was organised in collaboration with Outburst Queer Arts Festival.