Name: Heart of Glass
Price range: $

Queer Grief - a conversation

25th Nov 2021

Queer community organisers June Bellebono and Kei Bennett get together and discuss their experiences with grief, how it intersects with their identity, the initiatives they've started to support bereaved people, and ways they'd like society to think of grief in a different way.

On November 25th we held an online screening and conversation event introducing Queer Grief, a new short film produced by June and directed by Nick Virk, and picking up the conversation with Kei, as well as exploring audience questions. You can now watch Queer Grief, in full, here on our website.

Access information

The film has English audio with English subtitles.

Please note that Queer Grief contains conversation about death, grief, suicide and transphobia.

Support services

Cruse Bereavement Care https://www.cruse.org.uk/get-help/helpline

Shout: text 85258 The UK’s first text support for anyone in crisis, anywhere, anytime.

Samaritans: 116123 A safe place for you to talk anytime (24h, free).

Mind https://www.mind.org.uk/need-urgent-help/using-this-tool

Vietnamese Mental Health Services http://www.vmhs.org.uk/ 020 7234 0601 info@vmhs.org.uk

Additional Resources

Books:

https://www.akpress.org/grievers.html
https://www.gaystheword.co.uk/product-page/on-earth-we-re-briefly-gorgeous-by-ocean-vuong

Instagram accounts:

https://www.instagram.com/queergriefclub/https://www.instagram.com/queer_death_stories_/
https://www.instagram.com/queergriefzine/
https://www.instagram.com/midnightgriefclub/

Charities:

https://www.thenewnormalcharity.com
https://letstalkaboutloss.org

Podcast:

https://open.spotify.com/show/6RfXRi5ZaYtFcMBTPju8tL?si=b8df1f7d376849fe

Workshop:

https://theparadym.com/group-coaching-paradym-x-grief-gang-pathway/

June Bellebono is a transfeminine Italo-Burmese producer, writer and community organiser based in London. They are involved in a number of projects fighting for trans liberation, as well as having founded and co-hosting Queer Good Grief: a monthly peer support group for bereaved LGBTQ+ people. They work as a trainer for Good Night Out Campaign, and have facilitated workshops for Remember and Resist in the past. When not working, they can be found serving looks across dancefloors in London until the early hours of the morning.

Kei Bennett is the CEO and Co-Founder of AZ Magazine, which was created to provide a voice, safe space and platform for LGBTQ+ Black people and people of colour. Producing several events and visual content from AZ Hub to I AM HERE, Kei has been able to create a space for unfiltered voices within the community collaborating with like-minded brands such as UK Black Pride, Taimi and DJ Mag. Alongside this Kei has a background in engineering with experience in the tech industry.

Queer Grief (2021) is Directed and Edited by Nick Virk, with Marcus Ebanks as Director of Photography. It is commissioned by Heart of Glass with support from Arts Council England and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation as part of our ongoing work around grief, loss and bereavement.

WILDNESS