Every museum everywhere. 👇
LGBTQ+ history dude (He/Him) 🌈 Research, Tours & Escape Rooms. Mermaid lover. Lifts heavy things for attention.
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Every museum everywhere. 👇
Objects acquired thru British colonial activities are being returned. Collections have been investigated, but there are still numbers of items where not sufficient is known to classify them. The key thing is, valid requests will be returned & efforts continue, to see if other items should also be
Paros!
Words to live by. And, for some strange reason, @sachacoward.bsky.social springs to mind. I think this is him to a tee (pun intended).
It's actually a little soul from Ghibli's The Boy And The Heron! 😅
Living my little Greek island author boy fantasy 📖 💻
One of us. One of us.
My therapist: Sacha, the 1970s Italian fitness family stencil in the Greek gym can't hurt you. the 1970s Italian fitness family stencil in the Greek gym:
I won't say the world is healing. I'm not that delulu over Labubu! But it feels more relatable and almost charming than some of the other things I've seen my nephew be drawn to!
This is going to sound weird... But as much as I don't get the Labubu craze as a 38 year-old, and as much as I dislike unrestrained capitalism... The absolute schoolyard obsession over random bits of plastic tat feels nostalgically 90s.
I keep all my years in my beard
I don't know her...
Mate... I'm part Greek
Done doom scrolling. On to reading about Demon Twinks. I don’t know how I missed this particular cultural touchstone (except I never really got in to twitter, gay or otherwise). It may be taking me forever to get through @sachacoward.bsky.social ’s #QueerAsFolklore but I’m absolutely in love w it.
Me and my big sis in Greece. Here for a month, to write, read, and eat so much pastry.... Like... SO much spinachy cheesy pastry.
Indeed 🐺🐻
So there is no singular moment, but arguably the stories of wolfmen rather than pure wolf become more popular in European folklore from around 300CE onwards, building through the medieval period. (Correction, the previous message should read 1200CE)
By the medieval period, 12CE onwards, there are a mix of both types. The Garwolf, is a story where a shapeshifting man is trapped in wolf form (by having his clothes stolen). But even as a wolf he looks and behaves more like a man. He is a wolf man.
They would wear animal skins into battle, and the poetic edda implies some could shape shift into these forms. But here we see a looser idea of wolfmen not necessarily pure wolf. Sort of...
This was a curse from Zeus, for a wicked king who practiced cannibalism. But in Norse mythology the berserkers were a group of warriors known to take on animal properties when fighting.
So, werewolves in the European context originate from a hybrid of Greek and Norse folklore. In Greece, the Arcadians were believed to literally shape shift into wolves.
Ok bare with. This is a long answer...
Next book up, @sachacoward.bsky.social’s Queer as Folklore. Very much looking forward to this
I did find them... but I did startle a group of picnickers. *LARGE MAN APPEARS!* Excuse me, I left my executive function somewhere around here have you seen it?!!
Cue least fun high speed Lord Of The Rings re-enactment.
Journeyed all the way up a hill and through a forest to get my ADHD meds today! Found myself thinking; Do I actually need these? I mean I've been doing 'ok' without them for the last week or so... When I got home I discovered I had dropped them in the woods.
Last night I lost my chain between the floorboards, ended up attaching a magnet to a piece of string to retrieve it. Felt like an absolute genius... before stepping backwards and falling over the weight bench, waking my husband up who thought there was a bear in the bedroom!
Don’t be afraid to share your writing. There are six Sharknado movies.
I dunno ... I'm ready for my villain arc!
Now... All I need... Is an award... 🦗
To be fair. When I have awards, I will polish them so hard.
If I die. At least I did it for 'content'
Girl. Same.
In episode 10 of In My Good Books I spoke to 4 writers who withdrew their nomination from this year’s Polari Prize. They are @vavapoetry.bsky.social @sachacoward.bsky.social Rhian Elizabeth and Robert Hamberger. Then in episode 11 I caught up with @kingsley-pearson.bsky.social author of Flat 401.
Because I kept confusing the two words whilst researching the origin of the word queer 😭
57/2025 was Queer As Folklore by @sachacoward.bsky.social, EXCELLENT, everyone should be supporting this Polari Prize longlister following the ABSOLUTE SHITSHOW that went down, and guess what, this is also warm and funny and informative and utterly human. Gem of a book. I recommend the audio! 🏳️🌈
Laugh. It's funny. 🥲
I just made up a joke: Me? No, I'm not an etymologist! I hate bugs.
So it's basically... Is Torquere the grandmother of queer... Or the aunt 😅
Therefore what I think OED are arguing, is which... root gave us 'queer'. Both come from 'Terk', but whether Germanic or Latin. Either way the believed ancient origin (in some unknown proto Indo-European language!) is shared. Lol
So. I've had a nerdy morning because of this... But the Latin AND the Indo-European have the same origine. 'Terk' (I mean, Wikipedia is my source so be careful!)
Sure. Head down to Cyril's letters. www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/explore-the-...
Not to fight the OED but the similarity between both meanings would imply a shared origin? Again, etymology is thorny. Still 😅
Interesting. A guy at Colchester Castle said it might have been a gender thing.
I love portokalopita 🍊🍰
Love you all my fellow torcs. Be shiny and weird. X
Way too much effort. Where's the image of gay men eating souvlaki and playing on their Nintendo switch?
The earliest reclamation I can see of 'queer', was in a love letter from a gay London nightclub in the 1930s. BUT... Theoretically, it would have worked as a dual word all the way back in ancient Rome. I have zero evidence for this, but it's my head cannon! 😅
One of my favourite things about torcs, is that the word comes from the Latin word torquere (tor-kwe-ray) meaning twist, bend or torture. This is also where we get the word 'queer'. So even in its origin, queer meant twisted and wrong, as well as something shiny and fabulous.
I'm not joking. The past 6 weeks have been so full on, I have to consciously tell every muscle in my body to relax before bed 😅
I'm off to Greece in a week for the whole of September! Can someone remind me ... How do you relax?
You are right to assume
Uuuuuh 🤔
Do you like haunted queer escape rooms? Because I built a haunted queer escape room...
What if we kissed on the my book steps? 👉🏻👈🏻
This would have gone so hard on 2018 Twitter *sighs*
I've loved running tours at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Some truly excellent LGBTQ+ stories hiding in their paintings!
Well... This has made my month! Thanks Manchester, what an honour.
Really enjoyed Out of the Frame - @sachacoward.bsky.social's Queer Art History tour of the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Guido Reni - Saint Sebastian - 1630 Oscar Wilde was a fan of this painting, so was Yukio Mishima. Guido liked his saints young, lithe and virtually naked
1) I bullied them? When did I bully them? When did I bully Buck Angel or Debbie Hayton? 2) Got it. Women you agree with, are 'all women', and the women you don't agree with are beneath your contempt. Very feminist. 3) That doesn't make grammatical sense, nobody asked John to kill himself.
Magpie - Watercolour on paper. The scan and touch up, this painting gets the proper treatment! Available as a print at www.inprnt.com/gallery/fion... to whatever places inprnt ships to (not just the UK :P)
Ankimon, a monkfish bathing in a bowl of soup, is the mascot of Kazamiura, a village in Aomori, Japan.
As an example... I have a few social media accounts, devoted to the most overt homophobia you can imagine, calling me a homophobe. Like, with their entire chests, whilst using the F slur. I can feel my brain dribbling out my nose! 😅
I need to touch grass. 🌿 I think if I spend anymore time trying to understand the incomprehensible, I'm going end up being carried away in a straight jacket! 😅
The sheer... Alice in Wonderland level thinking I've seen on display over the past week, has been really disconcerting. That people can say something, something they know doesn't make sense, but state it passionately as an absolute truth. You start to doubt if anything is real!
1. I'm a bully for leaving an award? That is bullying? 2. What about the cis women who left the Polari prize, are they not women? Are their views invalid? 3. Asking someone to kill themselves is more than 'rude'.
This was the year I came out. The "gay gene" wasn't debunked by scientists until 2019.
That's 90% of the photos 😅
Gesticulate. Never blink.
I'm running two tours at the beautiful Dulwich Picture Gallery tomorrow!! Tickets below dulwich-gallery.substrakt.net/whats-on/out...
If you’d like to buy a copy of my book, which looks at the lives and history of Black gay men in Britain, you can get a copy from a bookshop or any of the retailers on the attached link. And please do buy books from the other withdrawn authors linktr.ee/revolutionaryacts
Sometimes a phone call with a dear friend and a walk is all you need to put the world right. (Yeah yeah, this is very live laugh love of me... Bugger it!)
I've already read the amazing Queer as Folklore by @sachacoward.bsky.social & now my library has provided a big stack of books by other authors who left the Polari Prize. 💪 First is @vavapoetry.bsky.social 's 'Bloodsongs'. As an Aberdeenshire-ian, I couldn't be more excited! Will 🧵 them all ⬇️
Since the BBC article about the Polari Prize I've been receiving some 'lovely' emails. 1. Calling me a bully whilst sending threats is a choice... 2. You're literally all men! 3. Consider using an anonymous email as you might be easily findable on LinkedIn. Hi Kevin. 👋🏻
Please check in on your Silksong friends. They... We... Are not ok. X
Such a wonderful weekend in Edinburgh talking with Jon Baldock. Thanks for having me! X
Pickmepickmepickmeomg
I'm in *very serious face*
Gay men will say nice things to a lamppost if you drew a smiley face on it... But when a 49 year-old butch lesbian slaps you on the back and says 'good work big lad' you get that Readybrek glow for the rest of the day!
Compliments from lesbians and elderly women always land hardest. 🥹
I love drawing DnD parties 🎲🗡️ Comms are open fyi
And twig snapping, and blood magic
It's Butch Appreciation Day today apparently. Please appreciate the butches in your life, let them carry something heavy for you and walk you home before leaving out a saucer of beer.
Pretty much
Controversial opinion. Weapons is folk horror.
This is also why Majora's Mask is my favourite videogame.
I'm very late to the party... But I love how Frieren is essentially what if you told a story entirely through side quests.
Manifesting more of this...
At any social gathering, if there is an animal, I will be rolling around on the floor with it.
Adults: *drinking coffee, discussing sculpture and the art world* Sacha:
Is this Heartburn... Or Saltlick... Or whatever?
Someone else is awake. And I found a stuffed peacock.
Ok. So, very Sacha experience: I did a talk at an arts festival last night. And I've been kindly put up in the massive house of the people that host the festival... But now I'm the only one awake, and I'm wandering around the house like an awkward poor gay ghost.
Trans rights forever babes. Stay mad. 🏳️⚧️
Sorry. I couldn't help myself. 😅
Literally downloading it now!
God, it's been an excellent year for folk horror!
It made me laugh 😅
Yes, my publisher collapsed, I am in the process of moving to a new publisher x
My daughter has been asking her dad to let her get a pet snake for a year now things have escalated to formal presentations now
