Chinwe Akomah is the executive producer of The Eternal Queer, which has an entirely queer Bipoc (Black, Indigenous or People of Colour) cast and crew. Photo / Supplied
Chinwe Akomah is the executive producer of The Eternal Queer, which has an entirely queer Bipoc (Black, Indigenous or People of Colour) cast and crew. Photo / Supplied
A play written, produced and acted entirely by queer people of colour has already been sold out in Wellington for the capital's Pride Festival.
A second showing in Porirua will take place on March 30.
The Eternal Queers, believed to be the first play of its kind in New Zealand, centres on the voices of four queer activists of colour.
The show's executive producer, British-born Nigerian woman Chinwe Akomah, has been a racial justice activist for many years – but she hadn't always seen queer people reflected in racial equality movements.
Likewise, she saw that Bipoc (Black, Indigenous or People of Colour) voices were often lost within queer spaces.
"Throughout queer history a lot of it has been led by queer people of colour who have been on the frontline, making sure we have our rights to live our lives freely, whatever sexuality or gender we identify as."
The entire cast and crew of the production were queer people of colour. Photo / Ren Waaka
"But those stories are often not told, they are white-washed over, they are ignored."
With this year's Wellington Pride Festival aiming to tell these stories, Akomah and Chair Vivian Lyngdoh wanted to give the microphone to queer people of colour.
Akomah wanted to tell the stories of four queer icons in history, from four different eras and parts of the world – and decided to explore it through a play.
She reached out to playwright Estelle Chout, the first black female to be shortlisted for the prestigious Adam NZ Play Award. But she didn't stop there.
Playwright Estelle Chout. Photo / Supplied
"I thought, if this is a play, I want everyone – cast and crew – to be queer and Bipoc, because these are our stories and we can't have other people telling our stories for us," she said.
"I put out a massive casting call for queer people of colour to play the roles but also to direct, to do make-up, the costume, the lighting, the sounds, the photography, the design."
Akomah said the response to her casting call strengthened her resolve in enforcing the casting criteria.
"Even though the headline was 'seeking queer people of colour' I had a lot of cis white people contact me," she said.
'The Eternal Queers' is believed to be the first of its kind in New Zealand. Photo / Ren Waaka
"It's the privilege and the entitlement that you think every space is for you and you don't even have to read an advert to find out if it's your space – you just assume."
"Queer people of colour, it's the first thing we have to ask ourselves – we have to do all the mahi to figure out if this is actually our space, if we'll be safe in this space or if we're welcome in this space.
"That showed me even more reason why I had to stick to my guns and make sure we got queer people of colour."
A total of 17 queer Bipoc cast and crew members have are involved in the production.
Akomah also encouraged people to attend other Bipoc events in the festival such as the Rainbow History workshop, and the Everyday Gender Affirming Makeup and Skincare workshop
today.
She hoped the focus of this year's festival would encourage more Bipoc representation in queer spaces.
"After this play and after all the other events that are Bipoc focused I hope we'll see more queer people of colour in 2022 taking up space that is rightfully theirs, and most events are queer Bipoc instead of just a few."
