OUR PRIDE
Day SOCIAL
DATE: Saturday, July 19th
START TIME: 12:00 PM
END TIME: 5:00 PM
LOCATION: The Old Coal Yard
COST: FREE
ACCESS: Wheelchair accessible with an access toilet. Please contact the venue for specific details.
Trigger warning for loud noises, course language, flashing lights and topics such as racism, transphobia and homophobia.
12 PM - 4 PM - Crochet & Crafts with Stitched by Steph
Stitched by Steph is a local crochet artist who will be familiar to many of you who have attended Sister Shack markets over the last few years.
Steph will be on hand to help you crochet flags, friendship bracelets (both crochet and non-crochet), a large community flag that everyone can contribute to, and more. There will be a transfer tattoo station, where you can make your own tattoo, and there will also be general crafts for you to do yourself, including colouring in
12-5 PM - Market Stalls (Inside)
Join local LGBTQIA+ traders at our mini market. There will be loads of items on offer.
Stalls:
1b Books
BatMakes
Spuddy Shop
Helen Nicholson Illustration
Sister Shack
Sunny’s Art Studio
Mythic Dinosaur
12-5 PM - Food Stalls (Outside)
Smashin’ Pasties.
3 PM - Panel Discussion
Community & Social Change-Making
One of the most highly regarded aspects of Our Pride is the panel discussion. This year, we will present our panel in a slightly different way. The panel discussion will be around community and social change-making, covering what we do, how we do it, and more. But this time, we want to hear from you! We will have more of an interactive, audience-led discussion, allowing people to ask us questions. With this approach, please be mindful of what you ask the panel and respect their decision if they do not wish to answer your question. It will, as usual, be host-led
Frit Tam - Panellist
Frit Tam is a transgender, British Chinese, award-winning documentary filmmaker, photographer, speaker, zine-maker, writer and futurist. He is co-director of Sheffield Adventure Film Festival and he’ll rarely say no to a portion of chips. As an adventure documentary filmmaker, his sole mission is to share stories from underrepresented communities in the outdoors and adventure spheres, so that anyone who has not seen themselves on the big screen, may finally do so. In his activism work, as a trans man, he understands what it means to vision a world before embodying it, and enjoys holding imagination workshops to create a better future.
Finn is a slim, white androgynous person with short brown hair. They are smiling in front of a wall with graffiti on it wearing a striped T Shirt and denim jacket.
finn warman - Panellist
Finn Warman is the Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Andro and Eve, a queer arts organisation based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. With a background in theatre design, Finn has worked as an artist, facilitator and producer in the cultural and education sector for 20 years. In 2016 Finn started producing events in Sheffield to celebrate queer culture under the name Andro and Eve, and in 2018 set up a social enterprise to build upon this work.
Andro and Eve collaborate with artists on accessible creative projects and events that explore queer stories, focusing on voices that are otherwise marginalised, to reflect and celebrate the diversity that exists within the LGBTQIA community. Alongside this they deliver Gender Awareness Training to organisations throughout the UK.
Finn, as Artistic Director and Executive Producer and has produced a whole range of events and creative projects. These include one of the UK’s biggest drag king cabarets, The Kingdom Come, and queer cabaret and party, A Reyt Queer Do. Collaborations have included ‘A Reyt Queer Extravaganza’ with Ghetto Fabulous (2022), and ‘Visible Rest’ an intergenerational arts project for LGBTQ+ people in Doncaster with artist Lady Kitt and Right Up Our Street (2024).
Kitty Mckay - Panellist
Kitty is an artist, researcher and DJ based in Newcastle upon Tyne whose work across disciplines explores cities, space, place, queerness and disability. Their social practice is founded on open collaboration with various DIY art and cultural initiatives across the north east, animated by a commitment to community care, collective joy and radical grassroots politics.
Alongside a group of trans and queer friends and volunteers, Kitty runs Big Gay Fund, a mutual aid collective for trans and non-binary people in the north east of England. BGF organises and promotes fundraising campaigns and events in aid of all types of gender-affirming care.
Kitty is co-founder of Incursions, a socially engaged art and research project, which uses group walking to explore and reimagine public space through creative and critical frameworks. As a DJ, Kitty regularly features on lineups for Bend and Shake’s queer parties, as well as programming their own events with collaborators in Newcastle and beyond. They are a resident and committee member for Slack’s Radio. They are currently completing an MFA at Newcastle University, where they are also part of the More Than Meanwhile Spaces research group, positing long-term, co-developed futures for the region’s artist-led communities.
Dr Si Long Chan - Panellist
Si Long (they/them) is a Hong Kong born co-organiser at East and Southeast Asians North East (@esa.ne_). ESA.NE is a trans and intersex led community-network with a queer politics that centres QTIBIPOC+ community care and activism. Si Long co-organises protests and actions, offers support and advocacy within our community, and regularly organises community events and spaces.
Currently, ESA.NE is fundraising for ‘Emergency Funds for Hossam’ (see our bio and contribute). ESA.NE is also organising QTI Pride with our communities, as well as having conversations with queer collectives in Asia about across-border community building and solidarities.
4:15 PM - Raffle
We have received some incredible donations (25+ items) this year, and you can see what these are via our social media pages.
We are raising funds to support Hossam, who is an LGBT+ refugee who was recently granted his refugee status and has since been evicted from Asylum accommodation. With support from our community and @esa.ne_, Hossam is now living in temporary accommodation. We urgently need to raise funds so that Hossam can continue to afford to live in temporary accommodation, or he risks being street homeless.
We would appreciate any more donations and your support in joining us for the raffle. Please send us a DM or an email to hello@sister-shack.com. Thank you.
You can also donated to Hossam’s GoFundMe here.
All money raised at the fundraiser will go directly to Hossam’s care.
12:00 PM - 4:00 PM - Anna Knight
We are delighted to have Anna Knight back with us this year. Anna will again offer trauma and well-being support for anyone who attends on the day. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or need support, Anna will be available to help. She will also have resources and advice for attendees.
Anna is a coach, trauma survivor and an activist. She supports people to move beyond their past experiences, breaking cycles of self-doubt and criticism to change their lives (and maybe even the world) with ease, authenticity and joy. As a queer, disabled survivor of domestic violence, she has experienced various forms of trauma and her coaching aims to support other people in their own journeys of recovery.
Her work is centred in the concept of ‘the audacious and’. So often, we see ourselves as a series of positives and negatives, leading to a complex calculation of our value and therefore what we can achieve. If we swap this approach for one that sees us as a series of ever expanding ‘ands’, we begin to see ourselves as limitless and then what we once saw as weaknesses and flaws become potential avenues for social revolution.
The Old Coal Yard, Elizabeth St, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 1JS