42 Scene
AISHA SHAIBU
Dancing with tiers in our eyes? Alex Klineberg dips into the best of queer London ) Aisha Shaibu is a queer activist, club night organiser and founder of Moonlight Experiences, which is dedicated to uncovering London’s huge LGBTQ+ scene, focusing on the more bohemian side of things. Aisha leads tours of some of London’s best gay nights and performance spaces. Joining a Moonlight Experiences tour is a great way to see the best queer London has to offer. The success of the venture inspired Aisha to expand Moonlight Experiences to other cities, including Paris, Lisbon, Barcelona, and Amsterdam.
Aisha’s favourite bars in London are VFD in Dalston, Royal Vauxhall Tavern and Dalston Superstore. They organise the club night HER Jack – which will be returning in 2021. Aisha credits Lisbon with having the best emerging gay scene. 2020 has been a very tough year with many bars and clubs forced to shut for all or most of the year. Although they should be able to bounce back strongly in 2021, they’ll never make up all the lost revenue. We caught up with Aisha to discuss what the future holds for London nightlife: “I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to have some more events and experiences in 2021. We’re planning some exclusive bespoke events all year long and through Pride season that will further connect the travel community and locals together. There are new authentic friendships and a network of global queers waiting to meet you in 2021. All our events are focused on creating an inclusive space where everyone can feel like they belong. Get ready to celebrate like never before whilst we elevate marginalised voices at the same time.” Moonlight Experiences hosts tours with no more than 10 people. We’ll be looking forward to joining Aisha to discover the best live shows, club nights and underground parties in London in 2021. When the scene can come back properly it will do so in a big way. As we’ve all discovered over a year of lockdowns and tiers, going out and having fun is hardwired into human nature. When it’s taken away it feels as if something fundamental is missing. As Liza memorably sang, “What good is sitting all alone in your room? Come hear the music play.” D www.moonlightexperiences.com
BY GLENN STEVENS ) Last year I was so lucky to work with a team of like-minded people to create the More to Me Than HIV project. Our plans kept changing and developing as we faced the challenge of creating the project in the face of Covid-19. But as we carried on, more restrictions came into play which meant we had to postpone the photo exhibition planned at Jubilee Library. However, we re-planned the event and ended up with a fantastic online exhibition, created by our talented team member, David Fray.
At the very beginning we knew it would be a hard sell, asking people living with HIV+ diagnoses to submit their portraits along with two other images that showed another side of who they are. In the end 21 people sent in their images and helped make a powerful statement, which was: living with an HIV+ diagnosis is nothing to be ashamed of.
“Much of the HIV+ fear and stigma comes from misinformation and ideas from the past, which is why the team behind the More to Me Than HIV project have been so passionate in changing the narrative of what it means to live with an HIV+ diagnosis in 2021 and beyond” However, we also heard back from a lot of people living with HIV+ who said as much as they applauded the project, there was no way they could ‘come out’ about their status. This ranged from what people at work may think, to fears of being rejected from family to others who see their HIV+ status as something very private and for no one else to know about. The main word that accompanied many of their statements was stigma, the fear of what others would think of them. This is something I and most of the team behind the More to Me Than HIV project can very much relate too, from having first-hand experience of HIV stigma ourselves. Much of the HIV+ fear and stigma comes from misinformation and ideas from the past, which is why the team behind the More to Me Than HIV project have been so passionate in changing the narrative of what it means to live with an HIV+ diagnosis in 2021 and beyond. Of course, living with HIV will bring up a host of issues, but stigma should not be one of them. The More to Me Than HIV project had a brilliant response from many people at its launch on World AIDS Day 2020. For more info on how to get involved, visit www.moretomethanhiv.life and together we can build on this project and encourage more people to shake off the shackles of stigma.
