L&S Lif
estyle
SISSY THAT SIDEWALK Raptor Room by Dan Charles
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night, while I was sitting at the bar of The Raptor Room, a stranger struck up a conversation with me. He was a Londoner, but he had moved back to Egypt to take care of his elderly mother before the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, as a dutiful son would. As the case numbers started to cool down and travel restrictions began easing up, he decided to take a break from life at the top of the continent by spending a week exploring the very bottom of it and that’s how we came to be in the same room - three bar stools apart with our masks on - making conversation about what there is to do in Cape Town and where there is to go. I asked him how he came across The Raptor Room ( a restaurant and live performance venue situated in the heart of Cape Town’s District 6 area that prides itself as a safe space for the city’s LGBTQ+ community). He said that he had been walking around the area and noticed the large rainbow, painted along the sidewalk outside of the building. As a gay man walking around the city at night, he knew that he’d feel welcomed here. He knew that he would feel safe.
This is precisely why The Raptor Room had spent the last four years enduring the lethargic bureaucratic process of acquiring permission from the the city to paint over the sidewalk with the colours of the LGBTQ+ Pride Flag. “Cape Town has such a big queer community, and we want to give them the space to feel welcomed,” said Amy Lilley, the owner and founder of The Raptor Room. “I hope the message that it sends to people is that they have a safe space where they can be seen and made visible. It should not be a shame; it should be celebrated.” On the 24th of October 2020, after finally receiving permission from Cape Town city officials, The Raptor Room invited all of the patrons and members of the local queer community to paint over the sidewalk adjacent to the renowned queer-positive restaurant and performance venue with the colours of the LGBTQ+ Pride Flag. While still maintaining safety protocols as required within South Africa’s lockdown level 1 regulations, the day was a joyous celebration of vibrancy and solidarity of queer visibility within the city - with everyone getting a chance to leave their mark by painting a stretch of the flag. What added to the significance of the event was that the painting took place on Roeland Street, the road that leads directly towards South Africa’s parliament building and that the event happened to take place following the signing of The Civil Union Amendment Bill on the 23rd of October by the president, Cyril Ramaphosa - securing the right for same-sex marriages to remain legally recognised and protected in South Africa. Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done with regards to ensuring a sense of safety amongst the disenfranchised communities within South Africa. But, with steps like these being made from a governmental and ground-level standpoint, one can’t help feeling hopeful about the future. And, after a year of living through a global pandemic, I’ll take any bit of hope wherever I can find it. My friend from Egypt managed to find it here and, if you’re looking for the same kind of hope, you can find it at the Raptor Room too. We’ll be waiting for you there at the bar. THE RAPTOR ROOM www.raptorroom.co.za www.facebook.com/theraptorroom @theraptorroom
- Photography: Jess Semple/Orms Cape Town
