4 - 5 Nov 2023
🌟 Come celebrate the launch of PLAY, Skin Deep’s very special 10th print magazine!🌟
We’ve curated an afternoon and night of performances, discussions, food, music and games that explore the radical potential of play to heal and resource ourselves, to build strong communities, and to imagine new worlds into being. But mostly, we’re just coming together to play, have fun, and celebrate all the people, places and moments that have brought our 10th issue into being.
A note on the moment we find ourselves in: We have all spent the last few weeks witnessing the genocide against the Palestinian people by colonial Israeli forces, and in that context our initial intentions for the launch of our latest issue have shifted in response.We will celebrate the incredible contributions of writers, artists and activists to this print, whilst also holding a space that centres rest, release and recharge for protesters and supporters who continue to show up in solidarity with our Palestinian siblings. We need to be looked after and energised to keep on campaigning against our complacent governments and to keep on fighting for our dreams of a free Palestine. We’ll be aiming to provide a space of care with tea, food, gentle workshops, talks, music and dancing, a space that centres the power of communion at a time of deep grief, isolation and exhaustion.Saturday is another day of action for Palestine solidarity across the UK, so we have moved the start time of the launch to 4:00pm to encourage everyone to attend their local rally for Palestine first. Find an action near you. We will also be collecting donations for Palestinian aid organisations on the day.
About PLAY: Edited by the amazing Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff and June Bellebono, alongside the Skin Deep team, PLAY is a collaboration with dozens of Black and POC creatives in the UK and internationally. The magazine centres playfulness whilst exploring some of the greatest challenges our communities are facing, from discussing whether or not Barbie will ever die (spoiler: probably not), to the role of a card game in imagining a decolonised Palestine, which is more urgent now than ever before. Provocative essays are paired with stories that’ll take readers around the world: from a dance ritual in Sudan, to a Dungeons and Dragons game in Trinidad, to a queer sex club in East London.The magazine will go on general sale in a couple of weeks, so watch this space…
It’s a big deal for Skin Deep to be publishing our 10th issue nearly ten years since we founded the organisation, and a total honour to launch it as part of the Rehearsing Freedoms festival. To be stepping into our next decade of work in alignment with peer organisations for whom we have the deepest respect, co-conspirators in building the just and liberated futures we envision, is definitely something worth celebrating.
TIMINGS:
4:30pm: You Draw My Hum – sound workshop for children and families by Nia Fekri
6:30pm: Dinner by Dishoom
8:00pm: Intro to the magazine with Managing Editor Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff; reading by PLAY contributor Brother Portrait; and panel talk with Amahra Spence, Farzana Khan, and Resolve Collective on the transformative power of play, with a focus on our current political context.
10:30pm: Music by Dialled In
Throughout the event there will be space to sit and relax with a cup of tea, read your new magazine and play a game or two. Healing Justice London are kindly providing weighted blankets, herbal teas, nervous system tonics and other welfare goodies for all to enjoy.
Accessibility: The venue is all on one level. The main toilets are not wheelchair accessible, but there will be a wheelchair accessible portaloo on site. All other parts of the venue are wheelchair accessible. All toilets are gender neutral.
Tickets are £10, and include a brand new copy of the print issue. Solidarity tickets are £20, and will help support the impact campaign for the magazine, which aims to get free copies of the mag to grassroots organisations, youth groups and community spaces, as well as providing workshops, reading groups and other resources that will make sure the mag has a meaningful life after publication.If you can’t afford a ticket for whatever reason, send an email to team@skindeepmag.com and we’ll hook you up.
If you are a Skin Deep member, your ticket is free. Email georgie@skindeepmag.com to be added to the guestlist. You can sign up to be a member here.