Queer as Folklore

Join us for an evening of maritime mythologies and more at the Queen\’s House in celebration of the launch of Queer as Folklore, the new book from writer, historian and community organiser Sacha Coward.

Traces of many of the creatures, historical figures and magical beings treated in Coward\’s book can be found in Royal Museums Greenwich’s own collections; namely pirates and mermaids. A notable example is Evelyn De Morgan’s The Sea Maidens, an aestheticist painting by the 19th-century spiritualist painter, which hangs in the Queen\’s House. Coward will discuss these and queer histories of folklore more broadly with Katherine McAlpine, Director of the Brunel Museum.

Storyteller Aaron Oliver will explore and subvert the narrative tropes familiar from childhood, with an original story of his own composition.

Researcher Ema Sala will also present a talk on \”female sailors\”, a term used through the nineteenth century to refer to people raised as women who went on to sail as men. These real-life sailors became the protagonists of a tradition of ballads, often represented as resourceful, seductive tricksters. Investigating this repertoire of songs as a repertoire of bodies, Sala will employ these depictions to challenge contemporary assumptions on the presence of trans people in historical documents.

This event will be BSL interpreted.

Drinks will be available to purchase throughout the evening through Benugo.