“Here and Queer”: Social enterprise celebrates Pride Month with screen print
In collaboration with artist Rosa Kusabbi, award-winning Printed By Us extends its screen printing stock with celebratory queer art.
Printed By Us train survivors of homelessness and other challenging circumstances in the art of screen printing, employing vulnerable adults in Sheffield, paying the Real Living Wage and supporting them back into employment. For Pride Month this year, the social enterprise – created by homelessness charity The Archer Project – have worked with LGBTQ+ artist Rosa Kusabbi to create Here and Queer, an A4 screen-print using water-based inks on high-quality recycled card.
This is more relevant to their ongoing work than it might initially appear; a disproportionate number of homeless people are LGBTQ+. As many as 24% of young homeless people are LGBTQ+, 69% of whom had experienced violence, abuse or rejection in their home. Over three quarters say that their gender or sexual identity was one of the reasons they became homeless.
Queerphobia and transphobia are not only the cause of many cases of homelessness, those prejudices – and fear of them – also prevent a lot of people from accessing further support due to anxieties about coming out to official support services, especially if those organisations are religious in nature. And these fears are not unfounded, according to LGBT+ youth homelessness charity Akt, 59% of LGBTQ+ young people have faced some form of discrimination or harassment while accessing services.
So this collaboration with Rosa Kusabbi and Printed By Us does more than just support the social enterprise, it goes further and opens the door to LGBTQ+ homeless people who may not feel confident accessing help elsewhere. They will know that Printed By Us is a safe organisation to approach. Plus, it highlights Kusabbi’s work; she creates bold and colourful prints and animations on social justice issues and Here and Queer came to life as she was finding her queerness, symbolising her coming into her own and being proud to be queer.
‘Here and Queer’ is now available to purchase from the Printed by Us website or at their store on Upper Park Lane, Meadowhall Shopping Centre.
