Non Fiction – Page 8

The Nameless Collective: Fostering queer artistic and cultural expression in Burkina Faso

Interview by Emma Onekekou. Photos by Wacyl Kha

If you were asked to name African LGBTQIA+ visual productions, you would surely be able to come up with a few. But what about productions from Francophone Africa specifically? This would quickly prove to be much more difficult. Not impossible, but difficult nonetheless. Q-zine had the privilege of speaking with Les Sans-Nom (The Nameless), a young collective based in Burkina Faso that contributes to building a “tomorrow” where African LGBTQIA+ visual and artistic productions, particularly from Francophone Africa, are no longer so scarce.

Could you introduce yourself to our readers?

My name is Emma Onekekou. I have two countries: the one that connects me to my umbilical cord, Côte d’Ivoire, and my country of heart, Burkina Faso. I currently reside in Burkina Faso where I followed love and coincidentally fell in love with the country. I identify as a cisgender lesbian woman. I must admit that lately, I have a lot of trouble putting the term cisgender in front of woman to talk about myself because for me, we are women, period! I also like to specify that I’m a lesbian because for me it’s political. My pronouns are she/her. I am an author, screenwriter and LBTQI+ activist. I joined the collective because I wanted to put my artistic knowledge to use for the benefit of the community, and because for me, art is a powerful tool for expression and community building.

I am Francky Belany, a Nigerian-Burkinabè of Chadian origin. I currently live in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). My pronouns are “they/them” but I am neither male nor female, and I’m both at the same time. These pronouns are authentic for me because they are neutral and not masculine. I am still in search of myself. I wanted to use my knowledge to advocate for LGBTQI+ rights. By playing a character, directing, singing, dancing, and writing, I want to leave a mark that will positively impact the world’s view of our community.

I am Wacyl Kha, a French-Algerian living in Burkina Faso. Ideally, I use the pronouns “they/them”, but more often the masculine for simplicity. I am a stage designer, and also an illustrator. In terms of video, I am involved in production, camera, editing, as well as animation. This collective is somewhat of a dream for me, to be able to reconcile art and activism, to make creations that can really have an impact, and above all, that it is about the community! And I am part of those who are here to remind the world that there aren’t just gays and lesbians. There are other letters in LGBTQI+.

How did you start Les Sans-Nom?

The idea came with Francky and Wacyl Kha who lived together and had many projects together, including a writing residency on feminism and a play called Poisson Braisé about a lesbian couple. These are subjects that are often difficult to address here in Ouagadougou. So, they thought about how setting up a collective, no matter how small, would make them stronger. The idea was that this collective would be a way of making our demands heard in terms of LGBTQI+ and other minorities’ rights on the continent. After several back-and-forths, we shared the idea with Emma who immediately accepted to join. There is a fourth member, but she would like to remain anonymous.

Les Sans-Nom is French for “The Nameless”. How did you come up with this rather unique name?

We realized that very few people, even within the community, dared to say words like “lesbian” [or] “homosexual”. But these words are not insults, they are identities. By refusing to pronounce them, to name ourselves, it’s ourselves that we are losing. We decided to twist this situation to our advantage by becoming spokespersons for the nameless, the-left-out, “those-who-don’t-count”. Because we are here, and we intend to claim our place.

Who are the artists that make up your collective and how can other artists join?

At the moment, the collective is small. It is composed of a scriptwriter and LBTQI+ activist; another scriptwriter who is also an actor and stage director; as well as a video artist, illustrator, and technician. In general, we collaborate with people first to see if we have the same approach. The only mandatory condition to be a full member of the collective is to be part of the community.

But these words are not insults,

They are identities

How did you get the idea to use art as a tool for advocacy?

We are artists first and foremost. But we believe that art must serve a cause. So, it seemed natural for us to defend our own, to give visibility to our stories, and if possible, to make others realize that we exist here too, not only in Europe or America. We believe that art has two purposes: to soothe hearts and to raise awareness. Throughout the world and through ages, art has been used as a tool to communicate ideas and raise awareness. So it was natural for us to combine the two.

Can you tell us about some of your productions or current projects?

Our first production is Poisson Braisé, a powerful and poetic play about an African couple composed of two women who face social pressure [because of their relationship]. We also collaborated with other women on an exhibition titled Elles s’engagent debout (Standing Up for Themselves). Additionally, we conduct creative workshops with members of the community and organize screenings of African LGBTQI+ films. And each one of us has prior and/or parallel experience in short films production, comics, books, etc.

Currently, we are working on Inbri, a film written by Emma Onekekou and co-directed by the three of us. There is a lot more to come, but we won’t spoil the surprise. Stay tuned!

How do you envision the future of the collective?

For us, the future is about continuing to use our know-how in service to the community, about working to develop the artistic skills of community members. Our community is full of so much talent! So our job will be to create a framework of expression for all these artists so that they can emerge. We will continue to look for funding to make as many productions as possible and why not, [even] open a LGBTQI+ cultural center. People need to get together for cultural events, to express themselves, even though society wants to silence us. We hope to help create a new environment for community members to be themselves. We already see the influence we are having on other associations here in Ouaga. Lastly, we hope to instill a new vision for activism and how to address our community.

February 8, 2022 By admin Comments Off Read more...

Les Multiples Facettes de la Passion: Une Conversation avec Yos Clark

Propos recueillis par Ruth Lu. Photos par Studiio Peter Michael, Yos Clark & Valentin Fabre

Danseur, photographe, mannequin, chanteur et plus encore, Yos Clark est un artiste originaire de la Côte d’ivoire. Au cours d’une conversation pleine d’énergie et de passion, il s’est ouvert à Q-zine sur un pan de sa vie d’artiste, de danseur notamment. Au fil des lignes, découvrez son parcours dans le monde de la danse ainsi que ses aspirations d’artiste.

Est-ce que tu pourrais te présenter à nos lectrices-teurs?

Je m’appelle Yos Clark. Je suis danseur, mannequin, et aussi un peu chanteur. Je vis en Angleterre. Si je devais me décrire en un seul mot, ce serait “passionné”. C’est la passion qui me guide dans tout ce que je fais. La danse par exemple, c’est par pure passion que j’ai commencé. C’est pareil pour la photo que j’ai commencé pratiquement au même moment que la danse, de même que pour la chanson. J’ai toujours été guidé par la passion. Pour la chanson, à l’époque, j’avais tendance à écouter beaucoup d’opéra. C’était au moment où j’avais commencé à danser. Je n’écoutais que de l’opéra et il m’arrivait de reproduire certaines chansons.

D’où est venue cette passion pour la danse ?

Quand j’étais plus jeune, je devais avoir huit ans, il y avait une émission qui passait à la télé qui s’appelait “Un, Dos, Tres”. Cette émission relatait la vie d’étudiants en art tel que la peinture, la musique, l’acting, la danse, etc. J’étais captivé par le volet danse. Il y avait cette beauté de la danse qui m’attirait. Malgré les peines qu’ils pouvaient vivre en tant que danseurs, ils avaient toujours cette capacité de donner d’eux mêmes, de donner à leur audience les plus beaux mouvements. Et à cet âge, j’étais tout simplement émerveillé! À huit ans, j’étais trop timide et trop jeune pour mettre les mots sur ce nouveau centre d’intérêt, alors je gardais ça pour moi. Quand je jouais avec mes amis, il m’arrivait de faire le grand écart pour essayer de me rendre souple. À l’école aussi, j’essayais de garder cette souplesse en me donnant à fond en cours de gymnastique. Puis vers l’âge de quinze ans, j’ai commencé à m’intéresser un peu plus à la danse. Je faisais beaucoup de recherches. Quand j’ai ouvert mon compte Facebook, j’envoyais des demandes d’amis à pratiquement que des danseurs. Ma première demande d’amis, après mon père, était à un danseur [rires].

Beaucoup de temps s’est écoulé entre le moment où j’ai découvert la danse à huit ans et le moment où j’ai réellement commencé à l’explorer. En tant qu’africains, en tant qu’hommes, on a tendance à avoir des préjugés sur les gens qui aiment la danse classique, et je pense que c’était ça qui m’avait un peu freiné. Je ne sais pas si à l’époque j’aurais pu être en mesure de mettre ces mots dessus mais on a tous cette image de la danse classique avec les petites filles et leur tutu rose. On n’associe généralement pas les petits garçons à ce domaine alors j’ai laissé le temps passer. Puis, il est arrivé un moment où il fallait vraiment que je m’exprime et les choses se sont faites naturellement.

Comment est-ce que tu as débuté dans le monde de la danse ?

À 15 ans, je ne dansais pas pleinement parce que j’allais encore à l’école. La danse était juste un passe-temps. Mais la majeure partie des ivoiriens savent danser. Je pense que c’est dans nos gènes [rires]. Donc je dansais quand même. J’avais Michael Jackson comme référence. À l’école, il m’arrivait d’imiter ses pas de danse. Je me mettais sur la pointe des pieds et j’imitais ses mouvements.

J’ai vraiment commencé à danser vers l’âge de 17 ans quand je n’allais plus à l’école. J’avais beaucoup de temps libre alors c’était en quelque sorte un exutoire pour moi parce que quand j’étais à la maison, je n’avais pas toujours le moral. Il fallait donc que je trouve quelque chose pour m’évader. Au début, je faisais beaucoup de recherches, je regardais des vidéos, j’essayais de reproduire des pas de danse. J’étais principalement autodidacte. Et puis j’ai continué à me faire des amis dans le milieu sur Facebook, à me prendre en photos, à poster et c’est parti de là. Maintenant, je suis dans une école de danse.

J’ai commencé avec la danse classique et j’ai progressivement évolué vers la danse contemporaine. C’est un univers qui me parle beaucoup plus. Je m’y sens plus libre que dans le milieu de la danse classique ou c’est plus rigide, il y a plus de règles. En danse contemporaine, c’est vraiment moi qui m’exprime. J’arrive à faire ressortir mon identité, à raconter ma propre histoire, à y mettre mon propre vécu. C’est quelque chose qui me parle beaucoup plus.

Comment décrirais-tu ton année 2020 avec tout ce qui s’est passé ?

Je suis revenu en Angleterre en 2020 et le confinement a commencé quelque temps après. Sur le coup, je l’ai vécu un peu comme une catastrophe. À peine arrivé pour mes études, je tombais dans cette situation. Je me disais que j’étais en quelque sorte maudit parce qu’après tout ce que j’avais eu à traverser pour arriver en Angleterre, je me retrouvais encore face à un autre problème. Avec les restrictions liées au visa, je me demandais comment j’allais pouvoir finir ma formation et c’était vraiment stressant parce que je ne voyais pas d’autre issue. Je me posais beaucoup de questions sur ce qu’il allait advenir de ma vie. C’est une période que j’ai vécu assez difficilement.

Nos cours se passaient intégralement en ligne, chose que j’avais déjà expérimenté par le passé puisqu’après avoir été autodidacte, j’avais réussi à avoir une prof en ligne pour me donner des cours. C’était donc un modèle d’apprentissage auquel j’étais quelque peu habitué. Cependant, prendre des cours de danse en ligne, ce n’était vraiment pas idéal. Danser dans un espace limité, avec une connexion internet qui pouvait être instable, était loin de ce que je m’étais imaginé. Mais j’ai réussi à surmonter tout ça, à me remonter le moral et j’ai continué à poster davantage [de photos] sur les réseaux sociaux.

J’ai même ouvert un nouveaux compte où je postais beaucoup plus sur la mode. Je voulais dissocier ma passion pour la danse de ma passion pour la mode pour être plus en harmonie avec mes différentes audiences. Puis, je me suis rendu compte que les gens aimaient mon contenu. Grâce à ce compte, j’ai été repéré par une organisation de la London Fashion Week qui s’intéressait à mon travail. Ils m’ont proposé de faire une vidéo avec eux. On a travaillé avec 10 autres designers avec qui cette organisation avait l’habitude de travailler. La vidéo a été publiée sur le site de la London Fashion Week et il y a eu un article publié dans Vogue Italia. Donc voilà, c’est vrai que 2020 a mal commencé pour moi, mais éventuellement, tout s’est bien terminé. Je suis très reconnaissant pour tout ce parcours et je me dit que ce n’est que le début. Il y a beaucoup de choses en préparation!

Après tout ce que tu as eu à traverser pour pouvoir pleinement exercer et exprimer ta passion, comment-est-ce que tu envisages l’avenir ?

Je me dis qu’il y a un avenir brillant qui m’attend. Dans la vie, il y aura toujours des hauts et des bas; mais c’est surtout la manière dont on aborde les défis, les personnes avec qui l’on s’entoure mais aussi les opportunités qui se présentent qui font la différence. Je me suis rendu compte qu’à chaque fois que je planifiais quelque chose, rien ne se passait comme prévu. Par exemple, quand j’ai commencé les cours de danse en ligne alors que j’étais encore à Abidjan, j’étais censé retrouver ma prof de danse en France. Mais ceci n’est jamais arrivé. Et la vie a fait qu’avec l’Afrique a Un Incroyable Talent, elle même a pu venir sur Abidjan et on a pu se rencontrer en personne. Donc maintenant, je ne me torture plus à trop planifier. Je garde en vue mes objectifs sur le long terme et je prends le présent comme il se présente parce que je sais que la vie est imprévisible. Je laisse juste faire la vie et puis on découvrira ensemble ce qui arrivera.

Lorsque tu repenses à ton parcours, depuis le petit garçon émerveillé par le monde de la danse à l’homme passionné et confiant que tu es aujourd’hui, quel message laisserais-tu aux petits garçons comme toi ?

Le message le plus important que je pourrais leur laisser, c’est d’être vrai envers eux-même, d’être authentique et de s’aimer comme ils sont. Comme on l’entend souvent, si tu ne t’aimes pas toi-même, comment est-ce que tu peux aimer les autres. Donc qu’ils se donnent à eux-mêmes cet amour et qu’ils suivent leurs passions. Un conseil que mon père m’a donné quand je commençais la danse, c’est qu’on ne fait rien de mieux que ce qu’on aime. Et au fil de mon parcours, je me suis rendu compte à quel point ceci était vrai. La photographie par exemple, c’est quelque chose que je n’ai jamais appris. La danse, j’ai commencé avec les moyens de bords et ce, malgré toutes les contraintes. Et j’ai quand même réussi à faire mon petit bout de chemin, et j’en suis très heureux. Je n’ai vraiment pas de regrets. Alors je les encourage à vivre pour leurs passions et à se donner les moyens d’y arriver. C’est vraiment la meilleure des choses!

Quel est ton rêve le plus fou en tant qu’artiste ?

En tant que danseur, mon rêve est de rejoindre une compagnie de danse. Il y a des compagnies de danse que j’aimerai pouvoir rejoindre. Ce sont des compagnies que je vise et qui sont en phase avec mes aspirations et répondent à mes attentes en termes de qualité. Éventuellement, j’aimerai mener une carrière solo. Je suis une personne assez indépendante, j’aime bien improviser dans mon art, m’exprimer au rythme de la musique. C’est quelque chose qui me permet de me renouveler à chaque fois, de me découvrir. Mener une carrière solo me permettrait donc de me libérer de toutes les restrictions que l’on peut rencontrer lorsque que l’on travaille dans un cadre limité.

En plus de cela, je rêve de pouvoir devenir chorégraphe et d’ouvrir une école de danse ou d’art en Côte d’Ivoire. Peut-être pas à Abidjan où il y a déjà pas mal d’opportunités, mais à l’intérieur du pays, histoire de donner une chance à d’autres jeunes passionnés d’art comme moi. Quand j’ai commencé, je n’avais pas les moyens de poursuivre mon art autant que je le voulais, donc je connais un peu la situation dans laquelle beaucoup de danseurs ivoiriens se trouvent.

Et enfin, j’aspire à pouvoir un jour fusionner mes passions – la danse, la photographie et même le mannequinat – en un seul et unique projet. Il n’y a pas de photographe spécialisé en danse en Côte d’Ivoire par exemple, alors c’est quelque chose que j’aimerai explorer et apporter à mon pays. C’est une chose sur laquelle je devrais beaucoup travailler pour pouvoir peaufiner la vision finale avant de pouvoir me lancer mais on verra comment la vie me surprendra!

February 1, 2022 By admin Comments Off Read more...

The Multiple Facets of Passion : A Conversation With Yos Clark

Interview by Ruth Lu. Photos by Studiio Peter Michael, Yos Clark & Valentin Fabre

Dancer, photographer, model, singer and much more, Yos Clark is an artist from Cote d’Ivoire. During a conversation full of energy and passion, he opened up to Q-zine about his life as an artist, especially as a dancer. As you read on, discover his journey in the world of dance and his aspirations as an artist.

Could you introduce yourself to our readers ?

My name is Yos Clark. I’m a dancer, model, and sometimes singer. I live in England. If I had to describe myself in one word, it would be “passionate”. Passion guides me in everything I do. For instance, I started dancing out of pure passion. It’s also passion that drove me to photography, which I started almost at the same time as dancing and singing. I have always been guided by passion. Regarding singing, I used to listen to a lot of opera when I started ballet. I only listened to opera and would sometimes imitate some of the singers.

Where did this passion for dance come from?

When I was younger, maybe eight years old, there was a TV show called “Un, Dos, Tres” that I used to watch. It was about the life of students who were studying art like painting, music, acting, ballet, and so on. I was completely captivated by ballet. There was this beauty about ballet that attracted me. In spite of the pain these students would experience as dancers, they still had this ability to give of themselves, to give their audience the most beautiful show. And at that age, I was simply amazed! At eight, I was too shy and too young to put this new interest into words, so I kept it to myself. When I played with my friends, I would sometimes do the splits to try to make myself flexible. At school, I would also try to keep that flexibility by giving my all during gym class. Then around the age of fifteen, I started to get a little more interested in dancing. I did a lot of research. When I opened my Facebook account, I would mostly only send friend requests to dancers. My first friend request, after my dad, was to a dancer [laughs].

Quite a few years passed between when I discovered ballet at eight years old and when I really started to explore it. As Africans, as men, we tend to have prejudices about people who like ballet, and I think that was what held me back for a while. I don’t know if at that time, I would have been able to put this into words but we all have this image of ballet as the little girl and her pink tutu. We don’t usually associate ballet with little boys so I let time pass [before I took it on]. There eventually came a time when I had to express myself and things happened naturally.

So how did you start in the dance world?

At 15, I wasn’t dancing full time because I was still going to school. Dancing was just a hobby. But most Ivorians can dance. I think it’s in our genes [laughs]. So I danced regardless. I had Michael Jackson as a reference. At school, I used to imitate his dance moves. I would stand on my tiptoes and imitate his moves.

I started dancing seriously at age 17, when I was out of school. I had a lot of free time so it was kind of an outlet for me because when I was at home, I wasn’t always in good spirits. I had to find a way to escape. In the beginning, I did a lot of research and watched videos, trying to reproduce dance steps. I mostly taught myself. And then I continued to make dancer friends on Facebook, took pictures of myself [dancing], posted them, and it went from there. Now I’m in dance school.

I started with ballet and gradually evolved towards contemporary dance. It’s a universe that speaks to me more. In contemporary dance, I feel freer than in ballet where things are more rigid, where there are more rules. In contemporary dance, I can express myself fully. I can bring out my identity, tell my own story, put my own experience into it. It’s a genre that really speaks to me.

How would you describe your year 2020 with everything that happened?

I came back to England in 2020 and lockdown started shortly later. At the time, I experienced it as a bit of a catastrophe. This whole situation was happening just as things finally seemed to be working out for me to study dance as I wanted to. I thought I was cursed because after everything I had gone through to get to England, I was faced with another issue. I was constantly stressed out about how I was going to finish my training. With visa restrictions and all, I honestly couldn’t see a way out. I would question myself about what was going to happen to my life. It was a very difficult time for me.

Our classes were all online, which is something I had experienced in the past because while I was teaching myself ballet, I managed to find an online teacher to support me. So it was a learning model that I was somewhat used to. However, online dance classes are not ideal. Dancing when your space was constrained and the internet connection could be unstable was far from what I had imagined. But I managed to overcome all that, to cheer myself up and continue to post more [photos] on social media.

I even opened a new account dedicated to fashion. I wanted to separate my dance content from my fashion content so as to be more in tune with my different audiences. I realized that people liked my content after all. Thanks to this account, I was spotted by an organization from the London Fashion Week that was interested in my work. They invited me to make a video with them and we worked with 10 other designers. The video was published on the London Fashion Week website and an article was published in Vogue Italia. So there you have it! It’s true that 2020 didn’t start as I wanted it to, but eventually it all worked out. I’m very grateful for this journey and I am confident that this is just the beginning. There is much more to come!

After everything you had to go through to be able to fully exercise and express your passion, how do you see the future?

I tell myself that there is a bright future ahead of me. In life, there will always be ups and downs; but it’s how you approach the challenges, the people you surround yourself with, and the opportunities that present themselves that make the difference. I realized that every time I planned something, nothing went as planned. For example, when I started the online dance classes while I was still in Abidjan, I was supposed to meet my dance teacher in France. But this never happened. And life made it so that through the Africa’s Got Talent contest, she had an opportunity to come to Abidjan. That’s how we met in person. So now, I don’t torture myself with too much planning. I keep my long-term goals in mind and I take the present as it comes because I know that life is unpredictable. I just let life do its thing and then we find out together what comes of it.

When you think back on your journey, from the little boy who was amazed by the world of dance to the passionate and confident man you are today, what message would you leave for little boys like you?

The most important message I can leave them with is to be true to themselves, to be authentic and to love themselves as they are. We hear more and more “if you don’t love yourself, how can you love others?” So they should give that love to themselves and follow their passions. One piece of advice my father gave me when I was starting to dance was that when you do something that you love, you can only be good at it. And along the way, I’ve come to realize how true that is. Photography for example, is something I never learned. I started dancing with very little tools and knowledge. Despite all the constraints, I still managed to make my way, and I’m very happy about that. I honestly have no regrets. So I would encourage them to live for their passions and to give themselves the means to achieve it. That’s really the best thing!

What is your wildest dream as an artist?

As a dancer, my dream is to join a dance company. There are dance companies that I would like to join and these are companies that are in line with my aspirations and that meet my expectations in terms of quality. Eventually, I would like to have a solo career. I am a fairly independent person, I like to improvise in my art, to express myself to the rhythm of the music. It’s something that allows me to renew myself each time, to discover myself. Having a solo career would allow me to free myself from all the restrictions that one can encounter when working within a limited framework.

I also dream of becoming a choreographer and opening a dance or art school in Côte d’Ivoire. Maybe not in Abidjan where there are already a lot of opportunities, but in the countryside, to also give a chance to other young passionate artists like me. When I started, I did not have the means to pursue my art as much as I wanted, so I know very well the situation many Ivorian dancers find themselves in.

Lastly, I aspire to be able to merge my passions – dance, photography and even modeling – into a single project one day. There is no photographer specialized in dance in Côte d’Ivoire for example. This is something I would like to explore and bring to my country. I’ll have to work a lot to get a clearer vision before I can take the plunge but we’ll see how life surprises me!

February 1, 2022 By admin Comments Off Read more...