Ending a collaboration with Q'IWA, thoughts on accountability

We have made the decision to end our collaboration with Q'IWA for the SWANA cabaret at our Radical Book Fair, following an awful incident of racism directed at a Black woman in our community, from within their organising committee.

We believe there can be no space for joy and celebration where there is also oppression - At Lighthouse we operate a safe space policy that we take seriously and expect our collaborators to uphold (and which we explicitly ask them to sign up to). The leadership at Q'IWA have fallen, by their own admission, dramatically below those standards. For these reasons we have immediately cancelled our work with Q'IWA and the cabaret element of the Saturday evening at the Book Fair which they were curating for us.

We have extended our solidarity to the artist targeted, her treatment was inexcusable and we are profoundly sorry and disturbed to hear of what took place - when racism is tolerated within our groups or spaces, it rots everything it touches.

Our sincere hope is that the people who formed Q'IWA will take steps towards repair and accountability, to allow those affected within Scotland's small artistic, racialised and queer communities to heal properly and for creatives and collectives to thrive through care, courage and responsibility.

For what its worth, here are my two cents.

Among many wise words they shared in response to this issue, I'd like to borrow the words of artists Adéráyọ̀, - shutting down without addressing racial harm done head on, perpetuates that harm.

This is an infuriating pattern of behaviour we have seen repeatedly in the last year, which (knowingly or not) repositions organisations behaving poorly as victims, their own 'cancelling' becoming the focal point instead of much needed focus on the harm done and the cultures they created and upheld that allowed toxic behaviours to endure.

While we can empathise with the panic and defensiveness that lead small organisations to shut down when called out (or in) - this is a profoundly unhelpful reaction. Not only does the harm caused go unanswered, but trying to protect those at the top by burning community groups to the ground from within, does an immense disservice to the many who - innocent of wrongdoing- rely on such collectives or groups - for work, for spaces, for services. (Yes, this is also harking back to the closure of Spit It Out).

It is *hard* to take responsibility for fucking up. It is *hard* to look at the effects of ones' own shitty behaviour on real people. *Hard* to watch the corrosive impact that racism, queer-phobia, misogyny and other cruelties and bigotries have as they ripple from one target to whole communities. *Hard* to see trust and respect wash away. *Hard* to look at all that and see how much work there will be in fixing it all, in making amends, in building back trust. That's when courage is needed. Take responsibility.

It feels, to me, like an extra 'fuck you' to the victims, to say 'I'm sorry' and then disappear, showing, ultimately, that you can't be bothered to even try to fix it?

We have so many pathways, strategies and learnings compiled in transformative justice movements around the world: the tools to mend our relationships are very much there.

It's up to every one us to pick them up when we have made a mess of things. Very few things are unsalvageable, especially when you haven't even tried. We hope that those behind Q'IWA will try - it's worth it, really.

Love & solidarity,

M

PS: Please note that having cancelled the cabaret, we will instead be going ahead with a fuller celebration of the Queer Arab Glossary, which our own Mohamed Tonsy programmed with the brilliant editor and artist Marwan Kaabour. Instead of delivering a brief talk to set the scene for the cabaret, Marwan and The Queer Arab Glossary will now get a full event in its own right.