Hi everyone! I'm Tyreece and this is Xtra Magazine's
"London Calling.".
We're
going to "Gay's The Word," the oldest LGBTQ bookstore
in London, founded in 1979.
Oh, and it's open.
Let's go inside.
The reason why I love this place, there's just so much
variety of queer history, queer novels.
We've all seen "Heartstopper" on Netflix, but have you seen
the graphic novels? We've got one, two,
three, four books right here.
As a queer person of color, there's very
few books that I see myself
and "Nate Plus One" is a story of two POC
queer people just fall in love.
And that's what I love.
I always want to be connected to my queer history.
So "Queer: A Graphic History,"
I want to be knowledgeable and I feel like as queer people,
it's our duty to look in our past because it's going
to pave a way for our future.
Today
we're in Greenwich for Queercircle.
Now, Queercircle is an LGBTQ+ led
charity working at the intersection of culture,
arts and social impact.
Shall we have a look?
I'm honestly so amazed at this space and this is only the
first installment and this was curated by Michaela
Yearwood-Dan, "Let Me Hold You."
It's honestly so amazing.
Like, "Let Me Hold You" is the perfect title for it because
it just entices you in and it just feels so warm.
I feel like you can just feel the queer love,
the resilience, the passion.
I feel like the closer you get, the
more detail you see in the work, the artistry.
I just love how you can walk around
and feel immersed, because I know, like, especially with
this day and age, you can feel so much hate.
But like, this is so much love.
Or you can sit down.
You just feel at home.
I think that's what this is, it just feels like home.
You feel safe.
I'm so excited for this year because this year is so
special. It marks the 50th anniversary of London Pride.
And this space is not just a gathering.
It's a queer hub to liberate, educate and to
facilitate.
Today we're in Dalston to visit the classic vintage
clothing store Beyond Retro.
They've got such a wide variety of clothes for us.
Shall we take a look?
Oh, perfect.
Where to start?
Jerseys! I love a jersey.
Red? black?
I think red.
Don't know what's calling out to me. I want something.
Something that screams "them!"
Oh, wait, that!
It's pride season, momma.
Now that puts the pride in pride season, that is actually
super cute.
Every them needs a simple black dress.
Oh, my gosh. Not this!
I am actually a sucker for shimmer.
I'm going to pick her up.
She's a maybe, don't know if she's going to fit, but we'll
find out.
I think I'm actually done.
So I want to try on this or
this.
I'm gonna try on both.
Wish me luck!
Ip, dip, do.
Now this is cute.
But I wasn't feeling it.
But this, she's gonna ride in my basket.
Brunch
by day, party by nights, we go into the iconic, queer
Dalston Superstore venue in, you guessed it, Dalston.
Shall we have a cocktail?
Fellow enby Max is
making us a sickening cocktail.
Max, what are you making us?
Well, today, we're going to make the latest addition to our
cocktail menu, which is a Trans Pride special.
It's a layered, tricolor in the trans flag colors.
So I'm going to show you how to make it.
I love it already!
Oh, wait til you try it!
Hahaha!
We go in first with our pink.
Pink, my favourite color.
Mmmm, femme!
And we're going to get our first layer
in with that. So that's just one measure,
right to the bottom.
Gorgeous.
Now for the white, we're going to use a little lychee juice and it'll sit nicely
on top.
Get you "one-of-five" a day.
It's very healthy.
Hahahaha!
A slimming cocktail.
Fresh fruit!
Just a little bit of Beefeater gin.
Then a tiny drop of blue Curacao,
just to get that color. And
then with the most delicate of delicate pours,
it's going to build up our....
Voila!
Transity was born.
You taste the alcohol, you taste the transity and I love
it.
Drag, burlesque, cabaret.
This venue has all of that.
It's The Glory.
This venue is so iconic and so special to me because
I remember when I was 18, I didn't know myself and
performing at The Glory opened my eyes and my
world to queer culture.
I get quite emotional even when I walk past it because it
was the first place that ever gave me a shot at performing.
As a little queer them starting
out, 18 years old, I didn't know how to navigate the scene
and The Glory really opened the door to me.
You don't have to navigate this world through a binary
lens.
The first night I came here, it was "Lipstick 1000", one
of the most iconic drag shows not just in London, but
in the UK. And I feel like that really blew the lid off
gender for me.
And now I'm this! I'm just Tyreece.
I don't have to tick a box, I'm just me, and I'm happy.
And I have to thank The Glory for literally giving me that
shot.
So
everyone, that sums up my London guide with Xtra Magazine.
Make sure you come to London Pride July the 2nd.
I've been Tyreece, and safe travels.