Local ARTvism blog Bananaemoji.com hosted its fourth instalment and second of its 2020 edition of BANANA CLUB recently, a platform aimed at educating and engaging with various Publics in an effort to lead relevant and dynamic conversations on issues affecting the queer community of Botswana. The fourth club session delved into the topic “Parenting, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity” .
Speaking on the choice of theme, the event curator, Tanlume Enyatseng said, “Adolescents in Botswana today are experiencing the emergence of their sexual and gender identities in a heteronormative society that is steadily adopting more progressive views related to sexual orientation and gender. However, despite these sociocultural changes, parent–child relationships remain as one of the strongest predictors of LGBTQI+ adolescent adjustment. This session aimed to review the importance of social visibility and inclusion in creating healthy environments for future queer parents and children alike. All while highlighting the significance of family experiences within a minority stress framework. The session was oriented around the coming out process, including factors influencing this experience and how post-disclosure parenting affects the health and well-being of LGBTQI+ adolescents. We heard from a lesbian couple raising a young son and discussed future directions and the challenges inherent to this conversation.”
BANANA CLUB welcomes the support of allies that agree with its manifesto and wishes to work with them to achieve a certain aim. The sessions are split into two halves; one half being dedicated to sharing personal experience, with each participant free to contribute as much or as little as they want and the second half being dedicated to questions and answers. With the help of the community, BANANA CLUB wants to pinpoint where societies and education practitioners are failing LGBTQ+ people and propose ways that might remedy this.
Concluded Tanlume, “As BANANA CLUB we seek to challenge dominant narratives and create a space in which the queer community can discuss freely. When we share our stories, we foster visibility and wipe out myths. The visibility that comes from different people sharing experiences, queering and disrupting views of the world, is a celebration of plurality. We will hopefully host many more club sessions before the end of year and our wish is to provide a platform for our communities to connect and achieve a common goal of inclusion through informed and open dialogues.”
- Established in 2016, Bananaemoji.com is a blog that illustrates today’s evolving culture through art, social commentary, fashion and humor.
- Its readers are anything but the normal. They’re bold, free- spirited life lovers who recognize that perfection is boring.
- Bananaemoji.com reaches a community of over 6000 views around the world
- Works from the website have been published in such platforms as WeTransfer, Blaque Magazine and AfroPunk and Mail and Guardian.
ARTivism blog Bananaemoji.com in the past two months has hosted the BANANA CLUB, a safe space platform that informs, inspires and engages with various key Publics in an effort to lead relevant and dynamic conversations in the youth, creative and queer community.
BANANA CLUB wants to create safe platforms for dialogue to lead the conversation about key issues in the youth, creative and predominantly queer community.
Our need to collaborate with the communities we work and live with to find solutions to issues and problems that affect us. We cannot do it on our own (community and concerted effort are key)
We aim to be inclusive, host engaged individuals from all walks of life, sectors and at all levels. Our focus will be predominantly youth and the LGBTQI+ community. The overarching theme for BANANA CLUB will ultimately be to host key industry publics and the general public (via open registration) to engage and share insights on relevant social issues and unpack them at intimate gatherings with no more than 30 people. Not more than a 2hour long engagement.
