NIGHTHAWKS – A G.L.I.T.S. Fundraiser on International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

Saturday 17th December 2022 (10:30pm - 05:30am)

G.L.I.T.S. is coming to London and taking over Ormside Projects for Nighthawks, an all-night Xtravaganza honouring the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

The night, which will be run as a fundraiser for G.L.I.T.S., will be hosted by its founder Ceyenne Doroshow, an international activist and godmother of the Black Trans Lives Matter movement, with the support of Qween Jean, founder of Black Trans Liberation.

Some of the most exciting London based artists and musicians are teaming up to turn all of the spaces at Ormside Projects into a glamorous dystopian disco décor and put on an out of this world show for the occasion.

Stay tuned for more on the event's official Instagram page here.

Line up

ADAM CHRISTENSEN feat CRYSTABEL RILEY, DAVID AIRD & TOM WHEATLEY (live)

CLICHÉ TOUPÉE (live)

GAWDX (dj)

JAHLISA

LALI (dj)

NKISI (live)

OK WILLIAMS (dj)

PAUL MCGANN (dj)

SUSU LAROCHE (live feat performance by CHANEL)

VESNA K (KEIRA FOX (NEW NOVETA) & VINDICATRIX) (live)

Light show: CHARLIE HOPE

Production and set design: KATIE SHANNON, CHLOE MAUGILE, MIKE LEVITT & REUBEN MARTINDALE

Costumes: XENAB LONE

Sound: LOTTIE LOU POULET & ADRIAN ALDIHNI

80 advance £20 tickets can be purchased here (additional donations most welcome!) and the rest of the tickets will be available on the door at £20, £10 for POC and £5 for trans/non-binary. 

POC and trans/non binary community members who would like to purchase advance tickets at a discounted price can get in touch with the Nighthawks team on Instagram @nighthawks.glits to receive the private ticket link.

All proceeds go to G.L.I.T.S.

The event will be livestreamed online for the international community via G.L.I.T.S. and Ormside Projects social media platforms. Stay tuned for more!

A very special thanks from G.L.I.T.S. to all the individuals involved in making possible what is likely to be a truly unforgettable night!

More about the event on: https://ormside.co.uk/

International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

The International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers is held annually on 17 December by sex workers, their advocates, friends, families, and allies. The day calls attention to hate crimes committed against sex workers worldwide, as well as the need to remove the social stigma and discrimination that have contributed to violence against sex workers. Because of high level of discrimination in the labour market and because they face structural barriers to access to education and employment, and thus have limited economic and employment opportunities, trans POC often need to engage in sex work and are disproportionally vulnerable to violence globally. 

Ceyenne Doroshow, Founder and Executive Director, G.L.I.T.S.

Ceyenne Doroshow (pronounced Kai-Ann) is a compassionate powerhouse performer, activist, organiser, community-based researcher and public figure in the trans and sex worker rights’ movements. As the Founder and Executive Director of G.L.I.T.S., she works to provide holistic care to LGBTQ sex workers helping them with issues like housing and health care. These needs became increasingly urgent after the onset of the pandemic in 2020, one of the deadliest years on record for trans and gender-­nonconforming people. In response, Ceyenne and her team at G.L.I.T.S. began fund­raising; they bailed LGBTQIA+ inmates out of COVID-ravaged jails and housed them in safe Airbnb rentals; secured rent money for the Black trans community; and ultimately bought a $2 million 12-unit residential building that would be a free safe place for Black trans folks to live. The G.L.I.T.S. House in Queens, N.Y., opened in November 2021.

In June 2020, Doroshow co-organized the historic Liberation March, a Black Trans Lives Matter silent march in Brooklyn, NY, along with activist Raquel Willis, artist and activist West Dakota, the family of Iyanna Dior, and several black and transgender community organizations including the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, The Okra Project, and Black Trans Femmes in the Arts.

Ceyenne serves on the following boards: SWOP Behind Bars, Caribbean Equality Project, and SOAR Institute. As an international public speaker, her presentations include The Desiree Alliance, Creating Change, SisterSong, Harm Reduction Coalition and the International AIDS Conferences and now PRIDE on FX. Ceyenne has published features in GQ, Vogue, TIME, ATMOS, i-D and many other publications. She was recently featured in Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s Apple TV+ Docuseries ‘Gutsy Women’.

More about G.L.I.T.S. here

Qween Jean

Qween Jean is an Activist, Stage/Film Costume Designer, and Storyteller. She has committed her voice to advocating for marginalized communities; specifically black trans people. Her passion is creating access for unsung heroes and people who are often overlooked. She feels that they matter, and that their stories are valuable. Qween strongly believes in Black Trans Liberation, and feels that Liberation extends to everyone. Qween Jean is the co-author of the recently published Revolution Is Love: A Year of Black Trans Liberation, a powerful and celebratory visual record of a contemporary activist movement in New York City, and a moving testament to the enduring power of photography in activism, advocacy, and community.

More about Qween’s work here.

PERFORMANCES

Adam Christensen ft Crystabel Riley, David Aird & Tom Wheatley

Nighthawks presents the debut performance of Adam Christensen as a quatuor with Crystabel Riley, David Aird and Tom Wheatley.

Adam Christensen is a London based multidisciplinary artist whose working practice is primarily realised through music, textiles and installation, blurring the boundaries between everyday life and fiction. Through singing, Madam, Adam’s alter-ego, transports the audience into a private world of love and desire, melancholy and loss. The lines between the artist and viewer, life and fiction are blurred, in order to explore the everyday as spectacle. Based on Adam’s immediate experiences, coloured by the theatricality of the everyday, the spectacle of domesticity, chance encounters and emotional and physical dramas, Adam conveys these experiences through their performances.

Adam was part of the music project Ectopia. Numerous key galleries and museums such as Almanac, David Roberts Art Foundation (DRAF), Southard Reid, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Hollybush Gardens, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof have featured Adam's work in the past.

More about Adam here.

Crystabel Riley

During the late naughties Crystabel Riley toured Japan and Europe using drums, electronics and make-up in noise trio Maria and the Mirrors. This was the start of her interest in patterns on skins - human and drum. This interest in dimensional patterns existing on (and off) different surfaces has continued to evolve through exploring the idea of 'care and uncare' of the skin, self, others, and the world, across all of Crystabel's practices as an Artist (Make-up, Drum).

Crystabel has been a long-term collaborator with Sue Lynch who welcomed her into the Horse Improvised Music Club, where she collaborated with Caroline Krabel, John Edwards, and Steve Beresford who welcomed her into the London Improvisers Orchestra.

She is currently working on the multi-format duo project @xcrswx with Seymour Wright.

Crystabel’s latest music here.

Tom Wheatley

Tom Wheatley is an artist and musician based in London. His work is patterns, rhythms and cycles, at an interface of physical and digital zones. Collaborations include теплота with Grundik Kasyansky and Cast-On with Ilana Blumberg.

Cliché Toupée

Cliché Toupée is a South London based musician/sex worker/hot mess sonically exploring deterioration and decay in her music. She also smells nice.

Cliché Toupée’s music here.

GawdX

GawdX (they/he) is a Trini Senegalese DJ, fashion & jewellery designer. Their influences are multi and fluid. Growing up & living in a diverse range of cultures exposed them to a range of music, audible in their mixes. Their parents were passionate about music & introduced a young GawdX to playlist curation, a skill that would later translate into their DJing. A deep love of community & dance is a big part of why they DJ. They make mixes to both move and connect people. GawdX is co-founder of T&T queer DJ collective Batti Mamzelle (@batti.mamzelle) alongside DJs Jay Ryse and Tims. Continuing to create safe spaces for BIPOC is central to their vision.

GawdX’s music here.

Jahlisa

Jahlove Serrano is a health educator youth advocate HIV/AIDS activist androgynous model/runway coach /Drag Queen/background dancer/and choreographer to the stars. He's a Guatemalan/American native of Bronx New York. Contracted HIV a couple of days shy of his 16th birthday he decided to take a leadership role amongst his peers and community to be very public with his HIV status to combat the ignorance and stigma around HIV/AIDS. He's working in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention, outreach and research. He's working hard on a global, national, city and local level to address the needs of HIV positive and negative youth. Jahlove has worked with NYC AIDS institute, National Gay Mens Advocacy Coalition, The Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS North America (GNP+NA), AIDS ALLIANCES, The White House, and The Department of Health. He's currently on a national campaign called "HIV stops with me” NYC "In Care" campaign and Janssen Positively fearless Global campaign. Jahlove uses his entertainment platform to promote HIV/AIDS Awareness and education throughout the United States and beyond.

More about Jahlisa’s work here.

Lali

Rosa de Sausmarez Parry (lali) is a multifaceted artist and DJ whose practice thrives on cross pollination. She creates music videos & animations, and curates sound for film & live events. She is a founder of the club night Joy Disorder.

More about Lali’s work here and music here.

Nkisi

Nkisi produces intense, powerful sonics influenced by ancient Kongo rhythms, rhythmic noise, our planetary electromagnetic grid, and experimental improvisation. She recently launched her label INITIATION and research platform The Secret Institute, exploring the secrets and mysteries of vibrational rhythm, the ritual as a socio-political tool, invisible gestural sonics and strategies of trance.

More about Nkisi here and Nkisi’s monthly NTS show here.

Ok Williams

Ok Williams is a south-east London DJ playing a freeform blend of UK funky, drill, techno, jungle, club and house. Having had radio shows at Balamii, Netil and NTS - the station she works behind the scenes at – for a while now, her sets are always high energy seamlessly blending anything from electro and deconstructed club experiments to bass, garage and jungle.

Ok Williams’s monthly NTS show here.

Paul McGann

Paul McGann is a gardener, record collector and cafetiere. Born in Dublin, he has cheap taste but claims to understand the difference between price and value. Behind ‘Grow London’, having developed the undertakings of Grow Elephant and Grow Tottenham, he now runs Avalon Cafe. Recently he has been listening to a lot of progressive house.

Susu Laroche

Susu Laroche is a multidisciplinary artist of Egyptian/French descent. Her analogue short film work has been screened internationally including London Short Film Festival (UK), Samawah Cinema (Iraq) and Nihilist Film Festival (USA). In Spring 2021 she released her first photobook Chaos Rule Us via Wrong Eye Books and in December 2021 her first album ‘Paridaiza’ via Xquisite Releases. She also releases music with collaborator Oxhy as the The Fertile Crescent.

More about Susu’s work here.

Vesna-K (Keira Fox (New Noveta) and Vindicatrix)

Keira Fox and Vindicatrix present Vesna-K, in their debut performance as a duo.

Keira Fox is an artist whose practice includes performance, sound, installation, choreography and curation. She is one half of New Noveta, with whom she has performed internationally since 2012. She was also part of the industrial noise/gabba act Maria and the Mirrors (2009-2013) as well as running the notorious London based bat cave club night Brzina (2016-2019). She is working on a new gothic club space, TLC23 in collaboration with Artist Katie Shannon centred around trauma and mania release.

More about Keira’s work here and latest release here.

Vindicatrix is a producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist, working mostly with electronics but also incorporating histrionic vocal improvisation, maudlin crooning, and composition for chamber ensemble. Previous releases can be found on Mordant Music, Scum Yr Earth, purge.xxx and Cellule75.

More about Vindicatrix’s work here.

LIGHTING, PRODUCTION AND SET DESIGN

Charlie Hope

Charlie Hope is a visual artist using light, space, video and coding to build sensorial images across performance, installation and video. Creating multi textured environments often working collaboratively in a range of contexts from galleries, clubs, theatre and film. He has recently shown work at HetHEM Amsterdam, Nottingham Contemporary, Atonal Berlin, Tate/NTS London, ICA London, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Ormside Projects London and was a co-founder of performance collective London Topophobia.

More about Charlie’s work here.

Katie Shannon

Katie Shannon is a Scottish artist whose practice moves between drawing, installation, curation and sound. Alongside goth club and trauma group tlc23 with Keira Fox, she collaboratively runs record label Domestic Exile showcasing debut releases from many of Glasgow’s underground music scene including The Modern Institute and Total Leatherette, intermittently hosts minimal wave/maximal industrial club night So Low with DJs JD Twitch and Ribeka inviting acts such as Colin Potter and The Severed Heads and produces occasional events under the moniker Daisies with Artist France-lise McGurn. She plays with industrial band Kübler-Ross who recently released an album with Suction Records in Toronto. Recent projects include a moving image performance with musician Cucina Povera for Sonica Festival Glasgow and a solo show at Kunsthalle Ost Leipzig. She has been covered by Dazed magazine as ‘pushing the boundaries of latex’; a material she often uses.

More about Katie’s work here.

Chloe Maugile

Chloée Maugile is a London based artist and director who works in the parameters of fashion and art with a focus in surreal / experimental film and performance. Her work explores the psyche, spirituality and hallucination in the everyday, race and social binaries.

More about Chloé here.

COSTUMES

Xenab Lone

Xenab Lone is the founder of Auné Collections, a made-to-measure clothing label and multi-brand concept store Auné Store both focused on slow fashion. Xenab Lone is keen on emphasising a slower, more sustainable approach to fashion retailing. with inate attention to fit, fabric and print, Auné’s unparalleled pieces empower their customers to embody confidence, strength and sexiness, all the while feeling comfortable in their skin.

More about Auné here.