World Pride has just finished and we’ve (probably) recovered, so it’s time for a debrief. In the aftermath of one of the biggest international queer events Sydney has ever seen, what can we say about Sydney as a queer city?

In the second of three sessions of Queer Reading Group Sydney taking place during World Pride as part of UNSW Galleries’ exhibition THE PARTY, we’re reading texts that trace the historical evolution—or devolution—of Sydney as a home for queer dance parties.

TEXTS:

Kane Race’s ‘Queer chemistry’, from The Gay Science: Intimate Experiments with the Problem of HIV (2017) places queer dance parties within Sydney’s historical and political context, and looks at how drug use mediates those experiences.

Bridget Haire’s ‘Mardi Gras’, from Queer City: Gay and Lesbian Politics in Sydney (2001) provides a brief history of the political past and present of Mardi Gras, and how queer dance parties have been situated as part of the event.

OPTIONAL — Clive Faro’s ‘On Queer Street’, from Street Scene: A History of Oxford Street (2000) is a history of Oxford Street in its gay heyday, with a focus on the ways Mardi Gras shaped the gay life of the street and the city.

Whether you’ve lived in Sydney your whole life or you’re just here for World Pride, join us for a discussion of Sydney as a queer city, and what World Pride says about the city now.

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Hosted by journalist Benjamin Riley, Queer Reading Group Sydney meets monthly to offer a place for conversations on queer writing. Together the group discusses short-form texts from radical pamphlets and zines to articles and essays.

For three months across World Pride, Queer Reading Group Sydney has partnered with UNSW Galleries to present a series of reading groups exploring the significance of nightlife and party culture in queer communities.