The Birmingham 2022 Festival Announces HEALING GARDENS OF BAB

The Birmingham 2022 Festival and Fierce today announce the programme for Healing Gardens of Bab - a celebration of queer artists from across the Commonwealth, queer culture and histories. Taking inspiration from Babylon's hanging gardens, which were built as a luscious sanctuary, the projects in the programme are both epic and reflective, creating a brand new healing gardens right in the heart of the city. Programmed in response to the arrival of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and anchored by three exuberant moments of queer joy and solidarity Healing Gardens of Bab includes large scale spectacles and outdoor artworks, pop-up performance, drag, pageantry and creative club nights with artists from countries including South Africa, Ghana, Canada, India and Australia. Fierce have worked alongside a group of five LGBTQIA+ future leaders from Birmingham - Hassan Hussain, Simone Mendez, Eric Scutaro, Beth Steventon-Crinks and Patrick Vernon. Healing Gardens of Bab runs between 27 June - 17 July.

Aaron Wright, Artistic Director of Fierce said: "Aaron Wright, Artistic Director of Fierce said: "One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the only wonder whose existence is disputed. It has been suggested by some that the gardens are a figment of the ancient imagination. Just like Babylon's Gardens, the existence of queer people has often been disputed. Queer people have always existed: from Hijras and Kothi communities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh; the Fa'afafine of Samoa; Sangomas of South Africa; as well as many identities that aren't translatable into English. Fierce's Healing Gardens of Bab is an artistic response to English colonial history exploring penal codes that criminalised homosexuality whilst looking towards healing queerer futures."

Between 30 June and 9 July Australia's Club Até transform Birmingham's Chamberlain Square with a colossal projected artwork inspired by Filipino folklore narratives - In Muva We Trust. Audiences are invited to encounter the large-scale installation, set to bathe the façade of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, immersing themselves in the mythical Skyworld. Club Muva, an additional late night party takes place on 9 July at Symphony Hall. The night will celebrate voices from the QTIPOC and trans communities with diverse performances, showcasing some of Birmingham's best performers, artist-activists, cultural collectives and creatives.

After hours at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, direct from Ottawa, audiences can encounter a flavour of the world's only 2-Spirit Ball on 2 July. 2-Spirit is an umbrella term for Indigenous peoples that identify with the LGBTQIA+ community and 2-Spirit Ball will celebrate Indigiqueer culture from across Turtle Island (a term used by First Nations communities for North America) and abroad in a variety of practices, such as drag, music and performance art.

On 14 and 15 July, Olivier award winning arts collective Duckie return to Birmingham for the first time in 15 years to present a summer's evening of performance around Birmingham's Botanical Gardens - Princess, Picnic, Promenade. Audiences are invited to tour the beautiful gardens and enjoy queer post-empire pop-up performance featuring artists from South Africa, Ghana, Canada, India, Australia and the UK.

Tim Hodgson, Senior Producer at Birmingham 2022 Festival said: "This is one of a range of projects within the Birmingham 2022 Festival which welcome and support queer communities across the city and the Commonwealth. It is crucial that all voices are heard in our festival. There are still too many places in the Commonwealth where people are not free to express themselves, and Healing Gardens of Bab is a reminder of how art and celebration can give voice to difficult conversations, lift up marginalised voices and strengthen our communities.

From the world's only, 2-Spirit Ball to major queer interventions which reimagine our public squares, shopping centres and gardens, Healing Gardens of Bab will give space for reflection and solidarity with queer people from across the Commonwealth."

Elsewhere audiences are invited to engage in hands-on events including YOU'RE INVITED, by Toronto's Jess Dobkin & Clayton Lee, an event series exploring queer activism, whilst SaVAge K'lub opens their door to new members via talks, performances and more.

Behind closed doors Sunil Gupta and Charran Singh create a new body of work with the Journey Asylum Seekers Group, which will be publicly displayed. Further afield 'Bab's Baldacchino', a new commission by queer designer and architect Adam Nathaniel Furman tours Birmingham's suburbs as a beacon of queer hope, whilst in the city centre a new commission by Montreal's Dominique Petrin will be unveiled.

The steering group has commissioned local artist Mazahir Hussain aka Girth of Venus to create the Healing Gardens of Bab lead artwork.

Hassan Hussain, Simone Mendez, Eric Scutaro, Beth Steventon-Crinks and Patrick Vernon said: "Steering the Healing Gardens of Bab programme has been eye-opening in many ways. First and foremost we have learnt, witnessed and explored the plural expressions of queerness, gender and sexuality over time and space.

The five of us may not have come together without this programme. Now we have a network built on friendship and collaboration, thanks to the space provided for us to learn, play and heal. Through this project, a queer solar system has emerged, of which we (and other Birmingham LGBTQI+ creatives) are a part. Our sense of our community has grown and deepened in a real way.

Working alongside Fierce, we're able to bring our whole selves to work, to claim new ground and to present the city art it has never seen before. As a result, we can offer something for (and about) LGBTQI+ people, whether 'out' or not; a chance to connect, to heal, to exhale."

The Healing Gardens of Bab is presented by the Birmingham 2022 Festival and produced by Fierce with generous support by Arts Council England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The National Lottery Community Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom and Creative New Zealand.

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