Happy Pride Month everyone! Hope you’ve been waving your rainbow flags all month long and being unapologetically queer or being an amazing ally! This article is going to be extra special, only because it’s Pride and we here at Hillz are queer and proud allies, but also because I had the pleasure of interviewing Holly, founder of Queer Kinship – a social group with the intention of creating a space for queer global majority individuals to be loud and proud. Keep reading to find out more about them!
- Could you start off by introducing yourself, what is queer kinship and your role within kinship.
“My name is Holly Cooper (they/them) and I am the Founder and current Secretary of Queer Kinship Coventry, a grassroots community organisation for Black & Global Majority LGBTQ+ people in Coventry and the surrounding areas. I established the group in March 2025, and have now been joined by a team of other likeminded, impassioned individuals who have really brought our group to life. In my role, I do a bit of everything, from event planning and grant applications, to facilitating our monthly kinfolk socials!”
- If you’re willing to share, what has your journey been like as a queer person but also as a queer global majority individual. And how did that influence the creation of queer kinship?
“I have been quite privileged really! My journey as a Black British/Caribbean queer person has been difficult at times, especially when engaging with elders in the Caribbean community. However, my family has been very supportive and will actually be showing up to support Queer Kinship at Coventry Pride this weekend!
Although, trying to find community has been difficult and quite upsetting at times. I have found that the majority of LGBTQ+ community spaces struggle to cater to the intersectional experiences of the queer community. Even if they don’t realise it, many of these groups are quite exclusionary when it comes to Black and Global Majority queers, and this can lead to harmful interactions which prevent community members from re-engaging with in-person community building. Putting yourself out there is hard enough, and one bad experience can be enough to turn away a lot of people. Also, being Black/Global Majority and LGBTQ+ comes with a unique set of lived experiences and politics (all our fights are connected!) and very few groups I have found truly acknowledge and engage with this.
In my journey to find community, I have spent lots of money and time travelling into London and Birmingham for queer Black & Global Majority community groups and events. In doing this, I started to meet people who live in Coventry and I just thought – we clearly exist, so we should have our own group! So, I created the Instagram page for Queer Kinship, found an inclusive local venue to host our first meet up, and the rest is history.”
- What kind of activities do you do in kinship? And what’s an activity do you want to do?
“So far, our events have included: evening socials, a spoken word and badge making workshop, a film screening of Rafiki (2018), and crafty drop-in sessions. In December 2025, we established our monthly coffee social, kinfolk, a friendly, informal community space to meet new people, co-create, exchange knowledge, or just be. We meet the first Saturday of every month from 11am – 1pm at Sugar & Spice at Fargo Village – it’s a lot of fun!
We also have started a new programme of events for 2026, called with open arms. The programme consists of 4 events which provide a space for our community to explore radical ways of being, to help us reclaim our agency and reject our supposed powerlessness. We had our first session earlier this month, and it went super well!!
I’d love to reintroduce evening socials to Queer Kinship, but finding a sober venue is proving to be difficult. We will keep looking, so just watch this space…”
- So this interview is super special because it’s all about Pride Month and being unapologetically queer. What does being queer mean to you? And why is it important to celebrate LGBTQIA+ culture and history?
“For me, being queer is being more than just LGBTQIA+. Queerness is an inherently political identity, whereas I believe those who identify in an acronymic manner are more adverse to acknowledging this truth. Queerness is incompatible with individualism or neo-liberalism. Queerness is anti-AI. Queerness is a liberatory politic, one that believes in a free Palestine, a free Sudan, a free Congo. Queerness is anti-colonial, anti-white supremacy, anti-capitalist. Queerness exists at a grassroots level, not within corporations or hegemonic institutions. We must celebrate this. We must remember Stonewall for what it was, as historical amnesia has made many people forget that transfeminine people are at the centre of queerness and the reason we have pride. Celebrating and remembering this history is crucial, otherwise these things are so easily (and conveniently) forgotten.”
- Now, you’ve watched The Watermelon Woman, what was your first impression of it, and what was something meaningful about for you? And what do you want others to take away from it?
“The Watermelon Woman (1996) should be a mandatory text for all queer people, regardless of race, sexuality, class, or age. My first impression was confusion – how have we gotten to a point where every LGBTQIA+ person has watched Pride (2014) (no offence), but not this film. Although I can probably guess why this film is less popular within the cultural zeitgeist!
Firstly, I’m obsessed with the premise. Cheryl, a young Black lesbian, is an aspiring filmmaker and, by today’s standards, a true ‘film bro’. She comes across a 1940s actress, credited in one film as the Watermelon Woman, and goes on a journey to find out who this actress really was. This is a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment, and we, the viewer, get to come along for the ride.
As a Black historian, I love this film for its representation of archival recovery. I, too, have been confronted with many anonymous figures, and have had to wrestle with the archival record to uncover their truth. The truth is, individuals such as the Watermelon Woman were never supposed to be remembered in history. Black women and men are often silenced in the process of remembering, especially if they are queer or otherwise subversive. Their existence confuses everything we are supposed to believe about the past, what is normal and what is acceptable. And this is what I need others to take away from this film. Every historical queer figure we know of was never supposed to be remembered, which makes them precious. Once they have been discovered, it is our job to keep their memory alive, to ensure that they are never forgotten again. This is not just for them, but for the preservation of our collective existence as queer beings.”
- What’s another queer film that you’d like others to watch?
“I will always recommend Born in Flames (1983). It’s a Black feminist revolutionary film about grassroots resistance to police brutality and censorship in America. It’s a striking condemnation of white feminism that still very much resonates with today.
I also have to recommend Rafiki (2018), as the film we screened with a few other local community organisers last year. It’s a Kenyan film, directed by the indomitable Wanuri Kahiu, however, when it was released, it was BANNED in Kenya just because it told a love story about two Black African women. After eight years of fighting, in January 2026, the ban was finally declared to be unlawful. On this, Kahiu said: ‘The ruling is bigger than one film. It’s for filmmakers, artists, musicians, anyone who uses words, ideas or images. It’s for Kenyans who voted and fought for our 2010 Constitution. This is because OUR ideas are not crimes. And today, the law said so too’. This response is just so inspiring, and a reminder to truly appreciate, and to not take advantage of, queer art and media.”
- Building on that, why do you think it’s important to learn more about LGBTQIA+ culture and history, and consume more queer media?
“There’s an infinite amount of reasons as to why everyone should take the opportunity to learn more and engage with queer history, culture, and art. I mean, firstly, it’s beautiful and representation is important. But more importantly, it’s evidence of our existence and our influence on the world as we know it. It’s the realisation that everything is political, and pretending otherwise is futile. Through queer history, culture, and media, we can truly learn about difference, resistance, and progress, which is crucial for our individual and our collective growth.”
- Lastly, I want to know what is the future of Queer Kinship?
“It’s so difficult to predict what the future of Queer Kinship looks like. Fascism is rising in our streets, and it’s increasingly unsafe to exist as a Black and Global Majority person, let alone also be queer! However, we have built a really strong movement and I believe we can continue showing up and creating spaces for joy, rage, and love. I’m excited by the uncertainty, and all I can say is that as long as Queer Kinship is needed, it will exist.”
I want to say thank you so much to Holly for not only creating Queer Kinship, but also for creating a safe space for the queer global majority community. Be sure to follow Kinship on Instagram!
Written by Roselyn Bonsu.
More Posts for Show: The Film Club with Emma and Roselyn