THE DRAMA QUEENS' STORY
Drama Queens started in 2016, as a series of free sex education workshops. These Lets Talk Consent Workshops sessions are gender-based, interactive sex education that focuses on respect and human dignity in sexual and platonic relationships as expressed through identifying, asking and recognizing boundaries with consent and non-consent. The team eventually evolved to include Theatre, the running theme for which is 'Centering Herstories in a world that seeks to erase them', Speakeasys; inclusive safe gatherings, Audio-Visual Production as well as Gender Based Workshops and Representative Research
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Through theatre, Drama Queens aims to encourage richer conversations around women’s lives, their roles in society and in world progress. By providing edgy, modern plays that challenge the status quo, Drama Queens aims to encourage its audience to question patriarchal rules, norms and ideas about gender and the role of the female. The group’s productions, aiming to be innovative and highly creative, will seek to address a wide berth of topics from sexuality to climate change.
We aim to contribute to a future world where Patriachy's oppression of minority groups made active through race, religion, societal norms, culture, and economics, are eradicated.
By recognizing the catalytic effects of conversation and visual art in powering introspective conversation and critical thinking, Drama Queens aims through various creative projects such as Online ZInes. Graphic Novels, Art Exhibitions and even Music Videos to tackle the widespread problem of patriarchy, challenging stereotypes, empowering women, and engaging in representative socio-cultural politics.
Drama Queens is devoted to centering "herstories" in a world that seeks to erase them. This is the change we want to see in the world. Our vision is based on the ancient African philosophy of Ma’at meaning Truth, Justice, Balance, Righteousness, Propriety, Order, and Harmony. We believe this Ancient African concept of equity does not exist in today’s society and which we are dedicated to restoring. Driven by the need to center the feminine in the ongoing story of Africa, Drama Queens aims to restore Ma’at, by challenging people’s minds and thought processes, and encouraging open debates through theater and art. Drama Queens challenges the worldwide canker of patriarchy, homophobia, misogyny, transphobia and gendered violence. We believe that only through truthful and honest equity of the sexes can there be universal progress.
HOW DQ WORKS
DRAMA QUEENS IS AN UNDER 30 LED, ART-iVISIT ORGANISATION, THIS MEANS DECISION MAKING IS A COLLECTIVE EFFORT STEERED BY, INVOLVING AND IMPLEMENTED BY THE FEMINIST AND QUEER ACTIVISTS THAT MAKE UP THE TEAM.
THE STRUCTURE OF DRAMA QUEENS SINCE TS INCEPTION HAS BEEN DESIGNED TO HAVE AT THE FOREFRONT OF ITS LEADERSHIP, THOSE WITH THE LIVED EXPERIENCES (OF ADVOCACY IN DEFENCE OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS) OF WOMEN, GIRLS AND THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY, IN ORDER TO STEER THE ORGANIZATION IN LINE WITH ITS FEMINIST AND PAN-AFRICANIST VALUES OF INTERGRITY, INCLUSION, ACCESSIBILITY AND EQUITY.
OUR ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE WAS BUILT ORGANICALLY FROM OUR VOLUNTEER BASE AND IS GUARDED BY OUR UNDER 30 POLICY WHICH ENSURES THAT CENTRAL DECISION MAKING IS MADE BY PEOPLE WHO REFLECT THE VERY FEMINIST QUEER COMMUNITY THAT WE SERVE AND WHOSE NEEDS INFORM OUR PROJECTS, CAMPAIGNS, AND INITIATIVES.
THE DQ TEAM CURRENTLY CONSISTS OF TWO CO-DIRECTORS, 5 TEAM LEADS, A VARIED VOLUNTEER BASE OF OVER 25 PEOPLE AND IS GUIDED BY A BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
THE DRAMA QUEENS BOARD MEMBERS ARE;
- NANA AKOSUA HANSON
- DR. KINNA LIKIMANI
- DR. RITA NKETIAH
- DR. EKUA EKUMAH
THE COOL STUFF WE DO
Drama Queens Ghana advocacy strategy, since its incorporation in 2017, has been creative initiatives spanning a wide range of activities including Speakeasies, Film Productions, Workshops, Music, Poetry, Digital Journal, Graphic Novel Productions and Social media campaigns (Twitter/Facebook).
Each action/project, is a conscious attempt to influence the conversations young people are having about Culture, Rape Culture, Sexual Violence, Consent, Class Dynamics, Sexual Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging, Pan-Africanism, Equity & Freedom in Ghana.
Speakeasies
are our monthly conversation sessions where young adults gather in safe spaces to discuss in objective ways topics which would receive little or bigoted coverage in mainstream Ghanaian media.
Theatre
In 2018, we staged Ghana’s first theater production centered on the realities of queer lives in Africa dubbed “Just Like Us” . We survived multiple threats of legal injunctions, to stage a riveting and moving body of political work as a public statement of recognition of the LGBT community in Ghana and in Africa and to represent their very human emotions as rather obvious proof of their strength and connection to all people. We have since successfully staged “Until Someone Wakes Up” (2019), “An African Man”(2020), "Ashikishan"(2021), “Liberating pleasures”(2022) and Monsoons”(2022).
Each Theatre production is a conscious collaborative effort between Director, Stage Manager, Actors and entire Production staff to bring to each audience a unique experience which succintly captures elements of the lived experiences of the Ghanaian/African woman.
Workshops
Drama Queens runs 3 flagship Workshops;
Lets Talk Consent, Women of Independence and Queer University
In 2018 and again in 2019 we held the Queer Universities Film Workshop for queer storytellers and filmmakers from African countries to acquire the necessary creative skills to depict the narrative of the lives of queer people living on the continent from an authentic and informed perspective. The one-week intensive workshops covered a wide area of training in the use of basic and advanced software for film, appropriate representation, human rights abuses and persons living with disabilities.
In 2019 as a climax to the year's Queer university Film Workshop we held Ghana’s first ever Queer Film Festival, the second edition of which we could only hold in 2022 due to the Covid pandemic and a surge in Homophobia in Ghana following the introduction of the Proper Sexual Human Rights and Ghanian Family Values Bill.
The next Queer U Film Festival is slated for August 2024
We have since 2022 organized and facilitated multiple Women Of Independence workshops.
These workshops offer an alternative angle to the Independence story of Ghana. It charts the efforts of Women whose Financial, Intellectual and Physical contributions aided in the Ghanaian independence story. The Women of Independence Workshops are held primarily in Ghanaian basic schools serving as an introductory session into Women’s Engagement in Politics, Erasure, Women in Leadership, as well as Representative historical Documentation.
The Women of Independence Sessions are our attempt at bridging the educational gap in Ghanaian political History.