"Just in time for Valentine's Day, a show at the UK's National Archives explores the art and politics of writing love letters, the New Statesman's Zuzanna Lachendro reports: Before the passing of the Sexual Offences Act in 1967, gay men and women were forced to seek likeminded individuals using code words in classified advert publications like The Link under the non-matrimonial section: "bohemian" or "artistic" for men, "sporty" and "jolly" for women."
"A jokey exchange between two male friends separated by the Atlantic, one of which is described as "the campest thing between London and San Francisco" is placed alongside a letter between two men recovered after a 1920s raid of the Caravan Club in London, where many gay men met. In the section dedicated to familial love, a tender 19th-century letter is addressed to Ernest "Stella" Boulton, a performer who publicly preferred women's clothing."
The Forever Is Now exhibition reimagines the Pyramids of Giza landscape with reflective shapes, featuring a snapshot by 19-year-old Abdallah Islam shortlisted in the Sony World Photography Awards Student and Youth category. A National Archives exhibition examines love letters and the politics of courtship, noting pre-1967 use of coded language by gay men and women in classified ads, recovered correspondence from raid victims, and a 19th-century familial letter addressed to performer Ernest "Stella" Boulton that challenges Victorian assumptions about gender conformity and acceptance. A contemporary surge in Black-owned bookstores has prompted historical research tracing origins to David Ruggles, who opened a Black-owned shop in Manhattan in 1834.
Read at Hyperallergic
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