2021 - Amelia Abraham
Amelia Abraham (1991) is a London-based writer, journalist and editor. As a journalist and editor, Abraham work covers a variety of publications, raging from cultural juggernauts to investigative. Her humorous and outward-looking work often draws attention to issues affecting groups of people whose voices tend to remain silenced. As an author, Abraham work functions as a megaphone to further amplify individual voices of traditionally marginalized groups. Her first book Queer Intentions: A (Personal) Journey Through LGBTQ+ Culture (Picador, 2019) finds her travelling across the west, reporting on the mainstreaming of queer culture on the one hand, and the true meaning -and shortcomings- of ‘acceptance’ on the other. Her second book, We Can Do Better Than This (Vintage, June 2021), is a personally-curated collection of essays around the future of global LGBTQ+ rights. Abraham’s curatorial ventures also go far beyond print. Following the launch of her first book, she curated its own launch event at the ICA, with a panel of discussion around queer assimilation politics. She has also curated talks around queer black representation onscreen for the Barbican (2019), gay shame at the Tate Modern (2019), and many more throughout London.
During her residency at Passa Porta, Amelia Abraham worked on her third book: a selection of essays about sex, gender, memoir, culture and desire. Abraham also lent us her curatorial skills by bringing together authors who will each speak about how their culture and the literature they consumed has shaped and challenged their ideas around the topics cited above.