Starla Carr, Bad Ass Yellow Boy, No. 2, Lord and Ladies Pageant, Soakie’s, Kansas City, 2003. Courtesy of {B/qKC}, a Black queer archive founded by Nasir Anthony Montalvo.
Book tickets
Sex, Clubs, Dissent: Visualising Queer Nightlife by Amelia Abraham traces an expansive visual history of queer nightlife through photography, film and art. The book considers how image-making has impacted the formation of queer practices, subcultures and resistance, asking what our enduring impulse to document nightlife reveals about pleasure, protest and politics.
Marking its publication (MACK, 2026), this one-off event brings together artists and archivists working across queer nightlife histories. Amelia Abraham will discuss the making of the book, joined by contributors sharing their work: Sweatmother presents their new short film lick spittle (2025) and reflects on dyke and transmasculine archives, and Nasir Anthony Montalvo introduces {B/qKC}, a community archive of Black queer Midwestern history, followed by a short screening of Frequency: An Interview with Starla Carr (2025).
The evening continues in the Upper Bar after the event.
Marking its publication (MACK, 2026), this one-off event brings together artists and archivists working across queer nightlife histories. Amelia Abraham will discuss the making of the book, joined by contributors sharing their work: Sweatmother presents their new short film lick spittle (2025) and reflects on dyke and transmasculine archives, and Nasir Anthony Montalvo introduces {B/qKC}, a community archive of Black queer Midwestern history, followed by a short screening of Frequency: An Interview with Starla Carr (2025).
The evening continues in the Upper Bar after the event.
Bios
Amelia Abraham (she/they) is a journalist and author from London. She writes for Art Review, The Guardian, The Observer, Dazed, AnOther, and other titles on queer arts, culture, and politics. Her books include Queer Intentions: A (Personal) Journey Through LGBTQ+ Culture (2019) and We Can Do Better Than This: 35 Voices on the Future of LGBTQ+ Rights (2021).
Sweatmother (he/him) is an artist and filmmaker based in London. His moving image work blends performance, self-recorded documentation, internet and archival materials to explore and make visible trans lived experiences. Utilizing “archive” as a form of practice, Sweatmother takes inspiration from Dyke history, protests and leather movements from the 1980-1990s, the “archive” is present within everything he makes.
Nasir Anthony Montalvo (they/them) uses archival praxis, decentralized technologies, popular education and the written word to move Black diasporic audiences towards life and a true dream beyond social platitudes. Montalvo’s work has been exhibited locally and nationally in coffee shops, book stores, community fairs and artist galleries. Their art and archival research has also been published in NPR, Syllabus, Sixty Inches From Center, The Advocate, Teen Vogue and KC Studio; along with being collected by Harvard University and taught in curricula at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and the North Kansas City School District.
Part of MACK Cinema Club, an ongoing series of screenings of film and moving-image works by MACK artists, exploring the intersections of cinema, writing and publishing, and extending the conversation beyond the screen.
Book tickets
Wed, 13 May 2026
Cinema 1
06:45 pm
Ticket information
- All tickets that do not require ID (full price, disabled, income support) can be printed at home or stored in email
- For aged-based concession tickets (under 25, student) please bring relevant ID to collect at the front desk before the event.
Access information
Cinema 1
- Both our Cinemas have step free access from The Mall and are accessible by ramp
- We have 1 wheelchair allocated space with a seat for a companion
- All seats are hard back, have a crushed velvet feel and they do not recline
- These are our seat size dimensions: W 42 x D 45 x H 52
- Arm rest either side of the seat dimensions: L 27 x W 7 x H 20
for the following requirements:
- We have unassigned seating. If you require a specific seat, please reserve this in advance
- Free for visitors where ticket prices are a barrier, please email
Talk + Screening: Cruising by William Friedkin
Wed 27 May, 6:45pm
A screening of Cruising (1980), directed by William Friedkin and starring Al Pacino, marking the publication of Sex, Clubs, Dissent: Visualising Queer Nightlife by Amelia Abraham. Abraham is joined by writer Asa Seresin for a conversation on the film’s evolving place in queer cinema history.
Members+ and all Patrons gain free entry to all cinema screenings, exhibitions, talks, and more.
Join today as a Member+ for £25/month.
