E26 - We Don’t Need More Heroes with Scorpio

For this episode we talk with Brixton-based textile artist Scorpio about his life and work. Last summer a quest to learn more about the 1990s militant queer art collective Homocult led us to visiting “Iconic Queer,” an exhibition of Scorpio’s work at the Lambeth Archives. Moved by the power of the work, and sensing there would be interesting stories behind these pieces, which focussed on cycles of torment, development, and personal renewal, we decided to track down Scorpio. The resulting conversation is about Scorpio’s life along with queer politics, counterculture, and art of the 1990s, and making space for the misfits who find sometimes they don’t even feel like they fit within the rules of alternative milieus. Scorpio is a delightful conversationalist, whatever words are written here will inevitably fail to adequately convey the joy and intensity brought to the conversation.For this episode we are joined by Olimpia Burchiellaro, who is the author of The Gentrification of Queer Activism, and a part of the management committee of the Friends of the Joiners Arms, a Community Benefit Society that aims to open London’s first community-run, community-owned, queer pub. This episode was recorded at the MayDay Rooms podcasting studio,Minor Compositions is a publisher of books and media drawing from autonomous politics, avant-garde aesthetics, and the revolutions of everyday life: The Minor Compositions podcast is in made in collaboration with Firefly Frequencies: https://fireflyfrequencies.org