BLKOUT_UK by Rob Berkeley

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#15 Sep 30, 2026 3 min read

Your face here.

Eight Black queer men in Croydon, one magazine cover. Apply by 5 October. Plus Black History Month and the AIvor Icons quiz.

BLKOUT — October 2026
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BLKOUT
Newsletter — October 2026
A BLKOUT Review magazine cover on cobalt blue with an empty space and the words 'Your face here', beside four steps: choose your place, find your headline, make the cover, host your people
Making Ourselves From Scratch — Croydon Loves You 2026
Your face here.
Black queer men rarely see ourselves on a magazine cover. This autumn, eight of us in Croydon get to make one.
Making Ourselves From Scratch is three workshops at the Waterside Centre in South Norwood, late October into November. Choose your place — a Croydon corner that carries our history. Find your headline, with writer and performer Derek Aidoo. Make the cover — life-size, built together, with you on it. Then host your people: dinner at Stanley Arts on Joseph Beam Day, 28 December.
It is also the first time we've said the name out loud: BLKOUT Review, the magazine of the Black Queer Men's Liberation Collective. You can be on its cover before there's an issue. No experience of writing, performing or being photographed needed — just a Croydon connection and something to say.
Apply by 5 October →
Not in Croydon? Forward this to a brother who is.
 
Black History Month — #BLKOUTAreYouIn
We come together. Are you in?
We come together, to make space, to create connections that build power. That's October: four weeks, four beats, told from our own archive — ten years of making, in colour, by the people who were there. Not a history lesson. The receipts for an invitation.
On 16 October our story archive turns ten: the first six pieces went up on 16 October 2016. We'll mark it properly.
Ask AIvor about our Icons. Four questions about Ivor Cummings, Berto Pasuka, Pearl Alcock and Justin Fashanu — get them right and AIvor gives you a letter. Unscramble the word and you're in the draw for a BLKOUT Icons tee. One draw, 31 October.
Take the Icons quiz →
 
The noticeboard
New on Voices: What do we own together? Three years ago I was asked why BLKOUT exists. My answer, borrowed from Essex Hemphill, opens an essay about what a community actually owns — and what it could. Read it on Voices.
BLKOUT in your borough. Twelve borough doors are now open on events.blkoutuk.com — gatherings, openings and places we vouch for, each with its own local history. Find yours, or tell us what's missing.
New here? Ivor's Compass is still open — a digital journal through seven directions of a remarkable Black queer life. Claim yours.
 
Between newsletters
BLKOUTHUB is where the conversation continues — members only, no algorithm, no spectators. Consider this your invitation: join BLKOUTHUB.
BLKOUT News gathers the stories that matter to Black queer Britain — and your vote picks what leads the weekly video digest. The week's stories are up now, waiting on your judgement: news.blkoutuk.com.
What's in your sky? Two minutes, stars only, no names — see your own constellation: play Constellations.
 
Know a brother who should be on a cover? Forward this on.
BLKOUT Creative Ltd • Community Benefit Society RS009639
blkoutuk.com
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