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Newsletter — May 2026
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The week, watched by us
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There's plenty happening in our communities every week. Some of it gets noticed. Most of it doesn't. So we've built a different kind of newsroom — community-curated, community-voted, with the stories you choose at the top.
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news.blkoutuk.com is now live. Each week our digital host AIvor — named, of course, after Ivor Cummings — reads the top community-voted stories into a short weekly digest. Think of him as the newsreader you wish you'd grown up with.
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The first digest lands this weekend. Watch it, share it with someone who'll love it, and head over to vote up the stories you want next week to lead with.
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Vote on this week's stories →
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Ivor's Compass — what's happening since the launch
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On 12 April, around thirty of you came to Stanley Arts and spent an afternoon with Ivor Cummings — under shifting red and blue light, moving between seven workshop tables where his life was opened up, chapter by chapter. The room had warmth, and humour, and not a small amount of recognition. Since then, the digital journal has been quietly opening up to a wider circle.
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14
people now holding Compass access codes
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7
illustrated panels in the digital novel
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100
codes reserved for the Queer Croydon pioneer cohort
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1
first pre-order for the summer printed journal
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The seven-panel graphic novel is live at compass.blkoutuk.com/novel, with the writers' reflection from the day woven into the soundscape. If you were at Stanley Arts and haven't claimed your code yet, check the email we sent — it's still good.
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And if you weren't there but want in: the printed summer journal pre-order is open now.
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A digital commons for Black queer organising?
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Here's something we've been chewing over. Black queer organisations across the UK keep solving the same problems separately — events, mailing lists, member directories, payments, archives. Each from scratch. Each on rented ground. And the tools we end up renting rarely belong to people who share our interests.
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We've started early conversations with peer organisations — including BBJC, Black Thrive and DiaspoRainbow — about what a shared digital commons could look like. Tools we own together. Infrastructure that doesn't disappear when a grant does. Decisions made by the people the tools actually serve.
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More on all this over the next few weeks. For now — if you run, sit on the board of, or work inside a Black-led, queer-led, or Black queer organisation in the UK, and this question is one you've been turning over too, we'd love to hear from you. [email protected].
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Critical Frequency — the campaign continues
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Last month we shared the case we'd been making at the BMHWA: that there's no reliable evidence base on mental health outcomes for Black queer men in the UK, and that this isn't a measurement problem — it's a political one. You can't commission for people the system can't see. Since then, we've turned the argument into a campaign.
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Critical Frequency is the home of it. The website — critical.blkoutuk.com — carries the case, the numbers, the explainer video, and a remix-this kit you're welcome to grab, adapt, or rebuild from. Three asks: count us, fund the research, share the infrastructure to do it.
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And we're actively looking for partners — in mental health, public health, data, research, commissioning, community development. If that's your patch, drop a line to [email protected].
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Join the board: Finance & Fundraising — deadline 31 May
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BLKOUT is a Community Benefit Society. The members own it. The board steers it. Every function on our board works in pairs — for accountability, mutual support, and so the work doesn't stall when life happens to one person. It's a model we're proud of, and it's one we'd love more of you to be part of.
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We're recruiting two people to form our Finance & Fundraising pair. You don't need to be a qualified accountant. You need to care about this community, want it to thrive, and be willing to learn alongside the rest of us. If you've raised money, kept books, sat on a treasury, run a small organisation's finances, or simply spent enough time around the financial side of community work to have opinions — we'd like to hear from you.
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→ Read about the board, our pairs structure, and the people already in
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Apply by Sunday 31 May 2026
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Send a short note — a few paragraphs is plenty — about who you are, what draws you to BLKOUT, and what you'd bring to the Finance & Fundraising pair. CV optional.
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To: [email protected]
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Know someone who should be reading this? Forward it on.
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