30 January 2025, at 6 p.m.
Ground floor, Ljubljana, Slovenia, EU

In the framework of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2025, the Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., is organising a lecture by Roma expert Isaac Blake on the topic The Archive of the Spoken History of the LGBTQ+ Roma Community.

The purpose of the archive is to give voice to the important, fascinating and often moving stories told by members of the global LGBTQ+ Roma community and to highlight the valuable roles these individuals play in the rich complexity of Roma life.

The result is a dynamic resource that not only documents and archives, but also celebrates the intersectional heritage, culture and experiences of LGBTQ+ Roma around the world. This timely project reveals the often hidden LGBTQ+ stories that members of our community carry with them, while offering greater insight into the wider Roma experience.

Biography:

Isaac Blake was born in Bromsgrove and grew up in Gypsy and Traveller sites in England and Wales. He studied and trained in dance theatre at the LABAN Dance Centre (now Trinity LABAN Conservatoire of Music & Dance, London). He then studied at the Martha Graham School in New York, worked in Montreal, Canada and returned to Wales where he choreographed shows at the Wales Millennium Centre, Riverside Arts Centre (Newport) and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. He still teaches the popular Movement and Dance course at RWCM&D (from 2009 to 2023).

He is a proud gay Romani man and is currently Chief Executive of the Romani Cultural & Arts Company in Cardiff, UK, an organisation funded by many major donors, government departments and UK charities (such as the National Lottery Community Fund, Arts Council of Wales, Welsh Government).

As Chief Executive of Romani Cultural & Arts Company (RCAC), Isaac has developed arts and performance programmes with Gypsy and Traveller communities, engaging with young children and adults, and worked in schools, colleges and nurseries. The Gypsy Cultural & Arts Company promoted arts and culture as a means of empowerment and advocacy in Wales with Gypsies, Roma and Travellers.

It has worked extensively with non-Roma communities to promote dialogue and social cohesion. Under his leadership and management of RCAC, the organisation has grown from a small voluntary group to a large third sector agency (NGO), a leader in the field of Gypsies and Travellers in Wales, and one of the major players in Gypsy and Traveller advocacy, autonomy and self-determination in the UK.

Isaac has also been a curator of dance, leading a team of academics and researchers in collecting objects and artefacts for RomArchiva’s highly regarded dance section(https://romarchive.eu [1]). His leadership of the section ensured that the project was carried out with a variety of Roma voices from different countries.

He has played an important role in supporting LGBTQI, Roma and Traveller rights in the UK, Europe and elsewhere. Isaac has supported LGBTQI individuals, Roma and Travellers to attend international events, and has personally attended these events as an advocate and representative of his community, positively promoting recognition and respect for LGBTQI.

More recently, Isaac has coordinated and produced the first international LGBTQI GRT oral history archive, and has also published a linked e-book to complement the online archive (see https://romaniarts.co.uk [2]).

Isaac is also a member of several committees and forums working to promote equality in the UK and Europe. For example, the Barvalipe Academy is an agenda-setting and strategic body of the Institute, which plays an advisory and inspirational role in order to meet ERIAC’s objectives. The Barvalipe Academy is made up of 15 members – highly respected and publicly recognised individuals who are competent in the fields covered by ERIAC’s activities. Two thirds of the members of the Academy are required to openly declare their Roma ethnicity in order to respect diversity among Roma communities. Gender balance must be ensured. https://eriac.org/barvalipe-academy/barvalipe-academy-members/

Read more at epeka@epeka.si and www.epeka.si.

 

The Association EPEKA, Soc. Ent., is supported by: