SMALL HISTORIES: POLARI

24 page riso printed zine, stapled together

In the second issue of Small Histories, a series of zines in which I do deep dives into particular aspects of queer history and culture, I explore the history of Polari. This was a language made up of slang, cant and a mixture of many languages, and was eventually adopted by queer men enabling them to communicate with each other in a time where homosexuality was illegal, as the true meaning of the words and phrases were hidden in this code.

I explore the origins of Polari, who it was used by, a timeline of Polari and similar languages, followed by the decline and contemporary artists bringing back the language and exploring it in the context of being queer now.

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