We're delighted that Patterflash by Adam Lowe is one of our Summer Recommendations. Patterflash embraces the performative, self-ironising aesthetic of campness but, as a mask, it is a complex and very malleable one, capable of tenderness, bravery, anger and sadness. Adam Lowe makes use of Polari, the gay street language that simultaneously reveals and conceals, excludes and invites, estranges and makes familiar. The poet is both the wry, humane observer of the scene, and the persona of Adam Lowe - an actor in and narrator of his own dramas. What unites them is the urge to embrace the possibilities of being exactly who you want to be whatever the consequences of your choice. From the four-year-old boy who wanted to wear a blonde woman's wig to frank coming-of-age celebrations of gay sex and the mature man experiencing domestic contentment, Adam Lowe takes us on a journey rich in observation and makes an art of patterflash.
Adam Lowe (he/his, mostly) is a Leeds-born writer, performer and publisher who lives in Manchester. He is the UK’s LGBT+ History Month Poet Laureate and was Yorkshire’s Poet for 2012. He writes poetry, plays and fiction, and performs as Beyonce Holes. Adam is Chair of Black Gold Arts and sits on the board of Schools OUT UK, who founded LGBT+ History Month in the UK. He also founded Young Enigma and Vada Magazine, and runs Dog Horn Publishing.
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