QueerCore

We are delighted to announce our incredible QueerCore 2025 cohort. We cannot wait to embark on this artistic journey with them!

QueerCore is Homotopia’s talent development programme for early-career artists. The programme runs for 6 months and offers tailored support for LGBTQIA artists in the Liverpool City Region to grow, build connections and develop new ideas.

The 6-month programme of support, focused around a specific project includes:

  • A £2000 grant to spend on developing a new project, idea or strand of work.
  • A mentor appropriate to your needs as an artist/artist collective.
  • Access to specialist workshops on fundraising, marketing/PR and financial management for artists.
  • Mixers with other local queer artists, creatives and producers.
  • A learning and development residential in…Blackpool!
  • A chance to present some form of work/work-in-process at Homotopia Festival.
  • Join an alumni network of 20+ local queer creatives changing the world.
QueerCore is also about creating a community, meeting members of QueerCore old and new, and the vast variety of artists, producers, and venues we work with in Liverpool and beyond.  QueerCore alumni have received Arts Council England funding, directed a play on the Everyman main stage, worked with the BBC, won commercial commissions, and even starred in a major Netflix show. While on the programme, many received additional press coverage and an increase in their social media followers.
 
Homotopia would like to thank Converse for supporting QueerCore and making this work possible. 
 

QueerCore Artists 2025

Willzy

(She/They)

Willzy is a dyke philosopher, multidisciplinary artist and burgeoning puppet maker. Jack of fools’ trades and master of fun; they are left-handed, left-wing and left-field. Their practice involves writing, creating, researching and performing across contemporary art, theatre and film, and is underpinned by a desire to weave magic into the mundane. They’ve worked and trained with various cultural organisations within and around the city, including RAWD, Liverpool Biennial, Collective Encounters, Everyman and Playhouse, 20 Stories High, First Take and Storyhouse Chester. Willzy’s lived experience as a neurodivergent/disabled person informs their work as a facilitator and access worker, with a focus on creating socially engaged art. They have a belief in the enduring power of community, a passion for access to participatory arts, and a solidarity with the struggles of all marginalised people.

Claire Beerjeraz

(She/They)

Claire Beerjeraz is a freelance Writer, Visual Artist, Facilitator, Performer, Director, and Creative Therapist. Their work focuses on the intersections of their own identity and issues placed within our society, underpinned by activism and creative expression. They strive to use their mediums for positive change, discourse, and healing.

H.R.H. Aphrodite I

(She/Her)

H.R.H. Aphrodite I is an award-winning drag queen, historian, zine maker and part-time love goddess. Her work focuses on viewing the present moment through a historical lens, specifically highlighting the stories of women, queer people, fashion, popular culture, sex cultures and the british empire; wherever these intersect and overlap. She is a multidisciplinary artist, spreading her work between cabaret, theatre, independent publications and digital art.

Laura Bee

(They/She)

Laura Bee is primarily a writer, but their multidisciplinary finger is in several proverbial pies. She has worked across film and theatre, in front of and behind the scenes, with such groups as First Take and RAWD. Their work is often reflective of their experiences as a neurodivergent trans person, usually through an offbeat and/or fantastical lens. Her favourite things to fidget with on her desk right now are a purple star-thingy, two Datas from Star Trek, and a Dalek