Supported by Royal Greenwich Council and artFix, OFF THE GROUND continues the Bold Melon collective’s commitment to amplifying intersectional queer and migrant stories through community-building creativity.
Designed as a launchpad for ideas in motion, OFF THE GROUND invites audiences to be the first to witness original works as they take flight – radiant and unapologetically alive. Previous audiences have praised the “beautiful community” that this event creates, naming it as a rare space of “joy, togetherness and spirit”. Stating simply and pointedly, “This country needs spaces like these to foster FREEDOM.”
Alongside a script reading extract of their latest project ‘Soon, but not yet’ – a fierce look at what it means to love while the ground beneath you is always shifting, written by Emilia Nurmukhamet – Bold Mellon are working with two compelling, emerging artists: Riordan Tyson (aka Letti O Burn) and Santi Tonauac Castro, whose practices speak to place, embodiment, and collective survival. Tyson, a Thamesmead-based drag performer and community organiser, has lived locally for over a decade and is deeply embedded in the borough’s queer infrastructure – serving as Chair of LGBT+ Thamesmead and a steering group member for LGBTQ+ Greenwich. Reflecting on the local scene, Tyson identifies isolation as the most urgent challenge: many queer people, they note, still feel forced to travel into central London to find community, while nightlife-centric spaces remain inaccessible to many.
His hope is for an expansion of local, paid opportunities for artists – and for existing organisations to be properly supported, connected, and sustained.
Castro, an Indigenous Mexican-Cuban trans artist currently completing an MFA in Queer Performance in London, brings a practice rooted in anti-disciplinary embodiment and cosmic translation. While celebrating London’s appetite for form-breaking work, Castro points to ongoing gaps around venue accessibility, resource-sharing, and space for marginalised artists to show works-in-progress. Their new piece, ’time gets tricky’, promises to sit precisely in that generative in-between.
OFF THE GROUND isn’t just a showcase – it’s a commitment to process, to local representation, and to gatherings as ground for radical acts. In a climate that so often prioritises polished work over play, Bold Mellon Collective celebrate the creative risks that propel us closer to ourselves, and to each other.
OFF THE GROUND 2026 February 7th, from 6:30 pm at artFix Greenwich, 7 Durnford Street, London, SE10 9BF United Kingdom.
Tickets are FREE.
