Hello and welcome to Queer is Fact, the podcast bringing you queer history from around the world and throughout time.

I'm Alice.

I'm Irene.

And I'm Eli.

And today we're talking about the South African performer and hairdresser, Kui.

Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the Banerong-Bunurang people of the Kulin Nation

as the traditional owners of the land on which we record this podcast and pay my respects

to their elders past and present.

They are the custodians of an oral history tradition far older than this podcast.

We have some content warnings for this episode.

This episode will include discussions of racism and apartheid in South Africa,

discussions of historic queer phobia, including violence and murder,

the use of reclaimed slurs to describe queer identities,

brief mentions of drug addiction and alcoholism,

and mentions of cancer, including death from cancer.

If any of that's something you don't want to hear,

feel free just get this episode and check out our other content. Quick note before we get started, we are in the middle of or have just finished moving house.

So we're recording this in a new location.

We're experimenting with recording setups in our new house, so if this sounds different or if it sounds a little worse than normal, that's why. And we'll be tweaking things over the next few episodes to find the best way to record in this space. I like the way it's implied that I have moved house with you as a podcast member. Yes, the Queer is Facts House, when we all live. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So before we get started started talking about Kube's life, I'd like to talk a little bit about

our sources for Kupi.

There are several recorded interviews with Kupi from the late 1990s held at the

Gala Queer Archive in Johannesburg in South Africa.

...