Who we are
Devil’s Dyke Network is an inclusive platform for poets, performers and artists dedicated to building community and generating positive cultural and political energies. The organizing group consists of artists, writers, mothers, peformers, academics, filmmakers and activists.
What we do
Devil’s Dyke Network has brought a series of poetry and performance nights to Brighton’s ONCA Gallery, The Rose Hill, Fabrica, Lighthouse, The Spire, St. Augustines Centre, and ACCA. We showcase a mixture of older and newer talents among queer-feminist womxn, trans folk, genderqueer folk of different origins and identities – artists who more often than not have difficult or complicated access to performing in other spaces. The Network arose from a collective desire to create a non-judgemental welcoming space for both artists and audiences to grow, share, and amplify their stories, and as a strategic space from which to make politics.
In 2019, we held a day-festival of performance and education called Big Pleasure Garden. In 2021-2022, we were the recipients of B&H City Council’s funding to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on our communities and delivered 3 more stand-alone Pleasure Gardens. In 2024, we held our first visual arts exhibition Queer Feminist Joy at The Ledward Centre accompanied by a rich programme of community events. We continue to shapeshift and respond to the most pressing needs in our community.
The Organising Group
Devil’s Dyke Network is organised by a growing and changing nebulous network of artists and organisers.
Savannah Sevenzo
I am 24, a woman, black. I was born in London, but still navigating the complexity of not really being from anywhere. My grandparents are African. The devils dyke network is one of my many homes. Right now I live in Nicaragua. I dream of dismantling misogyny and loving whoever I want to love.
Helen Dixon
Helen Dixon is a britacananica queer feminist writer. Much of her work is bilingual Spanish/English and she’s also worked in theatre, radio and TV drama. She has two books of poetry and poetic prose: Flight Over the Abyss/Vuelo sobre el abismo (Nicaraguan Writers Union CNE Managua 2003) and Olimpia/Olympia (beyond borders, Reykjavik 2006). Her writing has been included in five anthologies and in literary publications in Canada, Canary Islands, Mexico, Nicaragua, Brazil, Cuba, and the UK.
Claudia Treacher
Claudia is a pansexual political art historian and co-conspirator with the Devil’s Dykes. She writes on themes of being in places you’re not supposed to be, flowers, liberation, and maths. In her spare time you might find her setting chains on fire, skulking around museums, or wandering the moors. She likes listening to people’s facial expressions.
Elena Bianco
Elena is a queer, Italian feminist who enjoys screaming with words. She is part of the Devil’s Dyke Network and has previously published work with the Barcelona Poetry Group. Her poems often speak of resistance, queer identity, death, and boobs. She currently lives in Brighton.
Ashten Harber
Ashten Harber likes to turn peddles on their bicycle. They also like to make pictures with the searching shutter of a camera. But more importantly they like to engage, listen and watch the creative energy of their communities develop, twist and flow.
Nehaal Bajwa
Vi March
Vi is a Russian spy and a moving image artist. They document Devil’s Dyke Nights and sometimes makes films that blur the lines of diary, fiction, and cultural critique.
Fenn Rose
Fenn writes and performs poems, and makes music under the name i & thou, a concept borrowed from the philosophy of Martin Buber. She is white, disabled, class priviledged and queer.
Leni Crowley
Leni is a twenty-three-year-old poet who just moved back to Brighton to write plays, feel better, be well, be happy, be herself, and meet other feminists and activists. Her favourite things to write about are her culture, and the ridiculously humdrum, tender moments from her everyday life that make her feel like a human being. She loves cooking for her friends, swimming in freezing cold water and being cuddled. Right now she is working on Motherline, a play about Greek women, as well as her first collection of poems.
Hannah Martin
Hannah is an artist and illustrator who does embroidery, but mostly focuses on turning internal thoughts and feelings, and daily observations into semi-professional doodles. She is really inspired by the riot grrrl movement and likes to combine her illustrations with feminist activism, focusing on D.I.Y approaches.