We are working to ensure that our space remains a safe space that stands in unapologetic solidarity with the queer and trans members of our community. For us, being a migrant means more than crossing national borders -- it also includes anyone who crosses social, cultural, and gendered spaces. We fully embrace the intersections between queer/ trans identities and migrant/ refugee/ diaspora identities, at all times and especially during Pride month.

The July 2025 exhibition at Pulse & Pickle, “Existence & Resistance”, is both a celebration of trans+ lives and a defiant stand against erasure. It calls to those of us who shift between identities, languages, codes, and expectations—sometimes daily, sometimes invisibly. It connects the exile of those who refuse to be bound by arbitrary borders in the land of gender, with the marginalisation of those whose heritage and loving connections bridge the arbitrary borders in our physical landscapes. This exhibition offers paths for intersectional solidarity by declaring: to be a migrant is not only to cross national borders. Sometimes it means being displaced or erased within your own country, your own city, your own body. It can mean resisting state, family, or faith-imposed definitions of who you should be, surviving institutions that don’t see you, or navigating systems that were never built for you.

The Pulse & Pickle collective invites queer, trans, gender-diverse, and/or migrant artists working in photography, painting, and illustration to submit work on the theme “Existence & Resistance”. Chosen works will become part of an exhibition opening in July 2025 that aims to elevate and amplify the urgent demands of this year’s London Trans+ Pride, which returns for its seventh year to central London on 26 July. At a time when trans+ people in the UK are being pushed further to the margins through punitive legislation, inflammatory media narratives, and a stark rollback of rights, we want to demonstrate our unapologetic solidarity with our queer, trans, and gender-diverse community members.

To apply: please fill out this form, then email up to 3 submissions to events@pulseandpickle.org by the following deadlines:

* Photography: 11:59pm on Friday 11 July
* Paintings and Illustrations: 11:59pm on Monday 14 July

If you have any questions or access needs, please get in touch. We want to make this opportunity as inclusive and welcoming as possible.

Let’s exhibit together so we can resist—and insist on being seen.

What. a. month.

It's been a lot. We've made so much food, hosted so many beautiful collaborators and community members, and connected thrilling constellations of ideas. We also held each other through grieving and pain, learned some lessons at difficult costs, and pulled way too many all-nighters.

I'm so grateful to be sharing this time and this place with the Pulse & Pickle collective and my other chosen families. I'm finally unburying wounds that I thought I'd never have the support and care to survive looking at again. And I'm so grateful to the wider community that is cradling us in their collective arms -- thank you for helping this project, in it's toddling first steps, stay upright and putting one foot in front of the other.

Here are some highlights from June that your editors, Livvy and yours truly, chose to reflect on:

Flotsam Sessions on 20 June

The Flotsam Orchestra is a unique music collaboration, organically formed through Flotsam Sessions, bringing together talented musicians, spanning diverse backgrounds and cultures. United by a vision to play music that transcends boundaries, their unique sound creates an uplifting and truly spellbinding celebration of unity and diversity.

Sun and instruments tumbled into our front room this beautiful Friday afternoon when Flotsam Orchestra came to Pulse & Pickle. Ilana, one of the organisers and our main contact for this event, had told me that they'd just hosted a residency, and the Orchestra was itching for more opportunities to share their new set. My memories of this evening are filled with the warm glow of joy shared across cultures and generations, reminders to honour our dignity and belonging, and Ilana's incredibly adorable parents deligtedly pointing at their child and telling me, "We made that!!"

Makam Salam rehearsal on 23 June

Makam Salam is a collective formed of musicians from Israel/Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Kurdish-Iraq, Afghanistan, Morocco and Turkey - as well as from Jewish, Muslim and Christians backgrounds from across the world.

I wasn't around for the rehearsal, but saw Makam Salam the next day at their gorgeously vibrant, intimate, and musically one of the most mind-blowing and inspiring improvisational gigs I've ever seen at Next Door Records Two. It's also thanks to this gig that I discovered All Nations Vegan House because I was desperately hungry before the gig. From the moment I stepped into All Nations Vegan House, I felt so seen and warmly welcomed, it really reminded me of Pulse & Pickle -- the staff gave me free ginger shots and samples of multiple mains to help me decide what to order (they all tasted AMAZING), and I had the cutest chats with them and the other folks waiting for food. Hungry as I was, I ended up eating my dinner after the gig because I got so wrapped up in the music and the vibe of the Makam Salam collective -- unapologetically kind, inventively supportive, and maddeningly skillful. It was only later that I learned that the night of the rehearsal was also so joyful and invigorating that Makam Salam broke our bass drum kick pedal and left us an enormous tip 😂.

Exhibition: Documents of Absence from June 16 to June 23

Unseen, unheard, untold. As part of Refugee Week UK, ‘Documents of absence’ explores the philosophical terrain of people, stories, and issues that remain outside our daily consciousness. This project sought to resonate with the notion of overlooked communities, those so often reduced to stereotypes of weakness, poverty, or fragmentation by the narrow lens we are conditioned to see through.

For me, putting on this exhibition brought a whole new level of admiration, vulnerability, and mutual care to my relationships within the Pulse & Pickle collective. There are so many gorgeous details to remember -- the bright green thread that held together our exhibition catalogue, overhearing visitors record a voice note to express their admiration for a painting to the artist who lives many miles away, playing live music on a Tuesday afternoon for one endearingly attentive mum and her tiny baby. The exhibition also tested our capacity for hosting our community with food and drink for the whole week, without our usual break on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We stretched ourselves quite a lot, found some new edges to our comfort zones, and re-learned once again that rest is in fact necessary and important 😅. But even while feeling totally exhausted, I felt (and still feel) so so lucky and grateful that I can feed and clothe and house myself while doing work that I love this much, with people I am growing to love beyond words. I really experienced the validity of the research that claims that eating socially and doing so often helps us feel better and develop deeper social bonds. It was also interesting to reflect on previous passion projects in my life and notice how every single one involved communal eating. I'd always assumed this pattern was there because I just love eating and practically speaking I wasn't going to let anyone around me ever go hungry. The week of this exhibition helped me realise that I might have these feelings because eating together is such a key part of flourishing as a capable, resilient, and creative collective.