This week I am falling back in love with theatre with trips to see: • Operation Mincemeat • Stranger Things • Arcadia • Cleansed

My biggest frustration with Pride and Pride events? All the creased pride flags. Seriously, get the iron out.

Finished watching Tip Toe last night. It really packs a punch. The fact that it’s set in today‘s world, and has been released this year when there is an increase in LGBTQ+ hate makes it even more poignant. Are we going through a phase? Will all this blow over? I really don‘t know.

Am feeling immensely sad. About David Hockney, about art, about rejected Arts Council application and the slog of just trying to make things work.

Got myself a new camera to pickup my photography again.

Books I have read recently and loved.

Has anyone been to the Venice Biennale? I’ve wanted to go for years but never got my act together. Now am thinking of doing a solo trip for a long weekend in July. Any top tips?

There is nothing better than a book that captures your imagination and tears at your heart.

Heading to London tomorrow for my birthday. Doing all the things I love: architecture tour of Barbican; spending loads at Gays The Word; Tracey Emin at the Tate and dinner with some friends. BUT! I need to get myself a birthday sweet treat. What’s hot right now in London? Cakes etc

Just hit submit on a big funding application for a project I really believe in and is absolutely a passion project of mine built from scratch. Still lots of other fundraising to do but this was the biggie. Very fitting to hit submit whilst in The Pride Shop in Nottingham.

Saturday morning, drive to the bakery, fresh Sourdough, toasted, melted butter, jam. Perfection.

“When we defund the arts, close venues, cut arts education, and shrink the places where encounter can happen, we lose the rooms where people practice being changed by what they encounter. And nothing I’ve seen rebuilds that once it’s gone.” open.substack.com/pub/emilkang...

Curiosity as Democratic Practice

On artists and what democracy actually requires

open.substack.com

Things that bring me immense pleasure: • Chocolate melting on the tongue • The momentum of the last 100 pages of a book. • Standing in front of a painting and feeling • Being cocooned with my boyfriend in the night. • The sun on my face

„The arts sector has spent decades in a defensive crouch, arguing for its own existence in the vaguest possible terms, and it’s gotten us nowhere useful. We don’t need to defend the arts. We need to say which arts, for whom, and what specifically we’re asking for.“ open.substack.com/pub/emilkang...

The Problem with "The Arts"

How two words mask a dozen problems

open.substack.com

No turning back now, the bluebells are flowering in the local woods so spring is here to embrace them. Or maybe I’m the one to embrace the spring and all that comes with it?

Really enjoyed this read from Jan about how only 50 people control culture but how we, as independent creatives can push back and find ways of existing outside this. substack.com/@tedgioia/no...

Fifty People Control the Culture

The state of the culture 2026

substack.com

I see the National Theatre is introducing transaction fees from 1 April. Just a small £4 on top of your ticket price. Look, I know costs are mounting for organisations and historically venues have absorbed the transaction fees but the amount you pass onto the ticket booker has to be justified.

Wuthering Heights: so much style; so little substance.

Breakfast for dinner? That’ll do.

Heading to New York on Thursday. Any recommendations for must see exhibitions I should be trying to see? Or experiences beyond the tourist attractions?

Been spending a lot of time walking around the woods close to my partner’s house in my free time. It’s gorgeous no matter the weather and makes me feel alive.

Having a Dr as a boyfriend sometimes means you find things like this in his house and you just accept it.

Returned to the LGBTQ+ youth group I volunteer with after they closed for a bit and it was so great to connect again with some of the service users that I’ve known for 3 years now. They seemingly have grown up so much in a few months. How did that happen? Is this what it’s like being a parent?!

Third week of the new job done and I am finally feeling like I am starting to make progress and understand what the hell I am doing being an Executive Director of an arts charity, ha!

Hamnet, what an a complained film with such heart. It’s testament to Maggie O’Farrell’s original novel that her depiction of loss resonates so strongly on film. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal absolutely soar. I was a blubbery mess at the end.

The sound of midnight last night was punctuated by the screams of Duolingo users losing their streaks having got too caught up in their evening plans and not practicing…

I like how people now write essays instead of blogs.

Marty Supreme is a brilliant film with a centrally flawed and unlikeable character that makes it so difficult to feel anything towards him but banal hatred. Maybe that’s the point. Timothée Chalamet is quite something though, even if I loathed him.

Whenever I visit my parents it feels like a holiday. Their apartment overlooks the marina and it’s just gorgeous on a clear day.

Happy Christmas 2025 (Every year I make my own Christmas cards featuring me with some plants. Here is this year’s tradition continued.)