Care Club

The image of the banner is an illustration by Valentine Zhang

Over Care Club

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Care Club is an open practice space for queer people, their allies, and community-minded hearts. For our second edition we will highlight and practice Collective Joy & Pleasure. We look at how community practices, from shared rituals to embodied play and collective learning, help us reclaim pleasure as a space of care, consent, accessibility, and liberatory joy.

Why should collective joy and pleasure be central to our struggles? We recognize that pleasure is not a luxury or a taboo, but a fundamental human need and a form of political resistance that nourishes us to keep us going. Mindful pleasure does not claim that "everything is fine." Instead, it argues that togetherness and collective strength require joy to sustain themselves as forms of resistance.

The insights and resources we develop together will be compiled into a digital archive with the help of Kif Kif, Curieus and the reporters of the day. In this way, we make them accessible to anyone who wants to engage with or learn from these caring practices and insights.

Care Club grows with everyone who contributes. Whether you are there to share or simply to be, your presence is enough.

Care Club offers free food at every gathering.

--- NEDERLANDS ---

Care Club is een open oefenruimte voor queer personen, hun bondgenoten en iedereen met een hart voor gemeenschap. Voor onze tweede editie zetten we Collective Joy & Pleasure centraal. We kijken hoe community practices van zowel samen delen of eten tot belichaamd spel en collectief leren, ons helpen om plezier terug te claimen als een ruimte van zorg, consent, toegankelijkheid en bevrijdende vreugde.

Waarom zou collectieve vreugde en plezier centraal moeten staan in onze strijd? We erkennen dat plezier geen luxe of taboe is, maar een fundamentele menselijke behoefte en een vorm van politiek verzet die ons voedt en in beweging houdt. Bewust beleefd plezier betekent niet dat “alles oké is”. Het stelt net dat verbondenheid en collectieve kracht vreugde nodig hebben om als vormen van verzet te blijven bestaan.

De inzichten en middelen die we samen ontwikkelen, worden met de hulp van KifKif en de reporters van de dag gebundeld in een digitaal archief. Zo maken we ze toegankelijk voor iedereen die met deze zorgzame praktijken en inzichten aan de slag wil gaan of eruit wil leren.

Care Club groeit met iedereen die wil bijdragen op de manier dat ie zelf wil. Of je nu komt om te delen of gewoon om er te zijn: jouw aanwezigheid is genoeg.

Care Club voorziet bij elke bijeenkomst gratis eten.

Illustraties zijn gemaakt door Valentine Zhang

@valentinezhang

Programme.a

• Collective Feminist Reading Gathering: On Joyful Militancy  (NL/EN/FR)
  Feminist reading session on Joyful Militancy with community organizer Deno Vogelaers (they/he). Lunch for participants provided by La Belle Cuisine de Malvi.
  11:30 - 14:00 • Open School @ room Gemini • free, prior registration required

• Gaze & Flirt session (ENG) w/ Fleur 
  This workshop invites you to explore your sensuality through the gaze, in the way you take up space, with yourself and with others. A space where you can look at, surprise yourself, play with yourself and with others, try things out, dare a little, and let something unfold freely, in all its forms and beyond…

  Where the gaze becomes a playground, and where you can taste the pleasure of seeing yourself and being seen.

  Bring a piece of clothing or an accessory to play with or remove. Wear something you feel good in, that lets you move freely, and already feel a little connected to your sensuality. No previous experience needed (for real) — just a bit of curiosity.

  11:30 - 14:00 • Open School @ Stage Room • free, with registration

• Queer Supra (EN)
  A “supra” (Georgian: სუფრა), “sofreh” (Persian: سفره) or “sofra” (Arabic: سُفْرَة) is a long, lively gathering of friends and family around a shared meal. People come together not only to eat, but also to spend time with one another, share stories, and support each other. Queers on the Move invites you to join us at the table. But before we break bread together, we will archive the tablecloth. We invite you to bring stories and memories of of pleasure in all the ways it emanates across queer bodies and identities... from erotic and mega sexy to queer banter, hugging belly to belly, muscling into a brand new chest, sweating through the night till sunrise, or all the other countless ways it manifests.
  14:00 - 17:30 • Making collages together
  17:30 - 18:30 • Sharing moment (with registration)
  Bistro @ Café Grands Carmes • free, with registration for the sharing moment
  
  Send in your story!
  Choose a story or example you would like to share with the group. Send us a drawing, image, short text, poem, symbol, or screenshot that represents your story. Email it to activities@queerin.be by April 25th. We will risograph-print all submissions and bring them to the Supra, so that you can use them for the tablecloth.

• The Bistro is open!
  Delicious vegan meals and non-alcoholic drinks, provided by La Belle Cuisine de Malvi. Hosted by Queers on the Move  and activist Arlet (they/them). The Bistro is open to everyone all day long. No prior registration or preparation is required to join, eat, or create.
  14:00 - 20:00 • Courtyard Grands Carmes • free, without registration.

• Utsopi Sofa Talk: Decriminalised futures: What does sex work teach us? How sexworks helps me take care of myself (ENG) w/ Lola, Serafina & Gia
  Sex work is often reduced to stigma and moral debate, yet it holds complex knowledge about care, autonomy, labour, and economic strategies. It is deeply connected to LGBTQI+ histories where sex workers and queer/trans communities have long been framed as “deviant” or “pathological,” and subjected to exclusion, control, and moral regulation.
  Belgium decriminalised sexwork in 2022. Still, our work is widely misunderstood. Despite its deep historical roots, it remains under near-constant moral attack. We continue to call for strong workers’ rights, an end to exploitation, liberated futures, and concrete measures to combat poverty.
  Thinking about "how we take care of ourselves through sexwork’’ or ‘’how sexwork saved my life” does not simplify this reality, but points to the ways sex work can create space: to negotiate consent, to test our range for empathy, reimagine intimacy beyond dominant norms and keep imagining sexual carework outside the male gaze.
  Moving beyond stigma requires listening to sex workers themselves. By centering lived experience, we can shift toward approaches grounded in rights, decriminalisation, and a more nuanced understanding of care, work, and bodily autonomy.
  14:30 - 16:30 • Open School @ Stage Room • free, without registration

• Health Hub (NL/EN/FR)
  Accessible information about sexual and reproductive health and free HIV testing provided by Sensoa.
  16:00 - 19:00 •  Health hub @ Care Room • free, without registration
  

• Scenes, Shibari & Care (ENG) w/ Æris Grace

  What is kink? Kink is enjoying something intimate you have been taught not to enjoy. Having fun and expansive kinky adventures starts with our capacity for building caring and consensual scenes. In this workshop we dive into some of the language and elements we can use for an intentional experience. With this knowledge we dive into a rope flow meditation, allowing for an accessible exploration of a power exchange in a caring setting.

  16:30 - 18:30 • Open School @ Stage Room • free, prior registration required
  

• Dirty talking: how to bring your fantasies to life (or not ;) (ENG) w/ Jamie Butine

  Dirty talking can be a powerful tool to be in the present moment, bridge it with the fantasies we have in mind and make it hotter. Dirty talking is also a great way to ask for consent and for our pleasure. But often the mind comes in the way and it is hard to dare talking during sex.

  In this workshop we will sharpen two important senses: talking and listening. Together we will try things out whether it is whispering in each others’ ears or writing down powerful scenarios we would like to tell a lover. You will leave with tips to expand your way of relating sexually be it in a private context or a work context.

  Everyone is welcome, queers and sex workers are centered.

  16:30 - 18:30 • Open School @ Room Gemini • free, with registration

• Intimacy in Shot/Reverse Shot: Negotiating Gaze, Trust, and Power Between the DOP Nicky Lapierre and the Performer Celio, on the set of SLUTTY GUNS AND DIRTY BOOTS (by Nour Beetch & Mona Servo)

  Nicky Lapierre (DOP) and Celio Panzolini (actor) worked together on two erotic and queer films: "The Good Education" and "Dirty Boots and Slutty guns". They will talk and explore how to work safely and deeply connected in a context of physical expositions and explorations. How the trust between DOP, director and actor is key and how to ensure the consent.

  The talk will be in English with stills from the movie in the background.

  19:00 - 20:00 • Open School @ Stage Room • free, without registration

• The Chemistry Exchange (NL/EN/FR) w/ Arlet
  A lively exchange experience where fast-paced encounters lead to deeper connections beyond appearances and first impressions.
  19:00 - 20:00 • Bistro @ Courtyard Grands Carmes • free, without registration

• Pass the Mic (NL/EN/FR) w/ Match
  Do you have an initiative, idea, event, or project you’d like to share? During Pass the Mic, you’ll get one minute to present it to everyone at the Bistro. A word of advice: practice beforehand to keep it clear and to the point. And don’t forget to let people know you’ll be available afterward for questions!
  20:00 - 20:30 • Bistro @ Courtyard Grands Carmes • free, without registration

• A Soulemateship Construction site by Spring & Billie
  Welcome to our construction site of building radical intimacy. After 30 years of being soulemates, Spring and Billie have moved around a lot of things to build up a lot of things. Now, they are ready to show off their construction skills. And their intimacy.

  In a society that prioritizes the nuclear family and romantic-sexual couplings, we were made aware of the “vague” space we occupy.  And it’s also our treasure.

  Join us at the playground. 
  20:30 - 21:00• Stage room  • free, without registration

Collabs

Care Club is all about collaborative growth. For this second edition, Match Belgium and Sophia are joined by the partners, practitioners, and creators who make this space possible.

• Grands Carmes is a hub for care and empowerment for LGBTQIA+ and allies. They're our generous hosts of the day.

• Queers on the Move is a grassroots initiative born out of a need to create a support system for LGBTQIA+ folks seeking international protection in Belgium. They are a volunteer-based collective, providing opportunities where queers with a forced migration background can find resources, solidarity, and community.

• La Belle Cuisine de Malvi was founded by Malvina (she/her). She is the hands and heart behind our communal meal. Born in Paris with Central African roots, she draws inspiration from global flavors to create a generous and vibrant culinary experience. Her approach is defined by 'sincere cuisine': honest, hearty dishes that focus on deep flavors and the beauty of vegetables. For our event, Malvina will treat us to a delicious, fully plant-based menu that brings these tastes to life.

• Arlet (they/them) is a multidisciplinary activist, deeply rooted in community work. With a passion for art, fashion, and knowledge-sharing, they create spaces that invite meaningful connection. Arlet will also be capturing video and photos during the event. If you prefer not to be photographed, please let them know.To stay connected, follow them on Instagram and Substack and keep up with the Queers of the Future.

• Deno Vogelaers (they/he) is a facilitator and community organizer. His main interests involve trans embodiments, safer spaces, queer education and transformative justice. They’re a member of the collectives Critical Queer Solidarity, Creature Kin and Honky Donk. Deno holds a Master’s in Gender Studies, where he graduated with a thesis on monstrosity as metaphor for trans rage.

• Fleur gravitates towards movement as a way to explore sensuality, presence and connection. She draws inspiration from pole dance, strip and cabaret aesthetics, drag and ballroom scene, through her lens as a queer, lesbian woman of color.

• Jamie Butine (she/her): With experiences going from porn to queer sexpositive workshops, Jamie has made sexuality the center of her interests and her work with around 10 years of experience as a sex worker in multiple contexts. She likes to geek on issues related to sexuality, experiment things and share knowledge, skills and tips with each other.

• Æ𝐫𝐢𝐬 𝐆𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞⁩ (they/them) is a genderqueer, pansensual, pansexual, polyamorous, neurodiverse & kinky Intimacy Activist & Facilitator. They have a heart for creating body positive, age affirming, neuro nurturing & queer friendly intimacy spaces.

• Lola (she/her) is a chaotic queer, shapeshifting sensory seeker. Full service erotic masseuse in a parlour. 

• Serafina Sky is a multi-disciplinary sex worker for nearly a decade. She's passionate about the radical potentialities of remunerated intimacy as well as being able to afford rent.  

• GiA G is a queer sex worker and pleasure activist. They see pleasure as a tool to fight oppressive forces and imagine a world that more bodies want to inhabit.

• Spring Showers is a Brussels-based performer and pleasure activist who plays with discomfort and failure as raw materials for care and repair. As one of the founders of Jezebel.Studio, a qu33r community based dance space, they try to weave the politics of well-being into the practice of resistance.

• Celio runs an art space in Paris as HR and Accountant, the sexiest accountant in Paris ;). A sex worker for many years now (prostitute, camgirl & performer), Celio also made a movie called “The Good Education” with Nour Beetch and Nicky Lapierre as DOP, as well as a podcast for ARTE RADIO, giving a voice to the regular clients. Celio explores the margins, what disturbs and confronts, and everything that revolves around sex.

• Nicky Lapierre, a stone butch trans artist, explores notions of intimacy, identity, fantasy, and the fragile boundaries of our sociocultural realities through a range of media. Photography, film, text, and sound intersect and question one another within performative installations. After studying for three years at the La Cambre in Brussels, Nicky founded an alternative curatorial collective and an artist residency that moved between galleries and artist-run spaces before evolving into a multimedia platform for emerging artists. In 2022, he released his first feature film, ASTRO, produced by Les Films de la récrée. The film was presented at the FIFF Namur and Pink Screens, was shortlisted for the Magritte Awards in the documentary category. It won the Special prize from the Jury in Turin at the Lovers Film Festival. Nowadays Nicky is developing these reflections through a poetic essay, PLEÏADE XXI, a hybrid project between a theatrical piece and an olfactory memory. He is also working on a new feature film in collaboration with the artist Nour Beetch, with whom he co-founded the Freaks Club Studio, a multidisciplinary video studio. He currently works as a cultural mediator and programmer at Les Halles.