Salon Kewpie: The Panel Discussion 2026

Salon Kewpie warmly invites you to join us for our third annual panel discussion on the Kewpie Collection and its vital legacies. Many are familiar with the celebrated hairdresser and onstage performer, Kewpie, and with her collection of photographs depicting life in District Six for the gays and girls, which is held at the GALA Queer Archive and part of which was publicly exhibited at the District Six Museum in 2018.

This year, we will continue to dive deeper into the histories of the Kewpie Collection and its continued importance. Join us to find out more about our week-long educational programme, Salon Kewpie: The Legacy Project, and for an exploration of the Kewpie Collection in relation to our 2026 theme: care.

Together, our speakers will unpack the embodied, legal, and collective practices of care that are so important to the work of liberating and empowering our communities. The panel will feature actor and intimacy co-ordinator Loren Loubser, @GDX Director Liberty Matthyse, Amava Oluntu Director Zaid Philander, and Kewpie Collection researcher Ruth Ramsden-Karelse.

Wednesday 15 April 2026

18h00 - 20h00

Tafel Hall, Homecoming Centre, District Six Museum

Free! RSVP required due to limited seats

Brief presentations from the panellists will be followed by a discussion and time for questions from the audience.

This event is free and all are most welcome to attend. However, because space is limited, registration is limited to three tickets per person and we ask that you please return any registered places that you are no longer able to use.

The venue is wheelchair accessible. If you have access requirements or other questions, please contact [email protected]

This event is being held in partnership with the District Six Museum and the GALA Queer Archive.

We look forward to seeing you there.

About our speakers:

Liberty Matthyse is the Executive Director of Gender DynamiX, a Cape-Town based organisation fighting for the rights of trans and gender diverse people in Southern Africa. Hailing from Darling, Liberty has a Master’s Degree in Law focusing on transgender human rights and marriage equality. Her writing has been published widely, including her 2016 memoir, A Darling’s Journey to Liberty. Liberty has a wealth of experience as a community-centred and social justice activist and organiser. They also have a background as a formidable competitor in pageants, having won Miss Sovereign Western Cape in 2014. Liberty’s pronouns are she/her and they/them.

Loren Loubser is a queer actor, writer, director, intimacy coordinator, educator and ballroom babe. As an actor, Loren can be seen on Acorn TV, Showmax and Netflix notably in KOEK and RECIPES FOR LOVE AND MURDER and also in THE HEART IS A MUSCLE, which Loren recently won best supporting actress for at the National Film and TV Awards SA 2025. Loren has intimacy coordinated 24 local and international productions and has a very intentional focus on sex positive ways of working. A 2024 Talents Durban fellow and a recipient of the British Film Institute’s ‘More Funds For Freedom’ and the CMF / NFVF co-development fund. Removed, Loren’s first directing debut was an archival documentary documenting the impact of forced removals looking at three generations of women in their family. Loren is currently in production of a greenlit crime comedy TV series.

Zaid Philander is a social activist, facilitator, and entrepreneur dedicated to empowering others through healing arts and sewing as a therapeutic method. Self-trained as a designer from age 7, he overcame his short stature by using a crutch and hose pipe to operate an industrial sewing machine's pedal. Zaid channels this ingenuity to work with people with disabilities, creating items from upcycled fabrics, seat belts, and upholstery. As a Community Art Counsellor (CAF), he develops art and sewing interventions for adults to stabilise traumatised children in under-resourced communities. These provide opportunities to share stories, build meaningful connections, and find healing through creativity. His passion for social and environmental activism shines in managing the Vrygrond Peace Garden—a safe space for children, youth, queer individuals, immigrants, and marginalized groups. Zaid now researches interconnections between gardening, art, and sewing to build stability and income-generating products that share stories of identity and societal complexities. He trains differently abled makers in sewing, using art and design to amplify marginalized voices and deepen understanding of the human experience.

Ruth Ramsden-Karelse is the Martha LA McCain Postdoctoral Fellow at the Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto, where she works as part of the Queer and Trans Research Lab. She is currently completing her first book, titled Gays and Girls Make Worlds, drawing on eight years’ research centring on the Kewpie Collection and the gays and girls of District Six. Prior to joining the Bonham Centre, Ruth was a Fellow at the Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry and a Research Associate at the University of Manchester’s Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity. She is an Associate of the Stuart Hall Foundation and is an organising member of the Salon Kewpie collective. Her writing has appeared in publications including GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies and Gender, Place & Culture, is forthcoming in TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, and has been awarded a prize by the Queer African Studies Association.