POLARI

A series of screen prints exploring the lost gay language of Polari

I was first introduced to Polari by my late Great Uncle George. He was the first Gay man that I knew and had grown up hearing about his many outrageous and hysterical stories. These stories included tales of his association with The Krays, Londons notorious sixties gangsters and his time serving in The Merchant Navy. There is a BBC documentary called “Bona Queens of Fabularity” available on Youtube, it follows one of George’s friends from the East End of London - Lola, a well known Drag Queen and features George and his circle. George was fluent in Polari and would teach me the vocabulary whenever I visited him.