Di Libe Brent Wi A Nase Szmate is a queer band formed by Łaja Szkło and Maja Luxenberg. It has been around since 2018 and their repertoire, as they write themselves, is based on songs that tell stories of discrimination, pain and non-heteronormative love.

In August, the girls will embark on a unique tour. Their plan is to turn the so-called "LGBT-free zones" (municipalities and regions of Poland that have declared themselves unwelcoming of LGBT "ideology", in order to ban equality marches and other LGBT events) into a travelling queer music festival. The band will play six concerts and celebrate the third anniversary of the Rainbow Night along the way. Why have they decided on such a project?

Di Libe Brent Wi A Nase Szmate, the name of the girl group, comes from the works of poetess Zuzanna Ginczanka and means: "Love burns like a wet rag" in Yiddish. The choice is not accidental, as Jewish culture is important to both girls.

The queer band was formed by lyricist Lajka Szkło and accordion and piano player Maja Luxenberg in 2018. The girls emphasise that their project is not only about lesbians, but also exclusion, minorities and queerness in general.

"If we called our project lesbian, it would only refer to some part of the issues we are addressing, and what we are doing concerns not only lesbians, but exclusion in general, singularity and queerness," they told Sistrum magazine.

As early as 5 August, the girls will embark on a tour that will last until 10 August. They will play six concerts in the so-called "LGBT-free zones" in Rypin, Zgierz, Puławy, Świdnik, Mordy and Kobyłka. As they write on the project's support page, they want to meet the zones’ residents and invite them to participate in a musical dialogue.

"Playing in the squares, plazas, markets and backyards of the six cities where dehumanising resolutions have been passed, we want to meet their inhabitants in a space of musical dialogue. Only by going out of the studio into the field will we be able to capture what is most important to us, namely the atmosphere of these encounters and events, and of the extraordinary time in which we have come to live," - reads the description on zrzutka.pl crowdfunding website.

As the girls emphasise in their interview with Gazeta Wyborcza, the choice of concert dates is not accidental. One of them, taking place in Puławy, coincides with the third anniversary of the Rainbow Night. It is a day commemorating a demonstration by people sympathizing with the activist Margot from the Stop the Bullshit (Polish: Stop Bzdurom) collective, who was detained in 2020.

During the protest on 7 August 2020, the police detained 48 people. In "Kabaryny", one of the songs by Di Libe Brent Wi A Nase Szmate, the band tells the story of this event. The lyrics read: "You won't break my girlfriend, you won't break the others, nor me. Drive towards sisterhood, then love in spe shall win".

While touring the "LGBT-free zones", the girls will simultaneously be recording their debut album. Magdalena Sowul-Panilas, co-founder of the Lesbian Groove (Polish: Lesbijski Groove) project, will help them with the recordings.

The queer concerts project has been supported by the For a Change Fund (Polish: Fundusz dla odmiany). If you also want to help the girls you can do so here.

Source: zrzutka.pl, Gazeta Wyborcza, Sistrum