Hadrians lover: A new queer collective

Hadrian's lover is a new queer creative founded by Matthew Hertel, who was born in rural Canada before taking the jump to move to Manchester in 2020, to get a closer look at Manchester's queer scene. Five years later, he's ready to run his own collective with an extensive ten-year long-term plan. I talked with Matthew about how he got here and what's in store for Hadrian’s Lovers' future…

Do you want to start off by telling us about your collective? 

“My collective is called Hadrian's lover. The idea is that we're developing a queer cultural space and collective based in Manchester, right in the city, we're building something that we hope is more than a venue, a space where queerness isn't just tolerated. It's the starting point. It's about aesthetic, it's about creating a permanent home for joy, creativity and care, somewhere you could go for a rave one day and then the next week, come to a workshop about, protest safety or a queer history salon, and it still feels it's the same community,  holding on to you right now, as I said, we're prelaunched. We're starting to run pilot events. We've done sapphic serenades, where it was a talent showcase for sapphic people to express art throughout the city. We've also done camp cabaret, which was more of a cabaret night for different aspects of the queer community. We had fans and drag and everything, and we're doing these to build a community for ourselves. The response has been  awesome, and it's clear that there's a real hunger for something more grounded, more nourishing and more imaginative in the community.”

What was the defining moment that made you want to cover such a large range of events under your collective? 

“I think it's because we know that we need queerness to be intersectional. When I first moved to the city, I was very much just trying to make friends. I have to go on apps, and then Id have to go to village and to parties, which is super fun, it does help build community, but I think that's only one aspect of it, where we're missing people who might not want to go out to these cognates, who might be sober, or sober curious and want to get together and talk about politics or talk about art, or share their art with people. I think there's space for all of it, and that's really what I wanted this business to be.”

Where did the inspiration for the name ‘Hadrian's lover’ come from? 

“I took classical archaeology at university.  I have a major in Roman archaeology. There's a mix of very queer people who love Greek history and Greek myths, and that's a pillar point in a lot of our queer development. Hadrian was a Roman emperor who was basically the one who decided to have an official husband rather than take a wife. And he had a lover named Antinous, who was a beautiful partner. He was thought to be the most beautiful man who ever lived. And when Hadrian rose to power, he decided to take Antinous on a holiday around the Empire, instead of doing his job. They vacationed around the Roman Empire, going on the Nile, drinking, doing art, doing all the fierce stuff that you would love to do, a lush life. Unfortunately, Antinous died on one of the holidays, and Hadrian was so distraught that he deified him as a God. It was me bringing my past love and something that was truly queer, but it was very much, if you know, you know type of thing.  It's all very much  a reminder that queer love has been happening for 1000s of years, and it didn't always have to be a secret.”

Talking about queer love, is there any part of you that wants to run any dating-style events, or is this exclusively an opportunity for platonic connections?

“I think dating style events in the future would be perfect. I'm never really one to shut down an idea if it's something that people need or something that people want. I know that, personally, I've been to a few dating events, I do it, if not for finding romantic partners, but making friends and connections in any type of way as well. I'd be totally open to whatever that looks like.”

Will there be a formal process for joining Hadrian's lover?

“There's no formal process. Because, as I said, we're in our pre-setup era thing. We're doing a lot of events.  It is very much to drop in and talk to us, or buy a ticket, or come here if you want to get involved in another capacity. We've had performers come up and volunteer on different nights. It's very much open, if you want to come and get involved here, if you want to drop in there, you don't have to commit, but we're totally open to anyone who wants to come and help out.”

How do you plan on making events accessible in the future?

“It's very important to me that everything is as accessible as possible. We are trying to make sure that every venue that I reach out to is accessible in any way, shape or form. If that's, disability wise, or making sure that there are gender neutral bathrooms,  which sometimes is hard. We've had an event in the past where the building didn't have an accessible lift. But that might mean throwing an event the next week that is completely accessible and everyone can come in different ways. Or making sure that performers on the lineup aren't white, cisgender people, it is reaching out to everyone in the community. And I think Manchester has a huge queer community, it's very diverse, but we are still very close, everyone knows each other, it should be very easy to make events accessible, which is why I'm really hoping to continue as that's part of our ethos.”

I understand you're originally from Canada? Did you move to Manchester because of the queer scene itself?

“Actually, I did. A lot of people ask, Why are you here? But I grew up watching queer as folk and seeing that space where there is something over there for me, and I had never even stepped foot here before I moved, but it felt the queer space was bursting at the seams almost.”

And how long have you been here now? 

“I first moved here in 2020. I went home for a year in between. All in all, I've lived here for about four years now.”

Have you found the scene as welcoming as you wanted to? 

“It took a while. The first couple of years I moved here,  like I said, it was very much going out to parties and making halfway friends. But I really think in the last two, three years, people have been putting in the effort to create spaces like this, and the people that I've talked to and the connections that I've made within the scene are super, super welcoming. It doesn't feel like there's a lot of stepping on each other's toes. It's very much  a rising tide lifts all boats mentality here, where every bit of queerness we put out into the world is  something for somebody.”

Did you not have a lot of queer guidance growing up in Canada?

“Not where I grew up, it was a very small rural town of about 1000 people and my friends and family were always pretty welcome. It was still a two-hour drive from civilization. It was very much me trying to find my queerness on the internet and in little ways that I could with my friend group. But no one in my family was a guide, and even the University, when I went, was a pretty conservative area; there wasn't a lot of queer guidance there.  It was very much me, forcing myself into understanding, my queer identity, our queer history”

Was there a specific moment when you realised you wanted to create this collective

“Yeah. And it was a roundabout way. It was during COVID. I was working in retail, and we were doing Zoom catch-ups. We decided to do a fun activity where everyone goes off and works on a little project for a week, and then comes in and presents it to the workplace. I was doing a coaching degree,  so I decided to do one about empowerment workshops. And I presented my empowerment workshop,  about finding yourself and what you want to do in the future. Once we were out of lockdown, I actually threw the event in person, and it was life-affirming and joyous. I thought I'd do this thing as a job, and I started looking around and finding a lot of the same type of workshops. But I saw that they were not geared towards queerness. They're not answering my questions, and the questions that my friends have about their identities and what they need. I am coming from a small town, community centres and hubs were the only places you could go to meet friends and have our third space. I think there's something to be said for a community hub where you can throw events in, where people can go if they need resources, they can have family garden times, and have that really big space. And I was like, I absolutely want to build that, to be the ultimate third space for myself and my community”

Have you found a favourite venue space to run events from yet?

“Not yet. It's still bouncing around to see what's the best place for us to throw these events. Because ultimately, in the end, we would actually have our own physical space. But right now, we're going to SeeSaw. They're really nice there. It's very accessible for everyone. We've done an event at the pits, which has a problem with accessibility, but incredible people are working there. We do all of our work right now out of refuge, we have a great relationship with them, and Queer lit.”

What's your process for funding events? 

“It's pretty much completely self-funded. A couple of our events we've had ticket sales and fundraising, but it's always hard, I'm sure, you know, In the creative space to raise funds for this. I'm also reaching out to investors and funds and things that to get me actual money in.”

Is the state of the economy affecting your start-up speed, considering a lot of people don't have disposable income for ticket sales or funding?

“Yes, I do think it is, ideally we would have a space where we could do all of this, but I think I'm not looking at it as, I'm sad that this isn't happening as quickly as possible. I think that as long as we're creating space, even if it's an event once a month or a meet up with people in the city, as long as we're creating a space that they can come and talk to friends and meet people and feel their true, authentic selves in that that's a win for me.  Yes, we're in a recession, and it's very hard to raise money in all of this, but I think the spiritual connection and community are what people are really missing right now, and  I want to create that space, no matter if I'm spending money out of my pocket. I want people to come and feel they have a voice.”

Do you feel that you currently have a voice?

“I think so. Like I said, it takes work to build a community, and I think that as long as people are listening to me and my ideas, I feel totally fulfilled. I think there are a lot of voices. But I said, it has to take collaboration for us to succeed and get what we want.”

And in terms of the future of your event space, where do you see this going? Do you have a long-term plan?

“Yeah, I'm pretty type A when it comes to the art of planning and goal setting and dreamscaping. I have a very detailed, five to ten-year plan down the road of what this business will look like, what it turns into, the people that we get in for partnerships, and how it runs the whole structure. Yeah, I'm very rigid when it comes to that.”

Can you share a little bit of the five to ten-year plan? 

“I think the first year plan would be opening a space. It doesn't have to be the main, enormous space that we want to open up in the future. In the next five years, a smaller space where we can have people come in and throw events and do art shows, run life-affirming workshops, partnering with local charities, getting people in from the community to run classes, do Skillshare workshops, and clothing swaps. A true third space for people to come in and hang out In and then down the line hire staff, have therapists come in and have an on-site Family Therapist and guidance counsellor, resource libraries partnering with the city and doing actual helpful events and things like that. And you know, in 10 years, opening up our main building, which will probably be enormous, it will fund everything you would want in an event space.”

Are there any other collectives or event organisers that you draw inspiration from?

“Yeah, doing this, you really find out that there are a lot of incredible people and places in the city that do a lot of things. We find a lot of inspiration from the Hellcat collective. They do a lot of really great things for the city of the creative space. What's happening in Manchester, they do a lot of really nice art exhibits that we are going to. A lot of our performers are really great.  Lauren Temple is a poet and artist, and she does her thing all around the city. The proud place with their creative director has performed at one of our shows as well. And it's been really great,  learning about what the proud place does in the city, for not only the youth, but they really help, but the greater queer audience as well.  They've been instrumental in helping as well.”

It must be a little bit intimidating seeing all these other event runners, taking up a little bit of space in Manchester.

“Yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna lie and say that. I'm not. Sometimes it's, Oh, I wish I had that idea, or I love that idea, but I feel I could do it better, but I'm not going to step on their toes. But I look at it way more as this is inspirational, that these people are doing the same thing. They might have the same dream as me, and they're really making it work. And I see it as, Oh, when I have my space, these people can come out, host my space or collaborate with me in this way. I don't see it as competition. I see it as a collaboration.”

Can you share a little bit about your upcoming projects?

“Yeah, we've sat down and had a meeting, talking about the next phase and events.  We're doing a two-prong attack, where we're going to be throwing connection-focused events, people will pay for tickets to meet people in the community. And then we're all going to start throwing free collective gatherings that we call our queer commons, where we're going to talk about topics, protesting safely in your city, and different resources that you need. And it's more of the action side of the business about what we're actually doing in the community to help each other.  That's going to  start August going on, we're going to have  a connection and a common event every month, and then we're going to supplement it with bigger fun events that everyone can come to as well, which we're looking forward to.”

Hadrian's lover poses new and exciting opportunities for Manchester's queer scene, especially on promises to provide educational spaces and resources, which is something I haven’t seen too often in the queer scene. If you're interested in watching Matthews collective grow from the ground up, you can follow them at @hadrienslover_mcr on Instagram!