Pride Spotlight: Queer heritage stories with Elevate Community Productions
// creative industries // LGBTQIA // Pride // Production
Celebrating Pride and the LGBTQIA+ community is an all-year-round commitment, so we’ve curated a special spotlight series where we chat with the visionary creatives in our far-reaching communities, to learn more about what they do, why they do it, and what value Pride holds for them.
Elevate Community Productions is a community interest company (CIC) platforming underrepresented voices whose stories are often missing from mainstream media. CEO & Founder, Blaise Singh (He/Him), tells us more about their work, and how their ongoing queer project is getting global-reach.
What does your organisation do and how do you champion Pride in your work?
We run creative and cultural projects that open hearts, minds and doors across cultures. Working with LGBTQ+ and global majority communities, we focus on building career readiness, increasing confidence and creating genuine connections across different backgrounds and experiences. Queer Global is our flagship heritage programme documenting the hidden stories of QTIPOC and migrant Londoners through oral history, film and public exhibition. We also run Elevate Studios, a fully equipped creative media facility in Hounslow open to community members, artists and organisations looking to tell their own stories.
What value does diversity, inclusion and representation bring to the cultural & creative industries?
The creative industries are stronger when the people making culture reflect the full breadth of human experience. For communities that have historically been excluded — LGBTQ+, global majority, migrant — having a place in culture builds confidence, shifts perceptions and opens doors that previously felt closed. Beyond individual impact, diverse voices change what gets made and how. They bring perspectives, stories and aesthetics that challenge the mainstream and push culture forward. An industry that only reflects the people who already run it is creatively limited, and the work suffers for it.
Is there a creative individual or idea that has changed the way you think?
Running the Queer Global heritage project and conducting over 100 oral history interviews has fundamentally changed the way I think about whose stories get told and why it matters. Hearing QTIPOC Londoners speak about migration, identity, belonging and the communities they built has made clear just how much of our cultural history has been quietly sidelined.
We’re currently producing a feature-length documentary and preparing a public exhibition at Chiswick House and Gardens to bring these stories to a wider audience. The project has also grown a dedicated YouTube channel with thousands of subscribers worldwide — proof that these stories resonate far beyond the communities they come from.
Would you like to shout out any LGBTQIA+ creatives or resources?
Queer Global is currently collecting oral histories from QTIPOC Londoners and will be archiving the full collection at the Bishopsgate Institute. In the meantime, extracts from the interviews are available on our YouTube channel and Instagram.
The Queer Global project was made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund, with thanks to National Lottery players.
