Colleen Balchin - Pussy Party Productions

P_ssy Party is an incubator which has been functional since May 2016. We support women and queer DJs and club-goers primarily in Johannesburg, South Africa, with newer chapters developing in Durban and Cape Town.

We began as a regular monthly club night at Kitchener's, Braamfontein, and a series of free workshops for women and queer people interested in deejaying. We have grown to encompass a club community of professionals and partygoer, from DJs and patrons to programmers, bar and security staff. We host regular workshops in both DJing and production, including workshop and club tours from international guest mentors (with support from the British Council and Institut français d'Afrique du Sud).

We provide production support to queer events brands as well as event production for private and corporate events. We consult on safer space practices and curate gender-diverse DJs for mainstream events.

We use our events and community’s experience to develop tools and strategies for combating Gender Based Violence and homophobia in recreation settings. We find these spaces to be both vulnerable to abuse, and rich in opportunities for healing.

Moving forward, we plan to expand our range as educators in the field of safer spaces, and in the fields of arts and technology education for women and queer people, who are traditionally excluded especially from tech spaces.