About
who we are
Gamut 1 is a Cape Town-based non-profit LGBTQIA+ organisation and community using media, culture and research to build a world where queer and trans rights are honoured, and everyone belongs. Our organisation is built on the belief that storytelling and community is a radical act of care, safety, and resistance.
We are the mavericks, the disruptors, the revolutionaries – the odd kids on the block – authentic, distinct, and unapologetically ourselves.
The South African Constitution and its Bill of Rights anchor and support the work and approach of the organisation. Gamut promotes human rights, inclusively, with particular focus on LGBTQIA+ people and communities.
Our values include:
Community in all aspects of our work and being
Somatic sovereignty and embodied healing
Care and compassion
Transparency and accountability
The Team
zoey black
founder and executive director
Zoey Black is a disabled, indigenous, queer, transgender, woman of colour living in Cape Town, South Africa. She is a queer renaissance and cultural architect. Her unique work is focused on using creative mediums and cultural platforms as vehicles for social change and is dedicated to advancing the discourse on queer human rights around the world.
Zoey graduated from the University of Cape Town as a theatre practitioner and has over a decade of experience in live performance, filmmaking, photography, peer facilitation, and project and organisational management.
She has presented sessions and panel discussions, speaking at at local and international conferences, including the ILGA World Conference, Pan Africa ILGA, CREA reConference, Encounters South African International Documentary Film Festival, FAME Week Africa, University of Cape Town Film Society, and Open Book Festival South Africa, amongst many others. She is an alumni of the Berlinale Co-Production Market’s programme (Berlin), Doc Society’s Queer Now lab (New York), Rough Cut Lab Africa’s filmmakers programme (Johannesburg) and the International Documentary Film Amsterdam’s IDFAcadmey (Amsterdam).
Zoey is also a published author and editor, contributing most notably to They Called Me Queer (2019), Trans Rural Narratives (2020) and Keeping the Promise of Dignity and Freedom for All (2020).
koleka putuma
co-founder
Koleka Putuma is a multi-award-winning theatre practitioner, writer and poet. Her work tackles themes such as homophobia, womanhood, race and the dynamics of relationships, religion and politics. Her poetry is sharp and thought provoking, unique in its form, language and structure. Every line, a powerful statement of what she stands for.
Her bestselling debut collection of poems Collective Amnesia took the South African literary scene by storm. Since its publication in April 2017, the book is in its 12th print run and is prescribed for study at tertiary level in South African Universities and across the world. Collective Amnesia received multiple local and international awards and has been translated into Spanish, German, Danish, Dutch, and Swedish.
Manyano Media, a multidisciplinary creative company that empowers and produces stories by black queer women, founded by Koleka, published her sophomore collection of poems, Hullo, Bu-Bye, Koko, Come In. Her theatre works include the stage adaption of Hullo, Bu-bye, Koko, Come In, UHM, Woza Sarafina, Mbuzeni and No Easter Sunday For Queers.
Koleka was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award - a first time award for Poetry. She is a Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative finalist for theatre, a Forbes Africa Under 30 Honouree, recipient of the Imbewu Trust Scribe Playwriting Award, Mbokodo Rising Light award, CASA playwriting award and the 2019 Distell Playwriting Award for her play No Easter Sunday for Queers. She has been commissioned to write poetry for major campaigns such as Spotify Premium "Unleash The Sounds", UN Global Goals, Wellcome Trust: Covid Living, Jameson "Dedela Abanye", Standard Bank and more.
blythe slinger
co-founder
Blythe Stuart Linger is a passionate arts practitioner, producer, and director with experience in producing and directing multiple theatrical and filmic experiences. Working both in South Africa and abroad, Blythe is dedicated to the sustainability of the Arts and Cultural industry.
As the managing director of the largest Shakespearian youth festival in Africa and the incorporator of BSL Management (PTY) Ltd, Blythe creates opportunities for artists to earn while practising their craft.
Over his career, Blythe works as an arts practitioner, producer, and director with over a decade of experience in the theatre, film and creative industries. He has worked with award winning artists and producers, including Soli Philander, Lebo Mashile, Basil Appollis, Bob Meijs, and Fred Abrahamse, to produce culturally significant and impactful projects.
From arts administration and budgeting to producing and directing, Blythe embraces every chance to engage with communities through artistic mediums. Firmly believing in the power of the arts, Blythe aims to foster understanding, empathy, healing, and growth in our ever-changing world.