PHATBristol fight against bigotry and raise funds for charity with new release Poland Has A Task

PHATBristol | Bristol

Poland Has A Task is the most important release to come out of Bristol this year.

PHATBristol, an artist-lead initiative with the goal of breeding cultural diversity and driving real progressive change, present their latest offering; a self-funded charity compilation album to raise awareness of the issues faced by womxn and queer people in Poland.

As of 2020, Poland has been the worst-performing EU country in terms of LGBTQ+ rights, with a third of the country declared an ‘LGBTQ+ free zone’. There have also been major steps backwards in terms of womxn’s rights with abortion being made completely illegal, even in the cases of termination being necessary due to a foetal defect. It is immoral and abhorrent to force a womxn to carry to term a foetus suffering from a defect so severe there’s no chance that it will survive - such as not having developed a brain. It also restricts the use of prenatal tests to assess whether a foetus is viable or not, through fear of damaging the foetus or discovering a defect that is untreatable.

I have never before felt such pride in being a Polish Woman

These government-backed instances of violent homophobia and misogyny have not been met by silent acceptance and have instead fueled activists and collectives such as PHATBristol to actively campaign for better treatment of minorities. In the words of Ola, co-founder of PHATBristol, ‘There is no future for me in a country that takes my basic human rights away. A country that won’t let me be with a woman and marry the person I love. Every day, I am moved and inspired by the activism in Poland, Polish people risking their lives, their relationship with their families, their place in society for long overdue justice and equality. I have never before felt such pride in being Polish. I have never before felt such pride in being a Polish Woman.’

The compilation, Poland Has A Task, is an impressive collection, featuring artists such as Lynks and Jessica Winter, alongside ‘ones to watch’ including Sylvia Baudelaire, a transgender Polish Woman living on the outskirts of the ‘LGBTQ+ free zone’, and Arek and Dynayev, Queer Poles who are currently living through the violence faced by the Polish Queer community. There is extreme bravery in putting out creative work that is not only unashamedly true to oneself, but an active act of protest against an unjust system where the punishment for being queer is physical and mental violence.

The album is available for pre-order on PHATBristol’s website, together with a crowdfunder to help fund the production of the charity album.

Listen to Poland Has A Task here, and donate to a very important cause here.