Inside ERASURE With Tanya Compas

This year, Instagram launched its Black Perspectives programme, which aims to empower Black creatives across several creative industries, such as fashion, entertainment and media.

The initiative supports creatives by helping them launch initiatives that give back to their communities and audiences. Instagram UK partnered with GUAP co-founder Ibrahim Kamara, lifestyle influencer Estare Areola, radio and TV presenter Henrie Kwushue and Tanya Compas, a youth worker and community builder based in South London. Compas has long been active in supporting Black LGBT youth, and one of the many projects she’s launched over the years include Exist Loudly—a London-based organisation supporting Black LGBTQ+ youth from all over the UK by providing joyous spaces, creative intervention, and digital storytelling support. She also started Queer Black Christmas, an annual event providing a community for Black LGBTQ+ folk who are estranged from or have strained relationships with their families during the Christmas period. 

This time, with the full backing of Instagram, Tanya Compas decided to take the focus away from London and bring together four young Black LGBTQ+ creatives from different parts of the country to help them tell their stories unapologetically. The ERASURE project is a two-day boot camp that helps these creatives forge a career by being themselves and challenging stereotypical LGBTQ+ tropes.

We sat down with Tanya Compas to discuss ERASURE, how she came up with the idea, and how it positively impacted the young people involved.