By:Wakhe Sebenza

Maybe there will come a time where we shall do away with tags such as _“female”_ or _“queer”,_ a DJ can be just a DJ without mentioning their gender. This can only happen when women are more evenly represented in these male dominated spaces and the end of heteronormativity. The struggle of equality is real and visibility is very important in order to draw attention to the fact that we have women in this space or we have queer people in this space too. 

Lesego Magwai is an Activist who is passionate about equality more than anything else, She is well know as *Queen of Hearts LesG* for her energetic upbeat DJ sets. She says the name Queen of Hearts comes from the kind of music she plays, music that touches hearts, music that heals. She has been in the industry for 14 years,  the journey hasn’t been smooth for this DJ, being a female DJ is a struggle on it’s own, it’s a double-trouble when on top of that, you add that you are queer. “When we should be fighting for spaces that say you need to be great to be in this space, we are fighting for equality,” says Magwai_

She comes from a great family of love, that’s where she gets her power, that’s where she gets her motivation, _“my family is great, anything you love, we love it with you, anything you are passionate about, we are there with you”_ Born in Ga-Rankuwa, north-west of Pretoria with other 4 Siblings, she later moved to stay with her grandmother in Mabopane and from there to Atteridgeville, she says her life has been basically about moving, meeting different people and experiencing different things which contributed to her being the self-reliant person she is today. _“I had to teach myself to not getting too attached to other people because I kept moving from one place to another”_

Lesego has always known that she belongs in the entertainment space, even back when she was working for a Non-Governmental organization, OUT- LGBT Well-Being, it was only a matter of time and figuring out what exactly she could do within the entertainment space. _“Some of us never grew up having role models, all you know is yourself, what you want to do and that you need to be better_”. Upon figuring out what she could do within the space because there was no role model, there was no reference, she did drama, she loved stage performances, she can now be seen in stages turning tables. 

She believes in _“giving it your all”_ in everything she does, _“you have to get into a space, do what you do and be great at it”_ This is how Lesego was discovered by other event organisers for Bookings, She started attending events where she was not even booked, she would show up looking all clean and proper, carrying a CD bag, she would tell the bouncers I’m playing here and they would let her in easily. When she got inside, she would make sure that she at least gets 15 minutes  and make the most of that 15 minute set. 

Later when bookings started to pour in, when she should have been celebrating, it saddened her to be in spaces where she was told you are the first female DJ to play here. We see that with a lot of events posters where 90% of the lineup is made of Male DJs. _“As a Black Queer Activist DJ, it is very important for me to show up in spaces, be queer and be proud, that’s what we need to do and become one. Another challenge of being a queer artists is being booked only on Queer events that happens only once a year, and brands that show up only on Pride Month for the hashtags when Queer artists have the rest of the year to survive.”_ Get into spaces, let them know you exist, you not going anywhere and you are great at what you do, we are living queer history, we are creating queer archives, that’s what we are learning from Lesego Magwai. 

Catch Queen of Hearts LesG on the socials:

Facebook- Lesego Magwai 

Instagram- lesg_queen_of_hearts