Following an exceptional and record-breaking year, Brighton Pride in 2016 will be held from Friday, August 5 – Sunday, August 7, 2016.
Pride’s campaigning theme in 2016 will be Uniting Nations, reflecting Brighton Pride’s ongoing commitment to campaigning for global LGBT+ rights.
2015 was a record year for fundraising with £100,000 raised for community good causes and 200,000 people enjoying the biggest community parade to date.
Paul Kemp
Pride Director, Paul Kemp, said:“Pride has evolved over the years with more communities coming together to celebrate every aspect of our city, regardless of sexuality, race, gender, age or ability. It’s important not to go back to theme’s that trivialise the important message behind the Pride Celebration and to highlight the lives and struggles of LGBT+ people across the world as we strive for equality for all”
“Carnival Of Diversity remains as the main Parade theme, with Uniting Nations being the 2016 campaigning theme reflecting the wonderful diversity of global communities with all the colour and vibrancy of Carnival.
“It is a chance to celebrate the uniqueness of Brighton & Hove and the diversity and inclusivity of Pride in our City”
2016 Carnival of Diversity: Uniting Nations will bring locals and visitors together for a Pride with purpose to celebrate, connect, campaign and fundraise together in spectacular style.
Pride in Brighton & Hove 2016. Uniting nations, uniting communities and uniting each other in a spectacular and unique Carnival Of Diversity.
Hove resident, Sophie Cook brings her show Grab life by the balls to Brighton on Thursday, February 4.
Sophie Cook, 49 of Hove, feared a backlash as she started a new season as herself – after finishing the last season as Steve.
Surrounded by the entire team of Premiership footballers, Sophie’s heart raced.
The last time she’d seen the players was at the parade to celebrate promotion the previous season as a twice married dad-of-three. She feared a backlash as she started a new season as herself – after finishing the last season as Steve.
Sophie said:“Stood on the pitch at Charlton seeing my childhood team, AFC Bournemouth, crowned as Football League Champions, a dream come true, I was terrified that this was to be my last ever match in football. I’d already decided that I was going to come out as transgender during the summer and I thought that I’d lose everything.”
Steve
The first transgender woman in UK football says she has been “totally accepted” by players and fans after decades of feeling trapped in the wrong body and now she’s on a mission to help others overcome their fears to live to their full potential.
Steve in the RAF
The RAF veteran and former motorbike racer, newspaper editor, and rock photographer, is refreshingly frank and open about her life.
Drawing from her experience of post traumatic stress after saving a colleagues life in the RAF, two decades in business, and her lifelong struggle with gender dysphoria, depression, self harm and suicidal feelings, she examines the nature of fear and some ways of looking at it differently.
“Despite all of my success I lived my life in fear, of loss, of failure, of success, of being sad, of being happy, of myself, of being outed, of being loved.”Sophie revealed.
“Because of these fears, no matter how hard I pushed myself to succeed subconsciously I would self sabotage and stop myself from reaching my full potential.
“Now I talk about these fears and how I overcame them to be true to and, finally, start loving myself.
“People are held back in life by their fear, in their personal life, relationships, business or professionally. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of losing someone or their job, fear of life.
“In my talks I discuss the fear of change and how we can reframe our experience of fear to enable us to reach our potential, lessons I learnt on the painful road through loss to my ultimate redemption.”
Married with three children, Sophie told her family she was transgender last summer, began taking female hormones, lost five stone in four months, and got hair extensions.
Sophie, whose original weight was 23st, now weighs just 17st after taking up running, including half marathons and starting an Aloe Vera based diet.
She continued:“My wife knew I was transgender when I met her but when our son was born disabled and we nearly lost him, I realised we already had enough to deal with and I couldn’t put my family through it.
“I took Sophie, put her in a box and buried her for 15 years of hell.
“Every day I thought about suicide. It was a horrible, lonely, painful place to be.
“When, last year, I told my wife that I was finally going to transition she said she always knew it would come back. She’s a wonderful woman and though we are no longer man and wife, we are best friends.”
The couple had been married for 10 years and separated last year, though they remain good friends.
“My children were brilliant. After I posted a poem on Facebook to thank Steve for his strength over the years my daughter responded: ‘You’re my hero. Steve was great but Sophie is better’.
“Now, when I look at old photos of me with the family as Steve, I just look dead, I look like a zombie.”
Sophie, now tours the country giving talks about conquering the fear of change.
She said:“I don’t have to hide anymore.
“My life before was like being in Kansas, it was all black and white, and I was totally disconnected and now I’m in Oz and it’s all technicolor. The most amazing thing is that I’m so happy, I never realised it was possible to be this happy.”
“I didn’t choose to be transgender but I did choose not to be a victim.”
The world-renowned Chinese State Circus returns for a major UK theatre and big top tour in 2016/17.
The Circus embodies a rich tapestry of Chinese art, history and culture which can be dated back over 2000 years.
This cultural legacy is permeated through the exhibition of their artistes’ acrobatic skills, which have been honed and perfected by lifelong dedication to their countries artistic heritage. The resulting circus is a visual spectacular which takes audiences on an exhilarating journey through Chinese culture.
Chinese acrobatics is a common form of art among the people. It has a long history with a distinct national style, evolving from the Chinese people’s everyday life and work. Historical records, show the origin of Chinese acrobatics more than two thousand years ago in the period of the Warring States. During the Quin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C – 220 A.D.) acrobatic artistes developed a wide repertoire, and acrobatics was thus called “the show of a hundred tricks.” It reached a high level as a performing art by the Han Dynasty.
The history of the Chinese State Circus spans 25 years and was first conceived in the mind of Creative Director Phillip Gandey after he witnessed a group of Oriental acrobats performing to great acclaim at the Monte Carlo Circus Festival.
Gandey was astounded at the quality, depth and sheer diversity of such Chinese Acrobatic Troupes. After working out the logistics of transporting 45 artistes, plus directors, interpreters and five tonnes of props half-way around the world – the rest, as they say, is history!
The announcement of this new tour comes 3 years after the last UK Chinese State Circus theatre tour Ying Yang was met with critical acclaim and 5 years since the production has toured under canvas.
The Circus comes to the Brighton Centre for one night only on Saturday, November 5.
Event: Chinese State Circus
Where: Brighton Centre,
When: Saturday, November 5
Time: 2.30pm
Tickets: From £10 for children and £25 for adults (concession, family and group discounts also available)
Rocky Horror Show exceeds previous Christmas sales records for Theatre Royal with 50% of audience being first time visitors to the theatre.
Theatre Royal Brighton is celebrating the most successful Christmas season in its recent history, with Rocky Horror Show, which ran at the Theatre over the Christmas and New Year period, selling almost 16,500 tickets during the two-week run.
The show attracted 90% capacity audiences, with well over half of ticket purchasers being first time attenders at the Theatre.
This is the fifth successive year that Theatre Royal Brighton has staged a hit West End musical over the Christmas period, with many people travelling from across the region to enjoy an alternative to the more traditional pantomime.
The cast included X Factor’s Diana Vickers, Paul Cattermole, former S Club 7 band member, former Emmerdale actor Ben Freeman, Liam Tamne, well-known from his appearance in The Voice and comedian Steve Punt as narrator.
The show achieved rave press reviews and the production will now set out on a year-long tour of the UK.
John Baldock, General Manager, Theatre Royal Brighton, said:“It is particularly satisfying to know that so many new people came through our doors over the Christmas period to see Rocky Horror Show. The atmosphere at each show was electric, and seeing the audience jump to their feet as one to do the Time Warp was a very special experience.”
Booking is now open for the Theatre’s Christmas 2016 show, the multi award-winning West End hit musical Sunny Afternoon, which tells the story of the early life of Ray Davies and the rise to stardom of The Kinks.
The show features some of The Kinks’ best loved songs, including You Really Got Me, Waterloo Sunset and Lola. The show will run from December 13-31, 2016.
MASS, the first in a series of short films by Sam Hendi and David Goldenberg, studies the masculinity of men and their attraction to other men.
The short explores the connections between men through body language and portraits attraction distilled into it’s most basic essence.
The staging is bare by design leaving the viewer to apply different backdrops to the characters and scenarios based on their own personal experience. The characters represent various demographics of the bear community.
The absence of voice intensifies the atmosphere leaving the viewer to create a story about how he identifies with the characters. Even though there are no explicit acts in the video, the atmosphere is overloaded with sexual anticipation.
MASS was originally created as a short film to be shown at the London bear scene club, BRÜT. The collaboration helped to define BRÜT’s visual identity while extracts from the video have been used to create promotional material for the club including trailers, stills for flyers and posters
The full length version of the video plays every night on giant projector screens in the club celebrating the uniqueness of BRÜT and the diversity of bear culture showing different ages, size and shape.
Models featured in the film include: Barry El Beardo; Christopher Cragg; David Goldenberg; Heath McIntyre; Louis Kwong; Paul Adams; Ross Jones; Sam Hendi.
Following a major refurbishment of the pool’s facilities, Simon Kirby, MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, joined staff of the Brighton Swimming Centre yesterday (January 4) to celebrate the Centre’s fifth birthday.
Over the last five years the former school swimming pool has been totally transformed with new changing rooms/shower areas and the creation of new training and meeting room suites.
Over 3000 children and adults a week now visit the centre and it has become the busiest swimming pool in the UK for the training of swimming teachers. It is also a major centre for the development of open water swimming.
Simon said:“I was delighted to visit Brighton Swimming Centre again yesterday and see how the Centre has developed over the last five years. It is a great facility that is nationally recognised for its role in finding employment opportunities for people who train at the Centre. I would like to congratulate the staff on the fantastic work they do.”
The Centre plans next to modernise its plant room, providing it with one of the greenest and most efficient pool plant systems in the city and to install a new lighting system for the pool including the restoration of its underwater lights.
Paul Smith, Managing Director of Brighton Swimming Centre, said:“It’s been a big learning curve since we took over five years ago – however it’s turned into a real success story! So many swimming pools have been lost to the city – I am proud to have been able to save one.”
“I would particularly like to thank our local MP Simon Kirby whose steadfast support has been invaluable.”
For more information about the Brighton Swimming Centre, click here:
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