Fabrica are staging an exhibition by respected Turkish artist Ipek Duben.
THEY/ONLAR (THEY), a multi-screen video installation, previously seen at SALT, Istanbul, Turkey, will be presented at Fabrica for its UK premiere.
THEY/ONLAR focuses on how Turkish society views They or the Other. Through the stories of several individuals the artist goes behind the scene in Turkish society, allowing us to glimpse her country’s diversity of ethnic, religious and gender positions, the perceptions of members of the Sunni majority, and the everyday discrimination and resistance that it engenders.
In Turkey They covers many ethnic, and religious groups: Kurds, Alevis, Armenians, Jews, Rum (Greek) and Romanis. They also refers to LGBT+ people, women, covered women, women subjected to domestic violence.
Through their personal testimonies Duben’s subjects discuss their histories, attitudes, prejudices, hear-say and personal experiences concerning each other. But in portraying Turkish society Ipek Duben ultimately invites us to examine ourselves in our context: to listen; to learn; to understand; to be generous to, rather than threatened by the Other.
Event: THEY / ONLAR, an exhibition by Turkish artist Ipek Duben
Krazy Kat Theatre Company present the World Premiere of OLIVER IN THE OVERWORLD by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood.
This spring, the acclaimed Krazy Kat Theatre Company presents the world premiere of the first ever sign language musical for families. Oliver In the Overworld, a family show for three to six year olds, hits the road for a six week national tour from April 7.
Created by multi award-winning Artistic Director Kinny Gardner and featuring hand- crafted puppets, captivating song and dance and fully integrated sign language, Oliver In The Overworld tells the surreal, picaresque tale of Freddie, a little deaf boy who travels to The Overworld, The Land of Machinery. His quest is to seek the mechanical parts to mend the memory of his best friend Oliver the Grandfather Clock. Encountering a rich array of heroes and villains along the way, Freddie is on a mission and no one will stop him.
Freddie’s madcap musical adventure tackles the acceptance of old age, its associated loss of mental facilities and children’s abilities to assist in the resolution of conflict. It is also a colourful celebration of difference in both ability and social background.
Kinny Gardner
The Krazy Kat Theatre Company was established in 1982 by Kinny Gardner and Alastair S Macmillan, as a fully professional touring company, creating innovative and imaginative visual theatre.
The company specialises in introducing young people and their grown-ups to the delights of live visual theatre, combining mime, dance, song, Commedia dell Arte, puppets and sign language.
With an emphasis on the highly visual, the work engages with many audiences whose first language is not English. This has led to invitations to festivals in Spain, Holland, France and Italy in addition to touring nationally throughout the UK.
Past productions include A Victorian Mikado, The Singing Ringing Tree, A Tempest with Nottingham Playhouse and Edmund the Learned Pig with The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester.
Kinny was a member of The Scottish Mime Theatre for many years and is seen by both the Deaf and Hearing communities as a major innovator within visual theatre using Sign Language Arts. He has a wealth of experience from classical dance to mime, Kabuki to Comedia dell’ Arte and has performed in many shows including Godspell, The Rocky Horror Show and The Mousetrap in the West End and regionally in The Pirates of Penzance, Chicago, Marat/Sade, The Threepenny Opera, Assassins, and Cabaret.
Kinny is a principal guest artist with The Lindsay Kemp Company, with whom he continues to tour the world’s opera houses. His directing work has taken him all over the world and includes over 42 productions for Krazy Kat. He is currently a Development Adviser to BBC Cbeebies, working on new mainstream Sign Language television projects for children. His many awards include The British Empire Medal for services to the Arts and Disability.
Oliver in the Overworld is directed by Caroline Parker, designed by Chris de Wilde and choreographed by Darrell Adlridge with musical arrangements by Sam Somerfeld and stage production devised by Kinny Gardner B.E.M.
Event: Krazy Kat Theatre Company presents OLIVER IN THE OVERWORLD: A family musical for 3 to 7 year olds
Where: Brighton Spiegeltent: Bosco, Old Steine Gardens, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1GY
SHINY TOWN set to dazzle Brighton this May as Royal Pavilion Garden Transformed into Entertainment Mecca.
This spring, Brighton is set for a surprise as an entertainment paradise pops up in the leafy greenery of the Royal Pavilion Garden. Shiny Town is the newest addition to the cornucopia of entertainment destinations that are offered by Brighton Fringe throughout May but it is a little bit different from the others.
From May 25 to June 4, a town square will appear in the gardens in front of the Royal Pavilion. The square will house outdoor stages, an artificial lake and numerous food stalls and bars and the 19th century exotic Regency palace will form the stunning backdrop for a plethora of entertainment influenced by its own history and by the diversity of Brighton itself.
Shiny Town is a place like no other. On the surface, this sleepy pristine urban idyll is populated with people going about their business, eating at the varied food stalls, drinking in bars and milling about in the town square but scratch the surface and what lies beneath is something a little more mysterious and mischievous with an array of curious fun to be had.
During daylight hours there is family entertainment galore but when the sun sets on Shiny Town, the habitat takes on an altogether different persona, the vibe changes and that fun gets a little more edgy.
Amongst the packed programme of live entertainment comes the stunning Arco. Framed by the oriental decadence of the Royal Pavilion’s architectural design, stunning acrobatic performance are suspended high into the night-time sky for breathtaking aerial magic.
Also at night, performed on the artificial lake comes Trade Winds, a stunning reimagining of voyages, meetings and exchanges between different cultures across the sea. A nod to Brighton’s positioning as a place of immigration and cultural diversity, the mystical, Trade Winds is performed by the Brisbane based physical theatre group Polytoxic.
For a special one off event on the evening of the bank holiday Monday of May 29, Mother India 21st Century Remix will take to the outdoor stage with an audio visual music masterpiece, marking the 70th anniversary of the partition of India and acting as an acknowledgement to the Royal Pavilion Brighton’s history as a hospital for Indian soldiers wounded in the battlefields of WW1.
Shiny Town plays host to playful and unique activities for young and old alike, including hula
hooping workshops and performances with Marawa’s Majorettes, a surreal and hilarious rock roadshow Bramble FM and Brighton based DJ, cabaret and performance artist Boogaloo Stu who shows Shiny Town visitors how to make their ideal partner in sock puppet form.
These are just some of the rich mix of offerings that Shiny Town will bring. With more acts to be announced Shiny Town is the place to see and be seen in Brighton this late May and June.
Mayor of Shiny Town – Tony Aherne, said:“Brighton has a proud tradition of building new towns shiny and bright with hope and optimism only for things to turn strange as night falls. We don’t expect Shiny Town to be any different!”
Chair of Shiny Town Entertainment Committee – Linda Catalano, added: “We are tremendously excited about Shiny Town springing up in the Royal Pavilion Garden in May. Brighton is a city of surprises. A place to expect the unexpected, where ingenuity and city life merge to produce a vibrant and exhilarating mix. Shiny Town takes that a few steps further and, mirroring both the unconventional creative nature of the city sitting alongside ordinary life and with more than a nod to the architecture and history of the Royal Pavilion itself, our programming takes Brighton itself as its inspiration. Like all shiny things, Shiny Town will provide a sharp reflection of its surroundings”
Event: SHINY TOWN
Where: Shiny Town, Royal Pavilion, East Lawn, Brighton BN1 1EE
From Fighting for our Rights to Fighting for our Lives by Colin Clews
The 1980s heralded many challenges for LGBT+ people around the world and in his new book Clews examines these. The rise of the New Right in the USA, Section 28 which prohibited the promotion of homosexuality; the trial of Gay’s the Word bookshop in the UK and the continuing criminalisation of homosexuality in the majority of Australian states. Underpinning all of this was the unfolding of the AIDS crisis: a time when LGBT+ people realised that they were no longer simply fighting for their rights but fighting for their lives.
But it wasn’t all doom by the end of the eighties there had been real progress. Major political parties had LGBT+ rights in their manifestos, trades unions increasingly took up the cause and regional legislators introduced anti-discrimination laws and policies. LGBT+ people became more prolific in film, television, music and literature and the LGBT+ community grew significantly. The book also examines the dynamics behind these changes; some the result of prolonged campaigns, others stemming from the growing influence of the ‘pink pound/dollar’, others still a consequence of the growing anger at government intransigence to the AIDS crisis.
Gay in the 80sexamines a number of the events and issues in the UK, USA and Australia, giving a comprehensive perspective of LGBT+ reality during this decade The book covers the broad political context of the 1980s and takes a comparative approach to events in these countries from Clewes personal experience.
Clews has lived this life and records it with candor, humour and an elegant attention to detail, this book is another good example of why it’s so important that we write our own history, record our own triumphs, challenges, failures and hopes and keep an honest record of the events that have framed and formed the current LGBT+ world.
There is a superb supporting website to this book with lots of interesting details, content and reports, check it out, then buy this superb and important book.
Out now, for more information or to buy the book, click here:
The Cabaret That Teaches You How To Subvert Government Spying.
In response to the outcry after the Snowden revelations, technology companies put strong encryption in messaging apps (like WhatsApp and Signal), so that intercepted messages could not be read by government spy agencies.
This clearly had an impact: on January 15 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron proposed banning apps that use strong encryption. On March 26 2017, in the wake of the Westminster attack, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said it was “completely unacceptable” that the government could not read messages protected by end-to-end encryption.
The recent WikiLeaks “Vault 7” revelations, however, show that the spy agencies have responded to this situation by switching their attention to hacking the phone in your hand – effectively reading messages over your shoulder as you type them.
For privacy advocates, this is a big problem: all consumer technology can be hacked at the point of the screen or the keyboard, but we have to use technology to encrypt our messages.
Or do we?
SpokeEasy is a retro cabaret from a dystopian near future. A cast of fugitive reprobates offer to take their audience “back to a time when we spoke easy”. There’s dancing, singing (including a song based on Naomi Woolf’s famous 10-steps-to-fascism), nudity and swearing and free speech…
…and a magic trick. Which turns out to be a practical demonstration of how two people can communicate securely without using technology. All you need is pen and paper, and a pair of casino-quality dice – which you get free with every programme.
Everyone going to the show will leave with the skills to subvert government hacking and to communicate via coded messages that will never be broken. You never know when you might need it…
Event: Big In Parts Theatre Company presents SpokeEasy by Jozede Scrivener
Outrageous musical cabaret duo WITT ‘n’ CAMP head for Brighton Fringe.
Recently seen onstage withJames McAvoy at the Wifi4Refugees Fundraiser and at The Giants Gala hosted by David Schwimmer, the acclaimed comedy double act WITT ‘n’ CAMP will play the Warren at this year’s Brighton Fringe.
Brought to life by Charlie Howitt and Holly Campbell, WITT ‘n’ CAMP are on the run for crimes of public indecency, but they’re still putting on their show at The Warren, jail be damned. Join them for sixty minutes of saucy fun, cabaret and musical comedy.
Also invited to the party are Opera stars, Wittundra & Deborah. They reached dizzying heights of fame after transforming Nicki Minaj into classic arias, creating a new genre “HipOpera” – but these lifelong rivals will go to any lengths to steal the limelight. And we can’t forget Bridget & Braun – two battery hens, who dream of escaping their shitty boyfriend Steve. They’re not sure why they‘ve been invited at all.
A wild exploration of female identity, and hailed as “ridiculously sexy” (LondonTheatre1) and “genius” (Geraldine James OBE), WITT ‘n’ CAMP was nominated for the Les Enfants Terribles Award 2017 and comes to The Warren from May 14-16.
WITT ‘n’ CAMP is just one of eight shows headed for this year’s festival supported by South East London powerhouse Greenwich Theatre. From dark dystopian drama UNDER MY THUMB to all-female crime caper GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY, the line-up confirms Greenwich Theatre as one of the country’s most prolific supporters of new and emerging theatre.
Greenwich artistic director James Haddrell, said:“I first saw WITT ‘n’ CAMP performing at this year’s Les Enfants Terribles award showcase – and I knew immediately that we had discovered a unforgettable duo. Crossing between musical theatre, stand-up comedy and cabaret, you leave a WITT ‘n’ CAMP performance desperate to tell as many people as possible about the show. Audiences in Brighton are in for a treat!”
Event:WITT ‘n’ CAMP
Where: The Warren, Studio Two, St Peter’s Church North, York Place, Brighton BN1 4GU
MindOut the LGBTQ Mental Health Service reveal how they achieve excellent results.
“Peer support is lifesaving. MindOut services are lifesaving!”
“I’m still suicidal, I’m not out of the woods, but with the support from my group (Out of the Blue) I am getting there. I have hope!” (MindOut service user 2016)
At MindOut we try really hard to capture that holy grail of information from people who use our services: what it is about our services that really works so that you feel supported and helped in both the short and long term…in short how do we help you recover?
This is what we found out this year: We believe that our peer support groups have an impact and thankfully so do our service users.
♦ 80% of group members reported significant reduction in the frequency and intensity of suicidal thoughts.
♦ 60% reported significant improvements to self-injury.
These results show that our groups contribute to saving lives and reducing emotional pain because members are able to share this distress and not feel so alone with overwhelming feelings.
We have a variety of different ways of getting this feedback from people, one of which is before and after self-assessment ratings about personal wellbeing and resilience. So before someone attends a group they rate their ability to cope, be cheerful, have energy etc and then again after the group has finished. This is one way of capturing whether the experience of being in the group is what made the difference.
Bringing people together to share their difficulties and support one another really works! When we collated all these self-assessment ratings for 2016 we found that:
♦ 62% of people who attended peer support groups (and who completed the assessment) felt their wellbeing improved and many felt it improved significantly.
♦ And 70% of people who received peer mentoring felt their wellbeing improved and again many significantly.
People are complex, mental health is complex and recovery is not about just about getting better, but through sharing our experiences we can face our pain and distress and learn to manage these thoughts and feelings.
Here is a first person example of how peer support can work and how profoundly it can change a person’s mental health.
Janette
How MindOut made me proud of who I am Janette is a peer mentor and online support volunteer for MindOut. She came to a MindOut peer support groups a couple of years ago and felt for the first time she had landed in a safe space where she could explore both her mental health issues and her LGBTQ identity and truly be herself without being judged. The support she received enabled her to see herself with more hope and she gained confidence to apply for a job – which she got. She has also trained to be a volunteer with MindOut. Being a black lesbian has not always been easy for her, but MindOut has helped her feel proud of who she is.
I finally had a safe space to share I came to MindOut’s Open group about 5 years ago and it took me a couple of weeks to get there but once I did I felt so welcomed and safe and when other people started to talk there was a lot I could identify with. It took me ages to say anything about myself but then the group worker invited me to speak – that permission was amazing and I burst into tears. I didn’t feel judged and the other group members were very receptive and I felt validated and ‘normal’ because other people were saying that they understood. So I continued coming on a regular basis and found it easier and easier to talk about what was going on. Because I began to share – then I was given a space to talk.
This was so important because I believed that everything that came out of my mouth was rubbish. The other group members helped me to look at myself differently and to have a voice.
Peer support gave me the confidence to get back into work People in the group really encouraged me to apply for some paid work. At the time I truly believed that I could only ever be a ‘volunteer’ but the group talked me through the application process and my first interview in 20 years and helped give me the confidence to go through with it…and I was offered the job! The open group was so important because it was the first time I had met LGBTQ people with the same diagnosis as me it helped make me more self-aware and self-critical in a good way. It helped support me through my mental health crisis and eventually I stopped needing to attend but I know that if I have another crisis the group will be there to support me because it is the one place where I don’t have to put on a fake smile and pretend everything is ok!
I can explore my experience of being black More recently I joined the BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) group which is fascinating being in a group where all the members are from different cultures and being able to talk about our different perspectives was so helpful, because when I step outside the door you can’t see my mental health problems, you may not even see that I have a physical disability as a result of my Multiple Sclerosis but there is no doubt that I am black.
I’m proud to be a volunteer Just being part of MindOut has been amazing – everyone is welcoming and fall over themselves to thank you for your volunteering. I feel so appreciated, but more than that I feel part of MindOut, I feel proud and like I’m making a difference. It’s not just MindOut for mental health, or being LGBTQ…my wrist band says “MindOut for each other” and MindOut truly does that.
Helen Jones, CEO of MindOut, met Caroline Dinenage MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Women, Equalities and Early Years at the Department for Education at the House of Commons launch of MindOut’s LGBTQ Mental Health Good Practice guide on March 1.
MPs from around the UK dropped in to find out about LGBT+ mental health and pick up copies of the Guide.
MindOut, the LGBT+ Mental Health Service and Mind were asking MPs to take the Guide back to their local mental health service commissioners and providers, to ask providers to take up the offer of affirmative practice training and for all providers to put key actions in place.
All too often, LGBT+ people are reluctant to seek support from mental health services when they need it for fear of heterosexist, cisgenderist and uninformed treatment.
Krazy Kat Theatre Company present the World Premiere of OLIVER IN THE OVERWORLD by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood.
The Cabaret That Teaches You How To Subvert Government Spying.
MindOut the LGBTQ Mental Health Service reveal how they achieve excellent results.
Helen Jones, CEO of MindOut, met Caroline Dinenage MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Women, Equalities and Early Years at the Department for Education at the House of Commons launch of MindOut’s LGBTQ Mental Health Good Practice guide on March 1.
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