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Month: August 2017

BOOK REVIEW: Black Wave: Michelle Tea

Posted on by Eric Page

Black Wave

By Michelle Tea

Desperate to quell her addictions to drugs, disastrous romance, and nineties San Francisco, Michelle heads south for LA. But soon it’s officially announced that the world will end in one year, and life in the sprawling metropolis becomes increasingly weird. This new book from poet Michelle Tea explored the opportunity of dancing with the apocalypse; it’s odd and funny, dark and engaging, dangerous, dirty and seriously enlightening and packs a clear sparkling punch, time and time again.

I started this book as soon as I’d finished it, needed to read it again to enjoy Tea’s ambitious delicious prose as it slowly wrapped itself around the end…. is this how it ends? I hope so bumping and grinding from genre to genre, through time and ideas and never quite settling anywhere, while all the time staring you down from the crepuscular depths of addiction and despair, like the black wave of the title. It’s there, huge, looming, undeniable, irresistible change itself.

Teas’ prose is wonderful, Queer, lusciously Lesbo, darkly Dykey and frothy, filthy and fun. It’s a seriously gripping and evocative tale of Queer women love in all the messy hyper clarity colourful mixed up ways that Tea can tweak and twist her lady loving ideas into.  I laughed out loud a few times just as her wonderful sentences and re-reading the book was a joy.

A book with huge startling grace and a stunning examination of our need to find meaning in a world gone mad and going for good.

Out now £10

Amethyst Editions, to buy the book, click here:

Dance like a Diva for Martlets

Posted on by Besi

Gather a group of fun friends together for a fantastic dance party marathon at the Concorde 2 – have a ball while raising money for Martlets hospice on Sunday, November 26.

Dance Through the Decades as DJ Alex Baker pumps out the best anthems from the last five decades over the course of six hours. If you like to strut your stuff, throw some shapes or disco like a diva then this will be your idea of dance heaven.

Go full-on retro with fancy dress is you so chose; unfurl those flares, dig out your shoulder pads, go all double-denim or perhaps sprinkle on some glitter for a totally fabulous look!

Clem Hunnisett from the Martlets Fundraising Team, said: “Alex is picking some top tunes from the last fifty years to keep your twinkle-toes on the dance floor for as long as possible.

“We’re expecting some big, feel-good anthems, songs to singalong to and tracks that will definitely put a smile on your face. Before you know it, you’ll be dancing your socks off!

“It’s going to be a fantastic afternoon and every penny raised through sponsorship will go towards caring for people from the Brighton and Hove area. Martlets is a charity so it’s thanks to the kind support of local people that we can provide our support free from charge.

“Entry is £16 and we are looking to raise as much money as we can in sponsorship.”

As Concorde 2 is a licenced venue, this event is only open to those aged 18 or over.

For more information, click here:

Or email: clem.hunnisett@martlets.org.uk

Or telephone Clem on: 01273 747455

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Manchester with Love

Posted on by Besi

Thomas Cook Airline and Manchester Airport mark sponsorship of The Big Weekend with a Rainbow Heart.

Marking Thomas Cook Airlines and Manchester Airport’s joint headline sponsorship of Manchester Pride’s The Big Weekend, the airline has adorned one of its fleet – an A321 operating short-haul routes – with a special rainbow edition of its sunny heart logo.

The UK’s third biggest airport has sponsored Manchester Pride for six years with Thomas Cook Airlines being onboard for the last three.

The aircraft made its first flight with the new rainbow livery on Tuesday, August 15 to Heraklion, and will carry the multi-coloured logo for up to a year. In addition, Thomas Cook Airlines crew can choose to wear a rainbow logo pin alongside their uniform badge throughout August and September.

Christoph Debus, Chief Airlines Officer at Thomas Cook Group, said: “This confirms our ongoing support of Manchester Pride and its bank holiday celebration The Big Weekend, as well as other pride events across the UK, that celebrate the diverse communities we live and work in. We wanted to do something extra special that our customers could share with us to mark this year’s celebrations.”

Mark Fletcher
Mark Fletcher

Mark Fletcher, Chief Executive for Manchester Pride, added: “It’s a proud moment to see such a large organisation as Thomas Cook Airlines outwardly displaying their support for LGBT+ people around the world.”

Collette Roche, interim MD of Manchester Airport, which partners in the sponsorship with the airline, said: “It gives us great pride to see one of our biggest carriers launch such a forward-thinking initiative in the run up to Manchester Pride’s The Big Weekend.

“As co-sponsors of The Big Weekend we are delighted to be the first airport to welcome and see Thomas Cook Airlines’ rainbow heart aircraft take to the skies. I am sure it will prove popular with staff, passengers and aviation enthusiasts alike, as it jets around Europe.”

Thomas Cook Airlines and Manchester Airport are official sponsors of The Big Weekend and the “The Thomas Cook Airlines USA Stage”.

The Big Weekend tickets are priced £25.50 for weekend tickets, £16.50 for day tickets and children’s tickets are also available.

For more information about Manchester Pride, click here: or follow the charity on Twitter

For more information on The Big Weekend, click here: 

 

Brighton Bear Weekend raise record amount for local good causes

Posted on by Besi

Brighton Bear Weekend (BBW) raise a total of £11,855 for the Rainbow Fund, Lunch Positive and Brighton & Hove Community Safety Forum during their events in 2016-2017.

The record breaking amount (£4,000 more than 2015-16) was raised from a variety of events during the year including quiz nights at the Camelford Arms and club nights at Subline as well as their main fundraising events during the Brighton Bear Weekend from June 15-18 which included the hugely successful Bear-B-Que in Dorset Gardens. They donated £9,050 directly to the Rainbow Fund and enabled Lunch Positive to raise £1,247; and the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum £1,558 at the Bear-B-Que event in Dorset Gardens on Saturday, June 17.

Lunch Positive run a weekly lunch club for people with HIV at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church. The Brighton & Hove Community Safety Forum provide LGBT people with advice on safety offer advocacy and hold 4 public meeting a year to give LGBT+people to hold the police and city council to account.

The Rainbow Fund make grants to LGBT/HIV organisations who deliver effective front line services to LGBT+ people in Brighton & Hove.

 

PREVIEW: The Wedding Singer @Theatre Royal

Posted on by Contributor

Smash hit Broadway musical THE WEDDING SINGER will celebrate their 200th performance when it opens at Theatre Royal Brighton on Tuesday August 29!

This 80’s musical will get you up dancing faster than your Dad at a wedding, is packed with songs which capture all the fun and energy of the Adam Sandler smash hit film.

It’s 1985. Hair is huge, greed is good and rock star wannabe Robbie Hart is New Jersey’s favourite wedding singer. When his own fiancée dumps him at the altar a seriously bummed out Robbie makes every wedding as disastrous as his own.

Can sweet natured Julia and her best friend Holly lure Robbie out of the dumpster and back into the limelight?  Or is he going to see her head off down the aisle with Wall Street bad boy Glen. Only Grandma Rosie seems to be able to see that Robbie and Julia are the couple that are meant to be.

Stephanie Clift plays Holly and trained at the Arts Educational Schools, London where she gained her BA Hons in Musical Theatre, graduating in 2013. Straight out of college she secured the role of Lisa in Mamma Mia! at the Novello Theatre, London. She played Susan in the UK tour of Crush and most recently, Audrey in the UK tour of Little Shop of Horrors. She has also appeared in series 2 of Broadchurch for ITV and BBC’s Christmas special of Call the Midwife.

Starring alongside Stephanie is West End and Musical Theatre star Jon Robyns who plays Robbie Hart. Most recently he starred in Legally Blonde as Emmett Forrest and in Sister Act as Eddie Souther; other theatre credits include Enjolras in Les Misérables, Spamalot, Memphis and Avenue Q.

He is joined by British singer-songwriter Ray Quinn as Glen who shot to fame as the runner up in ITV1’s The X Factor in 2006 and as champion of Dancing on Ice in 2009. In 2014 he won Dancing on Ice: Champion of Champions. His theatre credits include Danny Zuko in Grease (West End), Dirty Dancing (West End) and Legally Blonde (UK Tour).

West End leading lady and X Factor finalist Cassie Compton plays Julia; her roles include Jean in American Psycho (Almeida, London) and Eponine in Les Misérables.

Comedy veteran Ruth Madoc stars as Grandma Rosie. Ruth became a household name in the Eighties when she played Gladys Pugh in BBC comedy series Hi-De-Hi! More recently we’ve seen her on screen in ITV’s Benidorm, Mount Pleasant (Sky) and Stella (Sky).

Samuel Holmes (Mrs Henderson Presents, West End) plays George. Tara Verloop (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Dirty Dancing in the West End) plays Linda.

The Wedding Singer 2017 UK Tour is Directed and Choreographed by Nick Winston. Set and Costumes are by Francis O’Connor. Musical Supervision by Sarah Travis with Musical Direction and Orchestration by George Dyer.

Lighting Design is by Ben Cracknell with Sound Design by Richard Brooker. Video Design is by Jack Henry James and Casting by Jim Arnold.

Event: The Wedding Singer

Where: Theatre Royal, New Road, Brighton

When: Tuesday August 29 – Saturday September 2

Time: For times, click here:

Cost: Tickets £13.75 – £47.75 plus £2.85 transaction fee

To book tickets online, click here:

Or telephone 0844 871 7650. Booking fees apply. Calls cost up to 7p per minute, plus your phone company’s access charge

 

Record adoptions by same-sex couples in Scotland

Posted on by Gary Hart

Ninety seven same-sex couples have adopted in Scotland since records began.

New figures published by National Records Scotland, show that adoptions by same-sex couples accounted for 5.7 per cent – or 1 in 18 – of all adoptions in Scotland in 2016.

This was a rise from 4.4 per cent in 2015. These figures show that adoptions by same-sex couples in Scotland are at their highest ever number of all adoptions in a year. The total number of adoptions in 2016 in Scotland by same-sex couples rose to 30, increasing from 22 the previous year.

Across Britain the total number of adoptions by same-sex couples stands at 2,347 – 2,140 in England, 97 in Scotland and 110 in Wales.

Tor Docherty
Tor Docherty

Welcoming the news, Tor Docherty, Chief Executive of New Family Social, said: “It’s fantastic to see the number of same-sex couples adopting increase in Scotland. This means that social workers are considering a wider pool of potential parents for vulnerable children. In every adoption case the child’s needs are paramount and LGBT people can bring a wide parenting skillset to meet those needs.”

To read the full statistics for adoptions in Scotland on the National Records website, click here: and download (Table 2.03).

 

BOOK REVIEW: Bitch Doctrine – Essays for Dissenting Adults: Laurie Penny

Posted on by Eric Page

Bitch Doctrine

Essays for Dissenting Adults

By Laurie Penny

Noted British feminist Laurie Penny is a writer who tackles gender, sexism, identity, and power issues in a world being laid waste by “kamikaze capitalism.”

From her opening premise that ‘toxic masculinity is killing the world’ you’ve got a really clear idea of where this elegant, refined and ruthlessly researched, argued and targeted seriously funny set of rants are going, and they’re aiming to the heart of the matter. Penny keeps the beat of clear-headed truthful argument and keeps it strong, undermining and exposing the lies and complex deceptions meant to pit us queers, women, Trans folk, black, older and others against each other.

She is convincing on the demands and degradations of our power structures and the harm it is doing, knowingly to our lives, bodies and world and Penny is clear on what needs to be done to right these apparently endless wrongs.   Each of these articles is framed and filled with insight and empathy, Penny gets it. Her urgent convincing arguments should be on every school syllabus and younger LGBT+ people should be bought this book to arm them for the arguments that attempt to batter and dismiss their existence.

Penny gives not only hope, but ideas. Filled with power and truth this book was a blast of trumpets against the walls of privilege and in all of this she’s funny, engaging and takes a hard poke at us and our world views with a wonderfully sly smile on her face.

Seriously good reading.

Out now £12.99

For more info or to buy the book from the publisher’s website click here:

 

Dorset youth project needs volunteers

Posted on by Besi

A Dorchester-based project that provides emergency accommodation to young people mark eighth anniversary today (Friday, August 25) with an urgent appeal for volunteers to open up their homes.

Action for Children’s Dorset Nightstop has provided emergency accommodation to county’s homeless young people since August 2009.

The project is urgently looking for volunteers across Dorset who can host homeless young people aged 16 to 25 years for up to three nights a month.

Run by the charity Action for Children since 2009, Dorset Nightstop places young people aged 16 to 25 with host families at times when they have nowhere else to go.

With youth homelessness an increasing problem across the region, the service is urgently appealing to the county’s residents to consider offering their spare room to a young person for up to three nights a month.

Simon Keys
Simon Keys

Project co-ordinator Simon Keys, said: “We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved over the past eight years and our success has been entirely down to our fantastic volunteer hosts.

“By giving a vulnerable young person a safe and secure home for a few days means they don’t end up sleeping on the streets and are away from harm.

“We need volunteers who can provide young people with a private room, washing facilities, a hot meal, and, if needed, a listening ear.”

Andy Dacombe, 65, from Piddlehinton near Dorchester, was the first volunteer host for the service in 2009.

Andy Dacombe
Andy Dacombe

He said: “It’s such an important project and humbling to see what a warm home, hot food and a bed can do for a young person in need.

“Many of the young people I’ve had stay have often just found themselves homeless after a family argument or simply didn’t have the family support network we all often take for granted.

“And it’s shocking to hear how quickly things can deteriorate; it often doesn’t take long for many to find themselves homeless only weeks after losing their job.

“It seems like the problem is getting worse too – there is very little housing benefit and support these days. Many I’ve helped had been sofa surfing at different friends’ houses for a long time and then suddenly one day they’d run out of sofas.

“It’s great often to see the young person on their first night – as soon as they arrive and realise they’re safe, you see their shoulders drop, their concerned look disappears and they go straight to bed after a hot meal.”

Staff at Dorset Nightstop provide full training for its volunteers as well as close 24/7 on-call support during placements.

The service is also looking for volunteer drivers with a full, valid, British driving licence and fully comprehensive insurance.

The next training sessions for volunteer hosts will be held at Broadstone Methodist Church between 28 September and 12 October.

To register your training place, offer your driving services, or find out more about Action for Children’s Dorset Nightstop, email: simon.keys@actionforchildren.org.uk OR telephone Simon on 01305 753 657 OR 07779 029 292.

More to job hunting than meets the eye

Posted on by Gary Hart
Marna de Bruyn
Marna de Bruyn

Looking for work says more about you than you think, according to research at the University of Brighton.

The study revealed how the process is full of challenges related to the job seeker’s identity and to navigating institutions.

Marna de Bruyn’s research, for her MSc Occupational Therapy degree, has been published in the Journal of Occupational Science. Marna, from South Africa, already a qualified occupational therapist, was supported during her studies with a UK Government Chevening Scholarship. Her paper was co-written by her university supervisor Dr Josh Cameron, Principal Lecturer in the School of Health Sciences.

The study explored the meaning of job-seeking as a human experience and occupation, and involved in-depth interviews with a job seeker at various stages of her search.

The 55-year old volunteer had been job-seeking for three months following redundancy. Initially, she was searching for administrative employment but by the end of the research project she had abandoned job-seeking to pursue a year-long, full-time course in counselling with the future aim of completing a university degree.

The research showed how her understanding of herself and her identity influenced how she made sense of job seeking.

The authors said: “This process included encountering threats to her identity.”

There was also analysis of the supports and set-backs she experienced during job seeking, some of which were in her control and some were not.

The authors concluded that job-seeking is a “rich human occupation” influenced by internal and external factors related to the person, their occupations and environment. Future research, they said, could build on these insights by considering the efficacy of these internal and external supports and how job-seeking varies across different cultural and social contexts.

 

Galop launch online hate crime report

Posted on by Besi

Galop, the national LGBT domestic violence helpline, welcomes Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) commitment to crack down on online hate crime and launches online anti-LGBT+ hate crime report.

Nik Noone
Nik Noone

Nik Noone, Chief Executive of Galop, the UK’s LGBT+ anti-violence charity, said: “Online hate crime is an issue facing LGBT+ people in ever growing numbers but it often proves difficult to tackle, and is poorly understood and under-researched. Our experience has been that the threshold for prosecuting online hate crime is very high, and the investigative process is often too slow and cumbersome to respond to the fast-moving online world.

I welcome the commitment given today by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, which acknowledges the harmful corrosive effect that online hate and abuse has on individuals and communities. This is a step in the right direction and we will monitor the impact on cases as they proceed.

Every week we see people’s lives massively affected by these experiences and the impact on their lives can be devastating.  Today Galop releases our first Online Hate Crime Report, to provide deeper insight into online anti-LGBT+ hate crime in the UK.”

Author of the report, Melanie Stray, added: “This report is the first of its kind, presenting evidence about the nature and impact of online anti-LGBT+ hate crime, in the words of victims themselves. It also provides insight into experiences of reporting to social media platforms and to the police, and the progress that victims would like to see.”

A lesbian woman in her 50s who was targeted on twitter with homophobic and misogynistic abuse including slurs and doctored images of her, said: “It felt terrifying as if any kind of reaction, could turn the 20 tweets into hundreds… [These events trigger] something primal and negative, that you haven’t experienced since your early days of coming out.”

A gay man in his 30s who was harassed and outed on Facebook by a group of people, said: ‘‘I felt my privacy was violated. It all felt out of control … This does leave a scar; it does leave a mistrust in people.”

A gay man in his 40s who was harassed on Grindr, threatened with physical violence and blackmail, said: “The online incident made me feel the same as when I was attacked on the street. It’s scary to think that someone can also get to you psychologically, in addition to physically attacking you.”

A trans woman in her 50s who reported frequent online harassment and abuse, including rape and death threats, said she only reported threats to herself or her family that seemed to pose a genuine physical risk.

She said: “If I reported everything cruel and insulting that is said to me online, then I’d never be out of the police station.”

To download the report, click here:

Galop provides support, advice and advocacy to LGBT+ people who experience hate crime, domestic abuse, sexual violence or who have questions about the criminal justice system. It has been operating for over 35 years.

LGBT+ people who have experienced online abuse click here: to report it to Galop.

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