Brighton & Hove Green Party selects its candidates in the St Peter’s and North Laine ward for the May 2019 council elections.
COUNCILLORS Pete West and Lizzie Deane have been selected to stand, along with Party Chair Sue Shanks, who has also previously served on the council and led on education.
Cllr Sue Shanks
Sue Shanks said:“I’m delighted and honoured to have been selected for St Peter’s and North Laine ward. Congratulations to my fellow Green Party candidates, and thanks to Councillor Louisa Greenbaum for her dedicated service to the ward and the city, as she will not be standing in 2019 due to work and family commitments. We hope to see her back on the council in the future.”
Cllr Pete West
Cllr Pete West, who was elected 22 years ago in 1996 as the first Green Councillor in Brighton & Hove, added:“I am delighted to have been selected once again as the Green Party candidate for St Peter’s and North Laine. Along with my fellow Green candidates, we bring both consistency and credibility from our long collective experience as councillors serving the people of Brighton & Hove. In the May 2019 elections, we will be united in standing up for a city that truly represents all its citizens, and we are bursting with ideas for a bigger, bolder, greener vision for Brighton & Hove.”
Green candidates for other wards in the city will be announced shortly.
Singer Matt Fishel has released his latest single, and date for upcoming album, in support of Pride month.
QUEER-ROCK artist Matt Fishel has released his single Twinks on 1st June, via: iTunes, Amazon, GooglePlay, Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal.
The popular YouTube artist is due to release his follow- up album M/F on July 6.
Matt described his new single and upcoming album as: “overwhelmingly positive, upbeat and celebratory, with a little touch of melancholy thrown into the mix every now and then.” He explained: “I have a lot to say with this album and a lot of commentary on society and the world around me as I perceive it.”
Twinks comes after the artist’s award-winning 2013 debut album Not Thinking Straight, which contains viral YouTube hits Radio-Friendly Pop Song and When Boy Meets Boy.
Established as an upbeat pop/rock track, the single celebrates the singer’s journey and exploration of his own LGBT+ life.
Written and produced by Matt, enthusiastic track also features vocals from Polish diva Ola Bienkowska.
First entering the music industry with his own label Young Lust Records in 2010, the singer has built up a strong international online following with LGBT+ themed rock. Described by Out magazine as: “The proud gay, rock, singer we need”, the artist went on to release popular singles LGBTQIA (A New Generation), Bored Of Straight Boys, and Soldiers.
Brighton & Hove Pride, the UK’s biggest Pride Festival reveal today boohoo and boohooMAN as the event’s first ever headline partners.
BOOHOO are one of the top online fashion retailers in the UK, US and Australia and have a history of supporting for LGBT+ charities.
Previously working with GMFA, the Albert Kennedy Trust and Brighton based Ditch the Label, the partnership with Brighton Pride is their most significant support of an LGBTQ+ event to date and aligns perfectly with Pride’s ethos as a Pride With Purpose raising funds for local charities and good causes.
Paul Kemp
Paul Kemp, Managing Director, Brighton & Hove Pride Community Interest Company, said:“We are thrilled that boohoo and boohooMAN are supporting this year’s Brighton & Hove Pride Festival as our first ever headline partners. We are thankful to them and all our business partners as their financial contributions helps the sustainability of Pride’s fundraising objectives. With boohoo and boohooMAN we’re honoured they chose us to be their first headline support of a Pride event and we can’t wait to celebrate with them in August”.
Samir Kamani, boohooMAN CEO added:“boohoo and boohooMAN are delighted to the first ever headline sponsor for Brighton & Hove Pride Festival. The event attracts and welcomes people from around the world and as a global brand, the event embraces everything that is important to our business. We look forward to celebrating together.”
This year’s Brighton Pride Festival Weekend will take place from Friday, August 3 until Sunday, August 5 and promises to be the biggest ever event with the iconic Britney Spears bringing her Las Vegas show Britney – Piece of Me, to the Brighton Pride Festival on the Saturday in Preston Park, and the launch of a new Sunday community and family festival, LoveBN1Fest, featuring Nile Rogers & Chic, Jess Glynne, Gabrielle and many others performing.
BROWNTON Abbey was the Brighton Festival’s first collaboration with stalwarts of the Trans, Queer and poc scene the crew from The Marlborough.
Seeing the Dome dressed up with UV lights, carnival streamers, balloons with the most superb little fringes just floating around like jellyfish with attitude and projections and visuals felt like stepping into a QTIPOC community festival, but in the glazed rococo madness of the Dome’s superb spaces. We’d expected something a little more sit-down-and-watch performance based so had arrived early and were lucky, the dance floor was gathering groups of bopping chatting folks, the Dj’s were already going, the place was inviting and people were flowing in and there was a strong black and queer aesthetic going down.
Darling of the demi-monde and stylistically experimental choreographer Malik Nashad Sharpe kicked off with a joyful set of dances & movements where they seemed to be having as much fun as they were being serious and circled the dance floor purifying it and us with a thick smoking and fragrant smudge stick. Rachel Young’s performance was a deep exploration of afro-futurist visual movement with a strong wink in the direction of Grace Jones and then – f’k me! Lasana Shabazz’s utterly fierce dance which felt like a blast furnace sanctification from a Candomblé possessed priest. Decked out in floor length Aztec feathered cape with jewelled mask and leather harness, boots and shimmering trimming of blue black-feathers, he was demented. We – feeling blessed & initiated – were blown away by it. Costume, frenzy, ritual, we felt in the presence of something profound, then the music kicked off and back we were, we wanted more but Shabazz was done with us. He took my heart with him, still beating between his teeth.
Headlining in more than one way was New Orleans ‘Queen of Bounce’ Big Freedia and Tony, the dancer who was electric, never being still for a moment and bouncing their way up and down the stage to the audiences delight, a fair few of whom ended up on stage, invited by Big Freedia who explained was without the usual entourage, having come over the Brighton to treat us all. Big Freedia touched on working with RuPaul and Beyoncé.
The audience responded, poured onto the stage to do a kind of conga bounce, a lot, lot cooler and funnier than it sounds. There were plenty of very interesting people mixing around, some unlikely, some of the usual crowd and a lot of younger, happy folk up for something interesting, engaging and celebrating the otherness all of this mixed effortlessly in with live DJ sets. Certainly the kind of crowd any Festival worth it’s salt would want to attract.
We also got to share a queer ritual from Ria Hartley who took us though an intimate ceremony opening our chakras, bringing us to perfect moment of interconnected oneness and with a refreshingly fun but serious edge to it. Based on West African Yoruba rituals but reinterpreted for the evening this felt like a real extra delight to the hedonistic fun going on in the rest of the dome. My older cis hetro friends who had (surprisingly) come along for the evening raved about Brownton and especially Ria all weekend!
Brownton Abbey felt like the seed of a whole festival, like being there on the magical night it all started and as we wandered out, glittered, marked with UV tribal face marking and a gilded shimmering golden face fringe we breathed the cool air of a Brighton night and thanked our lucky gods to be living in a city where a space like Brownton can be gouged out in the heart of a huge international festival. Well done all concerned.
A world-first, touch-screen digital vending machine, which dispenses free HIV self-test kits at the Brighton Sauna receives a national award for designers and health experts at the University of Brighton, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, the design consultancy Díptico and the Martin Fisher Foundation, a local charity working towards zero new HIV infections and zero HIV stigma.
Winning team L-R: Dr Peralta, Dr Rodriguez, Dr Vera, Dr Soni, Dr Dean and Dr Llewellyn
THE team won the highly prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ) 2018 Innovation Award which attracted 3,500 applicants in 15 categories, each category having six finalists.
The BMJ Awards, now in their 10th year, are the UK’s premier medical awards programme, recognising and celebrating the inspirational work done by doctors and their teams. Their mission is to improve patient outcomes and showcase the best healthcare in the UK.
The Martin Fisher Foundation received funding from Public Health England as part of the 2016 HIV Prevention Innovation Fund for the vending machine pilot which started in June 2017.
It has since distributed over 300 tests and the project has been evaluated with 95 per cent of recipients saying they would recommend this type of testing to others.
Its success has been credited to collaboration between HIV clinicians Dr Jaime Vera, Dr Gillian Dean, and Dr Suneeta Soni, designers/researchers Dr Carlos Peralta and Dr Liliana Rodriguez, and researchers Dr Carrie Llewellyn, Alex Pollard, and staff at the Brighton Sauna.
Dr Peralta, Senior Lecturer in Design in the University of Brighton’s School of Architecture & Design, said:“This award demonstrates how positive interdisciplinary collaboration between designers and health experts can be, and how design can be employed in projects geared toward social benefit.
“The project will be included in the Compendium of Good HIV Practices in the World Health Organisation European Region. We are also currently developing two other related projects, a campaign to increase HIV testing in GP practices, and a digital campaign to eliminate HIV stigma.”
Dr Gillian Dean, trustee of the Martin Fisher Foundation and project lead, added:“Ten per cent of people with HIV are unaware of their infection – this technology gives us the opportunity to reach these individuals and move towards elimination of HIV within the next generation.”
Dr Liliana Rodriguez, a services design expert from the design consultancy Díptico and affiliated to the Martin Fisher Foundation, said the development of the project was underpinned by workshops with members of the LGTB+ communities.
Professor Matteo Santin, academic lead for Healthy Futures, one of five themes for cross-cutting research and enterprise across the University of Brighton, said: “This is fantastic news and many congratulations to the team. The award recognises the impact that our research and enterprise for health has on our communities. It is wholly deserved and makes us all very proud to see this happening through the interdisciplinary collaboration between our University and the Medical School.”
Dr Vera, senior lecturer in HIV medicine at BSMS, added:“One of the Foundation’s strategic goals is to ensure everyone in Brighton & Hove is aware of their HIV status and specifically all sexually active men who have sex with men (MSM) test for HIV at least once per year.
“Brighton & Hove is home to an estimated 14,000 MSM, of whom 2,500 are already HIV positive. That leaves 11,500 needing an HIV test. In 2016 about 4,000 were tested through conventional services and third sector organisations, leaving 7,500 potentially untested. Men can be reluctant to use mainstream services and self-testing might reach those missing men, particularly if they could access kits from a vending machine in a place they frequent.
“The Brighton Sauna, visited by around 400 men a week, was one such place where staff were aware of high levels of sexual risk taking but low levels of engagement with outreach workers to discuss HIV testing.
“Uptake during the pilot (approximately 35 tests per month) was greater than from community outreach workers prior to the machine being installed (4.5 tests per month). We don’t know if the kits have actually been used, or what the results are, but we’re working on a second generation kit with smart packaging that will tell us when it’s been opened.”
Dr Dean concluded: “The second generation of machines are ready to be rolled out across the city with the aim of ensuring everyone is aware of their HIV status. Only then can we move towards zero new HIV infections.”
Disability Pride 2018 takes place on Saturday, July 14 on Hove Lawns from noon to 7.30pm.
FOLLOWING the huge success of the inaugural Disability Pride on New Road in 2017, this year’s event is moving to Hove Lawns.
The event is organised to raise awareness of the diversity and value of disabled people with all (visible and invisible) impairments or conditions and is organised by a diverse committee of disabled people.
Jenny Skelton
Chair, Jenny Skelton, said:“We want to celebrate our identities and feel less isolated in the city, as well as engage with non-disabled people, by hosting a great day out for all!”
Disability Pride Brighton in 2017 was the first Disability Pride event ever in England, attracting over 2,000 attendees.
The 2018 event will begin at 11.30am with a short parade along the promenade, led by Unified Rhythm – a carnival band with over 80% disabled members. The event will then be officially opened by Alison Lapper MBE; Councillor Dee Simson – Mayor of Brighton & Hove; and Jenny Skelton, Chair of Disability Pride.
Throughout the day, there will be live music, acts, performances, and speeches from disabled people; work from disabled artists; and stalls from organisations who offer support or activities to local people and families, friends, and carers who are part of this diverse community.
The idea for Disability Pride came from disabled Brighton mum, Jenny Skelton, who also has three adopted children with various impairments.
Since last year, the group has grown significantly and has now launched a supported volunteering programme so that more people with both visible and invisible impairments or conditions can get involved and help break down barriers.
Richard Lane, Head of Communications at disability charity Scope, said: “We are delighted to support Disability Pride. Last year’s event was a smash hit, and we’re sure that this year is going to be even bigger and better.
“Disability Pride is invaluable, it brings disabled and non-disabled people together to change and challenge negative attitudes and perceptions.
“Disability rights have come a long way in Britain, but we know that disabled people still face barriers in too many areas of life.
“We hope this event allows people to celebrate what’s been achieved and to keep building a community to fight these challenges. Happy Pride to everyone celebrating!”
Funding has so far come from Sussex Community Foundation and Brighton & Hove Buses. The project is also supported by the Local People projects in Brighton and Hove, both of which are supported by Scope and funded by People’s Health Trust using money raised by HealthWish through The Health Lottery. The project has also received investment from People’s Health Trust’s Active Communities programme.
90s pop legends Steps to perform a full concert as part of Pride Glasgow’s Fair Weekend Festival!
Steps
HOT on the heels of announcing a star studded line up for the main festival, Pride Glasgow today announced that 90s pop legends Steps will perform a full concert on the Festival site billed as the Pride Glasgow after party on Sunday, July 15 from 6pm, with tickets costing £35.
Steps who’s hits include Tragedy, 5 6 7 8 and Summer of Love are currently celebrating their 20th anniversary and will be performing shows across the UK this summer.
Alastair Smith, Pride Glasgow CEO said:“This is an exciting new aspect to the Festival Programme this year and shows once again why Pride Glasgow is Scotland’s largest pride event and when this became an option for us we knew it would be a tragedy to pass it up.
Ross Stevenson, Pride Glasgow Festival Director added:“We have Stepped up again this year with the inclusion of the Steps afterparty as part of the festival and really looking forward to relieving the songs of my youth with what was one of the biggest bands of the 90s”
Pride Glasgow is Scotland’s biggest celebration of LGBT+ equality and the festival lineup already includes Mel C, Grace Davies, The Sundaes, Ian Van Dahl, Lasgo with more still to be announced.
THE Brighton College Drama Department premiered its very first Fringe production this week, which not only exceeded my expectations but smashed them to smithereens.
Directed and designed by Head of Drama Thomas Kenwright, Candide – the latest creation by English playwright Mark Ravenhill – is a dark, demented and delightful play that proves to be a gamble for the staff and students at Brighton College, but a gamble that pays off.
Candide is a surreal rollercoaster ride, telling the story of a young philosopher who develops a theory based on optimism and how his theory affects the generations that follow. Gleefully hopping from past, present and future, the play pushes its audience to the brink of absurd comedy and staggering tragedy.
Kenwright’s artistic vision is clear throughout the production and his attention to detail is impeccable; the varying set designs in particular had me floored.
For instance, transitioning from a palace in 1757 (with its whimsical Rococo furniture) to a country hotel in 2018 (with an entire dining room literally painted black) carried such a stark contrast that I was left dazed and unprepared for the carnage that ensued. There was also a super campy moment that involved a Ken doll, a zip-line and a bunch of balloons that made me giggle.
My only criticism, and this may come down to the performance I saw being a preview, but some of the sightlines were blocked and blended. Kenwright utilised a fusion of thrust and traverse staging, having the audience sit on three sides of the action, and although there were some truly beautiful stage pictures created, there were also points where I struggled to see a single face onstage. Like reminding an actor to find their light, the same can be said about sightlines, but I think this problem can be solved quite easily.
Tackling sex, murder and existentialism, the play’s content is very mature and I applaud the entire cast (some as young as 13 years old!) for taking a risk and rising to the creative challenge.
Stand out performances include:
Gabriel Ross’s Candide, who demonstrated impressive character development throughout the play – I didn’t like Candide at the start, but by the end I loved him.
Polly Howarth’s Sophie, who captured the perfect balance of sincerity and insanity;
Ferdy Ray’s Scriptwriter, who’s comedic timing is straight out of London’s West End; and finally,
Roxy Toyne in everything she did – even in the scenes where she had very little to do, I was still eagerly waiting to see what hilarious facial expression or mannerism she could sneak in.
Kenwright and his team are onto something big here and, if Candide is any indication, I think (and hope) the Brighton College Drama Department will be back in next year’s Fringe with something equally daring.
Candide is a perfect example of how powerful arts education can be and why we need to foster the talent and passion of young people – now more than ever.
Reviewed by Spencer Charles Smith on Wednesday, May 30 at Montague Studio (Brighton College)
In this gender fluid solo performance co-writer Sam Beckett Jr plays not only Andrew the gay black guy about to marry his white middle class boyfriend, but she also morphs with ease into Vanessa, Andrew’s mother on her way to the wedding with her unseen husband.
AND AS if that trick were not impressive enough, Sam creates a third character – Celia an old female poet from the deep South at some unspecified period in the past but probably 19th century.
Sam and co-writer Jim Kitson, who also directs, add to the powerful brew by mixing genres – so that Andrew’s monologues to us are in the form of stand-up comedy, while Vanessa has conversations with the unseen husband and also with her long-dead 9-year-old daughter Grace. Celia just talks straight at us in a heightened poetical style.
Andrew has lots of black jokes about the light colour of his skin and about his mother’s obsession with baked chicken. While we laugh with Andrew, the two women characters touch our hearts deeply. Vanessa is a caring soul, God-fearing, who embraces her son’s gayness with genuine warmth and humour.
Celia in her poetic descriptions of how she falls in love in church with a young black girl would merit a solo show on its own.
When you think nothing stranger will happen, Sam up and kills off her mother character at the wedding – “it put a downer on the day,“ says Andrew who tells us that black people do death really well.
This is a very intimate, in your face cabaret style show, which the writers say is still a work in progress. I think Celia’s character could be more explained in the context of the storyline, but Sam’s metamorphosis between the three characters is split-second and stunning.
Guru Dudu returns to the Fringe with his shivering sexy flannel purple hot pants, his cheeky but fierce boyish looks and his dapper and daft patter as he takes us, a huge crowd of excited to be there festival folks on a dancing-walking tour. He’s updated the technology but kept the magic of the pied piper, and we – gripped by the immersive headphone music leap – are enchanted.
We start in New Road with some safety instructions and a bonding experiences, we don our lightweight comfy but excellent headphones and are immersed in disco, disco, disc with Guru Dudu melodious and infections voice the only other noise, it’s strange, immersive but also compulsive, we are immediately joined into One.
He then takes us, as Abbas Voulez-vous (ah-ha) kicks off and we transform into a spontaneous flash mob (ah-ha) dancing through the streets, (ah-ha) whisking up to the Komedia (ah-ha) for some interpretative dancing to Bohemian Rhapsody then plunging back through the hectic heart of the festival weekend for lots of crazy interaction with onlookers and Wuthering Heights in the Pavilion Gardens.
Onlookers are bemused and sucked into our surreal world as we surround them for a moment of loud out of tune singing, improvised mayhem and dance, although we all think we sound wondrously in tune with clever harmonies. Gentle instructions and easy dance moves are mixed in with funny commentary from Guru Dudu.
The dance mix of uplifting favourites from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s keeps us happy and arm waving as we head down into the city centre, doing a traffic stopping Stevie Wonder dance in Old Steine then whipping up through the South Lanes before plunging down the twisting alleys of the lanes to Rock Your Body from the Back Street Boys, Guru Dudu keeps up the energy and funny commentary all the way.
Silent disco tour is just that, silent and a disco, and a decent enough tour around central Brighton but it’s also a team building experience of excellence, a travelling mini festival, a flashmob a stunning example of both game theory and bystander theory in action, a seriously fun piece of immersive theatre using the city and inhabitants as its backdrop, a life affirming experience and great fun.
GuruDudu works his cute tush off making sure we are drilled and rehearsed, his military grade tech never lets the show down, and his can-do, utterly engaging attitude makes sure each and every person, no matter how shy or uncomfortable is soon blended into the smooth whole of his dream, his vision, to turn the streets of the city he is in into a living, breathing musical.
You become the most fun act in town, passers-by love you, traffic stops, but on we danced, part of a huge happy mob and every time I wander down Nile Street again I’ll be lifting them hands and rocking that body!
A liberating, superb experience and certainly a must do for anyone who’s not yet been on this trek into the camp heart of Brighton and surely the coolest way to see the city centre. I wanna do it in heels, for pride, you hear us Guru!
COUNCILLORS Pete West and Lizzie Deane have been selected to stand, along with Party Chair Sue Shanks, who has also previously served on the council and led on education.
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