The Brighton & Hove Calendar 2014, now its 14th year, has been published by North Laine Photography.
Next year’s calendar features 32 pages with 60 photos that concentrate more than ever on Brightonians enjoying themselves at local events such as Brighton Pride.
Shots, ranging from the fun, to the artistic, to the classy, to the cheesy, include Simon Anderson’s star trails over The Chattri, Finn Hopson’s Devil’s Dyke filled with mist and the front cover by Anne Marie Morris capturing a gull descending on her tray of chips, its mouth gaping wide open with both eyes looking straight down the barrel of the lens.
Nigel Swallow, the calendar’s designer, said: “The calendar includes great shots including classic landmarks and landscapes, which are interwoven with all the festival, beach and street pictures that help get across the Brighton vibe. Hopefully, this will make locals feel it goes some way towards representing what the city means to them. Most of all – that means making it fun!”
The work of black gay African American photographer Alvin Baltrop (1948-2004) will be shown in the UK for the very first time at the Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool from Saturday, December 7 to February 9, 2014.
This work, which was never shown in the US until after Baltrop’s death and is now widely recognised and appreciated in the US art world, will be shown at The Piers From Here, which focuses on the self-taught photographer, who after leaving the US Navy took on various dead-end jobs before becoming a removals man.
The job enabled him to camp out in his van for days on end around Manhattan’s abandoned shipping piers during the mid-70s and 80s, where he photographed men engaged in sex shot from the distance or through a doorway; men happy to become exhibitionists for the camera; men and women Baltrop came to know at the piers; guys cruising for sex; people just strolling about; graffiti; and gruesome corpses dredged up from the river. Most of all, Baltrop photographed the piers themselves, right up to the moment they were razed.
Aside from their aesthetic value, Baltrop’s photos present a remarkable record of a turning point in the sexual revolution of that period, and the decaying architecture and landscape of a Manhattan that no longer exists.
The exhibition will also feature the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, sculptor, filmmaker and photographer, who illegally entered and took over Pier 52, a huge corrugated iron structure, and, to put it in Gordon’s words, “completely overrun by the gays”. There he created one of his famous ‘cuts’ entitled Day’s End, a spectacular anti-monumental intervention brought to life by the rotation of the sun, which entered the building, thus reflecting in the water of the Hudson River.
The Art Forum said: “Perhaps more than Matta-Clark could have imagined, Baltrop’s photographs portray the “joyous situation” Matta-Clark said he wanted to achieve there; and they constitute rare and indispensable evidence of the proximity and simultaneity of artistic and sexual experimentation in the declining industrial spaces of Manhattan during the 1970s.”
Event: Alvin Baltrop and Gordon Matta-Clark: The Piers From Here
An alliance of community groups in South Portslade have joined forces to demand action from the council to have a school crossing built.
Friends of St Peters School, Friends of Vale Park and the community supporters of South Portslade will launch a ‘Give The Kids A Crossing For Christmas’ campaign on Friday November 15 at 8.15am.
The groups will meet with Labour’s South Portslade Councillor, Alan Robins and Labour’s Parliamentary candidate, Peter Kyle, outside the community primary school to highlight how dangerous the road is and then to go into the community to speak to residents and urge them to contact to the council.
Despite expanding from an infant to a primary school – and looking to double pupil numbers – no provision for a safe road crossing has been made. Yet the school is located by one of the south coast’s busiest ports with industrial units and a major arterial road just yards away.
Parents, who recently presented an 800-word petition to the council, feel that after several near misses it’s just a matter of time before a child is seriously injured. Yet the committee in charge of making improvements is refusing to prioritise the issue and continue to insist that they need to make assessments – which could last well into next year.
Peter Kyle
Labour’s Parliamentary candidate, Peter Kyle, is supporting the campaign. He said: “The fact that 800 people signed a petition in support of installing a crossing shows the depth of concern in the local community. Why Pete West, the Green councillor in charge of relevant committee, would want to stall and delay making some simple road safety measures is baffling.”
Councillor Robins added:“We need to bring some common sense into the process and improve the crossing facilities for St. Peters School as opposed to rigidly sticking to a tick box exercise on a council form.
“The planning committee is hiding behind bureaucratic procedure and assessments when we need to action now.”
The Head of the School along with the Board of Governors have also called for urgent action to be taken and with the school set to expand significantly in the coming academic years this issue is pressing and in need of action.
Cllr Pete West
Councillor Pete West, Chair of Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee, said: “Over £25,000 has been spent on crossing points and other safety measures around St Peter’s School following its expansion. Council officers are now assessing the area around St Peters’ School in response to residents’ requests to see if further measures are needed.
“We consider all requests to improve road safety for pedestrians very carefully, as we believe it’s important for everyone who chooses to walk to school or work to be able to do so safely. So unlike other administrations, we’ve protected vital funding for transport schemes. We look at over 100 sites a year in response to residents’ requests, so that those most in need of work are prioritised in a fair and impartial way. This system was supported by all parties when it was introduced, and its development was even overseen by Labour’s current Leader Councillor Warren Morgan.
“I would like us to be able to spend more on pedestrian crossings, but this isn’t helped when Labour and the Conservatives prefer to squander over £100,000 on a free parking giveaway – money that could have paid for five zebra crossings. As it is, Labour’s priorities simply encourage more cars on the road.”
Mari Hannah, Author of The Murder Wall, was named the winner of The Polari First Book Prize 2013 at the Purcell Room on London’s South Bank last night (Wednesday Nov 13). Mari received a cheque for £1,000 from Vincent Francois, Chair of the UK LGBT Network and Regional Head of Audit, Societe Generale. The Murder Wall is Mari Hannah’s debut novel and the first in the DCI Kate Daniels series.
The Polari First Book Prize, now in its third year, is for a first book which explores the LGBT experience. The prize is open to books by authors born or resident in the UK published in English within twelve months of the deadline for submissions (this year February 1, 2013). Self-published works in both print and digital formats are also eligible for submission. The prize is supported by Square Peg Media, publishers of g3 and OUT In The City magazines.
Paul Burston
Paul Burston, chair of the judges, said: “The Polari First Book Prize isn’t only for literary fiction, but for books which explore the LGBT experience. Some of those books may be literary, others may be commercial. Traditionally, commercial fiction has shied away from LGBT themes and characters. This year’s winning book features a lesbian detective operating in a tough milieu traditionally dominated by men. It’s thrilling, entertaining and a hugely promising debut from an exciting new voice in crime fiction.”
Also on this year’s shortlist were Tony Hogan Bought Me An Icecream Float Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson (Chatto & Windus), The Sitar by Rebecca Idris (self-published), Catching Bullets: Memoirs of a Bond Fan by Mark O’Connell (Splendid) and The Tale of Raw Head and Bloody Bones by Jack Wolf (Chatto & Windus).
The judging panel consisted of author, journalist and host of Polari, Paul Burston (Chair), writer, critic and broadcaster Bidisha, the literary critic Suzy Feay, author and former Head of Literature at the Southbank Centre Rachel Holmes, author and comedian VG Lee and Joe Story-Scott, books buyer.
Polari Up North
In an exciting move for the Polari Literary Salon, Mari Hannah will be appearing at the first ever Polari event north of Watford, at the Huddersfield Literature Festival on Saturday March 8 2014. Paul Burston will host the event which will feature Mari Hannah, Keith Jarrett and VG Lee.
The Polari Literary Salon launched in 2007 in the upstairs room of a pub in Soho and is ‘London’s peerless gay literary salon’ (Independent on Sunday). Now, Polari is housed at the Southbank Centre where monthly events showcase the best in established, new and up-and-coming LGBT literary talent and performance.
For more information about the Polari Literary Salon, CLICK HERE:
Polari Up North
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