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Month: January 2017

LGBT HISTORY MONTH: New exhibition inspired by Joe Orton to open its doors

Posted on by Besi
Joe Orton
Joe Orton

A new exhibition inspired by the life and work of Leicester-born playwright Joe Orton opens its doors at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in London on Sunday February 5.

The exhibition, titled What the Artist Saw: Art Inspired by the Life and Work of Joe Orton, has been curated by Dr Emma Parker from the University of Leicester School of Arts and Michael Petry, Director of MOCA, and runs until Saturday, March 4.

The exhibition, which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the death of Joe Orton and celebrates LGBT History Month, features three artists: painter David Lock (Joe Orton’s nephew), sculptor Louise Plant and performance artist Tim Youd.

During the opening of the exhibition, Tim Youd will conclude retyping Orton’s Complete Plays on a single sheet of paper, a project he began on January 20. 

Orton’s sister, Leonie, will open the exhibition, at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Sunday, February 5 from 2:00pm – 4:00pm. The VIP guest list includes actors Dudley Sutton and Kenneth Cranham, who knew Orton personally.

The exhibition will transfer to the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in Leicester from July 24 – October 22, 2017 and will complement the exhibition Crimes of Passion: The Story of Joe Orton at the National Justice Museum, Nottingham from July 22 – October 1, 2017.

Dr Emma Parker
Dr Emma Parker

Dr Parker said: “This exciting exhibition recognises for the first time the cross-fertilisation of literature and art in Orton’s creative practice; celebrates his artistic impact and legacy; and presents new responses to Orton’s  life and work through visual art.”

For further information about the exhibition ‘What the Artist Saw: Art Inspired by the Life and Work of Joe Orton’, click here:

LGBT HISTORY MONTH: Cambridge Event: ‘Gay in the 80s’ looks back on a pivotal era in the LGBT movement’s history

Posted on by Besi

Ahead of LGBT History Month, Colin Clews sheds new light on the LGBT experience in the 1980s in his new book Gay in the 80s.

The 1980s heralded many challenges for LGBT+ people around the world, political and social. Underpinning all of these challenges was the unfolding of the AIDS crisis: a time when LGBT+ people realised that they were no longer simply fighting for their rights but, quite literally, fighting for their lives. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom; by the end of the eighties there had been some very real progress.

Colin Clews
Colin Clews

A special event is being organised as part of Cambridge LGBT+ History Month to launch the book. This will be a presentation by Colin Clews and Sergeant Kevin Misik from Cambridgeshire Police Service on From Persecutors to Protectors: The Changing Relationship Between Police and the LGBT Community.

Event: From Persecutors to Protectors: The Changing Relationship Between Police and the LGBT Community.

Where: Jesus Lane Friends Meeting House, 12 Jesus Lane, Cambridge, CB5 8BA

When: Thursday February 23 from 7-9pm.

Time: 7pm- 9pm

Conservatives force Youth Service rethink

Posted on by Besi

Conservatives on Brighton & Hove City Council secure cross-party agreement for a report seeking further information on the options for the future of the city’s Youth Services including funding to Allsorts, LGBT Youth Project.

Cllr Andrew Wealls
Cllr Andrew Wealls

At last week’s Full Council meeting (January 26), a petition was presented by young people calling on the Labour Administration to cancel its plans to cut up to 80% of the funding it provides for Youth Services across the City.

In addition, the Conservative Group moved an amendment calling on council officers to bring an urgent report to a Committee meeting on February 9, setting out:

♦ What services could be provided at a range of different funding levels if the full cut were not implemented

♦ What options were considered by the Administration as alternatives to the proposed cut

♦ An impact assessment of the cut and an assessment of the increased pressures on other budgets and services should the proposed cut be implemented

Group Deputy Leader, Andrew Wealls, who proposed the amendment, said: “Before we, as councillors, are asked to make this potentially life-changing decision, it is vital that we have all the relevant information before us. As yet, we have not had that, and my understanding is that the decision to decimate the Youth Service budget was made by the Labour Administration over a weekend and with next to no consultation, particularly with those it will most affect. That is simply not acceptable.”

Cllr Vanessa Brown
Cllr Vanessa Brown

Group Spokesman for Children, Young People & Skills, Vanessa Brown, added: “The young people that presented their petition explained very eloquently how these proposed cuts will affect them and others like them in the city. In support of them, I’m pleased that we have managed to bring some pressure to bear by securing this additional information and have hopefully kept the door open for the Labour Administration to have a rethink.”

Cllr Daniel Chapman
Cllr Daniel Chapman

Cllr Daniel Chapman, Chair of Children, Young People and Skills Committee, said: “I would like to reassure residents, the savings in youth services was not a proposal that was put forward lightly by the administration. This has been a tough decision that we have had to make as our funding from central government continues to dramatically reduce.

“It is important to reiterate that there will be a broad range of services for young people that will continue to be provided despite these savings proposals, and we are committed to ensuring that young people who are facing difficulties are able to receive support to help them. 

We have also continued to work on the budget with officers since the draft proposals were published, which is why I was able to announce at Council in January that our final budget proposals will include a reduction in the planned saving in youth services.

A consultation with young people is underway and will inform an understanding of the impact and inform any redesign. All councillors will be provided with a report of the key outcomes from the consultation in advance of the full budget council – which is where the final decision will be made.”

 

 

 

LGBT HISTORY MONTH: Stuart Milk to launch ‘OUTing the Past’ at Manchester event

Posted on by Alice Blezard

International human rights activist and co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation, Stuart Milk kicks off OUTing the Past, a day of events celebrating LGBT+ activism at the People’s History Museum in Manchester, on February 26.

Stuart Milk
Stuart Milk

He will be the first speaker in a programme packed with eclectic, engaging and insightful talks and performances covering design, music, photography and the history of LGBT+ activism. The event has been organised to mark LGBT History Month.

From an exploration of trans representation and gender expression in rock music, to a journey through hidden photographic archives capturing protests from the 1970s, there will be talks and events to illuminate some of the most interesting and often untold areas of LGBT+ history.

The event will culminate in a dramatic performance bringing to life two fascinating historical figures: Frances Power Cobbe, an Irish feminist, journalist and political activist; and Mary Charlotte Lloyd, a Welsh artist. The two women met in Rome and were partners for 35 years, during which time they tirelessly campaigned for women and animal rights, helping bring about changes in the law surrounding domestic abuse. The conversation explores the relationship, lives and passions of these incredible women.

OUTing the Past also coincides with the opening of a landmark exhibition at the museum, Never Going Underground: The Fight for LGBT + Rights. The event will include a series of taster tours exploring the exhibition, which marks 50 years since the partial decriminalisation of homosexual acts in England and Wales by the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. Developed by nine community curators, it examines the events that took place leading up to the Act, taking visitors through the major themes behind the movement, and drawing upon the slogans and campaigns that pushed forward the progression towards equality.

Stuart Milk is an international human rights activist, LGBT rights speaker, government relations consultant, and youth advocate. He is the co-founder and Board President of the all volunteer Harvey Milk Foundation. As the nephew of Harvey Milk, the iconic civil rights leader, Stuart has taken his uncle’s message of authenticity, example of courage and the power of collaboration onto the global stage supporting local, regional and national human rights struggles and emerging LGBT+ communities on five continents.

For a full list of events during OUTing the Past, click here:

Event: OUTing the Past: Launch event with Stuart Milk

Where: The People’s History Museum, Coal Store, Left Bank, Spinningfields, Manchester

When: Sunday, February 26

Time: Noon – 1pm

Tickets: Free entry, £5 donation suggested

 

Family announce funeral arrangements for Michael ‘Mouse’ Burton

Posted on by Besi

Michael Burton – November 14, 1979 – December 12, 2016

Michael ‘Mouse’ Burton

Michael Burton will be laid to rest on Friday, February 17 in his home town of Aldershot.

The service will take place at 1.30pm at The Park Crematorium, Guildford Road, Aldershot, Hampshire, GU12 4BP.

A memorial site has been created where friends can upload their photos of Michael, who died in the early hours of Sunday, December 12, 2016 in Brighton.

Donations can be made to either MindOut or Terrence Higgins Trust from the memorial site, where you can also light a candle or leave a message.

To view the site, click here:

To read Gscene obituary, click here:

 

 

http://gscene.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=63658&action=edit

PREVIEW: Belinda Carlisle at Brighton Dome

Posted on by Graham Robson

Belinda Carlisle will celebrate the 30th Anniversary of her hit record ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’ by performing it in its entirety at the Brighton Dome on Monday, October 2 from 7pm.

The American pop star, who shot to fame as a member of one of the world’s best-selling girl bands, The Go-Go’s, will be performing tracks from the classic multi-platinum album, including the seminal Heaven is a Place on Earth (which reached the top spot on both sides of the Atlantic), the stirring Circle in the Sand and the perky I Get Weak.

Belinda, whose other hits include Mad About You, In Too Deep, We Want The Same Thing and Live Your Life Be Free, will be padding the show out with other songs from her career.

Event: Belinda Carlisle: Heaven is a Place on Earth 30th Anniversary

Where: Brighton Dome, Church Street, Brighton BN1 1UE.

When: Monday, October 2

Time: 7pm

Tickets: http://brightondome.org/event/12670/belinda_carlisle/

Joe Orton’s plays retyped onto single sheet of paper to commemorate 50th anniversary of his death

Posted on by Besi

Performance artist Tim Youd retypes Joe Orton’s complete plays on Orton’s typewriters.

Tim Youd performing at the University of Leicester in 2015
Tim Youd performing at the University of Leicester in 2015

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Leicester-born playwright Joe Orton, performance artist Tim Youd will retype his Collected Plays on a single sheet of paper. He started on January 20 and will finish on February 5, 2017.

Youd will perform at the South Library in Islington and the Queen’s Theatre in the West End – both locations significant to Orton’s life and work and the Museum of Contemporary Art in London.

With his partner Kenneth Halliwell, Orton redesigned books stolen from Islington Library – a crime that led to 6 months in jail – and his final play What the Butler Saw premiered at the Queen’s Theatre.

 

Youd will finish his performance at the opening of an exhibition of art inspired by Orton’s life and work at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in London on, February 5, between 2:00 – 4:00pm.

The exhibition, titled What the Artist Saw, is curated by Dr Emma Parker of the University of Leicester School of Arts and Michael Petry, Director of MOCA, London.

Joe Orton's, typewriter, (Courtesy Leicester City Council/The Orton Estate)
Joe Orton’s, typewriter, (Courtesy Leicester City Council/The Orton Estate)

Youd is using the same typewriter as Joe Orton: an Adler Tippa (for the first six plays) and then – because Orton bought a new typewriter in April of 1967, shortly before his death – an Adler Universal 40, for What The Butler Saw.

Dr Emma Parker

Dr Parker, who worked with Tim to organise the event, said: “The typewriter played a central role in Orton’s life: he typed his plays, letters and diaries and his typewriter was responsible for his arrest for the defaced library book covers (police matched the type on a letter to that on the altered dustjackets).

“Given this, Tim Youd’s imaginative, thought-provoking performance is an apt homage to Orton and a wonderful way to bring new audiences to his work 50 years after his death.”

Tim Youd added: “I met Orton scholar Dr Emma Parker in Leicester two years ago, when I was retyping Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim at the University. Emma introduced me to Joe’s sister, Leonie (and Victoria sponge!).

“When Emma invited me to participate in the exhibition, I eagerly agreed to type all the plays in one extended performance. Emma then arranged the South Library venue and Michael set up the Queen’s Theatre. And now it’s happening.”

Portrait of Joe Orton by Lewis Morley, 1965
Portrait of Joe Orton by Lewis Morley, 1965

Tim Youd is engaged in the retyping of 100 novels over a ten-year period. He retypes each novel on the same make/model typewriter in a location charged with literary significance specific to the subject novel.

Each performance is a multi-day, often multi-week event and each novel is retyped on a single sheet of paper, backed by a second sheet, run repeatedly through the typewriter.

To date Youd has retyped 48 novels at various locations in the United States and Europe.

Performance date and times:

♦ January 20 – Islington South Library, London (12 noon – 4:00pm, with a lunch break between 1:00pm – 2:00pm)

♦ January 21, 23 & 25 – Islington South Library, London (10:00am – 4:00pm, with a lunch break between 1:00pm – 2:00pm)

♦ January 26, 27 & 31 and February 2-3 – Queen’s Theatre, London (1:00pm – 5:00pm, with a lunch break between 1:00pm – 2pm)

♦ Museum of Contemporary Art, London, February 5, 2:00pm – 4:00pm

For further information about the exhibition What the Butler Saw: Art Inspired by the Life and Work of Joe Orton, click here:

To read more about Tim Youd’s performance at the University of Leicester in 2015, click here: 

 

Greens angry at Labour ‘U-turn’ on council tax rise

Posted on by Besi

Greens question Labour leadership proposals to raise council tax by 5%.

Cllr Dick Page

At a full meeting of Brighton & Hove City Council on Thursday, January 26, questions were raised by the Green Group as to why the Labour Council leadership were seeking to introduce council tax rises they had previously opposed during the Green administration.

Responding to a question from Councillor Dick Page, Brighton & Hove Labour’s finance lead Cllr Les Hamilton could not explain why plans to ask residents for a 5% increase in their Council tax for the next financial year were being put forward, when the Labour Group had opposed a 3.5% rise proposed by the then Green administration during 2012/13.

Green Councillor Dick Page, said: “Labour’s budget includes a proposed 5% Council tax increase. If Labour had supported our smaller increase of 3.5% five years ago, the Council would now have £5m extra of funds annually to protect services to the City’s poor and vulnerable.  We know Council funds are shrinking year on year, while the Government spends our money elsewhere, expecting local people to shoulder more and more of the burden. It’s no good Labour councillors saying one thing when not running the Council, then the opposite now they are in charge. If we are to stand up together and halt the destruction of local services, we need more honesty and trust.”

Cllr Warren Morgan

Cllr Warren Morgan, the Labour Leader of the Council responded, saying:“The Greens have always seemed enthusiastic to pass on the costs of Tory cuts to those who can least afford it. Council tax is not a progressive tax; it hits high and low earners equally. Greens in Surrey recognise that and are opposing the 15% increase there. We have no option but to put up council tax on low-income households as directed by the Government to pay for rising social care costs, apparently with keen Green support.”

OPINION: Dad & Daddy on family love

Posted on by Contributor

For our family, love is a challenge, cuddles, painful, fun and definitely unconditional, says Syd Spencer.

The dictionary tells us that love is ‘a strong feeling of affection’ and ‘a great interest and pleasure in something’.

In our house, especially for our daughter, love is, at times, a shield, a barrier and also a weapon. Often when she allows herself to feel safe, loved and wanted, she will quickly dismiss those loving feelings, as they make her feel that she isn’t in control. After all, an emotion we don’t understand or we can’t relate to how we feel about ourselves is a terrifying thing.

So we are nearly five years in as parents to our two kids and ‘love’ is probably the thing that we find the hardest to help the kids to understand, give out, sometimes appropriately and accept.

Our son will accept love and give it out freely, which causes issues around boundaries, keeping himself safe and not making others feel uncomfortable around him. He will tell his friends at school that he loves them and then they will bully him for it, taunting him that he is gay like his Dads etc.

He then gets confused and will usually retreat into himself and become that very quiet little boy that we met back when he was six years old. Questions will then be asked about why can’t his friends love him too? And we try our best to clear up the confusion around friendship love, family love and partner love.

His quietness doesn’t last long though and he soon bounces back and starts telling everyone how fabulous he is.

Our little girl, who is still only 11 years old, thinks she is already a teenager which then means, in her mind, that she’s almost an adult, finds love very confusing and scary.

Our love for her, and our boy, is consistent. Even through the hardest times, the most frustrating and bizarre behaviours, we remind them that they are loved but sadly there is little love inside our girl for herself.

It’s not really surprising as she received little as a young girl from her birth family and the ‘love’ she did get was very dangerous indeed.

“So we are nearly five years in as parents to our two kids and ‘love’ is probably the thing that we find the hardest to help the kids to understand, give out, sometimes appropriately and accept”

So every day we tell them they are loved, at bed times, when dropping them off at school and at random times throughout the day. We show love by being tactile, cuddles when they are not expected, kisses on top of their heads as well as kisses goodnight at bed times.

Kevin and I have always been tactile with each other and the kids see us hug and kiss each other, our aim is to break down our girl’s fear of love and our boy’s manic obsession with love by making the declaration of it a normal part of daily life.

Pretty sickening right? Love, kisses, cuddles every day! It’s enough to make anyone feel queasy; but for us, the Spencer family, it seems to work and for us two Dads it’s an attempt at therapeutic care without the kids realising it is happening.

Trust me though when I say that it isn’t always a love-fest at our house. The fear of love that is so embedded in our daughter leads to major catastrophic meltdowns, slamming of doors, declarations of hatred towards us and screams of how she is unlovable, and its heart-breaking to witness.

We wonder if we will ever be able to help her to see how amazing she is. When she’s out with us or with our family or friends she is polite, engaging and draws everyone’s attention, but when home or safely back in the car that sparkling light in her eyes will fade through the sheer exhaustion of being loving and accepting love.

Syd Spencer
Syd Spencer

It’s hard work for this girl to reflect the love she receives from others as it is alien to her to receive so much. She has been our daughter for nearly five years now and her lack of love for herself appears to get worse. On the brink of puberty and now going to a school with thousands of other kids she finds it hard to adjust and absorb her fast-changing world.

It’s hard for us too as she aims her fear our way with hateful statements, that, although we understand their source, hurt us and have a few times over the years succeeded in making me doubt my role as Dad.

Therapists and social workers tell us it’s a good thing because it means she feels safe enough with us to unload her fears etc, that it shows she loves us! It would be nice if she could feel safe enough to show her love through random acts of kindness sometimes or even a cuddle that we didn’t have to ask for, maybe at least a couple of times a month?

For us four, love is challenge, the glue, laughter, cuddles, fearful, fun, painful, neglectful, family, strength and definitely unconditional. That’s not to say consequences for bad behaviour are not a regular thing in our home, because sometimes it almost feels daily, but the punishment is always given lovingly and that is always unconditional.

I think it’s very telling what our daughter feels about love when her favourite line from her favourite Adele song is Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead.

Brighton Kemptown MP to meet Transport Secretary on Monday

Posted on by Gary Hart

Simon Kirby MP will meet with the Secretary of State for Transport, the Rt Hon Chris Grayling MP and representatives from the BML2 Project Group on Monday morning.

BML2 is a proposal among other things to create a second Brighton Main Line to London to relieve pressure on one of the country’s most overcrowded rail routes, for the benefit of Brighton commuters travelling into London and restoring a rail link between Uckfield and Lewes.

The project aims to provide improvements for passengers between Brighton and London as well as creating the conditions for regeneration, relieving housing pressure, increasing investment and creating employment from the South Coast to East and South-East London and beyond.

Simon Kirby MP
Simon Kirby MP

Mr Kirby, said: “I met with members of the BML2 Project Group last year and was pleased to arrange this meeting with the Transport Secretary. I believe that this project could be a long-term solution to resolving some of the problems on the existing line.”

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