menu

BRIGHTON FESTIVAL PREVIEW: HIV experts to discuss Brighton’s ‘Fast Track City’ status

Experts in HIV will attend a special Brighton Festival event hosted by Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), in association with the Martin Fisher Foundation, to discuss the city’s United Nations ‘Fast Track City’ status.

Brighton is set to become the first city in the UK to be awarded this status joining 65 cities worldwide with high levels of HIV working to end the epidemic of HIV/AIDS by 2030.

Speakers at HIV: Is Victory in Sight? taking place at Sallis Benney Theatre on Sunday, May 7 at 3pm, will discuss whether this is possible, how HIV can be reduced globally, and the successes and challenges with HIV.

The conversation will be chaired by Baroness Gould of Potternewton, and panelists include Nicky Perry, Clinical Trials Unit BSMS; Dr Duncan Churchill, a Consultant in HIV/GUM; Sue Riley, a person living with HIV and Terrence Higgins Trust South Positive Voices Project Coordinator; Cllr Daniel Yates, Chair of Health and Wellbeing Board; and Dr Adrian Brown, Chair of the Martin Fisher Foundation.

An audience Q&A session will follow the panel discussion.

Brighton & Hove has the highest prevalence of HIV outside of London, at 1% of the population. As 91% of people living with HIV in Brighton & Hove are men, prevalence among the male population is even greater, at 1.9%.

Prof Malcolm Reed
Prof Malcolm Reed

Professor Malcolm Reed, Dean of BSMS, says: “The prevalence of HIV in the Brighton & Hove area makes the United Nations Fast Track City status vitally important in our mission to combat the infection. HIV: is victory in sight? brings together experts and people living with HIV to discuss our work to end the epidemic of HIV/AIDS over the coming decade.”

UN Fast Track Cities are working to achieve the following targets by 2020:

♦ at least 90% of people with HIV diagnosed

♦ 90% of those diagnosed on antiretroviral therapy and

♦ 90% of those undergoing treatment having the virus repressed.

Dr Adrian Brown
Dr Adrian Brown

Dr Adrian Brown, Chair of the Martin Fisher Foundation, says: “Achieving United Nations Fast Track City status has re-energised the community in Brighton and Hove in the fight to combat HIV/AIDS. There has never been a better time to work together Towards Zero HIV thanks to recent research and treatment.

Brighton & Hove has already exceeded two of the UN Fast Track targets, with 93% of people diagnosed with HIV taking antiretrovirals and 96% of those on treatment having an undetectable viral load within six months.

Partners across Brighton and Hove have come together to produce the Towards Zero HIV Strategy, which is even more ambitious. We believe the city is in a very realistic position to reach zero new HIV infection, zero deaths and zero stigma by 2025.”

The Brighton & Hove HIV service currently cares for 2,400 people, of whom 82% are men who have sex with men, 9% heterosexual males and 9% heterosexual females.

It’s estimated there are a further 500 people (or 17%) living with HIV who have not yet been diagnosed. Although there is currently a lack of data on transgender women, anecdotal data suggests that up to 19% of those who have been tested have been identified as HIV positive.


Event: HIV: Is Victory in Sight?

Where: Sallis Benney Theatre, 58-67 Grand Parade, Brighton BN2 0JY

When: Sunday, May 7

Time: 3pm

Cost: £10

To book tickets online, click here:

REVIEW: Actually Gay Men’s Chorus – Bring on the Men@St Andrews Church

After working with the same musical director for more than 10 years, Actually Gay Men’s Chorus appointed a new MD last summer as Jason Pimblett passed the baton on to Samuel Cousins.

Their Christmas Show, Let it Snow in December was very much a work in progress and gave Samuel an opportunity to show us what he intended to do with the chorus.

Their latest offering Bring on The Men at St Andrew’s Church on Saturday, April 8, left us in no doubt of his direction. In just 10 short months he has completely remodelled the focus of the chorus.

The Actually’s trademark ‘wall of sound’ is still called upon when needed but Sam has moulded the singers into a tight musical ensemble, who listen carefully to each other when singing, giving them a new found confidence when singing softly, which ultimately makes for a more musical performance. Their rendition of Benedictus and Sondheim’s Being Alive performed with Jason Sutton were a revelation.

Jason Sutton hosted the first half of the show as himself. It featured many favourites from the Actually’s back repertoire including stirring performances of This is the Moment, Tonight/Somewhere from West Side Story and a medley of Andrew Lloyd Webber numbers which included a ravishing rendition of Music of the Night

Soprano Sophie Causbrook joined the chorus in Prima Donna and for a truly epic arrangement of Adele’s Skyfall.

Miss Jason returned to host the second half in drag which allowed everyone to relax and let their hair down a bit.

The performance of Man of La Mancha and Impossible Dream made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as did the sensitive interpretation of Stars, while Broadway Baby gave some of the soloists from the chorus a chance to shine. But this night was all about the chorus with Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers and Anthem from Miss Saigon showing just how much improvement they have made.

A good concert needs good programme planning and this concert was very well constructed. Each half was perfectly balanced, all brought to a climax with a fine medley of numbers from Miss Saigon climaxing with the wonderful Schonberg & Boubill number, Last Night Of the World. They sang it like they really believed it was.

Every soloist during the evening acquitted themselves very well, as did Simon Gray on piano and Colin Blanchflower on keyboards.

But, this was first and foremost an evening about the chorus and the progress they have made in the last 10 months. 

My choral teacher at music college always said a good choir should make you feel like you are being swaddled in a fur coat. Actually Gay Men’s Chorus certainly managed that for me and I think everyone in the church felt the same as the audience reaction right from the start was ecstatic and the ovation at the end was really heartfelt.

The chorus should congratulate themselves for making an inspired appointment when they chose to work with Samuel Cousins. He has the skills to take them to the next level and be a great chorus.

Your next opportunity to hear Actually Gay Men’s Chorus in concert will be at Love Actually on Friday, August 4 at St Andrews Church starting at 7.30pm.

For more information, click here: 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Pride in London leads protest against LGBT+ genocide reports in Chechnya

Pride in London is leading a protest close to the Russian embassy in London tomorrow, Wednesday, April 12 at 5.30pm.

The protest is in response to recent media reports of gay men being arbitrarily detained and killed in Chechnya with some citing a concentration camp being set up in the Chechen town of Argun.

It protest follows an open letter sent from Pride in London to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on April 4.

The protest will take place at the junction of Bayswater Road and Ossington Street. The Metropolitan Police will be present to ensure the protest is peaceful and safe.

Steve Taylor
Steve Taylor

Steve Taylor, Communications Director for European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA), said: “More government action across the EU needs to be taken immediately to stop these atrocities. We are seeing very little response to this in the mainstream media and government action so far is poor. We must not be bystanders and we must challenge this inhumanity.”

The organisers are calling on as many people as possible to attend and to bring banners and flags.

Tim Farron
Tim Farron

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: “These reports from Chechnya are truly horrifying, and represent an extreme manifestation of increasing homophobic brutality and intolerance in Putin’s Russia.

“The UK government must strongly condemn this disgusting violence, and use every possibly opportunity to raise this with the Russian government, as well as in the UN and other international bodies.

“The UK must work with those who share our values to stop the mindless targeting of the LGBT community, which is still prevalent in too many countries across the world. Only through defending universal human rights will we ever hope to achieve a world in which every person can live, work and flourish without discrimination.

“It is disappointing that Boris Johnson has failed to stand up for these people by not visiting Russia after Trump told him to stay at home.”

For more details, click here:

Brighton Kemptown MP urges cross-party approach to Madeira Terraces funding bid

Simon Kirby MP urges Brighton & Hove City Council to work on a cross-party basis to come up with a new bid for funding for Madeira Terraces.

Simon Kirby MP
Simon Kirby MP

Following an email and public statements issued by Leader of the Council, Cllr Warren Morgan, Simon Kirby, MP for Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven is calling on Cllr Morgan to work with him and with Councillors from all political parties in the city to come up with a new bid for funding to save the Madeira Terraces.

Mr Kirby maintains he has been a strong supporter of saving the Madeira Terraces, which were nominated in the Victorian Society’s top ten most endangered Victorian and Edwardian buildings list in England and Wales 2015.

He says he has been contacted by many concerned residents on the issue and has had meetings with businesses affected by the closure and also the Seafront Traders Association.

Mr Kirby says he had requested meetings in the past with Cllr Morgan to discuss the Council’s plans for the terraces but was told that they were unable to share the plans. He has written articles for the local media urging the Council to reveal the plans and only found out about the project by reading about it in the media.

The Kemptown MP says he was not consulted about the bid for funding from the Coastal Communities Fund and was saddened to read Warren Morgan’s statement saying: “Our local MP and Government Minister Simon Kirby has some serious questions to answer, and serious questions to ask his Conservative colleagues about why they think Brighton and Hove does not matter.”

Mr Kirby says he immediately contacted the Secretary of State about the failed application and received the following reply:

“Thank you for your letter April 3 following correspondence from Councillor Warren Morgan, Leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, about Brighton and Hove City Council’s unsuccessful application to the Coastal Communities Fund to regenerate Brighton’s Madeira Terrace.

I recognise that this decision is disappointing to the Council, given their, entirely welcome, ambition to restore this Grade II listed seafront arcade to bring it back into productive commercial and leisure use.

Competition for funding was extremely high and we were only able to support those bids that aligned with the programme’s stated outcomes and criteria.

Sadly, Brighton and Hove City Council failed to meet the planning requirements of the Fund. Significant design work has yet to take place, a planning submission has not yet been submitted, match funding has not yet been secured, and building work is not expected to start before January 2019 at the earliest.

In view of the limited time within which Coastal Community Fund support would need to be spent, there was significant doubt about whether the project could be delivered within the Fund’s spending timescales.

If the Council can address these practical concerns about the deliverability of their project, they may wish to consider reapplying to the Fund in a future bidding round.”

Mr Kirby said: “I am more than happy to work with Brighton & Hove Council, Councillors and MPs from all parties to help save the Madeira Terraces which are such an important part of Brighton Kemptown. Now is not the time to play party politics but to come together and work on addressing the concerns that DCLG had about the project and come up with a new bid for funding.”

Cllr Warren Morgan
Cllr Warren Morgan

Warren Morgan Leader of the Council responded, saying: “Revised plans for funding to restore the Madeira Terraces restoration will be published this week. I hope Mr Kirby will support them with ministerial colleagues, and encourage his Conservative councillors to get behind our efforts instead of continually talking the city down to play political games.”

 

‘Forever family’ needed for five-year-old boy

ADOPTION charity Parents And Children Together (PACT) has created a short animated film to help its search for a forever family for a lively and affectionate five-year-old boy, who has been in foster care since he was a baby.

PACT is looking for a home for Robert through its targeted family finding service which it provides to local authorities for children who have been waiting a long time to be adopted.

PACT’s Adoption Team Manager, Louise Hartley says Robert is desperate for his own forever family, and the security and stability that adoptive parents could offer.

Louise added: “Robert has so much to offer a family – he is a friendly, outgoing, active and lively five-year-old boy, who is never happier than when he’s outside riding his scooter or playing in the park.

“He has a natural love for music and rhythm, often remembering songs weeks after he has heard them. He likes to play with trains, cars, puzzles, computer games and enjoys trips out in the car. He loves going to his weekly football training sessions with his peers.

“Robert is a particularly rewarding child to care for as he is so affectionate and much prefers other people’s company to being on his own. He also has a great sense of humour and a really infectious laugh.

“The film we have made about Robert highlights that he has had to move to five different carers and we desperately want him to be settled in a family that he can call his own. We would encourage anyone who watches the film to share it with their friends and on social media. A forever family for Robert is out there somewhere!”

Robert, who is of white UK and dual heritage (his mother is white UK/black Caribbean), is on the autistic spectrum and has received support for his delayed speech and is making excellent progress. He really enjoys school where he is receiving one-to-one support in a mainstream class and has made many friends.

Jan Fishwick
Jan Fishwick

Jan Fishwick, Chief Executive of PACT, added: “We are passionate about finding the very best families for children who have been waiting the longest to be adopted. Robert has had a particularly unsettled start and we are determined to find him the forever home he desperately wants and deserves. Please do get in touch with us if you think you can help or would like to find out more.”

Robert has received a comprehensive assessment by the South London and Maudsley Hospital Centre for Children, and will receive specific therapeutic support tailored to any needs identified. PACT will also provide ongoing support for Robert and his adoptive family, via its Strengthening Families Team and award-winning therapeutic support service FACTS.

To find out more about Robert, click here:

Or telephone Louise Hartley on 07587 552399.

Or email: Louise.Hartley@pactcharity.org

 

Review: The Miser@Garrick Theatre, London

Moliere’s classic satirical farce about the folly of greed returns to London’s West End with a rousing new adaptation by Sean Foley and Phil Porter.

The play stars double Olivier award-winning Griff Rhys Jones in the title role, alongside TV comedy star, Lee Mack, making his West End acting debut.

In this frantically paced production the emphasis is definitely on the farce, with all manner of gags coming thick and fast. There’s a relentless succession of slick one-liners, running jokes, audience asides, and physical, slap-stick comedy, all of which keeps the audience on its toes and laughing throughout.

At the centre is a wonderful performance from Griff Rhys Jones. His Harpagon, the miser of the title, is ridiculous and very funny, but Rhys Jones also manages to subtly capture the panic and despair of his character as his crackpot plans fall apart and his fear of losing his beloved money looks like becoming a reality. It’s a performance that gives the production some moral authority without taking away from the overall hilarity and madcap tone of this adaptation.

Rhys Jones is admirably supported by Lee Mack’s downtrodden but mischievous servant, Master Jaques. Mack really pulls it off in this stage debut, his hapless resignation, dead-pan delivery and comic timing often reminiscent of Eric Morecambe at his funniest.

Less convincing were Mathew Horne and Katy Wix as young lovers Valere and Elise. Their characters are meant to be shallow and one-dimensional, but for me both performers lacked subtlety and comic insight, with too much shouting and posturing going on. Ryan Gage’s outrageously camp pantomime dandy fared much better, his Cleante bearing more than a passing resemblance to Baby June.

This slick, rip-roaring production may not be one for Moliere purists, but it certainly provides a highly amusing and enjoyable evening’s entertainment.

Runs until June 3 at the Garrick theatre.

To book tickets online, click here:

 

X