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PREVIEW: Showtime with Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus

Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus prepares to celebrate Brighton Pride in style with their new production, Showtime.

 

For its Pride show 2017 the Chorus has chosen a new format to showcase its talent and celebrate the rich diversity of musicals and show tunes.

Showtime will take centre stage on Friday July 28 and Saturday 29 in St George’s Church, Kemptown, Brighton.

Musical Director Marc Yarrow, said: “I’m so excited about Showtime. Musical Theatre is my true passion. When the Music Team and I selected the repertoire we decided to bring together numbers from classic shows such as: Les Miserable, Miss Saigon, South Pacific, Hair and Into The Woods.  But we also wanted to feature music from newer, West End and Broadway productions such as Book Of Mormons and Sister Act, and recognise less well-known gems like Lazarus. And of course, for a Pride Show, we couldn’t exclude crowd-pleasers from La Cage Aux Folles, Sound of Music and Hairspray.”

Brighton Pride Festival enjoys national and international prominence and popularity, and is recognised for its fundraising efforts on behalf of local charities. As part of the Brighton Pride Festival, Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus has once again chosen to support The Rainbow Fund, a Brighton and Hove based grant-giving fund for local LGBT and HIV/AIDS organisations, and will be donating £1 from each ticket sold to The Rainbow Fund as well as hosting a bucket collection for them on both evenings of Showtime.

Chris Gull, Chair of The Rainbow Fund, said: “We are delighted that BrightonGMC is, once again, donating money to The Rainbow Fund. This time it will be from their Pride show Showtime.

Chris Gull
Chris Gull

“This is a great example of community fundraising, and emphasises once again the crucial role that The Rainbow Fund has in acting as a responsible and transparent way for local fundraisers to ensure that the funds they raise go where they are needed, without having to make decisions about which of the local LGBT+ and HIV groups to support. This way they support them all.

“On behalf of these groups that provide such vital support right across our local LGBT+ and HIV communities, thank you to all the members of BrightonGMC for their support, and time and talent. It’s much appreciated.”

A week after Showtime the Chorus’s float will be joining the annual parade to help spread Pride’s message of Summer of Love in characteristically rousing, entertaining and colourful style.


Event: SHOWTIME with Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus

Where: St George’s Church, Kemptown, Brighton BN2 1ED

When: Friday July 28 and Saturday 29

Time: 7.30pm (door open 7pm)

Cost: £14 (£12 concessions)

To book tickets online, click here: or available at Prowler, St James Street, Brighton

Future Performances

♦      Pride Show • Friday July 28 and Saturday 29th, 2017 • St George’s Church, Brighton

♦      Hand In Hand LGBT Choir Festival • August 18 – 20 2017 • Manchester

♦      Christmas Show • December • All Saints Church • Hove

 

PREVIEW: ‘Love Actually’ with Actually Gay Men’s Chorus

Love, love, love! Crazy little thing called love! The Power of Love!

Join Actually Gay Men’s Chorus on August 4 as they usher in Brighton and Hove Pride’s Summer of Love. Embracing the universal language of ‘love’, Actually will explore loves many aspects through music, from bliss to heartache, and everything in between.

The men from Actually shall sing with pride to celebrate fifty years since homosexuality began to be decriminalised in the UK and to send out a message of hope to those less fortunate still facing hatred and discrimination around the world.

Musical Director Samuel Cousins has again worked with the men of Actually Gay Men’s Chorus to develop an eclectic, powerful and thought-provoking repertoire; from Sondheim and Schwartz to Puccini and Queen!

Actually welcomes back the phenomenal vocal talent of soprano and Actually patroness Samantha Howard and (back by popular demand!) glamorous and talented cabaret star Kara Van Park who returns to host her first summer outing with the chorus.  Love Actually promises to be a truly spectacular concert, and what better way to enter into the spirit of Pride!

Actually Gay Men’s Chorus will be performing to raise funds for its members’ chosen charities: Inclusion for All and The Rainbow Fund.

Actually Gay Men’s Chorus, now in its twelfth season, was set up with the specific aim of providing a place where gay men can socialise, have fun and develop social skills in a unique environment. Since its creation, Actually has helped raise thousands of pounds for local causes.

Kara Van Park: Photo by Hugo Michiels

Event: LOVE ACTUALLY with Actually Gay Men’s Chorus

Where: St Andrews Church, Waterloo Street, Hove, BN3 1AQ

When: Friday, August 4, 2017

Time: 7.30pm

Cost: Tickets £14/£12

To book tickets online, click here:

FEATURE: Sam Trans Man

Dr Samuel Hall on why we should be talking about depression, often and widely.

Dr Sam Hall
Dr Sam Hall

As I write we are enjoying unseasonably good weather with temperatures on the weekend of the Brighton Marathon reaching the low 20ºs. Marvellous. I can anticipate the lifting of my mood as the trees begin to bud and the children are enjoying a well-earned Easter break. All this should mean better sleep and  lower levels of depression (reference for readers with a thirst for academia: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4398445/).

It’s well documented that mood is highly susceptible to the circadian rhythm and that those of us who live at latitudes where there’s more darkness than light, such as we endure over the winter months, are more likely to report anxiety about lack of sleep. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is well-documented in northern climates. I really don’t think daylight saving time helps either. The arguments for extending daylight in the summer evenings and forgoing early sunrise are sound but I’d rather we just stuck to the same time all year round.

It’s not actual daylight saving time that is the problem, it’s the fact that we move back to standard time in the autumn. I’ve talked about this before – in the winter months I sometimes don’t see any daylight at all. Hospitals, where I’ve spent my entire working life, are notorious for poor access to natural light – I‘ve gone for whole weeks without seeing the sun as a result. The artificial light that one is exposed to in such settings does nothing to boost vitamin D levels or give a sense of wellbeing. All this means we should be spending as much time in the sunshine as possible (UV exposure and skin cancer risk notwithstanding), or at least near a window!

Suffice to say, however, that my lower mood in the winter months, and struggle to acclimatise to the shifting patterns of light and dark, coupled with a lifting of the spirits at this time of year, are small fry compared to the scourge that many suffer of full-blown depression for months or years on end.

I do have experience of this; 10 years ago I began to really struggle with my gender identity. I’d managed to keep a lid on my dysphoria for decades, distracting myself with a busy life of study, post-graduate training, marriage and child-rearing. Every now and again I’d crash and be unable to do anything at all, usually for a day or two, never much longer. But in my late 30s I had a crash that was sustained and prolonged. I found myself unable to do anything about it. I was irrationally tearful, erratic in my thoughts and actions, riddled with self-doubt and inertia. Apathy was always breathing down my neck and my ability to do my job/care for my kids/manage my life was severely threatened. It took me a long time (five years) to recognise that I was depressed – a chemical imbalance in the brain that I simply couldn’t ‘switch off’.

It took another wiser clinician to point out that I might benefit from antidepressants. Still I resisted. I wanted to know what this was all about. I took to spending as much time as I could alone, I stopped drinking alcohol, started running, ate less and ate more healthily, lost a lot of weight, and most importantly, finally came out as trans. I took St John’s wort, an herbal remedy known for its therapeutic effect for mild to moderate depression, which acts on the brain in much the same way as Prozac and similar drugs. At the time I wanted to manage my problems myself, and like many people, didn’t want my mental ill-health documented by professionals.

This is a really common scenario, as a clinician I know the stigma that surrounds mental ill-health all too well. It’s still a taboo subject in my profession. Many of my patients don’t like to admit to feeling depressed, and certainly amongst colleagues it raises eyebrows and alarm, especially if accompanied by the need for time off work. How are we as a profession going to address the insidious nature of this taboo, and liberate our patients to speak up boldly if we can’t even do it for ourselves? Time and time again I bring the subject up in the workplace only to encounter my own and others’ prejudice. It’s endemic.

Early on in my transition, when I was still plagued by suicidal ideation (thinking you might be better off dead and planning it), and sometimes coming painfully close to devising ways to end the agony of my reality, I remember my father pleading with me not to discuss my emotional wellbeing with my children, for fear that I’d somehow damage them, or worse, predispose them to the same (my mother suffered very severely from depression in her mid-30s).

But we have this all wrong. We should be talking about this, often and widely. Those among us who struggle to own and own up to our emotional and mental wellbeing glitches are doing the rest of the world no favours at all.

The charity of the year for the 2017 London Marathon is Heads Together, a partnership of mental health charities with a campaign spearheaded by HRHs William, Kate and Harry. This is an excellent campaign raising the profile and hopefully reducing the stigma surrounding depression and other aspects of mental ill-health. There are so many at-risk groups, single men, teenage girls, new mothers, the elderly, disabled, isolated, LGBT+ folk, the list goes on and on.

Suicidal ideation and suicide itself are robbing us of bright young things. People are crippled by mental ill-health. We know that the solutions can be ridiculously simple for many people, and yet strangely difficult to implement. Socialising in real life rather than online, avoiding drugs and alcohol, getting outside in the fresh air, exercising and eating well, finding things that foster enjoyment and a sense of community – all these and more can mitigate the weight of the black dog, but one of the best ways is to talk about it. Let it begin with me.

Are you a future LGBT+ leader?

Do you know an inspirational LGBT+ or ally executive, or LGBT+ future leader?

OUTstanding, the professional network for LGBT+ executives and their allies, today launches a call for nominations for the 2017 Leading LGBT+ & Ally Executives and LGBT+ Future Leaders lists, presented by the Financial Times.

The lists celebrate the top 100 LGBT+ Executives, top 50 Ally Executives, top 50 LGBT+ Future Leaders and for the first time, top 20 LGBT+ Public Sector Executives.

OUTstanding’s lists champion LGBT+ and ally executives who deserve to be acknowledged for their role in encouraging greater workplace diversity.

Now in its fifth year, the Leading LGBT+ Executives list has previously acknowledged Antonio Simoes (2013) then CEO HSBC UK, Christopher Bailey, CEO Burberry (2014) and Lloyd’s of London CEO, Inga Beale – the first female and first bisexual to top the list – in 2015.

Richard Branson and Mark Zuckerberg were named top Allies in 2014 and 2015 respectively, and 2015 saw Aritha Wickramasinghe, an associate at law firm K&L Gates LLP, topping the inaugural LGBT+ Future Leaders list.

Last year saw Gigi Chao, Vice Chairman of real estate giant Cheuk Nang, become the first Asian business leader to top the list, with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, well known for speaking out against discriminatory legislation, reaching number 1 position in the Ally Executives list.

Despite much progress in the UK and beyond around LGBT+ inclusion, significant obstacles still remain for LGBT+ professionals in the workplace. For example 75 countries still criminalise homosexuality1 and, even in more liberal societies, 62% of LGBT+ graduates who were out at university go back in the closet when they start their first job2. This should not still be the case in 2017.

Suki Sandhu, Founder & CEO, OUTstanding, said: “We’re so proud to be publishing these role model lists for the fifth year running. The lists exists to challenge the assumption that you cannot be out and successful in business, to highlight role models that will inspire the next generation of business leaders and encourage companies to use their far reaching voices for good. By recognising and celebrating the impact of those who are leading the charge, these lists will continue to inspire both businesses and individuals to drive LGBT+ inclusion forward. We greatly look forward to receiving your nominations.”

For the Leading LGBT+ & Ally Executive lists, celebrated business leaders will be at the executive level in business (no more than 3 steps from the CEO); a positive and out (i.e. visible) role model; and/or actively contributing to the LGBT+ inclusion agenda.

For the LGBT+ Future Leaders list, nominees will be high potential LGBT+ employees who are helping make the workplace a more welcoming environment for everyone. The final lists will be organised according to equally weighted scored questions on the themes of career, company and activity that would contribute to an environment where LGBT+ executives can succeed and will be ratified by an independent judging panel.

To nominate inspirational executives for their role in encouraging greater boardroom diversity, click here: 

BOOK REVIEW: Our own private universe by Robin Talley

Our own private universe

Robin Talley

Talley has given us a well-balanced and nuanced book about a young Lesbian/queer women growing up, having her first crush and that leading to some serious thoughts about how and what she may be/ is.

The main character Aki gives us the answer, by experimenting, exploring, researching and learning from anywhere and everyone you can. When you already know what you’re not – straight- how do you define what you are! Aki’s theory is that she’s only got one shot at living an interesting life-and that means she’s got to stop sitting around and thinking so much. It’s time for her to actually do something. Or at least try.So when Aki and her friend Lori set off on a trip to a small Mexican town for the summer, and Aki meets Christa-slightly-older, far-more-experienced-it seems her theory is prime for the testing.

The characters in this fun book explore the changes that a summer fling brings to them, as they navigate the social and mental horrors of a Christian summer camp and the bigotry, small mindedness and occasional huge bursts of generous unconditional love surrounding them. They argue, love and talk about what it is they are doing and the prose mirrors their own blossoming into young adults who are as socially aware as they are sexually naïve.

Talley has given us a young queer coming of age book about some real young women and their developing lives and loves’ that’s sensitive, honest and utterly charming.

Out Now, paperback £7.99

For more info or to buy the book see the publishers website here: 

PREVIEW: Rainbow Chorus – Classics to Classical

For one night only on Saturday, July 15 the Rainbow Chorus presents Classics to Classical featuring a spectrum of music from Faure to Freddie Mercury.

This unique production will showcase the wide range of talent in this increasingly diverse choir with something for everyone to enjoy.

You will be transported through the beautiful and moving Faure’s Requiem performed in the iconic surroundings of St George’s Church Kemptown.

Faure created a new kind of church music using dynamic harmony and colour and this will be complimented with fabulous classic numbers including songs from Gaga to Gagarina, this production will feature old classics from Rainbow’s repertoire including Lady Gaga, Queen, David Bowie, Anthony and the Johnsons and even a Russian Eurovision entry!

To reach out to the deaf community Marco Nardi will provide BSL interpretation adding a different dimension to the performance.

The Rainbow Chorus, directed by the accomplished musical team of Aneesa Chaudhry and accompanist Mojca Monte, is the longest running Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) choir in the South outside of London.

It provides an enjoyable and supportive environment for LGBT+ members to sing together, make new friends, while developing their community spirit, individual talents and confidence.

Through their performances, the Chorus also raises the profile of the LGBT+ community in Brighton & Hove as well as providing first class entertainment. They are often the choir chosen to perform at community events such as IDAHOBIT and Transgender Day of Remembrance and are supported by grants from the Big Lottery and the Rainbow Fund.

If your feeling Under Pressure and in need of a break from the Nine to Five routine, this is the show for you!


Event: Classics to Classical with Rainbow Chorus

Where: St Georges Church, St George’s Road, Brighton BN2 1ED

When: Saturday, July 15

Time: 7.30pm

Cost: £14/£10, children £7

To book tickets online, click here:

Council to consider Parks Foundation

Plans are being drawn up for a Parks Foundation to be set up in Brighton & Hove to attract funding for the city’s parks and open spaces.

Preston Park
Preston Park

The Foundation would lead fundraising initiatives aimed at attracting investment in the council’s parks and open spaces and could be set up by the end of the year.

Members of Brighton & Hove City Council’s Environment, Transport and Sustainability Committee will decide whether to give the go ahead to progress the plans at a meeting on June 27.

The proposals are part of the council’s Open Spaces Strategy which was approved by committee members in January. The Strategy was drawn up following the council’s Big Conversation, when over 3,000 park users took the opportunity to have their say on how to protect and maintain the city’s parks and open spaces into the future.

Research has shown that a Foundation could be established quickly and easily with minimal financial commitment from the council.

Cllr Gill Mitchell

If agreed, the Foundation would be chaired by the Chair of the council’s Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee – currently Councillor Gill Mitchell.

Three independent trustees would be also appointed to the Foundation Board which would be supported by officers from Brighton & Hove City Council.

Committee members are also being asked to consider a way forward to identify new management arrangements for the tennis courts in the city council’s parks.

This follows a consultation with representatives of the local tennis community and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) who agreed that there should be a city-wide approach to the provision of tennis in the city.

Members are being asked to give the go ahead for the LTA to work with tennis players to develop two volunteer led proposals and also to explore other options including working with local/community groups and professional organisations, or splitting the sites and opening up a new tender process.

A further report on tennis proposals would be brought to a future Environment, Transport & Sustainability Committee for a decision on the management arrangements.

Committee members will also be updated on other Open Spaces Strategy proposals including: allotments, cemeteries and churchyards, heritage, open space hire, outdoor sport and physical activity facilities, parks & gardens, sponsorship, advertising and donations and volunteering.

 

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