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Day: October 26, 2017

Entertainers raise £4,207 for LGBT+ community safety initiatives

Posted on by Besi

Dine With The Stars raises £4,207 for The Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum (B&H LGBT CSF).

Barry Nelson and Davina Sparkle present cheque to Gavin Kerruish from LGBT Community Safety Forum for £4,207.
Barry Nelson and Davina Sparkle present cheque to Gavin Kerruish from LGBT Community Safety Forum for £4,207.

Now in its sixth year, Dine with the Stars, the brainchild of ‘Baz’ Barry Nelson (formerly of Queens Hotel, Queens Arms and now the Burgershack at Bar Revenge) returned to the Jurys Inn Waterfront Hotel in Brighton on Thursday, October 12 for a spectacular evening of food, entertainment, dance and fundraising.

All profits from the evening went to the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum, a volunteer led Community Non Profit Organisation who among the many services they provide, make Pride in Brighton & Hove accessible for all people with disabilities.

The evening consisted of a sumptuous three course dinner with performances by Lola Lasagne, Dave Lynn, Kara Van Park, Maisie Trollette, Sally Vate, Spice and Poola May, along with top vocalists Jason Lee, Gabriella Parrish, Krissie DuCann, Jennie Castell and was hosted by Davina Sparkle.

Tickets for the evening were just £29 per person. £12 from each ticket went directly to the B&H LGBT CSP totalling £2,412. A further £1,195 was raised by the raffle with another £600 in the auction raising an amazing £4,207.

Davina Sparkle
Davina Sparkle

Joint organiser, David Pollikett, aka Davina Sparkle, said: “We have all been very disturbed at some recent high profile hate crimes, especially in our wonderful City. It’s more important than ever to report these crimes, and to have a support network for people affected by them. Brighton is a wonderful, eclectic mix of people and to keep our brilliant ‘LGBT Capital’ title, we need to support each other and our wonderful support groups like the B&H LGBT Community Safety Forum.”

AJ Paterson
AJ Paterson

AJ Paterson from the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum, added: “We are overwhelmed by the kindness and support given by the performers, hotel staff and everyone who donated prizes. Those attending were so generous taking part in the raffle and auction on top of purchasing their entry tickets. We really are very grateful. The money will be put to good use delivering our projects in and around Brighton & Hove”

The Brighton and Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum currently work on issues of Community Safety, Personal Safety, LGBT homelessness, Hate Crime, Domestic Abuse, Disability Awareness/Access and Workplace Discrimination Advocacy.

They are also instrumental in the planning and delivery of Access for more than 700 people with disabilities at Brighton Pride, Disability Pride, The B&H Anti Hate Crime Vigil, International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia & Transphobia and the B.Right.On Festival celebrating LGBT History Month every February.

They also support the delivery of The Brighton & Hove World AIDS Day Vigil on December 1 and The Brighton Bear Weekend Picnic every June.

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For more information about the LGBT Community Safety Forum, click here:

Sophie Cook joins RadioReverb

Posted on by Besi

A brand new, weekly radio show launched last night (Wednesday October 25) on RadioReverb addressing local issues and served up with an eclectic mix of music and chat.

Sophie Cook: Photo Pete Jones

Media personality Sophie Cook joins the team at RadioReverb with an exciting new talk show called Sophie Cook Talks.

The show will feature tunes from Sophie’s own record (she refuses to call them vinyl) collection spanning the entire history of popular music, from Gil Scott Heron to Portishead, from Etta James to The Libertines, alongside her unique brand of insightful comment about the local news stories that affect our lives.

Each week Sophie will joined by regular studio guests to educate, inspire and entertain her listeners.

Commenting about the new programme, producer and presenter Sophie Cook, said: “During my first year at secondary school a friend brought a copy of The Who’s seminal album Quadrophenia into class and said ‘you’ve got to hear this!’

“From that moment I was hooked, music, and Brighton, were now my first loves.

“I’ve still got the copy of that album that I bought the following week, along with some 500 or so others that I’ve bought in the intervening decades.

“Over the years I’ve been privileged to work in the music industry and have spent the past decade photographing Peter Doherty and the Libertines, and even got to shoot my heroes The Who. To be given an opportunity to play my favourite tunes alongside speaking about the issues that really matter is a dream come true.

“I can’t think of a better place to do it than in this amazing city that we call home, and on the city’s most diverse radio station, the wonderful Radio Reverb.!”

Sophie stood for the Labour party in the safe Tory seat of East Worthing and Shoreham at the recent General Election.

She polled 20,882 votes, slashing the majority of Tim Loughton the sitting Conservative MP in half to just 5,106 votes, delivering a 19.8 swing to Labour, their biggest in the country.

Station Director Tracey Allen, added: “We are delighted to welcome Sophie Cook to RadioReverb and we are looking forward to hearing her on the airwaves every Wednesday at 5pm talking about the issues that matter in Brighton, Hove and beyond!.

“Sophie is well-known by all the movers and shakers in the city and brings with her a huge amount of experience, knowledge of music and even more diversity to the station.”

You can catch Sophie, her chat and her tunes, every Wednesday at 5pm on DAB+ on-line and at 97.2FM

To check out Sophie’s show page, click here:

Other ways to listen will be via the Listen Again button at www.radioreverb.com

BOOK REVIEW: A Marvellous Party by Ian Elmslie 

Posted on by Eric Page

A Marvellous Party

Ian Elmslie 

Ian nails the most important mantra of LGBT history here: ‘Unless we share our stories, our history is lost’ and this wonderful funny, engaging and downright salacious memoir follows our author Ian on his one man journey from family home to the heart of the gay cabaret scene, and the characters he met on the way, and boy are they characters. Elmslie has met a delightful and astonishingly curious range of famous people and he name drops better than Elaine Paige and is far more generous and authentic with his praise.

He shows his respect and joy of the Queer icons who have inspired him, and given him the strength to get through the the tough times,  he shares the things he has learned and with insight and amusement and some honest passages that are heart-warming.

Elmslie was born in the same hospital as Quentin Crisp, although a few years later… and like that wonderful Legendary Queer he retains the ability to be candid and funny which endears the reader to turning another page to learn more.

He spent more than a decade as one half of the award-winning musical comedy duo, Katrina and The Boy crossing the country entertaining and meeting just about every and anyone there was to meet.

 

Elmslie is a very generous and warm writer, his prose engages and this book is as funny as is it entertaining.  Recommended, this sparkling memoir is a warm, charming and funny delight of a read and this handsome suave author the person I most want to get stuck in a lift with this winter season.

Out now

£10

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

Toupie Lowther: Her life by Val Brown: Book Launch

Posted on by Eric Page

Val Brown

Toupie Lowther: Her life

Book Launch

The Marlborough Theatre

A very pleasant evening at the Marlborough Theatre last week as local author Val Brown launched her new book. This book is an insightful new biography of Toupie Lowther who appears as a walk-on character in many biographies of Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridg but is a most fascinating woman in her own right.

Val shared some insights into her research of the book and showed some archive images and film footage of Toupie. Her sporting enthusiasms included driving, motorcycling, weightlifting and jiu-jitsu, along with parties, arts and just about every other pursuit that you can imagine a well off women of her times would follow. Fast cars, fast living then retiring to Pulborough; contradictive and mysterious she even and she crossed the Alps on a motorbike with her god-daughter Fabienne Lafargue De-Avilla riding pillion.

With the outbreak of the First World War Toupie became one of the organisers of an all-women team of ambulance drivers who undertook many dangerous missions to transport wounded soldiers near the front lines of battle in Compiègne, France

Toupie was a close friend of writer Radclyffe Hall and her partner, sculptor Una Troubridge. Although after the publication of Hall’s novel The Well of Loneliness in 1928 this friendship seems to have been strained.  The protagonist, Stephen Gordon, was based on Toupie Lowther, and this seems to have caused a rift in the friendship although her sexual orientation was no secret among her family and friends.

The full house were appreciative of Val’s hard work in bringing the life of Lowther into a clearer focus, although acknowledging the limitations of her research on someone who’s determined to keep their private life private Brown showed that with determination and an eye for the interesting lead you can unearth some fascinating information into the lives and history of noted lesbians and their circle.

Val closed with a questions and answer session which left the audience wanting more and then processed to sign and sell out the books brought with her.

For more information or to buy the book see the publisher’s website here.

Out now £8.99

 

Autumn issue of Pink Humanist ready to download

Posted on by Besi

The latest issue of The Pink Humanist, an online magazine published by the UK LGBT charity the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) is ready to download.

It features topics of special interest to those who identify as atheists, freethinkers, humanists, secularists and sceptics in LGTB+ communities and those who support them.

The magazine’s editor is Barry Duke who also edits the Freethinker, the Voice of Atheism in the UK since 1881.

In the latest issue human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell writes of the gains made across the world by LGBT+ activists, but in a separate piece Chris Coates examines moves in the United States by the Trump administration to empower right-wing, homophobic organisations which are determined to turn back the clock on equality issues.

Pink Humanist editor Barry Duke, who left Brighton in 2010 to settle on the Costa Blanca and helped organise Benidorm’s first Pride and several subsequent events, reports on the latest celebrations in September.

Barry reminds his readers, that: “as we blow whistles, wave rainbow flags and dance in the streets, let’s pause to consider the plight of those living in places where being gay remains a criminal offence – 74 countries in total. It’s an appalling fact that 12 of them have the death penalty for homosexuality.“Until they learn that LGBT+ rights are an integral part of human rights, these countries should be ostracised and denied the billions in foreign aid that they receive from the ‘decadent’ West.”

The issue also has feature articles on bisexuality, and the adoption of the lambda sign by gay liberationists in the US in the 1970s.

There is also a review of Humanist Andew Copson’s latest book, Secularism: Politics, Religion and Freedom, and an introduction to St Sukie de la Croix’s humorous fantasy novel, The Blue Spong and the Flight from Mediocrity.

Other items in the latest edition include a report of the export of homophobia to Romania by US hate groups, and a profile of one of Canada’s most hated street preachers, Matthew Carapella.

The current, as well as past issues of the magazine can be downloaded in PDF format from The Pink Humanist website. (www.thepinkhumanist.com)

To download the magazine as a PDF document, click here: go to “Archived Issues” then “Back Issues” and place the cursor on any cover. In the top left corner of the cover you will see “click here to download pdf”.

Additionally, individual articles can be accessed directly from the site’s home page. These contain all relevant hyperlinks.

Raffle to help save The Madeira Terraces

Posted on by Besi

To raise awareness of the plight of The Madeira Terraces, concerned residents of Kemptown have got together via Facebook and organised a Grand Raffle and Auction with the aim of raising £20k towards the ‘Save Madeira Terraces’ fund.

Derek Wright, Jax Atkins and other local residents have led an awareness and clean-up campaign encouraging other residents and businesses alike to support them. This group already organises monthly de-weeding and clean up days to ensure the Terraces are not forgotten or neglected.

It was a natural next step to get the whole community involved with the raffle. Local business have given over 250 prizes so far and are also selling the £1 raffle tickets. The raffle will be drawn at The Cricketers Pub, Black Lion Street on the November 24, from 5pm-8pm. Everyone is welcome to attend.

To see the list of prizes and to buy raffle tickets, join the ‘SAVE MADEIRA TERRACES GRAND RAFFLE & AUCTION’ on Facebook.

Those not using Facebook should lookout for posters in pubs, cafes and bars saying ‘Save Madeira Terrace Raffle Buy Your Raffle Tickets Here’. Some gay owned establishments are also selling them.

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