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Month: January 2017

Performers rally to Celebrate and support the Sussex Beacon

Posted on by Besi

Tickets are now on sale at Prowler and Nice ‘n’ Naughty in St James Street for the Gala to benefit the Sussex Beacon, the HIV charity in danger of closing their doors in June due to NHS cutbacks.

Celebration! will celebrate the magnificent achievements of the Sussex Beacon in caring for people with HIV.

The Mayor of Brighton & Hove, Cllr Pete West, will attend the Gala, which is the opening event of the B RIGHT ON Festival and the curtain raiser to LGBT+ History Month 2017, being staged for the first time in the specially constructed Phil Starr Pavilion on New Steine Gardens.

Myra Dubois
Myra Dubois

Artists confirmed to appear include Myra Dubois, Lorraine Bowen, Maisie Trollette, Miss Jason, Dave Lynn, Davina Sparkle, Kara van Park, Sally Vate and will feature dancers from The Brighton Academy, choreographed by Emma Green. The Gala will be directed and staged by Carole Todd.

Everyone appearing will be donating their serves free of charge to raise money for The Sussex Beacon and to celebrate the magnificent contribution the organisation has made to the lives of HIV positive people their friends and families in Brighton and Hove for the last 25 years.

LGBT History Month is the annual international month-long observance of LGBT+ History and the opportunity to commemorate and remember the bravery of those who campaigned and spoke out over the years to help us achieve the freedoms and equality we enjoy today.

Celebration! will take place in The PHIL STARR PAVILION, New Steine Gardens, Brighton, BN2 1PB, a specially erected and heated Pavilion with a fully functional stage, hi-tech light and sound system and on site licensed bar.

This ground breaking affiliation seeks to engage the city in the wide range of issues highlighted through the work of the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum, as well as partner/stakeholder work and is supported with grants from the Pride Social Impact Fund, the Rainbow Fund and Sussex Police.

Event: CELEBRATION – Celebrating 25 years of the Sussex Beacon

Where: Phil Starr Pavilion, New Steine Gardens, Brighton, BN2 1PB

When: Friday, February 3

Time: Doors and bar open at 6.15pm, show starts at 7.30pm

Cost: Tickets £18/£15 conc. available from Prowler, 112-113 St. James Street, Brighton, tel: 01273 683680 and Naughty ‘n’ Nice, 32 St James’s St, Brighton BN2 1RF, tel: 01273 626442

To book tickets on-line, click here:

 

Run for your favourite charity at the ‘Go Dad Run’ on June 25

Posted on by Besi

On Sunday June 25, 2017 an exciting, fun and eye-catching new charity 10K and 5K event for men will take place in Hove Park.

Three-time world champion athlete Colin Jackson will be bringing his men’s health project, the Sanlam Go Dad Run, to Brighton & Hove for the first time.

Go Dad Run is open to guys of any age and Colin hopes that hundreds of men and boys will pull a pair of big, blue Go Dad Run Y-fronts over their shorts to help raise awareness of men’s health issues and funds for one of Go Dad Run’s five partner charities.

Earlybird registration prices start from just £8 and all registered runners receive a timing chip and full results service, a pair of Go Dad Run Y-fronts, PUMA T-shirt, Big Yellow Drawstring Bag and a medal.

For full details, click here:

After a long career as one of Britain’s most successful athletes and having won 21 major championship medals Colin founded Go Dad Run in 2013 when he staged a small 5K run in Wales and this year there will also be events in Sunderland, London, Worcester, Cardiff, Norwich and Bristol.

Colin said: “A few years ago two of my uncles were diagnosed with prostate cancer and sadly only one survived. He was the one who talked about his symptoms and sought early treatment and that had a massive impact on me.

I was shocked to discover that 1 in 8 men in the UK will develop prostate cancer and that rises to 1 in 4 men from a black African-Caribbean background and yet I had hardly heard anyone mention the illness. That was when I decided to create Go Dad Run as a means of encouraging men to talk about those health issues we so often try to avoid.

Go Dad Run is aimed at all men and we’d love to see dads, sons, partners, boyfriends, grandads, neighbours, friends, work colleagues and teammates sign up and take part and it doesn’t matter if you are a serious club runner or would just like to have a jog, wheel or stroll around the park, it is open to all levels.

Prostate Cancer UK is our Lead Charity Partner for the 5th year and we are also very pleased that we have three new National Charity Partners. Orchid who are the UK’s leading charity working in the area of male-specific cancers; The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) who are dedicated to preventing male suicide, the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK, and Bowel Cancer UK.

In each area we are also working with one local care-based charity and in Brighton & Hove our partner is the amazing Martlets Hospice who care for people living through a terminal illness in and around Brighton & Hove.

Thanks to the tremendous support of the men, charities, sponsors, partners, ambassadors and volunteers we are beginning to grow around the UK and I’m really looking forward to being in Hove Park on June 25th to meet all the runners at our inaugural event on the South Coast as I know it is going to be a lot of fun!”

Colin will be joined by several Go Dad Run ambassadors in Hove Park and as well as setting the men off on their runs they will all be waiting at the finish to put the medals around the necks of the runners after they cross the line.

Among those already confirmed as attending with Colin are six time world swimming champion Mark Foster, double world athletics champion Jamie Baulch and Royal Ballet soloist and Dancing with the Stars judge Fernando Montano. A number of other major sporting champions will also be announced in the coming weeks.

All the money raised in sponsorship by the runners goes directly to the charity they choose to support and details about how to do that are explained at the end of the online registration process.

To find out more about how you can get involved as a runner, sponsor or volunteer with the brand new Brighton & Hove Go Dad Run in June, contact the team at godadruninfo@gmail.com or follow all their news on Facebook and Twitter.

For more information, click here:  

B RIGHT ON FESTIVAL: LGBT History Month: ‘The Big Community Lunch’

Posted on by Besi

Lunch Positive, the charity that provides a weekly HIV Lunch Club will be staging a Big Community Lunch during LGBT+ History month on Friday February 17 in the Phil Starr Pavilion on New Steine Gardens.

Everyone will be welcome to drop into the lunch between 11 am and 4pm. Lunch Positive volunteers will be preparing and serving a range of hot rice and pasta dishes, soups, tea and coffee.

There will be no charge however,  donations are welcome for people to ‘pay as you feel’. All money raised at the community lunch will go towards running the HIV Lunch Club where people who are HIV positive can get a healthy meal every Friday.

The entire volunteer team and members at Lunch Positive will be involved in putting the lunch together, including planning the menu, cooking, serving and being available to help people on the day. Over 140 hours will be given in volunteering for the event.

Lunch Positive are also hiring a pitch at New Steine Gardens throughout the festival and will be setting up a catering tent close to the Phil Starr Pavilion.

Lunch Positive volunteers will also be fundraising at a variety of exciting evening festival events by offering food for sale to attendees. At other times during the festival they will be working with small community groups to provide ‘pay as you feel’ food and refreshments for their respective community events.

Gary Pargeter, Lunch Positive Service Manager, said: “This new festival looks fantastic! We are hugely grateful to the LGBT Community Safety Forum for their vision and support in helping us participate. It’s especially exciting that we will be involved in a range of fundraising for our own charity, and also working with other small community groups.

We hope that our Big Community Lunch on February 17 and our catering tent at evening events will be successful fundraisers for our charity, so please come along! Our volunteers and members have shown an amazing enthusiasm for getting involved, so please support us, and tell people that we will be there!”

Funding to stage the Big Community Lunch has been awarded by the Rainbow Fund.

For more info about LGBT History Month and the B RIGHT ON Festival, click here:

Tickets for B RIGHT ON FESTIVAL events go on sale in St James Street

Posted on by Besi

Tickets for events during the B RIGHT ON FESTIVAL, part of LGBT+ History Month are now on sale in St James Street venues, in the heart of the gay village.

Both Prowler located at 112-113 St. James Street, Brighton: telephone 01273 683680 and Nice ‘n’ Naughty at 32 St James’s St, Brighton: telephone 01273 626442 are carrying tickets for all the main entertainment events during the Festival.

LGBT+ History Month is a month-long annual observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT+) history, providing role models and building communities.

Currently, LGBT+ History Month is a month-long celebration that is specific to the United States and the United Kingdom. In the United States, it is celebrated in October to coincide with National Coming Out Day on October 11. In the United Kingdom, it is observed during February, to coincide with the abolition of Section 28 in 2003.

The B RIGHT ON FESTIVAL is a three-week project in Brighton promoting unity, equality and diversity for the benefit of the city and is supported by Sussex Police. This will be done by increasing the visibility of LGBT+ people, their history, lives and experiences in the curriculum and culture of educational institutions, and the wider community in a safe environment while promoting the welfare of LGBT+ people, by ensuring that the statutory authorities recognise and enable us to achieve our full potential, so we can contribute fully to society and lead fulfilled lives, thus benefiting society as a whole.

For more information about events during the B RIGHT ON FESTIVAL, click here:

B RIGHT ON: LGBT History Month: HIV charity to serve community meal during HIV History Day

Posted on by Besi

As part of LGBT History Month in February, local HIV community groups and organisations will stage an HIV History Day on February 10 in the Phil Starr Pavilion on New Steine Gardens.

The event is open to the whole community, to remember how HIV has affected us and where we’re at now with the epidemic. The Phil Starr Pavilion will be open from 11am until 4pm, and people can just drop in throughout the day.

There will be information stalls and displays from local HIV community groups and organisations, the opportunity to meet people involved in running HIV groups and services, Radio Reverb HIV Happy Hour recordings, displays of local media on HIV, an HIV History Wall for people to share their stories & recollections, interesting talks, information on HIV activism, and a space to share your suggestions for future events.

Lunch Positive, the charity that provides a weekly HIV Lunch Club will be serving an all-day freshly prepared community meal and refreshments in a café area with plenty of tables and chairs. There is no charge for this meal, donations are welcome for people to ‘pay as you feel’.

The programme for the day continues to develop, and organisations involved in staging the HIV History Day include Community HIV Specialist Service, Lunch Positive, Martin Fisher Foundation, Peer Action, Radio Reverb, Sussex Beacon, THT South.

For more information on the History Day event and to post your own HIV history items, click here:

Event: HIV History Day and Community Meal from Lunch Positive

Where: Phil Starr Pavilion, New Steine Gardens, Brighton, BN2 1PB

When: Friday, February 10

Time: 11am-4pm

The PHIL STARR PAVILION, New Steine Gardens, Brighton, BN2 1PB provides a fully functional stage, light and sound system with heating and Licenced bar.

This ground breaking affiliation seeks to engage the city in the wide range of issues highlighted through the work of the Brighton & Hove LGBT Community Safety Forum, as well as partner/stakeholder work.

LGBT History Month is an international month-long annual observance of LGBT+History and the opportunity to commemorate and remember the bravery of those who campaigned and spoke out over the years to help us achieve the freedoms and equality we enjoy today.

PREVIEW: Broken Biscuits at Komedia

Posted on by Contributor

Broken Biscuits, an evening of spoken word, music, comedy and film, returns to the Komedia in Brighton on Sunday, January 29 from 7.30pm.

Since its inception in April 2016, Broken Biscuits has become a collaborative old-school variety event that combines spoken word, comedy and music.

This month’s show will be compered by St Leonards-based poet Kate Tym and will feature live performances from Lorraine Bowen, Joanna Neary, Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer and Idle Eye; a live DJ/VJ set from Nick Hollywood and Joss Perring; and a showing of Dan Laidler’s animated mini-series Windy’s Farm.

Event: Broken Biscuits

Where: Komedia, 44-47 Gardner Street, Brighton, BN1 1UN

When: Sunday, January 29

Time: 7.30pm

Tickets: £12/£10 concs

To book tickets online, click here:

 

 

Campaigners protest two year closure of Joiners Arms today

Posted on by Besi

A demonstration will be held outside the Joiners Arms Hackney Road today, January 21.

The demo starting at 1.30pm, is being held to mark the two-year anniversary of the legendary LGBT+ venue’s closure and is organised by the Friends of the Joiners Arms a community group founded in 2014 to save and evolve the Joiners Arms pub.

The group aspires to bring the pub into community ownership so it becomes London’s first cooperatively owned LGBT+ community centre with the pub a central part of its operation.

The venue was forced to close in January 2015 as the owners working with property developers planned to bulldoze the venue to make way for luxury flats. The Joiners has remained empty ever since with no plans submitted by the owners for development.

Friends of the Joiners Arms will be linking with other campaign groups such as We Are The Black Cap and Stop The Blocks and members of the LGBT+ community in East London to show the owners of the site that the fight continues to win back the venue.

The closure of this popular venue hasn’t happened in isolation. In the last decade London has lost 50 per cent of its nightclubs, 40 per cent of its live music venues and 25 per cent of its queer venues. In east London alone three LGBT+ venues have been forced to close due to unaffordable rents and owners planning to develop commercial space into luxury flats. Soho has lost several notable grassroots live music and LGBT+ venues.

Beyond the queer venues that have been forced to close several iconic LGBT+ venues have been threatened with closure mainly due to owners wanting to develop venues into private luxury flats.

The closure of LGBT+ venues come at a time when homophobic and transphobic crime is on the rise and LGBT+ specific services have been disproportionately cut.

A survey of over 300 LGBT+ identifying individuals revealed that the decline of queer venues in London is having a detrimental impact on the health and well-being of the community.

Jon Ward, co-chair of the Friends of the Joiners Arms says: “The Joiners was one the few late night LGBT+ venues in the east end and its closure has left a massive hole in queer night scene and in our hearts. The venue closed because of greed and nothing else, why should such an important queer space be left to rot when it could be such an asset to the community.”

Amy Roberts, co-chair of Friends of the Arms, added: “We invite everyone to join us at 1.30pm on Saturday to show the strength of feeling that remains the Joiners Arms is our space and the community wants it back.”

 

Brighton Kemptown MP visits Sussex University’s ’12 Women in Academia Exhibition’

Posted on by Gary Hart

Simon Kirby, MP for Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven visits Sussex University’s 12 Women in Academia Exhibition in the House of Commons.

In celebration of women working in higher education, twelve female academics at the University of Sussex were invited to be part of a series of photography portraits.

Each was asked to choose an object with which to be photographed that either represented an aspect of their work or had some personal significance in their career.

Inspired by the 17th-Century Dutch artist Rembrandt, fine-art photographer Miss Aniela created a series of portraits that capture the lives and work of these women.

Mr Kirby, said: “I was pleased to see this exhibition displayed in the House of Commons. This is a major initiative for the University with the exhibition celebrating the work of a range of female academics at different stages of their career.  It underlines the University’s commitment to issues of equality and provides inspiration to a generation of young women.” 

Oska Bright adds LGBT+ strand for 2017 festival

Posted on by Besi

Oska Bright Film Festival, the leading international festival of films made by or featuring people with a learning disability adds an LGBTQ+ strand to its programme for the 2017 festival.

The festival is looking for short and feature length films that tackle themes of identity, gender and sexuality. Films can be any genre, from music videos to digital art, animation to comedy.

Matthew Kennedy, a queer, femme, learning disabled filmmaker, said: “Being at Oska Bright has definitely given me some form of creative empowerment as a learning disabled filmmaker/artist, it is giving us a space as learning disabled filmmakers to carve out our own stories and narratives.”

Divas by Porky Thinks
Divas by Porky Thinks

The festival takes place every other year, with the next one taking place from November 15-17 at The Old Market in Brighton & Hove.

At the 2015 festival, 60 films were screened, from 11 different countries. Awards were presented by representatives from Warner Brothers, the BFI, Adult Swim and film director Andrea Arnold OBE. Nearly 3000 people came to the festival over three days.

If you want to be part of the world’s first and biggest celebration of learning disability film-making, submit your film by April 30, it’s easy and free to enter.

To submit your film, click here:

Or email: oskabright@carousel.org.uk

Latest TV launch new LGBT+ TV channel

Posted on by Besi

Latest TV, the UK-based TV channel continue their equalities and diversity mission with the creation of the UK’s first ever LGBT+ TV terrestrial channel!

Broadcasting from February 2017, Latest LGBT+ TV will bring the best in LGBT+ news and entertainment to viewers’ TV screens on Freeview Channel 7 and Virgin Media 159 in the Greater Brighton area, as well as online globally.

Fronting the channel will be two well-known faces on the local LGBT scene.

Sophie Cook
Sophie Cook

Presenter and Head of Latest LGBT+ TV, Sophie Cook joined Latest TV in 2016 becoming the first ever transgender woman to front a news programme in Europe. The former RAF engineer, motorbike racer, newspaper editor and rock photographer, was also the first trans woman to work in the Premier League as club photographer for AFC Bournemouth.

Her news and chat show Beyond the Rainbow will become a weekly highlight of the LGBT+ schedule and in addition she will be creating new documentary programmes for the channel.

Sophie said: “I’m incredibly thrilled about the prospect of leading one of the most exciting developments in British television for decades.

“The world is changing, and not always for the better, throughout the world there is an increasing wave of bigotry and prejudice. This represents a very real possibility to combat that and change people’s lives. We’re aiming to entertain, educate and inspire our viewers.”

Andrew Kay
Andrew Kay

Andrew Kay, the presenter of Amazon Prime’s International Chef Exchange will bring his wit, charm and soufflé to the channel.  Andrew has worked in the creative world since graduating from Chelsea School of Art. For sixteen years he was an art director in the world of hard back books, designing innumerable book covers for some of the worlds best known and best-selling authors. After that he worked in theatre as a designer before joining Brighton’s magazine The Punter which went on to become The Latest Media group. Since the launch of Latest TV he has made several successful programmes and become a regular reporter on Latest TV News. On Latest LGBT+ Andrew will be presenting news, current affairs programmes and will also be fronting his own chat show AK Soufflè with guests from Brighton’s LGBT+ communities and beyond, with writers, musicians and people from the world of theatre talking about their lives and their careers.

Andrew said: “I see this as my chance to enjoy, in a public arena, being gay – but also in working towards a better and more equal world. Working with the Latest LGBT+ TV team is going to be exciting, challenging and fun and I hope that people –  whether they are LGBT+ or not – will join in.”

Bill Smith
Bill Smith

Bill Smith, Latest TV’s CEO and a nominee for the National Diversity Awards, said: “We’re delighted that our channel will be creating daily LGBT+ news programmes and entertainment shows, as well as screening the very best LGBT+ films from across the world. We’ll also provide a platform for LGBT+ filmmakers to share their work. With support from Coast to Capital, Latest TV has launched LGBT+ TV.  However we receive no ongoing public funding and so we’ve turned to crowdfunding to finance our service.”

Sophie Cook, added: “People power can change the world from the ground up and help to combat prejudice and injustice wherever it may appear. Together we can be the change that we want to see in the world, we’re giving people pride not prejudice.”

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