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Author: Catherine Muxworthy

Villa & Proud launches World Cup survey

Posted on by Catherine Muxworthy

The 2022 FIFA World Cup begins in Qatar at the end of November, and the host country has already attracted a backlash due to its anti-LGBTQ+ laws, and treatment of LBGTQ+ people, women, and migrants. Despite the Supreme Committee saying: “The FIFA World Cup will be a tournament for everyone – much like previous editions of the tournament. Everyone will be welcome to Qatar in 2022, regardless of their race, background, religion, gender, sexual orientation or nationality,” there are still many concerns regarding the safety of LGBTQ+ fans, and LGBTQ+ Qataris.

In response to media asking for comments regarding the World Cup from Villa & Proud – the official LGBTQ+ supporter network for Aston Villa Football Club ­– the group has launched a survey, asking for feedback from their members.

“The men’s World Cup is an historic and highly anticipated global footballing event and this year it is different for a number of reasons. This tournament kicks off in Qatar in just a few weeks and we want to hear from our members, their thoughts and feelings on the tournament and the country in which it is being held,” explains Villa & Proud, in their November newsletter.

The survey can be completed anonymously if members wish, and it asks questions such as: ‘Thinking about how the location of this World Cup (Qatar) impacts you on a personal level, how do you feel about it?’; ‘What are your personal thoughts and feelings surrounding the World Cup?’; and ‘Moving onto more domestic influences, how do you feel the FA are performing in their support and inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community?’.

To complete the survey, find the link in their latest newsletter or complete the Google Form here.

The results of Villa & Proud’s survey are due to be published in the December newsletter. A survey, conducted earlier in November by Public First for More in Common already found that 62% of British people believe that “Qatar’s stance on gay rights alone should have been enough to bar it from hosting,” reports The Guardian.

Campaign launched to save Light House Wolverhampton

Posted on by Catherine Muxworthy

For just over 30 years, registered charity Light House – located in the historic Chubb Building in Wolverhampton – has been a creative hub hosting events such as an LGBTQ+ film season in collaboration with Peccadillo Pictures and Bohemia Media, alongside local organisation Wolverhampton LGBT+.

The site has also hosted the heats of the BBC New Comedy Awards in 2021, the Wolverhampton Literature Festival, sculptor Willard Wigan‘s Homecoming exhibition, the bi-annual Deaffest– a longstanding film festival celebrating the deaf community, and much more.

Unfortunately, the venue was forced to close at the beginning of November, due to financial issues, exacerbated by a 16-month Covid shutdown. Great difficulty in securing large-scale funding – to ease such pressures and build their capacity for the future – means the venue has had to close its doors.

Due to their current circumstances, a fundraiser is not possible so, to save Light House, a Change.org petition has been launched, and in it, marketing manager Darryl Griffiths explains: “The arts demonstrated at the peak of Covid how versatile and cathartic they can be. In our darkest days mentally, they could be the single bit of escapism that helped us cling on.

“But this feeling isn’t just confined to a pandemic. We’ve seen and heard consistently how vital Light House Wolverhampton is to so many people.”

MOBILISE Queer Power Party invites audience feedback

Posted on by Catherine Muxworthy

Lead Pic: credit Emma R Jones

The MOBILISE Queer Power Party is an inclusive and accessible sober dance party and silent disco. The events, created by Fatt Projects, ran throughout 2022 at The Exchange in Centenary Square, with the final event of the year held on Saturday, November 5. They promise to return in 2023 where they will see you on the dancefloor.

Until then, Fatt Projects is inviting event attendees to leave audience feedback which will aid them in continuing “to make MOBILISE accessible, safe and fun.”

“All the answers you provide are anonymous and will be used to help Fatt Projects to improve MOBILISE events, shape the next steps for the party, and to help us secure funding to keep events going in the future.”

To leave feedback for MOBILISE, CLICK HERE

The White Hart Wolverhampton: new pub to bring LGBTQ+ back to the city

Posted on by Catherine Muxworthy

The White Hart Wolverhampton is to return as a pub in December after first teasing the re-opening at the beginning of October with the phrase ‘It’s time to make a return’, which was met with excitement from the local LGBTQ+ community, bringing an LGBTQ+ venue back to Wolverhampton.

The old pub, which is thought to date back to 1923 and is locally listed, had been taken over by four different businesses between 2011 and 2019, but sadly the ventures failed and the venue closed. In November 2020 the Birmingham Mail reported that the Harrisons Group had put in an application to convert the former White Hart Inn building into seven, two-bedroom flats stating that they would preserve the “attractive and distinctive period building”. This application, however, was rejected over concerns about losing a community facility.

Then, in 2021, there was a new proposal put forward for the space from the Asylum Art Gallery who wished to create a studio and exhibition space on the ground floor arts centre, plus five flats on the two floors above.

In their application, agents AJ Carter consulting explained that “Keeping the locally listed building vacant in the hope that a new pub operator may take on the premises would be a rather limiting approach to seeking a viable use of the heritage asset.”

Now, however, it seems that the White Hart will be re-opening as a bar once more. Their grand opening was finally announced at the beginning of November, revealing that the venue would re-open its doors to patrons on Saturday, December 10. 

Additionally, they have begun their search on social media for live singers, drag queens and comedians to perform at the venue, plus there is a call out for bar staff. More information can be found on the venue’s Facebook page, and the pub and bar itself is located at 66 Worcester St, Wolverhampton WV2 4LQ.

Walsall Pride to return in 2023

Posted on by Catherine Muxworthy

In 2022, Walsall Pride was held, for the first time, in the town’s arboretum allowing for their biggest event yet with several stages including a main stage, cabaret tent, and dance area. In 2023, Walsall Pride will return to the arboretum over the August bank holiday.

The event will be held on Saturday, August 26, 2023 in the Arboretum Extension and tickets are already available online. Tickets are due to be released in four stages: Super Early Bird tickets for £3, which are available until November 30 (or until the allotted tickets are sold out); Early Bird tickets for £5, which will be available until February 28; General Release tickets for £7, which will be available until June 30; and then Final Release tickets, which will cost £10.

There are also concession prices for each of these release stages, which are available for young people aged 12 to 17, over 65s, and disabled people and their carer. Free tickets are also available for children aged 11 or younger, with a maximum of three free children’s tickets allowed, attending with one paying adult. Visit Walsall Pride’s website for more information and to book tickets.

For those hoping to join Walsall Pride as a trader, applications for stalls are already open to market traders, craft stalls and food stalls to register their interest via the Google form.

Birmingham-based clothing brand raises money for charity with Pride T-shirt

Posted on by Catherine Muxworthy

Punks and Chancers, an independent clothing brand based in the city, released their limited-edition organic Pride T-shirts just ahead of 2022’s Birmingham Pride festival. The T-shirts were hand screen-printed in Birmingham, using a blend of five fluoro water-based inks, making each design slightly unique due to the process of blending the inks through the screen. Five pounds from each T-shirt was donated to Birmingham Pride Community Fund.

Zoe from Punks and Chancers, who said she was “forever proud to be an ally”, announced that a £250 donation had been made to the Birmingham Pride Community Fund thanks to the sales of the limited-edition Pride T-shirts.

The Birmingham Pride Community Trust Fund supports local community and support groups within the LGBTQ+ community. You can find guidelines and information regarding how to apply on the Birmingham Pride Website.

Saving Lives attends Birmingham’s Fast Track Cities+ launch event

Posted on by Catherine Muxworthy

Saving Lives is a Birmingham-based national charity which aims “to reduce the stigma that still surrounds testing for the blood-borne viruses [BBVs] known as HIV and Hepatitis.” As well as focussing on other sexually transmitted infections. At the beginning of October, Dr Steve Taylor, Saving Lives’ Medical Director – and the Clinical Lead of the Birmingham’s Fast Track Cities+ (FTC+) programme – attended a signing ceremony which marked the beginning of a new phase in Birmingham’s approach to HIV.

“FTC+ is a global network of four hundred cities worldwide that are formally committed to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3.3 – the ending of the epidemics of HIV and tuberculosis (TB) – as well as the World Health Organisation’s goal of eliminating Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C by 2030,” explains a press release from Saving Lives, which adds: “In addition, FTC+ cities commit to achieving zero HIV-, TB-, and hepatitis-related stigma.”

“It’s fantastic that Birmingham is joining the Global Fast Track Cities initiative,” said Dr Taylor. “This is a real opportunity for all stakeholders in Birmingham to come together with a unified target of ending new transmissions of HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C (The blood borne viruses) and TB infections by 2030.

“However, we can only do this if we act together, we need to bring together the NHS – both secondary and primary care – the city council, sexual health services, drugs and alcohol services, and the third sector all to work together.

“At Saving Lives, we have extensive outreach and delivery networks across the grassroots and medical institutions of the city – and we stand ready to do our part.”

For more info on Saving Lives, CLICK HERE

The New Art Gallery Walsall to connect trans and queer artist in the UK and Pakistan

Posted on by Catherine Muxworthy

Lead Pic: Alex Billingham, Fluid Bodies Experiment. Photo by Alex Billingham and Vicky Roden

Newly announced residences for the New Art Gallery Walsall are intended to connect trans and queer artists in the UK and Pakistan. The Belonging / Disbelonging residencies will see the New Art Gallery Walsall and Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS), Karachi working in collaboration with curator Aziz Sohail.

Proudly announcing that they would be working with artists Alex Billingham in Walsall and Sophia-Layla Afsar in Karachi, the New Art Gallery Walsall explained that these new residencies will be “facilitating dialogue, debate and conversation across communities in Karachi and the West Midlands with a focus on inclusivity, care and kindness.”

Introducing Alex Billingham, the New Art Gallery Walsall explains that she is a trans fem, disabled artist; born in the Black Country and trained at Cumbria Institute of the Arts before returning to the Midlands.

“Alex focuses on live art and its intersection with experimental theatre and film.

“She notes that ‘survival underpins my work’ and that it is important for them to ‘find better ways for us all to survive into the future’. In their work, they explore how genderqueer, trans and disabled identities collide and intermingle. Alex is ‘intrigued by the points where nuclear technology and our fear of it meet, with a particular fascination with the fetishisation of nuclear dread in western media’.

“Currently they are interested in ‘revisiting how we connect with it through a queer perspective while nurturing an obsession with outdated hopes for the future.’ They ‘enjoy an analogue approach to manipulating digital technology that allows me to realise a low-fi visual style, binding grime with glitter to make beautifully dirty work.’”

Alex Billingham, Fluid Bodies Experiment 3. Photo by Alex Billingham and Vicky Roden

As part of this new residency, “Alex proposes to make work which is a celebration of the joy of being trans/queer. She will create film works based on performance using costumes, sets and props. The outcome will be fun and accessible, while acknowledging the privilege of UK legal protection and the pain that shadows queer existence. She is interested in the idea of transuranic elements which are synthetic, unstable and decaying but are also fantastic elements that enrich and save our lives. She regards this as a fabulous trans allegory!”

Sophia-Layla Afsar meanwhile, describes her work as “multidisciplinary, blending trans and neurodivergent advocacy, emotional care, and play”.

The New Art Gallery states that “Layla has worked with a range of mediums including poetry, prose, situation art and film. She has explored themes including isolation, opacity and nondisclosure of personal information by trans persons, objectification of trans bodies and narratives, utilisation behaviour by neurodivergent people and motionful stillness by autistic folks.

From Holding Space for Trans and Queer Grief, co-led by Sophia-Layla and Aesha Munaf. Cred: Aziz Sohail

“During her residency, Layla plans to collaborate with local minoritised creatives. So far, she has focused much of her creative attention on marginalisation at a community level or the broader liminality of gender transition. She now wishes to focus on more individual experiences, offering a window into how (dis)belonging is punctuated by micro moments of inclusion and exclusion.

“For her, it is the sum of such micro moments that determine neuro and gender minority, experiences of psychological safety, taking up space and contribution to civic life. As the current moral panic around transness (and its response) maps a predominantly gloomy presence, capturing and creating experiences of authentic joy and emotional care is a priority to offer a counterbalance to these narratives.”

Both artists will have a showcase exhibition of their work at the IVS Gallery in February 2023, curated by Aziz Sohail.

SHOUT, a festival of queer arts and culture, reveals line-up of events for 2022

Posted on by Catherine Muxworthy

SHOUT, a festival of queer arts and culture, takes place in Birmingham annually, with a range of events taking place at venues across the city. In 2022, SHOUT festival will be held from Friday, November 4 until Saturday, November 12, and will feature events that are both online and in person.

Dominus Von Vexo

This year’s calendar of events includes; stand-up comedy, short films, photography, a meet-up for queer creatives, a tea dance in the Edwardian Tea Rooms at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery hosted by Dominus Von Vexo, roundtable conversations, a queer story walk through the heart of Birmingham that shares hidden histories via an app as you approach pins on a map, and much more.

Many of the events on offer are, as with previous years, free; however, you may still need to book tickets. For more information about the full line-up of events and to book tickets, visit SHOUT Festival’s website.

Official Birmingham Pride merch raises money for Rape & Sexual Violence Project West Midlands

Posted on by Catherine Muxworthy

To celebrate their 25th anniversary, Birmingham Pride collaborated with You Betta Merch to sell official Birmingham Pride merchandise and raise money for the Rape & Sexual Violence Project (RSVP).

The products, which included a fan, a t-shirt, and a tote bag, featured the words Brum 25, Protest Power Pride in celebration of 25 years of Pride, protest and power in the city. Twenty per-cent of profits from the sales of these products will be donated to RSVP, a Birmingham and Solihull-based charity which supports LGBTQ+ individuals who have been subject to rape, sexual assault or sexual abuse.

You Betta Merch, which is run by Elliot Barnicle and Izzy Hard (Elliot Izzard), “was created by queer artists for queer artists… to support LGBTQ+ performers who want to develop their brand through means of merchandise.” They told Scene magazine that the sales of the Birmingham Pride merchandise had raised £75, and while this isn’t as much as they would have hoped, RSVP’s website shows that just £5 can pay for a travel ticket so an abuse survivor can attend counselling, while £20 can pay for books or toys for a sexually abused child.

When it was first announced that RSVP would be the recipients of this year’s Birmingham Pride merch fundraising, RSVP West Midlands said: “Thanks so much for thinking of and fundraising for us too. And for showing survivors you believe them.”

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