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Author: Jaq Bayles

LGBT Powerlifting Union responds to USA Powerlifting’s new MX division

Posted on by Jaq Bayles

The LGBT Powerlifting Union has said it is “encouraged” by the decision of USA Powerlifting (USAPL) to introduce an MX Division for athletes of all genders, but “disappointed” it has “chosen to miss an opportunity to engage with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Guidance over trans participation”.

The new division means trans and non-binary athletes will be welcome to compete at local, state and regional level championships across the US, with an opportunity for them to reach their national championships in 2022.

The LGBT Powerlifting Union said it acknowledges “any attempt by mainstream organisations to make powerlifting and strength sports more welcoming and accessible for LGBTQ+ athletes and encourages continued consultation and dialogue over these matters”.

In a press release responding to the USAPL announcement it said: “We are encouraged to see that USA Powerlifting have now started to consider transgender, non-binary athletes and intersex athletes, but are disappointed that they have chosen to miss an opportunity to engage with the IOC Guidance over Trans participation,” which it regards as the “gold standard” for inclusion.

It also highlights the details of its own MX category, which was the first of its kind when it was launched in 2018. The LGBT International Powerlifting Championships (LGBT IPC) MX category and competition rules “exceed the IOC guidance for trans athletes by a significant margin. Trans, non-binary and intersex athletes can participate in the LGBT International Powerlifting Championships, from the first day they make any decision regarding their gender, in gender neutral weight classes.”

It says: “LGBT IPC welcomes trans men or trans women who have decided to transition– who will be able to participate within either Male, Female or within Mx category. The optional third gender Mx category is also for people who do not identify as one or the other, such as non-binary or intersex. LGBT IPC was the first sports event in the world to introduce a third gender Mx category. Athletes are able to choose to lift as male, female, or MX in the LGBT International Powerlifting Championships from the moment they make their decision.”

The LGBT Powerlifting Union has also launched an International LGBT+ Powerlifting Directory, highlighting that there are now at least 37 federations, national affiliates, championships and clubs that have adopted LGBT+ friendly policies in the last four years.

INTERVIEW: Ricardo Reveron Blanco on the Archiving Your Life project by Queer History Now

Posted on by Jaq Bayles

Ricardo Reveron Blanco, learning & engagement co-ordinator at Photoworks, talks about the Archiving Your Life project by Brighton-based LGBTQ+ youth group Queer History Now, and part of the Photoworks Festival running until October 25.

What was the inspiration for the title of the festival, Propositions for Alternative Narratives?

The theme Propositions for Alternative Narratives attempts to give space to different ways of thinking about photography. Ideas which could be seen as an alternative to the mainstream narratives which so often dominate conventional photographic debate.

What prompted the collaboration between Photoworks and Queer Heritage South?

In 2010 Juliette Buss (Photoworks), David Sheppeard (Marlborough Productions), Mark Bryant and then Lesley Wood (New Writing South) began an archiving and exhibition project called Queer in Brighton, supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund. The partnership was born of a shared impulse to celebrate and promote the rich cultural life of the LGBTQ+ community in Brighton & Hove, which has since grown into an independent heritage learning organisation called Queer Heritage South, initiating projects across the city and beyond.

We’re thrilled to still be collaborating after 10 years. It’s been a rich dialogue that’s challenged and evolved the way we all work. For the past two years, we’ve been supporting young LGBTQ+ people to become heritage leaders through creativity and discussion. The LGBTQ+ programme at Photoworks has been documented in the Into The Outside website, Queer History Now is the current group we’re working with. This group has brought together young people with different interests and backgrounds who have developed a shared ethos for encountering, producing and challenging queer history.

Into the Outside | Photo credit: Caitlin Kentish

Why did Queer History Now choose the Tommy & Betty archive?

Queer History Now took interest in the Tommy & Betty archive (partly on show at Queer the Pier, Brighton Museum & Art Galleries) as it documented the lives of two women whose everyday livelihood served as a catalyst for discussion. These included conversations about revisioning history through a queer/ordinary/ethical lens.

The first photo of Tommy & Betty together is c.1947, suggesting they knew each other for more than 50 years. Their collection of personal memorabilia was found in a house clearance in Worthing in 2017. It includes a lifetime of photo albums. Many photos, including one marching by the Palace Pier on Remembrance Day, depict the women in uniform. They served in the Sussex Royal Battalion Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC). Their collection is a testimony for ordinary lives being part of history, ensuring that the everyday is as valuable as the extraordinary lives of those talked about in Museums. We can relate to Tommy and Betty as they document their everyday activities with friends.

We thank Queer the Pier and the Brighton museum for letting us use the archive. The Queer the Pier exhibition at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery reopens on October 17, 2020, where albums and ephemera from the Tommy & Betty Collection are on display.

Tommy & Betty

What sort of responses did members of the group have to the collection?

The group built a visual language using a broad range of creative processes including collage, mixed media, digital tools and needlework, expressing creatively how queer histories resonate with a present queer experience. Themes covered during the virtual workshops and in the work produced included; friendship, place, the lives of objects, ethics of documentation, memory.

A quote from one of the Queer History members about the work they submitted for the Photoworks Festival reads as follows:

“Resist the linear! Our history is an endless sticky cobweb! We fill in the gaps ourselves! We stitch ourselves into their past(s)! You change the story every time you tell it! No matter how tightly we weave it, it will never quite match up! I never met Tommie, or Betty! My own memories will someday escape me! Lavender essential oil may help you sleep!”

What form does the queer manifesto take, who is it aimed at and what are its motives?

As part of the group’s outcomes, Queer History Now were invited to create a manifesto about the way they’ve worked during this project, their ambitions of how they want archives to be used and shared, and what they hope to see in the sector in the coming years with regards to talking, sharing and learning about our histories. This manifesto is part of the Photoworks Festival In A Box and is aimed at anyone interested in how archives could and should be used to talk about history. This manifesto isn’t static, and the group is eager to keep adapting and evolving this document in order to keep learning and assessing how the sector and archives operate around the world while things change over time. Their manifesto is a work-in-progress, a live document, that communicates the principles, passion and excitement of this group and will propel queer heritage into the future.

Queer History Now manifesto

What elements from Queer Heritage South are included in the Festival in a Box?

The main thing included is a copy of the manifesto designed by Phoebe Wingrove. This gives you a real flavour of what the group is dedicated to fostering with regards to queer heritage and archiving. The document found on the Festival in a Box and recorded on the Photoworks Festival website testifies to the way of working the collective is keen on promoting in the sector and beyond when we talk about our histories.

There is also a chance to Archive Your Life with Queer History Now x Queer Crafts event on October 20. For more info, CLICK HERE

Festival in a Box

‘Fighting HIV Stigma in an Ageing Population’ – Baroness Joyce Gould

Posted on by Jaq Bayles

As patron of the Martin Fisher Foundation (MFF), a former member of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for HIV/Aids and honorary fellow of the British Association for Sexual Health & HIV, Baroness Joyce Gould of Potternewton is no stranger to lives lost.

Joyce, who lives in Brighton and became a Labour Peer in 1993, was originally a pharmacist but moved on to a career within the Labour Party and was its director of organisation from 1985 to 1993.

With her longstanding interest in sexual health, Joyce has been a constant in the fight against HIV and Aids. ‘Back in 1987 the idea of people growing old with HIV wasn’t there, because they were expected to die,’ she says. ‘I remember many years ago making a speech in which I wondered about what thoughts were being given in old people’s homes to those with HIV and people looking at me as if I was bonkers. If you went out into the street and asked people if those living with HIV could live to be old they would say ‘no’. People didn’t want to get into those discussions.’

Her first real introduction to meeting people with HIV who were getting older was through the Sussex Beacon and its respite care, and when in 2011 she helped set up a Select Committee on HIV & AIDS, she ‘insisted we come to Brighton and went to the Beacon because it was the only place in the country that catered for more elderly people with HIV.’

Meeting Martin Fisher – who she describes as ‘the most amazing person’ – was clearly a special moment for Joyce, coming at a time when she was chairing the Independent Advisory Group on Sexual Health & HIV in 2003. ‘He was the international expert,’ says Joyce. ‘Stigma is still the biggest problem and the MFF is doing a great job in Brighton around that and we have to give credit for Brighton & Hove Council and the MFF for when we became first Fast Track City for HIV.’

Launched on World AIDS Day 2014, the Fast Track Cities network ‘has grown to include more than 300 cities and municipalities that are committed to attain the UNAIDS 90-90-90 targets by 2020: 90% of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status; 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy (ART); and 90% of all HIV-diagnosed people receiving sustained ART will achieve viral suppression. Achieving zero stigma is the initiative’s fourth, but no less important, target’.

‘We were the first city in the country to get Fast Track City status,’ says Joyce, proudly. ‘By the end of 2018 we had got to 93% knowing their status, 99% of effective treatment and 98% of not transmitting. There’s a general acceptance that Brighton is a centre where things are happening and we have done so much.’

Joyce also praises the European Commission funded EmERGE project and the MFF bus for helping to combat stigma. But it’s education that’s vital. ‘You have to start with the schools, teaching kids. There are still a lot of people who don’t believe you can be at a state where you can’t transmit, partly because it’s not a statement you are going to get in the headlines.’

However for people achieving that status it’s a game-changer. ‘For the next generation it’s not going to be as bad as it was previously when the concept of not being able to transmit was not on the agenda.’

When it comes to the question of people living with HIV getting old, Joyce would like to see a review of the attitudes of all institutions, including prisons and care homes. ‘Let’s hope we have a system where if they have to go into a home they will be understood. The same should apply if someone has HIV as for any other illness with the reassurance they don’t become distanced from the rest of the community.’

With getting tested considered priority, MFF now has five digital HIV self-testing vending machines, for which it won a British Medical Journal Innovation Award in 2018.

There is more innovation in testing, in how you can protect yourself, more on the drug- taking to stop transmission. It’s inevitable this is going to develop. There will be more and more innovation,’ concludes Joyce.

MORE INFO

Visit www.themartinfisherfoundation.org or follow on Facebook @themartinfisherfoundation or Twitter @MartinFisherFo1

Pride postponement’s wide ramifications 

Posted on by Jaq Bayles

Brighton & Hove Pride and the Brighton Rainbow Fund organisers have spoken out about how the postponement of this year’s event will have ramifications that “will be felt throughout the LGBTQ+ community as well as across the whole of the city”.

Pride managing director Paul Kemp said: ‘For many LGBTQ+ people, Pride is the only time they come together and feel part of a community. It is a time to connect with other marginalised groups to give as well as receive support.‘

It was announced last month that the 30th anniversary Fabuloso Pride would not be going ahead this year in light of the coronavirus pandemic, with the event joining other major local and UK casualties, including the Brighton and Edinburgh Festivals.

The celebration will now be held over the weekend of  August 7-8, 2021, subject to landlord’s consent.

‘Organising Pride is a year-round endeavour and we have already paid out on things like artist deposits, contractors’ deposits and fees, press and marketing, staff costs and infrastructure,’ said Paul.

‘The pandemic is devastating for the whole leisure and events industry and the jobs of suppliers and contractors where the majority of income comes during the summer months. It’s becoming inevitable that insurance and suppliers’ costs for all major events will increase.

‘Our priority right now is to ensure we are in a fit state going forward to deliver an event next year while continuing to support the Brighton Rainbow Fund and our community organisations. There are real challenges ahead, but with support from our partner agencies, council and the community, we are confident we’ll get through this crisis.

‘We know Pride will be even more important in bringing people back together again to celebrate our communities.’

In the past six years, Brighton & Hove Pride has raised more than £920,000 for community good causes, thanks to the support of businesses, sponsors and the many thousands who buy tickets for the Festival in Preston Park and Pride Village Party. It has supported hundreds of community organisations with grants through the Brighton Rainbow Fund, Pride Social Impact Fund and Pride Cultural Development Fund, which “has made a fundamental difference to the lives of thousands of people in our communities”.

Paul added: ‘Clearly there’s going to be an impact on this year’s Pride fundraising, but we are exploring ideas with our community partners on how we might do something in August to help raise additional much needed community funds.’

Pride is the biggest fundraiser for the Brighton Rainbow Fund, which is a central distribution point for grants to 23 local LGBTQ+ and HIV projects.

Chair Chris Gull said: ‘It is these projects, and the people they support, that will notice the effects of reduced fundraising this year, not just from the cancellation of Pride, but also other fundraisers such as Brighton Bear Weekend, and the closure of venues that have been important to our fundraising, both by organising events and by hosting our collection tins.

‘We also rely on individual donors, who may be affected by the upcoming ‘downturn’.

‘Like everybody else we have no idea how much we will have to distribute in October, but we do know that we’ll have to make some tough decisions.

‘Pride is our biggest fundraiser and looking beyond the short term it’s important that it survives to continue raising funds for our community organisations for many years to come.

‘To that end we’re asking everybody who would have attended Pride this year, and helped to raise funds through their attendance, to consider donating some of the money they’d have spent that weekend directly to The Brighton Rainbow Fund using the donate button on the website.’

Both Pride and the Brighton Rainbow Fund are also calling on those who had already bought tickets to consider the option of ‘donating’ the ticket price by not claiming a refund. Pride will give anyone who does this priority in purchasing pre-release tickets for next year.

‘We are still processing refund applications but are heartened that the majority of existing customers have chosen to retain their tickets for next year thus supporting Pride going forward and our community fundraising,’ said Paul.

 

 

Al Start – Hitting the Right Note

Posted on by Jaq Bayles

For some people being a role model is a full- time job – and as such needs to be taken seriously. As a singer-songwriter with a digital platform that reaches children and their families across the globe, Brighton’s Al Start is fully aware of her responsibilities.

Not that this was the journey she originally envisaged for herself, rather her dream for a long time was ‘to be k.d. lang’, but in 2008 that all changed. ‘I was kind of forced to do it against my will. I had just been touring the UK and the US, released a solo album, came back and I was broke. I thought: ‘How am I ever going to make money from music?’

So, calling on her previous experience as a playworker, she took a job in a school, where it wasn’t long before a teacher who had seen her lugging her guitar around and going to band practice started asking her to play for the pupils. Al, being what she called ‘a serious musician’, was resistant to the idea. ‘I thought she might want me to sing Kumbaya.’ But she wrote a song called Creepy Castle and brought it to the youngsters with added sign language, because that’s what she had done as a playworker. ‘They absolutely loved it and I really enjoyed it. But I really didn’t want to do it at all to begin with. The amazing thing is now I can sell my shows out in the blink of an eye.’

Al, herself a parent, had hit upon an unmined seam in British music – the performing of proper songs for kids with good arrangements and meaningful lyrics, backed by the sign language element that brings the lyrics to life and works as a learning aid. ‘I put as much effort into writing for children as I do for adults. Children’s music should not be lower quality than all other music, but it often is.’

This month Al launches her tenth album in that vein, Robot. There’s also a range of primary school songbooks, Sing! Play! Learn!, with Go Kid Music (the children’s music company she set up in 2015), published by HarperCollins.

Go Kid Music’s online platform has meant her performances are now seen across the world, making her a household name and a familiar face to thousands of families. ‘I try to be a role model for the children. I take it really seriously. I’ve worked with them for 35 years in playwork, creative arts and now as a singer. They think I’m famous because they see me on their computers and tablets then I go to the show and they are ‘Oh my god it’s Al Start’ and they have stars in their eyes.’

The values she puts into her company – ‘Kindness, respect, being yourself’ – reflect her commitment to helping the kids she performs to develop a positive view of music and lyrics and the confidence to be who they want.

Being quite androgynous, Al is aware of the effect she can have on her audience: ‘I do their heads in because they don’t know if I’m a boy or a girl.’

And she is happy to challenge the gender stereotypes. ‘When kids get to about seven they’re trying to work out who they are in relation to everybody else and gender is a crucial part of that.’

For example, they notice that someone’s got long hair or short hair and make the distinction between what is deemed appropriate for girls or boys. ‘By the time they reach nursery school they’ve already absorbed full-on stereotypes,’ says Al. ‘It’s a process.’

Now she says she is ‘teetering on the edge of wanting to do something with LGBTQ+ and kids’, but some in educational establishments can be reluctant to consider such issues from any point of view other than that of the parents.

Regardless, inclusivity is important to Al, as evidenced by a song called What Makes A Family, which uses the rainbow flag colours to help illustrate how different families can be and that’s how it should be – there are many variations on the nuclear model.

Ultimately, Al’s aim is to: ‘Write songs that permeate the fabric of childhood in the same way everyone gets together and sings the Happy Birthday song. I would like my songs to be there as a part of family culture.’

And her own role models? Musically she cites Michelle Shocked, Annie Lennox, k.d. lang, Horse McDonald… think there’s a theme there. And her ‘hair icons’ were ‘the Fonze and John Travolta in Grease’ – and that’s the power of role models.

MORE INFO

This autumn look out for The Go Kid Music Club themed monthly afternoon family shows at The Brunswick, Hove, for art activities, singing, games and stories.

To join Al’s online Family Music Club, School’s Music Club, buy CDs, books, teaching resource packs or tickets to shows and for more info, visit: www.gokidmusic.com,

email info@gokidmusic.com 

call: 07808 269 780.

Instagram/Facebook @gokidmusic

From the Jaws of Adversity – Jaq Bayles interviews Chris Gull

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Chris Gull has been a pioneer in the distribution of funds to LGBTQ+ causes over some years, making sure the least advantaged don’t miss out – and he’s passionate about getting others involved. He tells Jaq Bayles what makes him an advocate of community work.

The mere mention of a dentist can be enough to make a lot of people feel a bit faint, but do they pause to think about the broader life of the person willing to spend their career grappling with other people’s oral hygiene? John Schlesinger’s 1976 movie, Marathon Man, has a lot to answer for – it was there that the notion of torture and the dentist’s drill became intrinsically linked in popular culture and probably accounted for an upswing in benzodiazepine prescriptions for dental patients.

But, of course, when the myth is monstrous the reality is frequently the exact opposite. Take Chris Gull, for example, veteran LGBTQ+ campaigner and chair of the Brighton Rainbow Fund – you’d be hard pressed to meet a more calming presence. As a dentist in Moulsecoomb at the height of the 1980s HIV health crisis he was, for some time, the only one who would see people who had been diagnosed because “there was a lot of fear among health professionals, which meant they were doing things like saying: ‘I’ll see you at the end of the list’.”

In fact, it was his dentistry that led to a lifetime of working to better the lives of LGBTQ+ people as he got to know the organisations supporting people living with HIV and Aids. As a result he joined the Brighton Cares hardship fund in 1992, and chaired it for seven of its 10 years, helping to raise money until the advent of combination therapy meant the fund was no longer needed.

But one thing led to another, and it’s no surprise to hear him cite James Ledward as one of his big role models, given that it was he who, some years ago, invited Chris to join a grants panel to distribute money raised by Pride. Then, 10 years ago saw the advent of the Brighton Rainbow Fund with Chris at the helm and started with money left from fundraising for The Aids Memorial. Chris takes up the tale about the fund that is a part of The Sussex Community Foundation (SCF): “There were five or six of us who gave advice about where to grant applications. We weren’t a separate organisation but as the fundraising grew we were putting 10% to the SCF for admin so we set up as a Community Interest Company in 2014.”

While Pride is the main fundraiser, it isn’t the only one and has no say in how funds are distributed.
“The concept was always to be a central fund. Venues can now safely say they are fundraising because the money is going to where it’s needed. Before that happened venues or fundraising at venues would be lobbied by the organisations and smaller groups would get left out. The Brighton Rainbow Fund is done by application, we have a grants advisory panel for the statutory and voluntary sectors and we can monitor how it’s used.”

The Fund has commissioned a scoping exercise on young LGBTQ+ homelessness in Brighton & Hove with the Albert Kennedy Trust, which found 25% of young homeless people across the nation identified as LGBTQ+, although in Brighton that figure was 33%. Chris says: “The reason there’s such a disproportion across the nation is that people run away from situations, young people are outed or come out or are found out and it doesn’t go well and they are in a situation of being bullied or leaving home at the age of 18 and Brighton is a mecca. They are particularly vulnerable, often going to chemsex parties. It can be difficult to help them initially because they don’t have a local connection.”

This is an issue close to the heart of Gscene founder James Ledward, after whose death The Ledward Fund was created for people who wanted to contribute to provide emergency accommodation for people in that situation. “Because it isn’t statutory money it can be used for people without a local connection to get them into a safe space until things are working out.”

Indeed, Chris gave a rallying cry at James’ funeral, inviting anyone who could to join in helping those in need.
“It’s important for people to get involved from both sides. The LGBTQ+ community is polarised in terms of life experience, in terms of what life has brought them. Some of us have done very well because, historically, we haven’t had families and school fees etc but a lot of people have. The idea that we’re a group of universally well-off pink pound owners isn’t true. Some of us do have that and a lot of us don’t. There are disproportionate levels of depression, loneliness and poverty as well as wealth compared to the nation as a whole.

“We talk about the LGBTQ+ community but it’s actually a series of communities with different needs and experiences, but historically we have also been there for each other.”

But why is he such a keen advocate of voluntary work? “It’s easy to give a trite answer along the lines of ‘getting  satisfaction from helping others’… but it’s more complicated than that. I think that volunteers get back as much as they give, not just with that sense of satisfaction, but in actually being part of a community with shared goals, shared life experiences, and the ability to make positive contributions to our communities, and moving projects forward together.

“Most of us, if we take time to reflect, can recognise that we have some sort of privilege, whether time, money, a skill, experience from a long life, a degree of freedom, and opportunities which we have because of the efforts of those who came before, whether parents, or activists, teachers or friends.

“Do we just pull the ladder up and let others fend for themselves? Or do we become the enablers who allow others, who haven’t had those privileges, to climb up with us?”

As to who his icons and role models are: “Maya Angelou, Armistead Maupin, My Oma, My Mum, Alan Rickman, Graham Wilkinson and Father Marcus…”

Jaq Bayles on How to avoid the unavoidable

Posted on by Jaq Bayles

While it may not seem like it, there might be a bright side to the whole having to stay indoors thing. Most people are already saying their homes have never been cleaner; their wardrobes never neater; if they’ve got an outside area it’s probably been jetwashed to within an inch of existence. And it’s only day two.

But once all the essential boxes have been ticked, it’s guaranteed that everyone will be left facing their nemesis – the one thing they will go to any lengths to avoid, no matter much free time they have. In a startling number of cases this nemesis is known as “sorting the paperwork”.

You don’t need to be a hoarder to have somehow ended up with a mountain of old bills, bank statements, invoices, work memos, magazines that have a recipe you might want to follow one day… Unfortunately, that unnecessary stuff somehow always manages to winkle its way in among the really important papers that you actually need, so in order to tackle “the paperwork” you have to go through absolutely every piece of documentation that’s ever come your way.

But don’t despair – you’ve avoided it up until now and just because there are weeks of not being able to go out looming doesn’t mean you can’t continue to avoid it.

Here are a few suggestions for essential time-wasting activities:

 

That book you’ve been using as a step to help you reach the top shelf, which is the only remaining place you can stuff more paperwork, is probably a classic. Any book that’s the size of a breezeblock will likely be very worthy, very profound, very mind-expanding. You probably didn’t buy it as a height aid, so get reacquainted with your inner intellectual – or pop a copy of your favourite comic inside so it at least looks like you’re reading it.

Got an album collection? There’s never been a better time to alphabetise it. Hell, there’s never been a better time to alphabetise anything – CDs, mixed tapes (if you don’t know what they are you probably haven’t accumulated that much paperwork yet), DVDs, clothes, ornaments, Trivial Pursuit question cards, kitchen cupboard contents…

Which leads neatly on to another great essential time-eater – arranging the contents of the kitchen cupboard. There are many ways this can be done and in all honesty alphabetising probably isn’t the most fruitful – your flour and fois gras, pickled onions and pasta, soup and spaghetti, aren’t going to look particularly neat together, neither will their groupings make sense.

Probably best to do this one by category. Remember, you’re looking to while away the time, so don’t rush it – you can eke this one out for days while you try to find the most efficient system of categorisation. Then you’ll be in a position to alphabetise the categories. And be sure to get fully distracted by the random foodstuffs you didn’t even know you had, along with the use-by dates on any tins – these will invariably go back as far as 1993 and can be the source of long-term topics of debate, reflection and conversation.

So there you go. A few essential tasks you may not have thought of to keep you occupied outside the TV box sets and that have the added benefits of both not being a board game and of keeping you away from the horror of “sorting the paperwork”.

Jaq Bayles March 2020

 

Five minutes with… Nicky Mitchell

Posted on by Jaq Bayles

With all live gigs cancelled, Gscene is asking LGBTQ performers how they are filling the creative void for fans and helping to keep up community spirits.

First up is this popular Brighton “troubadour, musician, entertainer, singer of songs”, who’s been delighting Facebook followers with responses to song requests.  Nicky Mitchell

 

What are you currently doing online performance-wise?

Well, on Mother’s day, a friend asked me to make a video of me singing Fly Me To the Moon for her Mum, because they couldn’t be together. Of course… I obliged and while I was at it, offered to make other dedications for others too. So I currently have a backlog. People can donate via my virtual tip jar, but I didn’t really want to make it about that. I want to do it because I want to do it and because it’s nice to do something.

What kind of dedications are people asking for?

Mostly for partners or loved ones they are separated from.

Can you give us some examples of requests?

Fly Me To The Moon, Dream a Little Dream of Me, but my favourite so far is Enter Sandman by Metallica, which I am working on….

Are you writing songs ‘to order’ in response to requests?

I have been commissioned to write a song for someone, but it’s a secret!

What has been the reaction?

Lovely and warm and endlessly kind.

Have you gained more online followers?

Probably, haven’t looked.

How does it compare with live performance? What are the main differences?

With video you get endless ‘do over’ opportunities, so you have to set your own level of what you will accept quality wise. Mine is pretty low. ; )

Is there a most-requested song?

One of my own songs that people love. It’s called Forest Waltz and you can see it on my Facebook page.

Nicky is on-line at 3pm today , tune in and check her out!!

I’ll be posting vids on my YouTube channel and website soon.

How many songs are you performing each day?

About 10.

Have you learned anything from this process?

That I can adapt.

Do you think other people have learned from this process?

That money is not everything… I was very ahead of that particular curve.

Do you know of any other performers doing similar things?

Yes, Liane Carrol is live streaming her regular Wednesday night gig from Porters Wine Bar in Hastings and raising money for the South East NHS.

For a lot of performers, it is a real need to express themselves. A muscle you get used to flexing over and over and over again. It is an outlet and a way to connect with the world and other people. It is a source of joy and a primal drive for most of us.

Are you likely to continue with this when things “get back to normal”?

I don’t think anything is ever going to get back to normal. We are facing a 10-week lock down I think, maybe longer, and then we will face a global economic recession the likes of which has NEVER been seen.

What are your plans pertaining to upcoming gigs?

For ticketed shows…1. Offer a refund, no quibble. 2. Livestream the gig anyway. 3. Reschedule too.

If you’re a performer and are finding innovative ways of connecting with your audiences, we’d love to hear about it. Please contact us via news@gscene.com

 

 

Amaze Community Help Postcard to help vulnerable SEND families during COVID-19

Posted on by Jaq Bayles

The Amaze charity for families with disabled children and young people in Sussex has launched an AMAZ-ing Community Help Postcard. It offers an easy way for people to offer extra support to friends and neighbours who have children with additional needs.

The postcard can be downloaded from the Amaze website  and anyone who lives near someone who they think could do with some added support can print it out, fill it in and pop it through their door.

Fiona England, chair of Brighton’s Parent and Carers’ Council, said: “As a fellow parent carer already feeling a little isolated at home, I feel so heartened by the positive impact this campaign can have on our SEND community. A huge thanks to Amaze for kick starting this essential scheme.”

Amaze CEO Rachel Travers said: “This is a very worrying time for everyone, especially parents of children who may be especially vulnerable because of pre-existing medical conditions, but also for some children and young people who are experiencing higher than usual levels of anxiety or other mental health issues.

“Families are telling us they are really worried about the months to come and how long periods in self-isolation will be especially tricky for many families of children with additional needs. So it’s really important that the local community looks out for, and tries to offer practical support to them, where possible.”

Further information: 

Call for help to provide food & essentials for most vulnerable

Posted on by Jaq Bayles

Brighton & Hove Food Partnership is calling for help to raise £15,000 for essential food, packaging and toiletries for vulnerable & isolated people in Brighton & Hove during the coronavirus crisis.

The organisation said: “Across the city, 21 food banks and emergency food providers have been distributing more than 20,000 food parcels a year to people living in poverty, with an increasing number of families and working people using these services. Our research shows that many more people are in need but have been unwilling or unable to access food banks.

“Over the past few weeks, many local residents have lost their previous income and many older and vulnerable people have been advised to self-isolate at home for up to 12 weeks. The existing food bank model of people collecting parcels could now put people at risk at a time when demand will be higher than it has ever been.

“Food banks and many low-cost community meals depend on surplus food but there is not sufficient supply during this critical time. Well-meaning donations of food by members of the public also run the risk of spreading the virus.”

The group said it now needs to start buying some food and other essentials – largely wholesale/ in bulk – to meet demand, and all funds raised on its JustGiving page will pay for food, toiletries and packaging so it can:

* source food and other essential items (eg soap, toiletries) to distribute to people in poverty who are unable to leave their homes

* cook & package healthy bulk meals which can be distributed to people in poverty who are unable to leave their homes and families eligible for free school meals

* create a new model of distribution, with neighbourhood hubs (eg local school kitchens and children’s centres) where volunteers can pick-up parcels & meals to deliver to people in their community

* ensure all deliveries are made safely with no physical contact, but offering a chance for social connection where possible, and linking people to other support services

* recruit, train and support existing and new volunteers who will need to work to very high standards of food safety & hygiene

The Food Partnership is coordinating this appeal on behalf of all the key organisations working on these issues in Brighton & Hove: Fareshare, the Real Junk Food Project, the Bevy, Chomp and all the local food banks and key referral & equalities organisations (including Lunch Positive, Voices in Exile, the Clare Project).

For anyone interested in volunteering, please see information on the Brighton & Hove Food Partnership website.

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