Event type: Talk

This Arab is Queer

Celebrating the release of a ground-breaking new anthology called This Arab Is Queer, this event by Homotopia and supported by LAAF, brings together editor Elias Jahshan with essayists Madian Alijazeera and Anbara Salam for an evening of readings and lively chat.

For the first time, LGBTQIA Arabs come together to share their personal stories of hope, struggle and love. All welcome.

Madian Aljazeera is a Palestinian Jordanian bookseller and founder of Amman’s Books at Café, a bookshopcome-internet café.

Anbara Salam is a Palestinian-Lebanese-Scottish writer. She is the author of Things Bright and Beautiful (Fig Tree/Penguin, 2018) and Belladonna (Fig Tree/Penguin, 2020).

Elias Jahshan (he/him) is a Palestinian/Lebanese-Australian journalist, writer and editor. He is a former editor of Star Observer, Australia’s longest-running LGBTQ+ media outlet.

Chaired by Laura Marie Brown, Creative Producer at Liverpool Arab Arts Festival.

You can buy a copy of This Arab is Queer, published by Saqi Books, https://saqibooks.com/books/saqi/this-arab-is-queer/

Homotopia runs 1st – 20th November 2022 across Liverpool. Check out the fantastic programme and book tickets here: www.homotopia.net/festival/

Here N Queer Panel Discussion

This October, Unity are proud to host the opening of the first Here and Queer panel discussion. They will be discussing the project, the process and their new exhibition. With the Queer Creatives Meet-Up before, a spoken word performance from Day Mattar during and a queer Halloween film screening after, it is set to be a special evening and not one to miss.

What is Here n Queer?

Here n Queer is a street-art photography project focusing on claiming public spaces where queer people have been made to feel unsafe. We fill the streets and exhibition spaces with photos of and words from Queer people living unapologetically. Liverpool is all of our city and everyone should be able to call it home. Here n Queer consists of  Kolade Ladipo, Luke Bryant, Iesha Palmer,  Francois Sandile Alexander and Felix Mufti.

The work shot by photographer Luke Bryant features moments of beauty and triumph, with images of those that have been made to feel unwelcome or attacked, returning to these sites to be unapologetically themselves. Here n Queer has also recently captured members of the LGBTQIA+ community in areas where they feel most themselves and accepted, to champion the places that help to fight prejudice in their everyday. The culmination of all of these shoots is a colourful, joyful and personal body of work that serves to send a community-wide message of love and acceptance.

Make a night of it…

As well as the panel discussion, there are two more events happening that evening that you’re welcome to attend and enjoy:

6pm, Queer Creative’s Meet Up: Join Homotopia, Unity and friends for a friendly and inclusive meetup with local LGBTQIA artists, makers and creators. This is your chance to meet new creative collaborators, seek career advice and have a lovely time with liked-minded queer pals.

7pm, Here n Queer Panel Discussion + Spoken Word Performance from Day Mattar: Join the team behind our latest exhibition Here n Queer to find out more about project, the process and the images. With the Queer Creatives Meet-Up before, a spoken word performance from Day Mattar during the panel discussion and a Queer Halloween film screening after, it is set to be a special evening and not one to miss.

8pm, Queer Halloween Film Screening + intro: For our October Cinema Night Special, the Cinema Nation team present a Halloween bash with a Queer Twist with a screening of cult-favourite, Hausu. Once described as “Scooby Doo on acid, when a schoolgirl decides to visit her aunt for the summer and invites a group of friends, it’s not long before their mischievous antics swerve into a kaleidoscopic and bizarre horror journey.

Refreshments:

The Unity Bar will be open from 5pm with a special Halloween themed cocktail menu for just £6 per cocktail. Our usual 2 for £8 beer and wine offer will also be available, supplied by your favourite local vendors including Love Lane, Liverpool Brewing Company and Neptune, as well as a range of snacks for you to enjoy with the film.

shado x Convenience Gallery presents: ...

Join in for a screening of the short documentary Comfort Angels followed by a panel with Jacqui McAssey (girls Fan Zine) Allison Whorton (Aggregate FC) and Kate and Ellie from Comfort Angels.

Panelists will talk about the role that football has had in all of their lives; the importance of grassroots football in fostering community; how each of the panellists are creating change in their communities and breaking down barriers and stigmas facing women in football.

Date and time: 20th October, 6.30pm

Location: Bloom Building, Birkenhead, CH41 5FQ

Putting Anti-Racism into Practice

Collective Encounters is delighted to announce speakers for their next Open Space event.

This event will explore how the participatory theatre sector can support Anti-Racism through our arts practice and promote diversity and inclusion in workshop and creative settings.

Join guest speakers to hear about how their work addresses inequality, diversity and access to the arts. These presentations will aim to provoke thinking around your own arts practice.

Book your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/putting-anti-racism-into-practice-open-space-event-tickets-404507541947

Panel Discussion: Queer Women on TV an...

Queer representation on our stages and screens is seeing a bit of a renaissance at the moment, in shows such as It’s a Sin and Heartstopper. Yet we must ask ‘where are all the lesbians’?

Join DIVA and panellists for a fascinating discussion about queer women’s representation now and historically on our screens and stage, and what the future might be.

Panellists to be announced soon.

Jarvis Cocker in Conversation: Good Po...

Join legendary musician and broadcaster Jarvis Cocker live in conversation to celebrate the publication of his highly regarded new book Good Pop, Bad Pop.

Jarvis will be discussing his unique life, Pulp, 20th century pop culture, the good times and the mistakes he’d rather forget.

So please join them. Proceeds in support of Ron’s Place in Birkennhead, of which Jarvis is Patron.

We all have a random collection of the things that made us – photos, tickets, clothes, souvenirs, stuffed in a box, packed in a suitcase, or crammed in a drawer. When Jarvis Cocker cleared out his loft, he found a jumble of objects that catalogued his story and asked him some awkward questions. Now Jarvis takes us through the accumulated debris of a lifetime, revealing his creative process – writing and musicianship, performance and ambition, style and stagecraft.

Good Pop, Bad Pop asks whether the things we keep hidden say more about us than those we put on display.

Event

Jarvis will be signing books after the show.

Main Photo: Tom Jamieson
Lion Photo: Martin Wallace

Heritage Open Days Tours at the Blueco...

During the week, Bluecoat’s Director of Cultural Legacies Bryan Biggs leads tours of the building, offering insight into its life as a charity school.

Wed 14 Sep, 12:30pm-1.30pm

Thu 15 Sep, 12:30pm-1.30pm

On Sun 18 Sep, Bryan will be joined by Michelle Girvan, whose current PhD research includes a focus on the lives of the children at the school in the eighteenth century.

Sun 18 Sep, 12.30pm-1.30pm and 3pm-4pm

RSA Forum Conference: Levelling Up in ...

A half-day conference exploring levelling up in the North.

The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) is all about uniting people and ideas to resolve the challenges of our time. As part of its Northern Forum, the RSA is collaborating with the Bluecoat for a half-day conference at the arts centre.

Leading local figures from the worlds of business, academia, politics and charity are being brought together to deliver lightning talks on different aspects of ‘Levelling Up’. A full list of speakers will be announced shortly, but those already approached promise a breadth of ideas that they think can inform this agenda – with perspectives on issues such as employment, skills, regional inequalities, culture-led regeneration and devolution.

With each talk restricted to ten-fifteen minutes, the series is guaranteed to make for a lively, informative and stimulating occasion. Head along and be inspired, meet like-minded people, and spark some ideas that will help shape the future!

Speakers include

Michelle Charters, Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre
Lorna Rogers, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
Lynsey Hanley, author and freelance journalist
Paul Cherpeau, Liverpool Chamber of Commerce

Britain’s Brown Babies Panel

Join author Lucy Bland and Philomena Harrison as they discuss Bland’s book Britain’s Brown Babies.

They’re hosting a panel discussion around the theme of looked after children past and present, with a specific focus on how black children experience the care system.

The panel will include Lucy Bland, whose book Britain’s Brown Babies: The Stories of Children Born to Black GIs and White Women in the Second World War won the 2021 Social History Society book prize, senior lecturer in social work at Hope University Philomena Harrison, and two former residents of the Fazakerly cottage homes, Jim Howard and Brian Lawrenson.

Join them for what promises to be an insightful and compelling evening, in which these contemporary stories connect to those of the looked-after children from the Bluecoat’s history.

Worlds of Wonder: Alfred Wallace

The science storylines and character creation within Doctor Who have always taken inspiration from the natural world.

Join Dr John James Wilson, Curator of vertebrate Zoology at World Museum as he introduces us to Alfred Russel Wallace, natural history collector, his expedition to South East Asia in 1854 and his ideas about evolution. This 8-year stay was to be a turning point for Wallace personally, but also humankind’s collective understanding of the natural world.

Supported by teams of local people Wallace amassed the largest natural history collection ever assembled, which he sold on to British museums, including World Museum, to fund his travels. Wallace’s observations in South East Asia led him to independently originate the theory of evolution by natural selection, which he later published conjointly with Charles Darwin.

Wallace’s famous account of his travels in “The Malay Archipelago” had a profound influence on contemporary fiction but to Victorian society, the unfamiliarity of the “Far East”, and the wonderful animals Wallace encountered could easily have passed for science fiction. This next generation’s own travelogues reveal how their ‘scientific collecting’ intersected with the myths and legends of the local people.

Event takes place in our Treasure House Theatre.