Gracey Morgan, member of the Southwark Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans Network, speaks about the Bi-Visibility Day and a panel discussion on 25th September at Southwark Council that brings together leading bisexual activists, writers, thinkers and community members. Gracey explains that her involvement is a result of having set up the Facebook Group ‘Promoting Inclusive Attitudes Towards Bisexuals’. On the panel are also writer and poet Jacqueline Applebee who’s writing explores age, sexual orientation, disability and ethnicity and Helen Bowes-Catton and Dr Caroline Walter who are both involved with BiUK, the national organisation for bisexual research and activism. The panel is chaired by Charlotte ‘Lottie’ Dingle, Founder and Editor of Biscuit, the online magazine for bi-women. Charlotte tells us what motivated her to create this magazine six months ago and what her plans are for the future.
Writer Paul Burston offers us details about Polari’s national tour this autumn. London’s LGBT literary salon host events in Brighton, Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester, where it features established and emerging LGBT writers and holds workshops. Paul points out that he was delighted to have been invited, for the first time, to a book festival, which was not a dedicated LGBT festival. The concept behind the Polari tour is that it is a combination of authors such as VG Lee who travel with Paul through the country and local ones from Brighton or Manchester, for example. Paul also recalls how the Polari Literary Salon started seven years ago at the Green Carnation as an interval entertainment between some DJ work.
American author Joan Nestle presents the latest edition of Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary & art journal. This special edition discusses the subject of lesbians and exiles. Joan has a very political approach and highlights that it is often a question of people who don’t fit into normalisation, may it be people from the LGBT community, Jews or people from another background. She also describes what life was like in 1970s New York, when Sinister Wisdom was founded and she co-founded the Lesbian Herstory Archives in Brooklyn. She says, the butch-femme identity was the norm at that time in a community that was policed.
Rosie, Paul and Joan also discuss the film Pride, which revolves around the support the LGBT community offered the miners during their strike in 1980s Wales.
For rights reasons the music is not on the podcast, but that’s what you could hear on the show:
1) Bronski Beat: ‘Smalltown Boy’ from the album “The Age of Consent”
2) The Irrepressibles: ‘Ship’ from the album “Nude” (Landscape)
3) Amanda Rheaume : ‘The Strongest Heart’ from the album “Keep a Fire”
4) Christopher Owens: ‘Nothing More Than Everything to Me’ from the album “A New Testament”
'London's premier LGBT radio show' - Diva 