Pride in Our Past News December 2011

World AIDS Day December 1st was marked in Plymouth with the formation of a human ribbon on the steps of the Roland Levinsky building at the University of Plymouth.
A minute's silence was held in remembrance of those that have died from AIDS. Around 30 people braved the rain joining the candle lit procession through Drakes Circus shopping mall and the city centre to the Civic Centre. At the civic centre there was a minute's noise in celebration of life including some very loud drumming. Courtesy of Lori from Being You. The evening was rounded off with Martin's delicious home made soup and crusty bread. A welcome treat on a cold wet evening. Though it has to be said it was no where near as wet as Dec 1st 2009 where everyone got soaked through in the horizontal rain.
Members of the Rainbow Experience Plymouth's Age Concern LGBT group recently attended the third creative writing workshop held at the University of Plymouth. This was going to be the last of the workshops however they have enjoyed it so much we are going to organise a few more in 2012.

www.lgbt-history.prideinplymouth.org.uk

Two delegates represented the Pride in Our Past project at the 9 th annual Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) History and Archives Conference, which was held at the London Metropolitan Archives on Saturday 3 rd December 2011.

RESIST ACTION - CHANGE

The theme was to explore acts of conscience which can and do bring about change. The day featured keynote speakers who talked about their experiences.
Our delegates positively contributed to the Q&A panels and workshops. This was a fantastic platform to raise awareness about the Plymouth Pride in the Past project. We have gained great inspiration from the speakers and other community groups that are recording their communities' LGBT histories. One of the key speakers was Clare Summerskill - Clare is an actress, writer, stand up comedian and community activist. She has been described by Radio 4's Woman's hour as 'A lesbian Victoria Wood' and appears regularly on the LGBT comedy and cabaret circuits. She is also an experienced oral historian which led to Clare writing Gateway To Heaven a play that was funded by The Arts Council and toured twice to theatres around the country in 2006 and 2007. It was a piece based entirely on memories of older lesbians and gay men and was then commissioned by Age Concern to be made into a DVD. Another speaker was the Rev. Rowland Jide Macaulay the Director of RJMM.CO.UK, also the founding Pastor of House Of Rainbow Lagos Nigeria and London United Kingdom. Rowland Jide is of Nigerian parentage born in London, an ordained minister since 1998. He is openly gay, a dynamic and an inspirational speaker, poet, pastor, teacher and preacher and spends part of his professional time mainly in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. Rowland Jide's focus is spiritual activism with a major link with the inclusion and reconciliation of sexuality and spirituality, immigration adviser, human rights in all aspect, especially the right to religion for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender and Intersex people.

Clare Summerskill

having a gay-affirming faith community is important because "religion is a backbone to life in Nigeria, so we all want to go to church, but we Rev. Rowland Jide Macaulay don't want to lie to God about who we are. The debate around sexuality and religion was a lively one as another panel member Tim Bennett-Goodman described himself as an 'Evangelical Atheist'. However both accepted each others differences and beliefs united in work to make positive change for LGBT people.

The conference included four workshops, by sending two delegates we were able to attend all four workshops. The workshops proved to be very beneficial to us. The four workshops was split into two themes:
THEME 1: Teaching and Learning Workshop A - Working with historical records to develop learning materials / packs Workshop B - Facing history in ourselves tackling sensitive issues and planning strategies for delivery to groups - Carl Fazackerley, Southwark City Academy THEME 2: Developing Community Projects Workshop C - Starting and running a successful community project - Ajamu and the rukus! federation Workshop D - Saving and caring for community collections - surgery and advice Stefan Dickers - Bishopsgate Institute and the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive (LAGNA) Not only did our delegates learn new skills which will directly benefit the Pride in Our Past project. We also gained reassurance that our plans for the Plymouth LGBT Archive are in line with other community archives, making it both sustainable and accessible. Take a moment to look at: http://rukus.org.uk/ where you can see how oral histories can be presented and shared. Through its SHARING TONGUES project the rukus! Federation has successfully captured many fascinating oral histories from members of the Black LGBT community.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that New Year brings good cheer. Particularly to all our volunteers, supporters and partner organisations who are making the Pride in Our Past project such a success. www.lgbt-history.prideinplymouth.org.uk