Spring is in the air, and very much in my step as I announce the special events that will make up May's FRIENDSHIP CIRCLES Exhibition at Platform Southwark.
FRIENDSHIP CIRCLES is a new series of works made by original GLF activist, artist, journalist, writer and speaker Andrew Lumsden. It celebrates friends and friendships in all areas and aspects of his life and work.
The first event is:
CELEBRATING GAY'S THE WORD BOOKSHOP; TALK AND Q&A WITH JIM MACSWEENEY
GAY'S THE WORD is the UK's oldest LGBT bookshop and a touchstone for the broader LGBT community. The bookshop was set up in January 1979 by a group of gay socialists as a community space where all profits were funnelled back into the business. This ethos continues today with shelves bursting with books and the space used for book and community events, all stewarded by three members of staff: Jim, Uli, and Erica.
GAY'S THE WORD reached out to a younger generation of LGBTQ+ readers and audiences as the setting of the 2014 film PRIDE, about the 'Gays and Lesbians Support the Miners' Campaign, or ‘Pits and Perverts’
Working at GTW since 1989, GTW Manager JIM MACSWEENEY will be in conversation with performer and curator DAN DE LA MOTTE.
The second event is:
PETER TATCHELL has campaigned for LGBT+ rights for 52 years, since 1969. An activist in the Gay Liberation Front from 1971-74 and a founding member of OutRage! 1990 -2011, he helped organise the UK's first Pride in 1972 and has marched in every Pride London parade since then. In 1973, he staged the first LGBT+ protest in a communist country, East Germany. His international solidarity activism has resulted in him being beaten by President Mugabe's bodyguards in Brussels in 2001 and by Russian neo-Nazis in Moscow in 2007. He is Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation: www.PeterTatchellFoundation.org
Peter will be discussing his incredible life and career in this talk with Q&A.
This event is hosted by JORDAN CHARLES.
Exhibition profits go to THE OUTSIDE PROJECT