Events coming up in February 2017

by unchartedworlds

There’s a lot of bi & LGBTQ stuff coming up in Nottingham (and Leicester and Derby) in February!

Sunday 5th, Nottingham

Intersections: In Conversation with Nottingham’s LGBT Community, at Nottingham Contemporary, 2pm to 6pm.  Free – please book.

Thursday 9th, Nottingham

Usual once-a-month informal BiTopia meetup at the Lord Roberts pub in Nottingham city centre.  All bi-friendly people welcome – just turn up.  Free, though you’ll probably want to buy a drink.  Small step to enter pub, stairs to toilets.

Saturday 11th, Nottingham

No More Valentines #2 at the Chameleon Arts Café.  Bands, buffet food, queer bingo, dancing.  5pm till late.  Fundraiser for QTIPOC Notts.  £3 to £6, “no-one turned away for lack of funds”.

Sunday 12th, Derby (note: erroneously listed here as 11th originally – sorry about that)

11am till 2pm: Derbyshire LGBT+ host a book launch for bi book “Purple Prose”, with brunch.  Free.

2pm till 3pm: Derbyshire bi people’s consultation about a possible new bi group.  Free.

Sunday 12th, Nottingham

12 noon to 4pm: Queer Kaffe at the Sumac Centre.  Live music, vegan brunch, haircuts.  Another fundraiser for the wonderful QTIPOC Notts.  The Sumac Centre has flat access via the back door on Beech Avenue, and a wheelchair toilet.

Also on Sunday 12th in Nottingham, a bit later on…

4.30pm:  “Purple Prose: Bisexuality in Britain” at Five Leaves bookshop. Talks from some of the bi writers behind the book.  £3.  Flat access to the shop, wheelchair toilet.

(If coming on from the Sumac Centre to Five Leaves, you can get any yellow line bus from Beech Avenue bus stop on Sherwood Rise.)

Monday 13th, Nottingham

Lesbian & bi women’s cafe at Nottingham Women’s Centre. Free. “A drop-in evening for any women identifying as lesbian, bisexual or questioning – with a little bit of food and a lot of conversation”.  5.30pm – 7.30pm every second Monday of the month at Nottingham Women’s Centre, 30 Chaucer Street, Nottingham, NG1 5LP. Contact Mel at the women’s centre if you want someone to meet you beforehand.

Friday 17th, Leicester

An evening with bi songwriter Tom Robinson.  Free – please book.

Sunday 19th, Nottingham

Screening of Pay It No Mind – The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson, at Broadway Cinema. Free – please book.  Part of the University of Nottingham’s LGBT History Month events. “All of our screens are accessible to wheelchair users and people with limited mobility, however we have limited spaces available. If you would like to reserve a wheelchair space or one of our more accessible seats, do contact us ahead of time so we can make sure to reserve the best seats available for you.”

Monday 20th, Nottingham

Finding a voice: minority identities within and beyond LGBTQ+ – details t.b.c.
Update: Details for this are now available, and it’s 6.30pm till 8.15pm at the New Art Exchange. Free – please book. NAE has good wheelchair access inc toilet and lifts. “New Art Exchange has 2 disabled parking spaces at the rear of the building, just off Noel Street. For access to the spaces, simply call New Art Exchange on 0115 924 8630 in advance of your visit.”

Wednesday 22nd, Nottingham

LGBT organising and the police: a discussion, at Five Leaves bookshop.  Free – please book.  Flat access to the shop, wheelchair toilet.

Monday 27th, Nottingham

Political upheaval and the LGBT community: building resilience in a changing world – details t.b.c.
Update:  Details for this are now available, and it’s 6.30pm till 8.15pm at the Arts Centre Lecture Theatre at Lakeside, University Park campus.  Free – please book.

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More listings here:

https://nottstranshub.wordpress.com/category/bulletin/

and here:

http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/peopleandculture/2017/01/26/events-lgbt-history-month-2017/

BiTalkia, Monday 23 Feb 2015: details

by unchartedworlds

Date	Monday 23 February 2015.
Start time	Doors open 7pm, discussion 7.30 till 8.30, chatting time afterwards. Then washing-up-cups, and out of the room by 10pm.
Theme	“Fitting & misfitting in the bi community”.
Format	The hour of discussion will be fairly highly structured, for equal shares of talking time. Mostly in small groups. Couple of go-rounds in big group, where everyone gets a turn but doesn’t have to speak if they don’t want to. Little bit of writing; if you like, you can ask in advance for a scribe to do your writing-down, and we might be able to find a friendly volunteer. More info below about the theme and the format. The chatting time afterwards won’t be formally structured.
Venue	Friends’ Meeting House (FMH), 25 Clarendon Street, Nottingham NG1 5JD. This is round the corner from the Women’s Centre. It’s a beautiful modern building with flat/ramped access and a wheelchair-accessible toilet. We’ve booked the Social Room. That has pretty good acoustics for talking, and includes a small kitchen. Its max capacity is 60, but I think it’ll feel fine with the 15 to 25 or so participants we can probably expect.
Cost	“Pay the amount that seems right to you”. For more background on this, see below.
Travel info	See the Friends Meeting House “Finding us” page for lots of useful info on roads, parking and public transport.
Optional pre-meet	Optional:  Leaving Central Library at 7pm to walk up to the FMH together.  Hannah will be there to welcome people and lead the way. This pre-meet is designed for people who don’t want to arrive alone via the quieter streets near the FMH after dark – or who know the library as a familiar landmark, or who just like the idea of having company on the way – and who can walk or wheel for about 500 metres.  Feel free to come straight to the FMH if that works better for you. Depending on your travel situation, an extra possibility might be to come to the Central Library a bit earlier and have a browse round. If you’ve brought a snack, you can eat it in the food-and-chat-allowed area on floor 2. Meet outside the library doors at 7pm. (The library shuts at 7pm.) The Central Library is on Angel Row, just off the Old Market Square in Nottingham City Centre. Nearest tram stop: Old Market Square. Access note:  If you want to take advantage of the communal walk, but it would take you longer than about 15 minutes to travel that far under your own steam, let me know, and we can probably organise a bonus earlier slower walk-up-together.
Open to	Bi people and anyone with a positive interest in bisexuality, including friends or partners. (Not sure if you’re bi?  Take a look at the Bisexual Index’s quiz.)
Theme blurb for “Fitting and misfitting in the bi community”	Ever been dissatisfied with the words “bi” and “bisexual” because they don’t quite fit for you? Or ever wondered whether you’d be welcome at bi events? Ever looked around a bi group and felt “odd one out”, unfashionable or not quite at home? Ever questioned where you fit in the community (including for instance as the non-bi partner of a bi person, or as someone wondering whether they might be bi)? Ever felt like you’re “not a proper bisexual”, or “not bi enough”? Or, on the other hand, ever thought how much you like it here, even though you’re not bi?
Facilitator for this discussion	Jennifer. (me!) I first invented the “Fitting & misfitting” format in 2002, I’ve run it a few times since then and so have other people. Totally not necessary in order to enjoy the evening, but if you’re interested, you can read about its history here: http://www.uncharted-worlds.org/bi/fitmisfit.htm http://www.uncharted-worlds.org/bi/BiCon/fitmisfit2005.htm
Co-facilitator	Ideally, I’d like to collaborate with someone else who wants to be on a learning curve towards leading similar things. No previous experience required. Talk to me if you fancy it.
Other help required	two or more currently-ablebodied people to turn up no later than 7.10pm to help set out the room. This mainly just means moving chairs and maybe tables. Good opportunity for people who find it easier to settle in when they’re being collaboratively helpful 🙂 two or three people to wash up cups at the end. Hannah is bringing tea & coffee supplies.
Other contributions possible	Optionally, bring cakes / snacks! as long as they come with a piece of paper listing the ingredients.
Background on money	We want to cover the costs of hiring the room, the tea and the coffee. We decided not to set a specific price, because it’s so hard to make that fair, given that some people can easily spend £10 without noticing and others are carefully managing pennies. Instead, we’ll have anonymous contributions to some kind of box or hat. To give a sense of roughly how we expect the money to work: The room is £37.50 (subsidised by the FMH hire rates because BiTalkia is non-profit). In the survey, we asked people “Per meeting, an amount I would feel was an amazing bargain for such a rare & useful event is: ….”. Most people replied something like £2, £3 or £5. Then we asked “Per meeting, an amount I could stretch to if needed without feeling bad about it, to make things work well for the event as a whole, is: ….”. Most people replied around £5 to £15, a few either higher or lower. This gave us confidence to go ahead and book the room. So if there are one or two people who can’t even stretch to £2, we’ll probably still be OK. In other words, do chip in, and don’t miss it due to worrying about the money!

Update 6 Feb: added money info, which I’d forgotten before!

Fade café = venue for newcomers’ meetup

by unchartedworlds

We’ve now settled on a venue for the newcomers’ meetup before the main event on the 23rd:

Fade is at 171 Mansfield Road, Nottingham NG1 3FR. That’s about 300 yards down the hill from the Maze. It’s just south of Chatham Street, with (like the Maze) a back entrance from North Sherwood Street.

This is a compromise choice, as it doesn’t have full wheelchair access (though the main event does). I’m very sorry if that affects anyone.

I hope & intend that the main event will be newcomer-friendly in itself, making the meetup an optional extra for newcomers – this makes sense anyway, because not everyone could get there as early as 2.30.

But I’m aware that we’re excluding any non-step-mobile wheelchair users who would have liked to meet up with some of us but wanted or needed to have children under 14 with them at the time. If that describes you, let me know, and we’ll invent something else for another day.

Although its child-friendliness and general niceness were part of the attraction, the main reason we picked Fade was so that the walk from one venue to the other wouldn’t be too long (that having other access implications).

More on access at Fade

Fade does have a wheelchair-friendly toilet, presumably on the basis that some wheelchair users do manage the steps.

If I get time between now and the day, I’ll do a photo-review of the access there (like the one for the Maze), so people can make their own judgement about the steps etc. (I did take some photos at Fade yesterday with that in mind, but they’re still on the camera as I write this.)