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/

January 2016 BiTopia Pub Social

by nottmbitopia

We did think our usual hang out was going to be closed for refurbishment this month, however we are safe for now!

So join us for our pub social in The Lord Roberts pub at 24 Broad Street (NG1 3AN) on Thursday 14th January. We’ll be there at the usual times from 7:30pm-11:00pm.

Group leader Pete will meet and greet.

More info can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1006562626069786/

Calling QTI PoC in Notts: New Group Now Forming

by Sista Resista

Feel out of place in a straight white world?

Announcing the birth of a new group for queer, trans, and intersex people of colour in Notts! The idea was hatched a few years back, but it is not only until recently that we were able to make it a reality, and we are incredibly happy it’s happening now.

Our first meet-up will be this Wednesday evening 25th Nov 2015 at the Broadway Cinema downstairs café bar, from 7pm onwards (spot us by our fabulousness…and the fact that we will likely be the only all-PoC group there). We envision this will be a relaxed evening of food, drinks and conversation where we think and talk about how the group can take shape to best support us and our needs.

This meet-up is for queer, trans and intersex identified (or curious/questioning) people of colour only. Bis of colour are warmly welcomed. The venue is wheelchair-accessible.

Please feel free to get in touch online if you would like to speak before we meet. We are on Facebook and Twitter and we’d love to chat with you.

Hope to meet you there!

Bi Events in 2016

by nottmbitopia

Write these dates down for next year so you can keep them free and come along!

2016 BiTopia Pub Socials (always the 2nd Thursday of the month)

• 14th Jan
• 11th Feb
• 10th March
• 14th April
• 12th May
• 9th June
• 14th July
• 11th Aug
• 8th Sept
• 13th Oct
• 10th Nov
• 8th Dec

 

The Big Bi Fun Day – Sat 14th May
This is a family friendly afternoon at The Friends Meeting House in Leicester.

Nottinghamshire Pride – Sat 30th July.

BiCon 2016 – 4th – 7th August – tickets now on sale.

 

QTIPOC Notts – new group starting

by unchartedworlds

Feel out of place in a straight white world?

Come to QTIPOC Notts

• First meeting of new queer and trans people of colour group in Notts!
• Gathering and conversation over food and drinks
• Come and share ideas, thoughts, feelings, and opinions
• Be a part of creating a space and building connections

WHEN: Wednesday 25 Nov 2015, 7pm till late

WHERE: Broadway Cinema café (wheelchair accessible)
14-18 Broad Street, NG1 3AL
www.broadway.org.uk

Find us on Twitter: @QTIPOCnotts

Facebook: www.facebook.com/qtipocnotts

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note:  The text above is copied from the organisers’ flyer. 

One of the organisers is probably going to get a login for posting on this blog soon – I’m just waiting to know what email address to use for that account – so look out for further news in future.

Meanwhile, next Nottingham BiTopia events are 12 Nov and 10 December BiTopia pub meetups (2nd Thursday in the month).

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!

BiTalkia is go!

by unchartedworlds

I am thrilled to announce that we now have our first date for BiTalkia!

Evening of Monday 23 February 2015, at the Friends’ Meeting House (FMH), with an optional pre-meet leaving the Central Library at 7pm to walk up together.

The pre-meet at the library is primarily to address an access concern raised by someone in the survey: not wanting to arrive alone via the quieter streets near the FMH after dark. The Central Library’s probably more familiar as a landmark for more people, as well. Obviously this solution will only work for people who can walk or wheel for about 500 metres, so let me know if something else would work better for you.

The FMH is at 25 Clarendon Street, Nottingham NG1 5JD, round the corner from the Women’s Centre. It’s a beautiful modern building with flat/ramped access and a wheelchair-accessible toilet. There’s some metered parking on nearby streets, which is free with a Blue Badge. We’ve booked the Social Room, which has good acoustics and a small kitchen.

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My apologies to the five people who told us they couldn’t do this date! It turned out that every single date we asked about, five, six, seven or eight people said they couldn’t make it, and this one came out best overall. (good for 14 people, “Yes, but other dates better” for 2 more.)

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Further details in a while, inc more on access and more on who the event is aimed for. I might also post at some point about what else the survey told us and why we’ve made the choices we did.

Last call for survey on plans for BiTalkia discussion group

by unchartedworlds

We’ve now had 23 replies to the anonymous survey about setting up a new bi discussion group in Nottingham! Nine people so far have said they are “keen”, and another 11 have said “maybe” (the other three just wanted to enthuse and wish us luck 🙂 )

If you’re reading this on a non-bi list and wondering “am I bi enough to take part”, the answer is probably yes 🙂 See the Bisexual Index’s excellent “Am I bisexual?” quiz.

My intention is to close the survey on Monday or Tuesday this week and go on to the next steps. The timescale we’ve got in mind is for the first BiTalkia evening to happen in Jan or Feb 2015, and I’m hoping we’ll be ready to announce its date/time/venue/theme before the next edition of QB magazine (copy date 28 Dec), which has Nottingham’s LGBTQ news.

So if you were meaning to put in your 2p and haven’t yet, now is the time.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JBYW3LS

If you don’t fill in the survey, you can still come to the events – it’s just really helpful for us to gather a sense of best dates, preferred venues, access limitations etc. So thanks to everyone who either has given us their perspective or is about to 🙂

Dates for 2015 Pub Socials

by nottmbitopia

8th Jan
12th Feb
12th March
9th April
14th May
11th June
9th July
13th Aug
10th Sept
8th Oct
12th Nov
10th Dec

In addition there is usually the Big Bi Fun Day (family friendly picnic type event in Leicester) one weekend towards the beginning of May and BiCon is usually one weekend towards the end of July.

To the best of my knowledge Nottinghamshire Pride will be held on Sat 25th July.

Last but not least the Brum Bi Fest is held on one Saturday at the end of November.

Save the dates!

New discussion group BiTalkia! Please help by filling in survey about dates etc.

by unchartedworlds

As some people know, plans are brewing for a new bi discussion group for Nottingham.

(When we say “bi”, we mean it in a fairly umbrella-ish sense of the word, not being picky about labels.  We’ll welcome people who are in a questioning stage about their sexuality as well.)

It’s kind of a spin-off from BiTopia’s pub meetups, for those of us who’d like a more socially-structured space, and we’re calling it BiTalkia.

We’re hoping to run the first one in January or February 2015.  It will be in a wheelchair-accessible venue somewhere in Nottingham City, on a weekday evening…

but which venue and which evening, and what time?  and what discussion themes?

Ha, well, that is exactly what we now need to work out 🙂

If you are a bit bi in some sense, and you want to egg us on, please fill in our spangly new survey!!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JBYW3LS

(Time predictions for filling it in:
Quickly clicking on buttons & boxes, inc looking in your diary at the possible dates, about 10 mins.
If adding optional comments to help us think things through, maybe more like 20 or 30 mins.
Emails to me with your ideas are also welcome:  jennifer at uncharted hyphen worlds dot org.)

Spreading the word

If you’d like to help by spreading the word, you could send people either here, or direct to the survey.

Twitter:  I’ve done a tweet about the survey, which you could retweet – or of course just do a tweet about it yourself, whichever.

Facebook:  BiTopia Facebook is here, and I expect there will be a post coming up there soon about this survey (when Hannah gets time to do it – I try to ignore Facebook myself ;-/ )