February is LGBT History Month and Leeds is no stranger to supporting LGBT rights. With an extensive range of activities happening throughout the month, here are a few hand chosen by the arts editors for you to check out.
Leeds Queer Stories: Leeds City Museum
Running until May 2016.
This exhibition engages with new audiences and has emerged from the recently successful Leeds Art Gallery queer cultural project ‘PoMoGaze’.
The Viaduct Showbar
It hosts its own drag cabaret show every Friday and Saturday nights from 21:30. Other show times are as follows: Monday 11pm, Thursday 11pm & Saturday 6-8pm
Dancing Bear at West Yorkshire Playhouse
Wednesday 10th February.
This performance will explore sexuality and gender through dance, live music, drag performance and text.
Check out our review for this show in next week’s issue.
Transitions: Launch and Exhibition
Launch: 17:30-19:30, Friday 13th February.
To celebrate LGBT History Month, Inkwell has invited artists from LGBT communities around the UK to submit work addressing the theme of “Transitions”, by selecting an early work and a recent piece from their practice, to show progression and development.
The exhibition is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10:00-17:00 until Tuesday 17 March.
Leeds Beckett University. Claiming our Histories: Lesbian, Working Class and Poor – Reflections on the Lives of Three Lesbians
15:00-17:00, Wednesday 17th February.
This talk portrays the lives and stories of three working class lesbians. The talk will be aimed at the effects of multiple oppresions which these three women have been subjected to.
Leeds Labour Students LGBT History Month Movie Night: Pride
Monday 22nd February.
Another chance to watch the critically acclaimed film which depicts a group of LGBT right activists affected during the miner’s strike of 1984. Stars Bill Nighy and Imelda Staunton.
An LGBT History of Leeds
Thursday 25th February.
Third Floor Meeting Room, Central Library. 18:30-19:30
To mark LGBT Month 2016 this talk will discuss some local examples of media reporting, lesbian and gay social spaces and political activism since the 1950s, and provide time for discussion.
Mark McDougall
Image courtesy of Michael Taylor