OTP 2020 Hub Programme - Leeds City Museum

OUTing the Past event programme

Leeds City Museum

Saturday 8 February 2020

09:30-09:50                   Registration and coffee

09:50-10:00                   Welcome and Introduction to Outing The Past – Leeds             

10:00-10:30                   Ray Larman

Telling stories: oral history highlights from the West Yorkshire Queer Stories collection. The talk will use a range of audio clips from the WYQS project to show the diversity of the LGBTIQ+ communities in the region alongside the significance of events such as lesbian feminist activism in the 1970s/’80s, the move to hold national Pride in Huddersfield in 1981 and the first northern Trans Pride in 2018. The focus will be on West Yorkshire having important contributions to make to LGBTIQ+ history that are not necessarily captured by the standard national narrative.

10:40-11:10                   Jen Yockney MBE

25 years of Bi Space and Voice. This is a telling of the story of the UK's longest-running bi support group, which marked its 25th birthday in September 2019.

11:20-11:50                   Non Binary Leeds

A Brief Encounter with Non-Binary History. Our presentation will cover artists such as Claude Cahun and Marlow Moss, Jewish Rabbinical literature as well as unknown individuals such as Thomas(ine) and personal histories and experiences. The presentation will be an expansion of the material in the zine produced by members of the local Leeds non-binary community with Non- Binary Leeds.

12:00-12:30                   Sacha Coward

Space Invaders - Queer representations in videogames throughout history. Videogames are played by everyone but until very recently they have been created solely with a cis-gendered white male audience. I want to explore the history of queer representation in videogames, starting at the very beginning and working up to where we find ourselves today.

12:40-13:20                   LUNCH

                                    West Yorkshire Queer Stories marketplace throughout the day.

13:20-13:50                   Peter Scott-Presland

Entertaining the Troops. This covers the story of Consenting Adults in Public (CAP), the LGBT Theatre Company which flourished 1979 to 1987. This provided the first drama workshops for LGBT people to explore identity and feeling, and put on the first play to address HIV/AIDS in this country. Based in London, it went to the Edinburgh Fringe twice and toured extensively. Mary Whitehouse commented on one of their shows 'I haven't seen it, but I'm sure I disapprove of it. This personal contribution is from the founder/director of CAIP.

14:00-14:30                   Nicola Hargrave

Squats and Samosas - a short history of the UK’s only DIY queer film festival. This presentation will use archive items such as programmes, flyers and photographs to illustrate the history of Leeds Queer Film Festival. We have paraphernalia dating back to the very first event from 15 years ago. We also have access to oral history testimonies from people who have attended the festival since the start. We will speak about how we reach marginalised groups

14:40-15:10                   Ian Nipper

BONA! A History of Polari. Troll along to OUTing the Past and join Ian Nipper as he tells us about Polari, the secret language of gay men. Expect a unique insight into the socio-cultural influences of this parlance, once widely used by a persecuted minority.

15:20-15:30                   Close