The first history clubs have taken place in Folkestone and Margate.
A place for the lovers of stories, history, and her stories. Each event is filled with interesting talks to celebrate the rich and often less known queer heritage of the South East.
The first history clubs saw Jane Traies; historian and writer of lesbian history and novelist, author of The Lives of Older Lesbians: Sexuality, Identity and the Life Course, and the recent Now You See Me: Lesbian Life Stories. Jane spoke about the often forgotten but always incredible her stories of older lesbians, her life going from being a teacher to an academic, researcher, and author. And what does heritage and finding and documenting those lives mean to her.
E-J Scott; fashion historian, curator of Queer The Pier, and the curator and mastermind behind the radical Museum of Transology, the UK’s largest collection of trans related objects. E-J spoke about the power of everyday objects, of the importance of telling our own story(es), and of community collecting and archiving.
The next history club will be in Folkestone on Sunday 20th February.
Alf Le Flohic will present on the Magic Farm – not your usual fruit farm but an unusual 1980s queer hangout in rural Kent!
Roni Guetta will be presenting highlights from the Queer Heritage South collection.
Sue Sheppard will speak about the life and times of a transperson growing up in East Kent. Sue is the owner of Lacies, Folkestone’s only specialist LGBT shop. Her story helped inspire the cult phenomenon Kinky Boots.
Margate’s history club will be returning on Sunday 6th March:
Dan Chilcott will present a whistle-stop geek-out of tenuous imaginings and playful suppositions about Margate’s queer history. Picking up clues from material cultural, published research, diaries & letters of visitors and former residents.
Dan Vo on It’s a Really, Really Queer Britain. This is the history of our diverse LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and more) communities. You will encounter remarkable individuals that reveal stories of diverse gender and sexual identities who sometimes tried to conceal themselves from history, and at other times flaunted what they had, but at all times you’ll find that it’s a really, really queer history.
The event is free, but ticketed. Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2-lgbtqia-history-club-tickets-260083455617?aff=erelexpmlt