Welcome to SOAS! :)
Right, the society. Well we are having our first meet and greet on Wednesday 6th October in the JCR! Just a meet and greet, with nibbles, ect. Then we will have regular meetings (how regular depending on how often people want them). At the first of the regular meetings we will elect a president of the society and a treasurer. Then the meetings and other events will run on from then.
Alongside Belle McKenzie, I am the LGBT Officer, so will also be organising other events with the LGBT Society, so there will be loads going on!
We will be at the fresher's fayre on Saturday, I will be there from 10-12, but others will be there until 4.
So, it would be cool to see you at the Freshers Fayre or at the meet and greet. Any more questions, please do give me an e-mail at 244974@soas.ac.uk
:)
See you soon,
Art.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
MEET AND GREET!
Our first meet and greet of the year! 6pm, JCR - 6th October! See you there!!! :) - Drinks and nibbles provided.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Welcome back to SOAS or... Welcome to the Freshers!
Hey Everyone!
Hope everyone had a great summer, and that we will all come back looking relaxed, tanned (real or otherwise) and ready to launch into a brand new year.
Also, welcome to all the Freshers... welcome to SOAS! We hope you will love it here. This is the SOAS LGBT blog (obviously) and this is where to come if you need any information. We are currently organising everything for freshers, and our freshers event. So we will let you know via the mailing list (soaslgbt@gmail.com) as to what we are doing when it is all confirmed. We also have twitter - SOASLGBT.
So keep checking back, or join us on twitter, and we can't wait to see everyone in a week or so! :)
Art
Hope everyone had a great summer, and that we will all come back looking relaxed, tanned (real or otherwise) and ready to launch into a brand new year.
Also, welcome to all the Freshers... welcome to SOAS! We hope you will love it here. This is the SOAS LGBT blog (obviously) and this is where to come if you need any information. We are currently organising everything for freshers, and our freshers event. So we will let you know via the mailing list (soaslgbt@gmail.com) as to what we are doing when it is all confirmed. We also have twitter - SOASLGBT.
So keep checking back, or join us on twitter, and we can't wait to see everyone in a week or so! :)
Art
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Picnic this Saturday!
Come on down to Russell Square this Saturday for fun, food, sun, and excellent company.
We'll be gathering at 12pm near the fountain! See you!
Here's the Facebook event! http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=119475491401124&ref=mf
We'll be gathering at 12pm near the fountain! See you!
Here's the Facebook event! http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/event.php?eid=119475491401124&ref=mf
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Change of details for Post-Grad event! :)
SOAS GBLT Postgrads & Mature Students social!
Come along and meet other gay, bisexual, lesbian and trans postgrads and mature students!
We will be meeting in the Institute of Education bar between 6 and 8 tomorrow (Thursday February 25th) - look for the banner! Come for the whole thing, or just drop by to say hello.
Partners and friends welcome.
(If you don't know where the IOE bar is, come to the SOAS steps at around 6 and someone will be there to point you in the right direction. Or call Laura on 07790 097379.)
Come along and meet other gay, bisexual, lesbian and trans postgrads and mature students!
We will be meeting in the Institute of Education bar between 6 and 8 tomorrow (Thursday February 25th) - look for the banner! Come for the whole thing, or just drop by to say hello.
Partners and friends welcome.
(If you don't know where the IOE bar is, come to the SOAS steps at around 6 and someone will be there to point you in the right direction. Or call Laura on 07790 097379.)
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Post-Grad Social. THIS THURSDAY!!! 6-8pm
Come and meet other LBGT postgrads and mature students for drinks and nibbles!
Partners and friends welcome :)
Date: Thursday, 25 February 2010
Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Location: SOAS (room to be confirmed)
Join the event here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=301064166800&ref=ts
See you there!!! :)
Partners and friends welcome :)
Date: Thursday, 25 February 2010
Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Location: SOAS (room to be confirmed)
Join the event here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=301064166800&ref=ts
See you there!!! :)
Is Gay's the Word being priced out of the marketplace? - By the Sunday Observer.
- Ain't nothing going on but the rent at the gay bookshop that's being squeezed to death by the council
The key player
Gay's the Word on Bloomsbury's Marchmont Street, the country's only LBGT book shop, celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. It's long been something of an institution for gay Londoners, while Allen Ginsberg and Edmund White have given readings there.
The issue
Three years ago, the shop's future was thrown into uncertainty when Camden Council increased the rent. Now it faces the same problem, only this time the council's rent increase demand is for a hefty 25%, more than the shop's managers say they can afford. The news comes at a time when the country's independent bookshops are struggling, with recent figures showing that they're now closing at a rate of two a week. Currently, just 1,289 remain. Elsewhere, the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in New York, the world's oldest gay and lesbian bookshop and the inspiration for Gay's the Word, has just announced that it will close in March due to financial difficulties.
What's been said
Uli Lenart, the store's assistant manager, described the prospect of such an increase in rent as "absolutely terminal to the business". He added: "Of course we expect an increase, but give us a realistic one - 25% is just mental. We're booksellers, not magicians!" The shop's many famous fans include Simon Callow, Ali Smith and Sarah Waters, who spoke over the phone last week to say: "It's really dismaying. I've known the bookshop since I first moved to London more than 20years ago when it was hugely important to me as a young lesbian. It's always been so much more than a bookshop, such a community resource, and that's impossible to replace. It would be terrible to lose it."
The latest
Uli Lenart and Jim Macsweeney have requested an appointment with the leader of the council and hope to reach a compromise.
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/21/gays-the-word-rent-rise?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20theguardian/books/rss%20(Books)
The key player
Gay's the Word on Bloomsbury's Marchmont Street, the country's only LBGT book shop, celebrated its 30th anniversary last year. It's long been something of an institution for gay Londoners, while Allen Ginsberg and Edmund White have given readings there.
The issue
Three years ago, the shop's future was thrown into uncertainty when Camden Council increased the rent. Now it faces the same problem, only this time the council's rent increase demand is for a hefty 25%, more than the shop's managers say they can afford. The news comes at a time when the country's independent bookshops are struggling, with recent figures showing that they're now closing at a rate of two a week. Currently, just 1,289 remain. Elsewhere, the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in New York, the world's oldest gay and lesbian bookshop and the inspiration for Gay's the Word, has just announced that it will close in March due to financial difficulties.
What's been said
Uli Lenart, the store's assistant manager, described the prospect of such an increase in rent as "absolutely terminal to the business". He added: "Of course we expect an increase, but give us a realistic one - 25% is just mental. We're booksellers, not magicians!" The shop's many famous fans include Simon Callow, Ali Smith and Sarah Waters, who spoke over the phone last week to say: "It's really dismaying. I've known the bookshop since I first moved to London more than 20years ago when it was hugely important to me as a young lesbian. It's always been so much more than a bookshop, such a community resource, and that's impossible to replace. It would be terrible to lose it."
The latest
Uli Lenart and Jim Macsweeney have requested an appointment with the leader of the council and hope to reach a compromise.
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/21/gays-the-word-rent-rise?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20theguardian/books/rss%20(Books)
Post-Grad Social. THIS THURSDAY!!! 6-8pm
Come and meet other LBGT postgrads and mature students for drinks and nibbles!
Partners and friends welcome :)
Date: Thursday, 25 February 2010
Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Location: SOAS (room to be confirmed)
Join the event here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=301064166800&ref=ts
See you there!!! :)
Partners and friends welcome :)
Date: Thursday, 25 February 2010
Time: 18:00 - 20:00
Location: SOAS (room to be confirmed)
Join the event here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=301064166800&ref=ts
See you there!!! :)
Friday, February 5, 2010
TODAY TODAY TODAY - OUR GALLERY OPENS! ONE DAY ONLY!
Our gallery is open today and only today. It runs from 10-7 in the Brunei Gallery in SOAS Russell Square. It has about over 15 LGBT activists' profile from around the world. It would be really cool if you could come see our work! We can't wait to see you there, 10-7 today! :)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=317158172813&ref=nf
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=317158172813&ref=nf
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Co-President article from London Student. - http://www.london-student.net/2010/01/19/coming-in-from-outside/
“Come on in, from the outside” the cast of Boy George’s musical Taboo, implores the audience during the finale of the gayest thing to hit the stage since, well, musical theatre. My name is Art, and I’m a giggling, make-up wearing theatre-queen who often misses out on entire conversations because the soundtrack of Evita is blaring far too loudly in my head
Someone once described me as, not just gay, but the gay, the gay to which all other homosexuals are measured. I came out to my friends, my parents, grandparents and my hamster “Britney (after the tragic Ms Spears)”, to a chorus of, “yes, we already know Art” in my early teens. And, although at the time, I probably wasn’t gay, I was too innocent to even know what gay was, I was evidently too camp to be straight, and so, as a result, I came out.
And then it happened. I fell in love. Maxxie and I both emerged from a tiny homophobic town, and together we listened to musicals, watched every gay-film (however bad) that I could lay my chipped nail-varnished hands on and through each other we mapped out our sexual identity and our sexual tastes through porn, fooling around and drunken conversations over the cheapest cider we could find. Maxxie made me who I am today.
Despite the fact I left the north to study in London, I have never forgotten about Maxxie. I think about him every hour, of every day without fail, and have never been able to feel the intensity I continue to feel for him. To all intents and purpose to everyone, I was and am, as gay as you could ever get. Although, slowly but surely, a creeping suspicion took over my mind in its quieter moments, that I may just be sexually attracted to girls.
A chance encounter with a holidaying beautiful and audacious girl who decided to kiss me in June of last year, led to a long distance relationship. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute I spent with her and although it eventually ended because of a number of reasons, I suspect my “homosexuality” played a part in its cessation. The seeds of doubt however were planted, and I suddenly began to see women in a new way. Such as when I recently developed a massive giggling school-girl crush on a girl, who of course in the typical melodrama which is my life, was a lesbian and once again continues to pain my already crumpled heart.
When I stood in front of my grandma, struck a pose, and defiantly labelled myself with that 3-letter ‘g’ word, things began to happen. As many gay men will attest to, straight men become really uncomfortable, women become overly comfortable, (I have now seen so many women undressing in front of me, because I am gay, and “it doesn’t matter”) and once defined, that label sticks. My grandma cried, not because I am gay, but because I recently informed her that I was bisexual, and she didn’t like that I was not ‘one or t’other’, my mother who merely shakes her head whilst proclaiming ‘I just don’t understand it’, and my friends, to whom the idea of me and woman together is potentially the most abstract and existentialist idea that I or Sartre could ever have come up with. It’s an interesting void to find myself in.
As the beautiful and iconic SuBo sings in her uplifting song, Who I Was Born to Be, “Though I may not know the answers, I can finally say I am free, and if the questions led me here, then, I am who I was born to me”. If I am honest, this void I have found myself in is rather liberating.
Part of me fears that this re-discovery is moving me away from the “me” that Maxxie helped create, or that what people like about me, the bubbly, bouncing cabaret act that is my life will be lost. As such, the rest of my identity, which is admittedly almost entirely based on my sexuality, will irretrievably crumble. Its not a heterophobic or biphobic fear, but a fear of having a lack of identity. For now, I will sit quietly pining for the lesbian-love of my life, and/or Maxxie, and try to decide where on the spectrum of these two figures I will stake my brand-spanking new, self-defined identity for all to see.
Whilst writing this, I’m put on another layer of lippie and dashing out the door to go see a matinee of La Cage Aux Folles. At this performance, nestled in amongst the countless queens and their faghags, will be me, wondering how many people realise the closet doors can swing both ways, and that people can “come on in, from the outside.”
Someone once described me as, not just gay, but the gay, the gay to which all other homosexuals are measured. I came out to my friends, my parents, grandparents and my hamster “Britney (after the tragic Ms Spears)”, to a chorus of, “yes, we already know Art” in my early teens. And, although at the time, I probably wasn’t gay, I was too innocent to even know what gay was, I was evidently too camp to be straight, and so, as a result, I came out.
And then it happened. I fell in love. Maxxie and I both emerged from a tiny homophobic town, and together we listened to musicals, watched every gay-film (however bad) that I could lay my chipped nail-varnished hands on and through each other we mapped out our sexual identity and our sexual tastes through porn, fooling around and drunken conversations over the cheapest cider we could find. Maxxie made me who I am today.
Despite the fact I left the north to study in London, I have never forgotten about Maxxie. I think about him every hour, of every day without fail, and have never been able to feel the intensity I continue to feel for him. To all intents and purpose to everyone, I was and am, as gay as you could ever get. Although, slowly but surely, a creeping suspicion took over my mind in its quieter moments, that I may just be sexually attracted to girls.
A chance encounter with a holidaying beautiful and audacious girl who decided to kiss me in June of last year, led to a long distance relationship. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute I spent with her and although it eventually ended because of a number of reasons, I suspect my “homosexuality” played a part in its cessation. The seeds of doubt however were planted, and I suddenly began to see women in a new way. Such as when I recently developed a massive giggling school-girl crush on a girl, who of course in the typical melodrama which is my life, was a lesbian and once again continues to pain my already crumpled heart.
When I stood in front of my grandma, struck a pose, and defiantly labelled myself with that 3-letter ‘g’ word, things began to happen. As many gay men will attest to, straight men become really uncomfortable, women become overly comfortable, (I have now seen so many women undressing in front of me, because I am gay, and “it doesn’t matter”) and once defined, that label sticks. My grandma cried, not because I am gay, but because I recently informed her that I was bisexual, and she didn’t like that I was not ‘one or t’other’, my mother who merely shakes her head whilst proclaiming ‘I just don’t understand it’, and my friends, to whom the idea of me and woman together is potentially the most abstract and existentialist idea that I or Sartre could ever have come up with. It’s an interesting void to find myself in.
As the beautiful and iconic SuBo sings in her uplifting song, Who I Was Born to Be, “Though I may not know the answers, I can finally say I am free, and if the questions led me here, then, I am who I was born to me”. If I am honest, this void I have found myself in is rather liberating.
Part of me fears that this re-discovery is moving me away from the “me” that Maxxie helped create, or that what people like about me, the bubbly, bouncing cabaret act that is my life will be lost. As such, the rest of my identity, which is admittedly almost entirely based on my sexuality, will irretrievably crumble. Its not a heterophobic or biphobic fear, but a fear of having a lack of identity. For now, I will sit quietly pining for the lesbian-love of my life, and/or Maxxie, and try to decide where on the spectrum of these two figures I will stake my brand-spanking new, self-defined identity for all to see.
Whilst writing this, I’m put on another layer of lippie and dashing out the door to go see a matinee of La Cage Aux Folles. At this performance, nestled in amongst the countless queens and their faghags, will be me, wondering how many people realise the closet doors can swing both ways, and that people can “come on in, from the outside.”
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
HUGE SOAS GBLT SOCIETY EVENT TONIGHT!
The night has come, the SOAS GBLT Society event is TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT.
The SOAS Centre for Gender Studies and the SOAS GLBT Society Jointly Present:
Technologies of Violence and Control:
Performing Arab Queer Communities Online
This colloquium seeks to examine the formation of Arab queercollectivities, challenging traditional modes of identity politics and embodiment. Taking cyberspace as a site of analysis, Noor Al-Qasimiand Barrak Alzaid examine the ways in which various organizations and institutions that purport to advance sexual democracy produce a form of identity politics that effectively engenders violence and control.
Wednesday 13 January, 7-9pm, SOAS, Khalili lecture Theatre
How to Do Things With Violence: The Transmission of Affect and Production of Politicized Queer Identities
Barrak Alzaid’s paper investigates the interplay between digital media and violence to create communities rooted in LGBT identity formations through an analysis of the Iraqi LGBT website, and the close reading of one embedded video depicting the torture of a trans person in Iraq. The paper employs a methodology that combines a reflexive analysis of the author's process of witnessing and translation of the author's, coupled with a performative analysis of the work the video enacts.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boyahs and Girls: Uploading Transnational Queer Subjectivities in the United Arab Emirates
Al-Qasimi’s paper focuses on how queer narratives on social networking sites (namely, Facebook) are accommodated and/or denied by laws pertaining to the governance of sexuality. Ultimately, she asks, to what extent does the Emirati national youth’s articulation of queerness transcend and transform collective sexual norms governed by the Emirati nationalist paradigm, allowing for the emergence of a transnational sexual politics that both destablizes sexual governance and reconstitutes the sovereignty of the nation state?
All Welcome!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
SOAS Lesbian Film Festival
Hey everybody... further to the event listed below... which will be huge by the way, international academics are flying in, and this is being held with both the SOAS GBLT and SOAS Gender Studies Department hosting it, it will be great, and give everyone a lot to think about. SOAS GBLT is also providing refreshments as well, which should allow everyone to network, chit-chat and gossip over tea and coffee.
The week after that (17th-22nd January), we also have the SOAS Lesbian Film Festival, which we have been speaking about for months, and it has finally been arranged.
The films are:
Fire
World Unseen,
Sving Face,
Imagine Me and You
Aimee & Jaguar,
So we have an Indian, German, British, Chinese-American and South African film. A nice range and diverse culture me'thinks. Thanks for all the suggestions and e-mails about films, and maybe we can have a chance to show the other films at another time. Room bookings haven't been confirmed yet, but all there will be one film a night, for 5 nights, starting Monday 17th of January to Friday 22nd January, all starting at 5:30. The order of the films hasn't been confirmed yet, but we will do so shortly along with confirming the rooms!
All films will be shown with English subtitles, and hopefully, as with our previous film festivals, nibbles, drinks and friendship will be provided.
Shove the week in your diary, and we hope to see you there!!!
The week after that (17th-22nd January), we also have the SOAS Lesbian Film Festival, which we have been speaking about for months, and it has finally been arranged.
The films are:
Fire
World Unseen,
Sving Face,
Imagine Me and You
Aimee & Jaguar,
So we have an Indian, German, British, Chinese-American and South African film. A nice range and diverse culture me'thinks. Thanks for all the suggestions and e-mails about films, and maybe we can have a chance to show the other films at another time. Room bookings haven't been confirmed yet, but all there will be one film a night, for 5 nights, starting Monday 17th of January to Friday 22nd January, all starting at 5:30. The order of the films hasn't been confirmed yet, but we will do so shortly along with confirming the rooms!
All films will be shown with English subtitles, and hopefully, as with our previous film festivals, nibbles, drinks and friendship will be provided.
Shove the week in your diary, and we hope to see you there!!!
SOAS GBLT SOCIETY Event
The SOAS Centre for Gender Studies and the SOAS GLBT Society Jointly Present:
Technologies of Violence and Control:
Performing Arab Queer Communities Online
This colloquium seeks to examine the formation of Arab queer collectivities, challenging traditional modes of identity politics and embodiment. Taking cyberspace as a site of analysis, Noor Al-Qasimi and Barrak Alzaid examine the ways in which various organizations and institutions that purport to advance sexual democracy produce a form of identity politics that effectively engenders violence and control.
Wednesday 13 January, 7-9pm, SOAS, Khalili lecture Theatre
How to Do Things With Violence: The Transmission of Affect and Production of Politicized Queer Identities
Barrak Alzaid’s paper investigates the interplay between digital media and violence to create communities rooted in LGBT identity formations through an analysis of the Iraqi LGBT website, and the close reading of one embedded video depicting the torture of a trans person in Iraq. The paper employs a methodology that combines a reflexive analysis of the author's process of witnessing and translation of the author's, coupled with a performative analysis of the work the video enacts.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boyahs and Girls: Uploading Transnational Queer Subjectivities in the United Arab Emirates
Al-Qasimi’s paper focuses on how queer narratives on social networking sites (namely, Facebook) are accommodated and/or denied by laws pertaining to the governance of sexuality. Ultimately, she asks, to what extent does the Emirati national youth’s articulation of queerness transcend and transform collective sexual norms governed by the Emirati nationalist paradigm, allowing for the emergence of a transnational sexual politics that both destablizes sexual governance and reconstitutes the sovereignty of the nation state?
All Welcome!
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