Thank you, David, for showing me what could be done.
I may be a little dysfunctional today.
Ashes to ashes
Funk to funky
Though you dwell now
In the Houses of Darkness,
You live on
Through your work
And in our hearts.
Music
Today on Ujima: Pagan Festivals and Stuart Milk
We were a little light on guests for today’s show, it being that time of year, so I am especially grateful to Liz Williams and Trevor Jones for coming all the way from Glastonbury to be with me today. Most of you will know Liz as a science fiction writer, but you may not know that she and Trevor run the Cat & Cauldron witchcraft shop in Glastonbury. I had them on the show to talk about midwinter festivals. We covered a wide range, from the origins of Santa Claus to Roman Saturnalia and German Yule. My French colleague, Melody, was on hand to provide a European perspective.
You can listen to the first half of the show here.
At the start of the second hour I shamelessly used my place in charge of the microphone to send a Christmas message to Kevin. After that I played the interview with Stuart Milk that I recorded in London a couple of weeks ago. Thanks again to Dan Vo and his colleagues at Heavy Entertainment for the use of their studio.
If you want to see some of the things that will be happening in Bristol for LGBT History Month, check out the OutStories Bristol website. There will be lots more posts coming during January.
Melody and I were joined in the studio by Mary Milton who, amongst other things, is the Producer of ShoutOut, the LGBT radio show on BCFM (and now a host of other local community stations). In the final half hour we had a chat about the state of LGBT rights and what we we need to do to improve matters.
You can listen to the second hour of the show here.
The playlist for the show was inevitably seasonal, though I did try to avoid most of the obvious choices. Having to play mostly black music helped a lot. I was especially pleased to be able to play Eartha Kitt. The full playlist was as follows:
- Santa Baby – Eartha Kitt
- Sun Goddess – Earth, Wind & Fire featuring Ramsey Lewis
- Santa Claus is Coming to Town – The Jackson 5
- Run Rudolph Run – Chuck Berry
- All I Want for Christmas – Mariah Carey
- So Strong – Labi Siffre
- Winter Wonderland – Booker T and the MGs
- Hot Stuff – Donna Summer
As Paulette is on holiday in Vietnam I’ll be hosting the show again next week. If anyone who lives in or around Bristol fancies being on, do get in touch. It is hard to find guests at this time of year.
Me On The Aqueduct
It is that time of year again, so I have written my post for the traditional end of year review series on the Aqueduct Press website. If you want to know what I have been enjoying reading, watching and listening to over the year, go here and I will tell you. Thanks as ever to Timmi and the Aquedistas for giving me the space.
By the way, since writing that I have raced through Dark Orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman. It is a fascinating book. Review coming soon.
Today on Ujima: Lovecraft, Planetfall, AIDS and Cinders
Today’s show on Ujima began with me interviewing local writer, Jonathan L Howard, about his new book, Carter & Lovecraft (which I reviewed here). We talked a fair amount about Lovecraft the man, about the World Fantasy Awards and the controversy surrounding the trophy, and about how and why Lovecraft might be relevant today.
Next up was Emma Newman. She couldn’t make it into the studio (too busy) so we did a pre-record over Skype. Emma and I talked mainly about Planetfall (which is excellent): about 3D printing, small isolated communities, mental illness and the need for diverse characters in books. We also talked a bit about Emma’s year of horror, about Tea & Jeopardy, and about the forthcoming Split Worlds live role-playing game and masked ball (tickets for which are available here).
You can listen to the first hour of the show here.
The second hour began with Sheila Ollis from The Brigstowe Project talking about the current state of the AIDS epidemic, both in Zimbabwe and among immigrant communities in Bristol. While it is good to know that AIDS is now survivable, it was clear from talking to Sheila that there is still a very long way to go, especially in communities were myths about the disease are still widely believed.
Finally I welcomed my colleague, Andreeja, and Nick Young from The Creative Youth Network. Nick is directing a modern re-imagining of Cinderella using the young people from CYN as his cast and crew. Andreeja, as well as working for Ujima, is the social media guru for CYN. Nick and I could probably have talked for a very long time about fairy tales, and I did send him away with a recommendation to read Cat Valente. Along the way we referred to this article in Bristol 24/7, and I had a bit of a rant about this particular show at the Hippodrome.
You can listen to the second hour of the show here.
The playlist for today’s show was:
- Lucky Star – Labi Siffre
- Tokyo – Lianne La Havas
- Take the A Train – Duke Ellington
- We were Rock n Roll – Janelle Monáe
- Hound Dog – Big Mama Thornton
- Together Again – Janet Jackson
- Independent Woman Part I – Destiny’s Child
- Unstoppable – Lianne La Havas
I was particularly pleased to play Big Mama Thornton. Her version of Hound Dog was #1 on Billboard for seven weeks in 1952, selling almost 2 million copies. But because that Presley guy covered it no one remembers her any more.
My next show is going to be on December 30th. I rather suspect that no one will want to be on it and I’ll just play music for two hours, but if anyone is keen to be interviewed let me know. I can do pre-records on Skype so it doesn’t matter where in the world you are.
Women’s Outlook Does Literature
It was all books all the time on yesterday’s Women’s Outlook show.
First up I had a great interview with Nicola Griffith, mainly about her wonderful novel, Hild. Naturally that brought us on the the position of women in Anglo-Saxon society and the more general issue of how women’s roles in history are erased. We also touched on the work Nicola has been doing on women and literary awards, and on the forthcoming film of Kelley Eskridge’s novel, Solitaire.
The full interview with Nicola ran to about half an hour, so I had to cut quite a bit. I’ll put the whole thing on Salon Futura when I get the chance.
After that it was all Bristol Festival of Literature. I was joined in the studio by Amy Morse, Kevlin Henney and Pete Sutton. We talked through just about every event in the Festival. You can find more details about all of them here.
To listen to the first hour of the show click here, and for the second hour click here.
The playlist for the show was as follows:
- Barry White – Let the Music Play
- Percy Sledge – When a Man Loves a Woman
- Duran Duran – Pressure Off
- Sade – Nothing Can Come Between Us
- Prince – I Wanna Be Your Lover
- Cameo – Word Up
- Heatwave – Boogie Nights
- Parliament – Bop Gun
Yeah, I did play the new Duran Duran single. If you don’t know why, listen to the show. All is explained. (And it is a great song.)
Total Self Indulgence
Janelle Monáe, Nile Rodgers and Simon Le Bon. What could possibly go wrong? I am so playing this on my next show.
Today on Ujima – BristolCon, Stephanie, Art & Refugees
Today’s Women’s Outlook show had a lot of science fiction content. For the first half hour I was joined by Joanne Hall, the Chair of BristolCon. We discussed the various things that people will be able to see and do at the convention, and then we went on discuss Jo’s new book, Spark & Carousel, which is launching at the convention. We may have noted that Jim Burns like a beer or two.
One of the many fine authors who will be attending this year’s BristolCon is Stephanie Saulter. Last week I did a phone interview with her about her latest novel, Regeneration, which I broadcast today. The whole thing is about half an hour long, so I had to cut it down quite a bit for the show because of ads, music and news. I will post the extended version on Salon Futura in due course.
You can listen to the first hour of the show here.
The second half began with the studio full of artists. They were all people involved with the Art on the Hill art trail, which is one of many such trails in Bristol. Nicolette de Sausmarez provided all of the admin details, Jane Lee & Sue Jones talked about their art, and Alan Gibson represented Nota Bene, a local a cappella group.
Finally we got serious and discussed the refugee crisis. Paulette, who is back from Jamaica at last, announced a new initiative from Ujima to help people in Calais. I talked to Dr. Naomi Millner from Bristol University who wrote this fine article about what we can do to provide practical help.
You can listen to the second hour of the show here.
The playlist for today’s show was as follows:
- Earth, Wind & Fire – Fantasy
- Janelle Monáe – Tightrope
- Pointer Sisters – We are family
- Bob Marley – Could you be loved?
- Prince – Art Official Cage
- Nota Bene – Let’s do it
- Jamiroquai – Emergency on Planet Earth
- Jama – No Borders
And finally, here is a news report about Ujima’s recent win at the National Diversity Awards.
Women’s Outlook Does Palestine
Yesterday’s show on Ujima was devoted entirely to the plight of the Palestinian people. Paulette is away on the far side of the Atlantic again, and she had left me with a prepared show full of guests for me to host.
What she didn’t leave me with was music. Given that the Palestinian situation is very much about state violence, I figured I could start with “Hell You Talmbout”, the protest song written by Janelle Monáe for the Black Lives Matter campaign. The song features Janelle, Jindenna and the whole of the Wondaland crew chanting the names of people of color killed by police in the USA this year.
Naturally, having done that, I had to read the names of the trans women of color killed in the USA this year. To get some idea of why people are so worried, here’s an historical comparison:
- 2010 – 14
- 2011 – 9
- 2012 – 15
- 2013 – 16
- 2014 – 10
- 2015 – 20 to date
Here are their names: Papi Edwards, Lamia Beard, Ty Underwood, Yazmin Vash Payne, Taja Gabrielle DeJesus, Penny Proud, Kristina Grant Infiniti, London Chanel, Mercedes Williamson, Ashton O’Hara, Amber Monroe, India Clarke, K.C. Haggard, Shade Schuler, Kandis Capri, Elisha Walker, Tamara Dominguez, Jasmine Collins, Bri Golec, Mya Hall.
I also wanted to find music by Palestinians. This led me to discover Doc Jazz, who I was very impressed with. Then I found a page of songs about the Palestinian issue, most of which were hip hop. Scanning through I noticed one artist described with gender neutral pronouns, which is how I discovered the wonderful Invincible. That’s another brilliant trans musician I can add to my playlists.
The first hour of the show began with an interview with Ed Hill, a Bristol-based activist who has made several trips to Palestine and knows the situation there well. He did most of the work putting the show together, and his main interest is the forthcoming European Championship soccer match between Wales and Israel which is taking place in Cardiff at the weekend.
Next up I had a chat with Eddy, one of the founders of the Palestinian Museum in Bristol. Thanks to Eddy and Rita, we are fortunate enough to have the first museum in the world dedicated to the Palestinian people. Washington DC has since followed suit, and Amsterdam is now building one.
You can listen to the first hour of the show here.
Ed Hill came back to talk to me at the start of the second hour. Our main topic of conversation was the arms trade, and how British companies profit from the Israeli military operations again Palestine.
Finally I was joined by the Rev. Sue Parfitt and Eddy Knasel. We wanted to make a point that the campaign in support of the Palestinians is not simply a case of Muslim against Jew, as it is often portrayed in the Western media. Many Palestinians are Christians, and many Jews support the Palestinian cause. Sue is an Anglican minister who has just returned from a visit to Palestine where she helped a local Jewish-run peace organization build houses for Palestinians made homeless by the Israeli army. Eddy is a Quaker, and part of an international, multi-denominational Christian organization called Kairos which is dedicated to helping the Palestinians.
Of course I had to end the show with a shout out to Nalo Hopkinson for becoming the first Jamaican writer to be a Guest of Honor at a Worldcon. Well done, Finnish friends.
You can listen to the second hour of the show here.
The full playlist for the show was as follows:
- Hell You Talmbout – Janelle Monáe and the Wondaland Jam Authority
- Rising Tide – Doc Jazz
- No Compromises – Invincible
- Gimme Hope, Joanna – Eddy Grant
- The Lebanon – The Human League
- Lei Lei – Maryam Mursal
- Our House – Madness
- Change is Gonna Come – Otis Redding
My apologies once again to Isaac, my engineer, for screwing up the order of play. Apologies also for the pneumatic drilling that you may be able to hear in the background during the show. There was nothing we could do about that. Hopefully the building work will be done by the time I am back on the air in two weeks time, because I am expecting to interview Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.
40 Years Ago Today
This is a week of massive anniversaries. Here is today’s.
On August 25th 1975 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band released an album called Born to Run. I can’t remember when I first heard any of it, but I do knew that I have loved Bruce’s music from that moment on. 40 years. That’s some relationship.
To mark the occasion, here is my all time favorite rock song, which also happens to be the opening track of the album.
Show a little faith, there’s magic in the night
You ain’t a beauty but, hey, you’re alright
Oh, and that’s alright with me
Story of my life. I’m still waiting, Bruce. If I hear your Chevy pull up outside, I’ll be straight out.
Ignorance On Display
Today SF Signal put up a post titled, “Where Are All The People of Color in Sci-Fi/Fantasy?”. It’s a crappy title, but a decent article that has some good stats on just how badly people of color are excluded by the genre publishing industry.
The comments, on the other hand, produced an absolute classic of pompous, ignorant nonsense. If you don’t want to click through and read the whole thing, here’s a taster:
Based on what I’ve said, other cultures/races, seem primitive as they tend to be “grounded†on Earth. That mixed with the tendency for many ethnic groups being associated with crime, low tech living, and a lack of interesting folk history makes white people dismiss their existence and see it as a “primitive†remnant of Earth. Thus, they don’t tend to have evolved into the future in countless stories, but likely died out somewhere in the distant past.
You could probably write an entire thesis on racism just based on that comment, but I don’t have time to do that. I’m even going to be generous and note that lots of Americans are ignorant about countries beyond their borders, so the commenter isn’t that unusual in that respect. But he claims to be an expert on African-American culture, and he claims that African-American people have no interest in science fiction or fantasy.
I rest my case.
Today on Ujima – Fashion and Feminism
First up on today’s Women’s Outlook show was fashion designer, Kieran Mceleny. He’s just 19, but he staged his first fashion show aged just 16, and established his own label a year later. That’s pretty darn impressive, if you ask me.
If that wasn’t enough, Kieran also models some of his own clothes, even if they are intended for women. He’s trained as a dancer, and has the effortless grace and control of poise that you’d expect from someone with those skills. He identifies as a gay male transvestite, and we had a little chat about labels within the vast and complicated trans umbrella.
Unfortunately there was a mixup with the arrangements for our second guest, Christina Zaba. My deepest apologies to her for that. Thankfully we have been able to reschedule her for two weeks time. Also thanks to Kieran who agreed to stay on and chat for another half hour.
By the way, Kieran has a crowdfunding campaign going to allow him to hire a venue for a Christmas fashion show. As he lives fairly locally to me, I’m hoping it will happen.
Also, for all you drag queens out there, one of the things Kieran does is make totally over the top dresses for ladies like you. He does understand your requirements.
You can listen to the first hour of the show here.
For the second half of the show I was joined by Sian Webb of Bristol Women’s Voice. We talked initially about the fact that Bristol does poorly compared to the rest of the UK on the issue of the gender pay gap. Sadly one of the likely explanations for this is the city’s concentration on engineering and IT, both of which professions are somewhat hostile to women. Of course it is a very complicated issue. We also talked a but about Italy, which does much better than the UK, but probably only because it has far fewer women in employment.
In the final half hour Sian was joined by Bristol’s Assistant Mayor, Daniella Radice, and we talked about the campaign to get more women elected to Bristol City Council, which you may recall me tweeting about last Wednesday when I attended the official launch. I have an article about that due up on Bristol 24/7 any day now. I’ll point you at it when it goes live.
The playlist for today’s show was as follows:
- Love Will Save the Day – Whitney Houston
- Love Will Save the Day – Koko Jones
- Where Have All the Flowers Gone? – Savage Rose
- God on Our Side – Bob Dylan
- Respect – Aretha Franklin
- Independent Woman Part I – Destiny’s Child
- Doubt – Mary J Blige
- Sisters are Doing It for Themselves – The Eurythmics
Koko Jones is an African-American trans woman and a top class percussionist. Prior to her transition she worked with many great acts, including Whitney and also the Isley Brothers. She has a solo album out titled Who’s That Lady, and I warmly recommend it. Here she is playing the title track.
Today on Ujima – LGBT Rights
Today’s show was a Diversity Special put together for me by my friend Berkeley Wilde of Diversity Trust. With Berkeley in the studio were Sarah-Louise Minter of LGBT Bristol, Lesley Mansell of North Bristol NHS Trust, Mitch McMorrow of Bristol City Council (and Shout Out Radio), and John, a young, black gay man from Bristol.
We covered a lot of territory: legislation, hate crime, services for young people, the 20th birthday of Freedom Youth, services for old people, LGBT celebrities, the need for monitoring, Ireland finally getting legal recognition for trans people (today, well done, TENI!), the plight of LGBT asylum seekers and probably a whole lot more that I have forgotten.
You can find the first hour of the show here, and the second hour here. And by the way if you want to listen to my Pride coverage it is here — sorry about the Dr. Flex billing, the Listen Again system is automated and doesn’t cope well with unusual scheduling, and thanks to the good Doctor for the use of his slot.)
The playlist for today’s show was as follows:
- Secret Love – The Vinyl Closet
- Doubt – Kele Okereke
- It Must Be Love – Labi Siffre
- Feels Good – Rahsaan Patterson
- Bleed Like Me – Garbage
- Q.U.E.E.N. – Janelle Monáe (feat. Erykah Badu)
- Talking ‘Bout A Revolution – Tracy Chapman
- I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor
On next week’s show I’ll be having a chat with a teenage fashion designer, Kieran Mceleny; catching up with friend of the show, Christina Zaba; finding out from Sian Webb why Bristol lags behind in the gender pay gap stakes; and talking to Assistant Mayor Daniella Radice about the 50:50 campaign for female representation in the City Council that was launched today. There may be a bit of feminist ranting.
Brief Pride Follow-Up
It occurs to me that I forgot to mention which songs I played during my hour covering Bristol Pride. They were:
- I Am What I Am – Amanda Lear
- Diva – Dana International
- True Trans Soul Rebel – Against Me!
One of these days we’ll have trans artists on stage at the event (other than drag queens, which we have a-plenty).
Another Year, Another Pride
July is a very busy time of year. It is the usual time for Finncon; the last weekend of the month is reserved for Trans Pride in Brighton; but the second weekend is a bit crazy. It sounds like there was a really great little convention happening in Derby. Manchester’s Sparkle looks like it is turning into a really great trans event. My first priority, however, was Bristol Pride.
I must admit that the clash with Sparkle makes it a very difficult choice for me. Bristol Pride’s organizers are very supportive of trans folks. In particular Jayne Graham-Cummings has put together some great trans-themed programming for the Queer Vision film festival, and I’m seriously bummed not to have been able to see any of it. Trans presence at Pride itself is another matter. There are a couple of trans stalls, and a great number of people saying LGBT when they mean LG. Lots of trans people attend, not many actually do anything.
Part of this is due to the success of the event. I interviewed Daryn Carter on the radio during the afternoon and he said that at the time the venue was operating a strict one-in-one-out policy because it was near to capacity. By no means all of those people were LGBT-identified. Pride is, after all, a very good deal as far as a day out goes. If you keep it cheap so that underprivileged folk (like trans people) can attend then inevitably lots of other people will tale advantage. I confess that one of the reasons I spend my time in the Shout Out mobile studio is that if I’m behind a stall I would have to put up with being stared at all day, and occasionally “complimented” on how “convincing” I look. Being a zoo animal is no fun.
On the other hand, doing radio is great fun. I had a great day.
I’ve spent a lot of time with fairly famous writers, all of whom are lovely people. Pop stars are another breed entirely. Some of them have minders to protect them. Blue played Pride a couple of years ago, and were basically whisked in and whisked out again. This year’s lineup was much more friendly.
The star of the show was Heather Small (formerly of M People and also ex-wife of Welsh rugby’s defense coach, Shaun Edwards). She turned up to do a sound check early in the morning, noticed the radio studio, and did an impromptu live interview there and then. That’s pretty much unheard of. She did a post-gig interview as well.
Another star act was a group featuring Cheryl Baker, Mike Nolan and Jay Ashton, three of the original members of Bucks Fizz. There’s no space here to go into the complicated legal dispute over the name, but with the aid of new recruit Bobby McVay they do a remarkably convincing impression of themselves. You might almost think you were listening to the original band. Not only that, but they did a wonderful medley of 80s pop hits that had everyone up and dancing. And yes, they still do the skirt thing. Allegedly is it in the contract.
I was backstage during their gig, but wasn’t on air at the time so didn’t get to participate in the interview. Photos were taken, and at some point you may get to see the group one which includes me trying not to look too stupidly happy about being stood next to Cheryl Baker. That woman still has one of the best smiles in show business. Here’s hoping some of that glory make me look not too bad.
The band stayed around for ages, talking to fans and the show organizers. They seemed to be lovely people. As indeed were all of the acts I met.
The day’s coverage was organized by Shout Out (with sponsorship from the Queen’s Shilling nightclub). Many thanks to Mary Milton and the rest of the crew for doing such a great job and allowing me to be involved. Ujima took the live feed between 6:00pm and 8:00pm, and for the first hour the show was hosted by me, Tommy Popcorn and Jasmine.
Hosting the show is challenging. You can’t quite be sure in advance how much of a show you’ll need to do. Much of the time you simply take the live feed from the main stage. That’s especially the case with someone like former X-Factor star, Amelia Lily, who got through her set very efficiently. Sometimes, however, there is a break between acts, or you get an artist who feels the need to engage in banter with the audience between every song, and then you have to cover. Plus you get to interview people as they come off stage.
My interview ended up being with Tina Cousins, whom I knew very little about in advance. Thankfully I had Andy Thomas running the desk for me, and he happens to be a huge fan of Tina’s. Also I did my research, and we ended up conducting the interview partly in English, partly in Australian and partly in Finnish. Thanks for being so easy to interview, Tina, and best of luck with the acting debut.
From my point of view, the main attraction of the day was Helen Marnie, formerly of Ladytron, whose work I love dearly. Witching Hour is a favorite album of mine. The band is currently on hiatus and Helen has a new project called Marnie, which is actually a band because while Helen handles lead vocals and some keyboards there’s also a lead keyboard / back-up vocals performer, and an actual, non-electronic drummer. The new album, Crystal World, was produced in Reykjavik, and I wish I had been in on the interview as I would have asked if K.K. had been involved in any way (any excuse to mention Sense8).
Anyway, I’ve bought the album. It is less poppy than a Ladytron album, but that might mean I end up playing it more while I am working.
Running a live stage at Pride is clearly an interesting challenge. Most of the acts were vocalists who sang over backing tracks. The reason for that is that a real band needs to set up their instruments. Marnie were late starting because you can’t get a real band up and running as quickly as a vocalist. Personally I love hearing musicians play their instruments, but I quite understand the temptation to move people on and off quickly.
Anyway, it was a lovely, if very tiring day. My thanks to everyone, especially the Shout Out crew, and Tommy & Jasmine. Thanks also to Kym Mazelle, Tina Cousins, Amelia Lily, La Voix, Not Quite Bucks Fizz and Marnie who were all awesome. Special thanks to Brighton’s Boogaloo Stu for being a wonderful host for the stage. And of course to Daryn Carter and the Pride team for all of their hard work.
Bristol Pride Radio Coverage
A quick reminder that Bristol Pride is tomorrow, and you can follow the day live on radio thanks to my good friends at Shout Out. They will be broadcasting throughout the day on BCFM. I may be doing a few vox pops for them during the day. Between 6:00pm and 8:00pm the show will also be carried by Ujima, and the first hour of that will be hosted by myself, Tommy Popcorn and Jasmine. Both stations are available for streaming via their websites.
Most of the show will involve live broadcasting of the acts on the main stage. My job is to fill in if there are gaps in the show. Hopefully I will get to play a few trans musicians.
Women’s Outlook Pride Special
Today I did a Pride Special on Women’s Outlook. We began with Roz Kaveney who did a great reading at Hydra Books last night. On the show I asked Roz a few questions about Tiny Pieces of Skull, got her to read some poetry, and asked her a few things about the Rhapsody of Blood series.
Next on the show was Sister Ann Tici Pation of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. The Sisters are looking to set up a chapter in Bristol which will be a very fine and wonderful thing. I’m looking forward to seeing them, especially my good friend Brother Bimbo, at Pride on Saturday. If you are in Bristol and fancy getting involved, do pop along to the Volunteer Tavern on Friday from 1:00pm. They will apparently be there all evening, though I suspect that a certain amount of beer may have been consumed by late in the day.
You can listen to the first hour of the show here.
The second hour begins with my talking to Daryn Carter, the Director of Bristol Pride. There is one heck of a lot going on in Bristol this week. Sadly the FGW train strike makes it very difficult for me to do anything before Saturday. I just got out in time today. Not that I’m going to complain, because the RMT guys are striking to defend the existence of food and drink services on London trains. Apparently the management want to make them driver-only.
Anyway, there’s theatre tonight, comedy tomorrow, a big party thing possibly involving fishnet-wearing transylvanians on Friday night, a massive all-day party in the park on Saturday, and some trans-themed film programming at Watershed on Sunday. Phew!
Finally I was joined by Jeff Evans of Schools Out who is in charge of the National Festival of LGBT History. We talked a bit about Jeff’s own academic interests, and then looked at some of the exciting things that will be happening in Bristol next February.
Hour two had a couple of little technical glitches. One was because I listed the songs in the wrong sequence on the running order, so my apologies to Eric and Isaac for that. The other was because the studio wifi went down briefly, causing us to have no access to the ads when we needed to play them. Thankfully it came back up in time for us to play the missing ads in the next segment.
You can listen to the second hour here.
The playlist for the day was a combination of LGBT-themed music and artists who will be appearing on the main stage at Pride.
- Diana Ross – I’m Coming Out
- Sylvester – You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)
- M People – Moving on Up
- Ladytron – Sugar
- Little Richard – Good Golly Miss Molly
- Vinyl Closet – Garbage Man
- Tracy Chapman – Baby Can I Hold You?
- Noah Stewart – I Have A Dream
By the way, Roz tells me that the woman on whom Natasha in Tiny Pieces of Skull was based knew Sylvester very well. Small world.
Bristol Pride Week – Roz Kaveney & Radio
It is Pride Week in Bristol. I’m going to be busy.
Tomorrow evening we have the fabulous Roz Kaveney at Hydra Books from 6:00pm. Roz will primarily be talking about Tiny Pieces of Skull, but I’m sure that she can be persuaded to read poetry and/or talk about the Rhapsody of Blood series as well.
On Wednesday I will be hosting a Women’s Outlook Pride Special. Roz will guest on the show. We’ll also have a lot of information about other Pride events. And we’ll have some special guests talking about exciting things due to happen in Bristol next year.
And on Saturday we have Pride Day itself. Shout Out will be broadcasting live from Castle Park all day, and I’ll be helping out. For at least part of the day the show will be carried on Ujima and will feature Ujima presenters. The current plan is for me to co-host the show from 6:00pm to 7:00pm. Will I play Amanda Lear? You bet! Will I get to interview Cheryl Baker (why yes, we do have most of Bucks Fizz playing live on the day)? I have no idea. Actually I’d love to chat to Marnie from Ladytron who will also be performing. And we’ve got Heather Small, formerly of M People. It’s gonna be busy, that’s all I can say.
50 Voices for Malcolm X : Movement for Change
Giving it the full title here, 50 Voices for Malcolm X : Movement for Change was a civil rights event staged over three nights in the Studio at Bristol Old Vic. The show was staged by Ujima Radio to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of Malcolm X. We note with pride that Bristol is the only city in Europe to be home to a community center named after the legendary civil rights leader.
The structure of the show was 5-minute performances by a variety of artists, each with a different take on civil rights issues. The performances included spoken word, music, dance and film.
I was unable to be there for the Thursday and Friday shows as I was in Brighton, but the idea was to have different people on different nights. Some of the audience came to all three events.
The Saturday show was topped and tailed by Ujima director, Roger Griffith, reading from the speeches of Malcolm X. In between we had a range of performers, several of whom we have had the pleasure of interviewing on Women’s Outlook.
The first session included material from Shawn Sobers from the Haile Selassie House in Bath. Shawn spoke eloquently about the issue of names. Many Caribbean and African-American people bear last names derived from the slaver families who owned their ancestors, which is clearly problematic for them. I was pleased to hear Shawn talk about how the name “Sobers” is no longer associated with slavery, but rather with the finest player ever to grace a cricket pitch.
Also up in the first session was Joseph Langdon reading a powerful piece written by the brilliant Jamaican/British playwright, Alfred Fagon. Those of you who follow Women’s Outlook may remember my talking to James Peries of the Old Vic about Fagon back in 2013. James was the director for the 50 Voices show and he did a fabulous job of putting me at ease and giving me advice on my performance.
Next up was Michael Jenkins from 8th Sense Media. He’s making a film called Black Soldier, White Army, about Patrick Cyrus, a black British soldier who served in Northern Ireland. From the clips we saw it looks like being a very powerful film.
I was up about half way through the first session, and it seemed to go quite well. I managed to remember almost all of the poem, just needing a couple of surreptitious glances at my notes along the way. The acoustics in the Studio are amazing. Those of you who have seen me on panels know that I don’t have a very loud voice and generally need a microphone even in small rooms. I was able to perform in the Studio without a mic. I’m sure that helped a lot. Anyway, people were very nice about my performance afterwards, so I guess I did OK. Can I call myself a performance poet now?
I was followed by Paulette, Frances & Christine from Women’s Outlook, and a few other people, talking about various campaigns centered around refugees rights.
Next up were two amazing performers: Glen Cook, known as The Singing Chef, and poet Miles Chambers. I guess Glenn could be described as signing Gospel, but really it was far more innovative than you would imagine from that description. I was really impressed with how well Miles had worked various key quotes from Malcolm X’s speeches into his poetry, and with the power of his delivery.
The second session featured performance poet Shagufta Iqbal with a great poem about being a Mother of Color. She was followed by photographer Benny Benn with a lovely montage of images (including pictures of Janelle Monae, and of T’Challa & Ororo). Then there was John Dior from a community youth group.
We also had Jay Kallias who is a Krump dancer. I had never seen Krump performed live before, and was seriously impressed. It is very different, and perhaps not that graceful, but very powerful.
My friend Adam Murray, who was part of the Afrofuturism project at Watershed, talked a bit about the current film series he has been involved in there. It is called Come the Revolution and features a number of fine films about black history.
A couple of ladies from the RISE community action group came and talked about their work. Once they were done, one of them, Nia Bimkubwa, treated us to a fine performance of “Love Will Save the Day”. This was essentially karaoke, in that she was signing with a backing track, but it was way better than what you’ll hear in clubs.
Also on the music side, we had Kizzy Morrell, whose show you may remember I was a guest on last year. Kizzy is also a professional signer, and she treated us to a wonderful rendition of “Georgia on My Mind”, again just accompanied by a music track.
My thanks are due to Roger for making the whole thing happen; the James, Sharon and the crew from Bristol Old Vic; to Julz for compering the evening with style; to DJ Style for the music; to the young lady who announced the performances (her name’s not on the program, Roger!) and of course to all of my fellow performers. It was a wonderful evening and I’m delighted to have been part of it.
A couple of people asked whether my poem was available online anywhere. I’ve sent Roger a few suggestions about doing a book. I also know that the whole thing was filmed. When I know a bit more about what is going to happen I’ll let you know.
Amanda Palmer at St. George’s
I have to confess that I am not in the least bit objective when it comes to Amanda Palmer. I have, after all, known her husband for over 30 years, and I have a great deal of faith in his judgement. I was a little nervous when he first told me about her, but having seen her perform live four times now I have grown to love this fierce, fearless and amazingly talented woman.
If you have been to one of Amanda’s gigs before, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect. There were piano songs and ukelele songs. But, as she often does, she opened up with “Wind that Blows the Barley”. St. George’s is a former church. It is known for its awesome acoustics. Singing unaccompanied shows it off at its best.
Of course there is a huge picture of Jesus at the back of the stage. Apparently when Richard Dawkins did a talk there he insisted on having it covered up. Maybe he was afraid it was watching him. Amanda had no such worries. She just played “Jump You Fucker, Jump!” from Peter Cook & Dudley Moore’s Derek & Clive album. That’s the one that sounds a bit like a religious chant and ends, “Aaaaaa-souls” (or something that sounds very like that).
God did not strike any of us dead.
Amanda then launched into “Astronaut” and “Ampersand”, which is enough to get any audience going, and built the show from there. This being Amanda, while she had some idea of what she was going to play, there was always going to be audience interaction. She took requests, and played most of them, even though these days her fans know what is coming and delight in asking for obscure songs from her catalog.
She played “Vegemite”, which made me very happy because I love that song. Sorry, Neil.
Of course the main distinguishing fact about this gig was that Amanda is five months pregnant, seriously in need of naps, and suffering from acid reflux. Most people would take that as an excuse for a little time off work. Amanda is not most people. She just adapted the show to take account of it. There was no crowd surfing. There was, however, a song about pregnancy.
The support crew for this tour includes Whitney Moses, who in addition to organizing the tour is helping Amanda out with all of the pregnancy stuff. Whit is also a really good singer. She and Amanda did a couple of duets, one of which was a song called “Pregnant Women Are Smug”. That’s by an American comedy duo known as Garfunkel and Oates, which is the name of the band (from Art Garfunkel and John Oates, whom they describe as “two famous rock-and-roll second bananas”). These ladies are hilarious, and just as potty-mouthed as Amanda. Here’s their version of that song.
If you liked that, go here and listen to some more of their work. I even laughed at the one in which they make fun of people who like sport. I especially laughed at “The Loophole”, but then I’m a sad history geek who understands how the meaning of the term “sodomy” has changed down the ages.
Thank you, Amanda. It was a great gig. You’ve made my heavy metal obsessed pal, Sarah, into an Amanda Palmer fan, and you’ve made me into a Garfunkel and Oates fan.
The Ujima Women’s Outlook Dementia Special
Wednesday’s show was put together for me by Subitha Baghirathan. All I had to do was ask good questions and deal with a few technical problems that we had at the start.
The first hour saw Subitha along with Dr. Judy Haworth, a dementia specialist, and Wayne Song from a Chinese community group tell us what is happening in South Gloucestershire. Dr. Haworth gave us some really great information about the nature of dementia conditions, and how we can at least try to stave them off. Keeping active, both physically and mentally appear to be key.
You can listen to the first hour of the show here.
In the second hour I was joined by Jan Connect from the City Council plus Daisy Rajput, Sato Black and Ade Couper, all of whom are involved in dementia support work in some way.
You can listen to the second hour of the show here.
The one really important thing that I learned from the show is that there are still far too many people out there who associate dementia with mental illness, and therefore believe that those living with dementia can make themselves better by “pulling themselves together”. It is really important for everyone to understand that dementia is caused by actual physical deterioration of the brain, that the main cause is aging, and that consequently there should be no shame attached to the condition.
My thanks again to Subitha and all of my guests for helping create this really important show.
Subitha also suggested some of the music for the show. As I result I have been introduced to Amadou & Miriam, a hugely talented couple from Mali, and to the amazing blues pioneer, Memphis Minnie. This also gave me an excuse to play Little Feat, and Led Zeppelin.