The Quilt

Rhaid newid popeth medd hoywon a lesbiaid!How can you describe your desires and sense of yourself when they don’t seem to fit with the language you use?In this episode Adam travels to South Wales to meet Dafydd Frayling, a pioneering activist who disrupted arts festivals and radio broadcasts in the 80s to show how Welsh speakers needed new words so they could make queer people feel more included. He also meets young queer writers today, Leo Drayton and Nia Morais, who are making work about their identities and using Welsh in exciting and queer ways. And there’s a special contribution from the composer of the music for The Quilt, Rhiannon Takel. When the words don’t work, we can bend them and invent new ones — and the history of how this has been done with queer Welsh is fascinating.For this episode we’d like to thank Sara Huws, Daniel Bowen, Seiriol Davies, Mark Etheridge at Museum Wales, the team at the Sherman Theatre, and Glitter Cymru.The Quilt is an Aunt Nell Production, in partnership with Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBTQ+ museum, and funded by Mindsets and Missions. It is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.Music by Rhiannon Takel. The assistant producer was Marnie Woodmeade.The associate producers for Queer Britain were Sue Shave, Siân Williams and Katharine Dick.Mixed and mastered by David Pye.Mindsets + Missions is funded by UK Research and Innovation in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and delivered by the Museums Association in partnership with The Liminal Space and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres.Queer Britain museum is located at Granary Square, Kings Cross in London. It is free to visit and is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12-6pm. If you’d like to talk to anyone about any issues raised in this podcast, you can always contact Switchboard - the LGBTQIA+ helpline on switchboard.lgbt or 0800 0119 100.Transcript available here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Northern Ireland’s intriguing queer history draws Tash to Belfast. In exploring stories that are often kept out of view, Tash hears tales of jailed men, a pioneering community helpline, and intersex experience. They speak to Michael Lawrence, a historian looking into the prison records of men who were convicted of buggery, and digs into the archive of charity Cara-Friend looking back over the letters people sent across its long and heartwarming history with Community Development Manager Adam Murray. The final patches added to our quilt in this episode are stitched by Hannah who shares her life experience, and why it’s important not to hide intersex people, and we end as Tash and Hannah march together at Belfast Trans Pride.Queer history is often harder to find because it’s been hidden, but everyone in this episode helps to change that.For this episode we’d like to thank Adam Murray at Cara Friend, Belfast Trans Pride, Grianne Starrs, Here NI and the staff at Ulster Museum. The Quilt is an Aunt Nell Production, in partnership with Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBTQ+ museum, and funded by Mindsets and Missions. It is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.Music by Rhiannon Takel. The assistant producer was Marnie Woodmeade.The associate producers for Queer Britain were Sue Shave, Siân Williams and Katharine Dick.Mixed and mastered by David Pye.Mindsets + Missions is funded by UK Research and Innovation in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and delivered by the Museums Association in partnership with The Liminal Space and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres.Queer Britain museum is located at Granary Square, Kings Cross in London. It is free to visit and is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12-6pm. If you’d like to talk to anyone about any issues raised in this podcast, you can always contact Switchboard - the LGBTQIA+ helpline on switchboard.lgbt or 0800 0119 100.Transcript available here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

People have moved to The Midlands from all over the world — so how has this migration shaped the region’s queer community?In this episode, Adam meets Ranjit Khutan who tells the story of his parents moving to England from India, and how they raised him with a community spirit. This led him to run the first support group for South Asian men who have sex with men in Birmingham in the 1990s, and do pioneering work in sexual health. Bursting out into Birmingham’s Gay Village at the same time was the drag queen Seema Butt, aka Naz Qureshi, in their extravagant and colourful looks. Naz tells Adam the story of how Seema came to be, and all the important queer South Asian nightlife from back in the day. The patch that they all stitch together through these stories is a picture of queer community.For this episode we’d like to thank Saima Razzaq and Birmingham Pride, Laurence Butler at Birmingham Museums, Linda Spurdle at Birmingham Museums Trust, and Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum.The Quilt is an Aunt Nell Production, in partnership with Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBTQ+ museum, and funded by Mindsets and Missions. It is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.Music by Rhiannon Takel. The assistant producer was Marnie Woodmeade.The associate producers for Queer Britain were Sue Shave, Siân Williams and Katharine Dick.Mixed and mastered by David Pye.Mindsets + Missions is funded by UK Research and Innovation in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and delivered by the Museums Association in partnership with The Liminal Space and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres.Queer Britain museum is located at Granary Square, Kings Cross in London. It is free to visit and is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12-6pm. If you’d like to talk to anyone about any issues raised in this podcast, you can always contact Switchboard - the LGBTQIA+ helpline on switchboard.lgbt or 0800 0119 100.Transcript available here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If the world has made it hard for your community to keep going, how do you still find the pride?In this episode, Tash travels to the northeast of England, to the old mining town of Stanley in County Durham. They hear about the history of mining and shipbuilding, and what the wake of those industries has meant for queer people living there. There are stories from Sharon McIlvaney, who reflects on her own upbringing as a bisexual woman who now runs a local queer community youth group called Freedom Zone. Tash meets two of the groups young members, Grey and Matt, who talk about the importance of Freedom Zone and the impact the group has had on their lives. Sharon’s son Jake and his partner Charlie also sit down for a chat, to talk about their experience of growing up trans in the North East. Lastly we hear from Glenn Wigham, who moved to London as a fashion student but is now returning to County Durham to train as a firefighter (one of the first gay male ones in the area!).As Glen, Sharon and others speak movingly about their connection to their community and its history, we’re reminded what it’s like to have pride in a place.For this episode we’d like to thank Sharon McIlvaney at Freedom Zone, PACT House in Stanley, Durham Pride and the staff at Beamish: the living museum of the north.The Quilt is an Aunt Nell Production, in partnership with Queer Britain, the UK's first and only LGBTQ+ museum, and funded by Mindsets and Missions. It is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.Music by Rhiannon Takel. The assistant producer was Marnie Woodmeade.The associate producers for Queer Britain were Sue Shave, Siân Williams and Katharine Dick.Mixed and mastered by David Pye.Mindsets + Missions is funded by UK Research and Innovation in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and delivered by the Museums Association in partnership with The Liminal Space and the Association for Science and Discovery Centres.Queer Britain museum is located at Granary Square, Kings Cross in London. It is free to visit and is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 12-6pm. If you’d like to talk to anyone about any issues raised in this podcast, you can always contact Switchboard - the LGBTQIA+ helpline on switchboard.lgbt or 0800 0119 100.Transcript available here Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.