LGBT Archive and Creativity

This week I have been engaged in creative pursuits, while also trying to make progress towards my aim of creating a Cork LGBT Digital Archive.

In an earlier post on Cork LGBT Digital Archive I talked about the rich source of archival material stored in the basement of a house in Cork.  This material has been gathered over the past 30 years.  It relates to the history of the LGBT community in Cork, the Quay Co-op, Safer Sex and AIDS organisations as well as various other campaigns and organisations.  While it contains many gems, the ‘archive’ is unsorted with information on various organisations mixed in together.

This week I began the slow process of trying to sort through the archive, with the assistance of Arthur, Carol, Katherine, John and Fionuala.  We tried to resist the temptation to read through all the fantastic information we found, although we had to admire some of the wonderful posters in the collection.  Initially the information is being sorted into broad categories, such as LGBT Cork, Quay Co-op, AIDS, Environmental, Housing Co-op etc.   Once sorted each category can be catalogued and explored in further depth.

Cork LGBT Digital Archive

In the basement of a magnificent house in Cork there are boxes and boxes of old newsletters, posters, letters and other documents collected over the past 35 years by a local activist.  They relate to the activities of various Cork groups, including the lesbian and gay communities, the Quay Co-op, environmental groups and different campaign groups.  It is a rich source of information documenting the activities of these groups and a testament to Arthur’s foresight that it has not all been lost over the years.

To call this an ‘archive’ would be to suggest a level of organisation that doesn’t exist.  It is a jumble of unorganised boxes, each containing a mix of information relating to different organisations and activities.  There are also old computers which would require some level of expertise to unlock the files contained on them.  

Disco Divas – Cork Women’s Disco, Other Place, 1990s

As I trawled through boxes of archival material recently, I found this hand written notice for the Women’s Discos which were run on Friday nights in the Other Place in the 1990s.

It is unsigned.  The hand writing is very neat and clear.  It includes a word count, so I would assume it was written for inclusion in a newsletter or in GCN.

Does anyone know who wrote this?

It provides a good snap shot of the Women’s Discos, the atmosphere inside the club and the experiences of women coming to and leaving the club – security cameras to ensure safety.  And it sings the praises of the D.J.  – Diane Jefferies!

Here is a transcript of the article:

Disco Divas

Want to get your glad rags on and boogy on down, or just sit in a quiet corner and watch other women shed their inhibitions?  Then it is about time you came to the Women’s Disco.  From 11.00 pm onwards on the first Friday of the month knock on the door of the Other Place and the night and space is yours.

Digital Art and Creativity

As part of my MA in Digital Arts and Humanities in UCC I was asked to submit some ‘art’ I had created.   I submitted three pieces – either I am very indecisive or very creative!

One was the first film I produced and edited myself :a case study of Cork based independent filmmaker, Carol O Keeffe.

 

This was significant for me because I had never believed that producing and editing a film was something I could do. This was a skill other people had, not me! So it was a huge step for me to decide to try to make a film, and particularly challenging, and perhaps foolhardy, to make my first film about a talented and skilled filmmaker, who would see all the mistakes I was making!

Ordinary Love

Wow what a week!  Sold out shows, standing ovations and really positive reaction to the performance of our play Ordinary Love in the Cork Arts Theatre on 19 and 20 March.   Thank you so much to our Director Sonya Mathews and the amazing cast: Kate, Alice, Barbara, Pauline, Rudie, Carol, Sonya and me!  And the fabulous crew who made it all run so smoothly, Paddy, Marie, Jamie and Catherine.  

I had such fun playing four very different characters:  the mother, sister, ex-girlfriend and one of the doctors.  It was challenging, especially managing to change costumes and charters so quickly between scenes, but I loved it.

The audiences were wonderful – they were engaged and responsive and so appreciative.  We had hoped that the play would appeal to a mixed audience, gay and straight alike, and it appears to have done so.  People responded with laughter and tears and more laughter to the love story, the relationships with family and friends and the various challenges which the play explored.

Cork Lesbian Play Opens this Week

Final rehearsals tomorrow before the opening of the new Cork lesbian play, Ordinary Love, in the Cork Arts Theatre on Wednesday 19 March 2014.   After all the hard work and rehearsals we are all excited, and a little nervous, about finally performing in front of an audience.  No pressure!!

      The play is basically a love story, with Sara looking back over key moments in her life and her relationship with her partner Clarissa.  In many ways it’s a universal love story, but it also explores some of the challenges that lesbians can sometimes have to deal with, in school, with our families, in society.

The play has been written collaboratively by the Linc Drama Group, drawing on our own experiences and the stories we wanted to tell.  There are too few plays, stories, films which are written, performed and directed by lesbian and bisexual women.  Lesbians and bisexual women are too often absent from and invisible in mainstream culture and when we do appear we are often distorted by misinformation, misinterpretation and stereotypes.  I would hope that this play will redress this in some little way and that it will resonate with audiences, queer and straight!

Lesbian Drama

Just two weeks to go to the performance of the new Cork Lesbian Play, Ordinary Love, in the Cork Arts Theatre.  Gay Community News have just published a version of my article about the play on their Outmost website.

http://theoutmost.com/entertainment/the-l-word-in-cork/

New Cork Lesbian Play

The drama group I am involved in will be performing our new play Ordinary Love in the Cork Arts Theatre on 19^th and 20^th March 2014.   

Ordinary Love is written, produced and directed by the Linc Drama Group. The drama group is facilitated by Sonya Mathews, a former robotics engineer (I’m serious!), who is a well-known actor, director and drama teacher.  Sonya started the group in April 2013 because she wanted to give women in the lesbian community a forum to express themselves, learn new skills and improve confidence and self-esteem.

Film

I’ve been engaging with films and filmmaking a lot lately.

As part of the Film Seminar module in UCC, which was delivered by Jill Murphy and  David Puttnam,  I explored the Experiences of an Independent Documentary Filmmaker based in Cork  – Carol O Keeffe.   Carol has been making films since 1999 and  has achieved some recognition for her films, with awards at various film festivals.  Her film The Pieces of Me was broadcast on TG4 in 2013.

Video, Oral History, Memory Map

Oral History interests me.  I am intrigued by the richness of the stories that people tell about the past and by how these stories help us to develop a fuller and more complex understanding of our history.  Oral Histories are particularly important when we are exploring hidden histories and marginalised communities.  They help to reveal the history that might otherwise remain invisible.

My interest in oral history, and in the history of the lesbian and gay communities in Cork, has recently been reawakened.  When I carried out oral history interviews in the past I used a tape recorder and then transcribed the interviews – a slow and laborious task.   Technology has advanced significantly since then and I realised I needed to up skill to do this work more effectively.