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LGBT History Month events
LGBT History month is keeping me busy this year. As well as Lewisham Library, I am also involved in events all over London, mainly reading from Mosaic of Air, but also from new work. The Story Sessions, Queer Tales, 19th February 7.45 at the Ivy House SE15 3BE – Me, Cath Blackfeather, Anny Knight, Rebecca…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 6th January
Today’s birthday belongs to Stella Benson, 1892-1933 a feminist, writer and traveller (particularly America and China). She was a friend of Virginia Woolf, and of Winifred Holtby. She wrote travel books, poetry, novels and short stories. She died rather young, but I can’t help feeling she got a lot of fun from life while she…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 5th January
No convenient birthday for 5th January so the first of the ‘who knows?’ BIERIS (Biatritz) DE ROMANS Thirteenth Century Trobairitz (Female Troubadour – writer of songs) from Romans-Sur-Isère. Writing from around 1200-1235. Probably nobility since she could read and write. The tune does not survive. During and following the Albigensian Crusade, troubadours were treated with…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party January 4th
The matchless Orinda – Katherine Phillips. Her birthday is actually 1st January 1631 but she deserved a really class party so I’ve waited til now. She was also known as the English Sappho. (So were lots of women poets, it didn’t mean what we think it would mean now, just that she was a poet,…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party January 3rd
Today’s birthday girl is Henry Handel Richardson (don’t you love a male nom-de-plume?) known to her family as Ethel Robertson. Born 3rd January 1870 HH wrote the lovely and semi-autobiographical coming of age novel The Getting of Wisdom about Laura, a young Australian girl sent away to school where she finds it hard to fit…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea party 2nd January
The second in my celebrations of women from history who stuck up for themselves and each other, and this one rather more likely to be a lesbian than dear Maria E. M. Carey Thomas, born 2nd January 1857 in th USA, prefered to be known as Carey rather than her given name of Martha (another…
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The Historical Birthday-Tea Party 1st January
So: YEARS ago, pre the internet, A and I used to go to the Lesbian History Group at the London Women’s Centre, and for a while we had this plan to produce a birthday book with a lesbian from history for every day of the year, complete with a good quotation for every week. It…
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Singing and ringing and feeling like christmas
So: Saturday was a singing day, 3 hours or so, rehearsing, performing, singing with the audience, interspersed with beer at the lovely Ivy House. We like to have a theme or a project for Vocal Chords, in the summer it was love songs for the planet, this autumn it has been folk carols, learnt from…
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Tis the season
Carol singing, my friends, the sound that cheers: loud, raucous and invigorating. We’ll be driving the cold winter away and getting our vocal chords around some songs going right back to the 15th Century at the Ivy House today at 3pm (ish- depends on how long the rehearsal overruns by). Come along, listen, drink and…
Cherry Potts, Writer, Editor, creative writing tutor; Lesbian, cat-mother, would-be singer. Any of these can crop up here.
Cherry Potts, Writer 