There are a lot of activities in Manchester to celebrate LGBT+ History Month. These are some of the events:

Derek Jarman at HOME – Sunday 30 January – Thursday 10 March

A film season dedicated to one of the most influential figures in contemporary British culture. See HOME Cinema website for full details – https://homemcr.org/event/jarman-at-home/

Derek Jarman: Film Canvas Writing Politics and Now!!

Tuesday, 8 February – 5.30pm – 7.30pm

Manchester School of Art, Benzie Building, Room BZ403 (top floor), Boundary Street West, Manchester M15 6BG

Free – but booking needed on Eventbrite – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/derek-jarman-film-canvas-writing-politics-and-now-tickets-246244432727

Theatre & Performance at Queer Contact 2022

Friday, 11 February – Saturday 19 February

Contact Theatre celebrates queer culture with an extraordinary line up of LGBTQ+ talent!

See website for full details – https://contactmcr.com/

Quirky Art Exhibition by Mike Roberts

Open every day until 13 February (10.00am – 6.00pm)

Launch Day & Meet the Artist – Sunday, 6 Feb 12.00 noon – 4.00pm Please contact Paul Marrs on mailto:paul@marrsandsonsfine.art

Cass Art, 55-57 Oldham Street, Manchester M1 1JR (In the basement) – Free entrance

Outing The Past

Sunday, 13 February – 12.00 noon – 4.00pm

People’s History Museum – Free – drop in – no booking required

Launch event of “Legacy of ‘67” – Thursday, 17 February – 6.00pm – 7.30pm

Manchester Central Library – Free – but booking needed here

Queering the Romcom: ‘Touch of Pink’ (2004 Rashid) Screening / Discussion

Friday, 18 February 2022 at 5.00pm

School of Digital Arts (SODA) – Room GF.12 (CINEMA),12 Higher Chatham Street, Manchester M15 6BR

Free – but booking needed on Eventbrite – https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/queering-the-romcom-touch-of-pink-2004-rashid-screening-discussion-tickets-249464022607

The LGBT Foundation are organising a number of online events. See https://lgbt.foundation/lgbtq-history-month for more information.

Quirky Art Exhibition

By Mike Roberts until 13 February

At Cass Art, 55-57 Oldham Street, Manchester M1 1JR (in the basement)

Free entrance – open 10.00am – 6.00pm.

Mike Roberts is a northern artist who lives in Timperley near Manchester. He has created a style that brings flamboyance and quirkiness with a sense of nostalgia.

His imaginary and sometimes realistic characters have been brought to life with his beautiful linework and exuberant colours. 

Most of his imaginary characters are portrayed on Canal Street 

Mike’s series of illustrations depicting the imaginary character called Silvia who lives a flamboyant and outgoing lifestyle as he represents her in everyday life.

Mike will exhibit as well a series of Edward Lear illustrations which have been accepted in the library of the Edward Lear Society in London.

There is a launch day and meeting with the artist on Sunday 6 February 12.00 noon – 4.00pm.

Please contact Paul Marrs or Philippe Bosc if you wish to attend.

Paul Marrs – paul@marrsandsonsfine.art

Philippe Bosc – philippe.publications@marrsandsonsfine.art

50 Shades of Gay (Part 2)

To celebrate LGBT+ History Month in 2022, here are some books with an LGBT+ interest. This is the second ten (more to follow):

Blue Lily, Lily Blue / Maggie Stiefvater

For the first time in her life, Blue Sargent has found a place where she feels at home. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own and she is sure that this is where she belongs. But certainties can unravel. Visions can mislead. And friends can betray. The trick with found things is how easily they can be lost.

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Paul has been gay his whole life and he’s confident about almost everything. He doesn’t have to hide his feelings like best friend Tony. Or even cope with loving the wrong guy like his other best friend Joni. But heartbreak can happen to anyone. Falling in love changes everything.

A Boy’s Own Story by Edmund White

The protagonist of this story is a homosexual, and his story is of a life in which homosexuality is a shaping force. Set in the American Midwest of the 1950s the book tells how the frustrated 15-year-old becomes the guardian of public morals.

Breaks Vol 1 by Emma Vieceli

Cortland Hunt has made some dangerous mistakes. Now he’s waiting quietly for those mistakes to catch up with him. Ian Tanner coasts through life denying the spark of anger beneath his laid back exterior. When school politics and personal lives become a battleground, the pair find that what they share may just be their only safe haven. Bringing the world of LGBT young adult fiction into the realm of comic books, and collecting the first arc of the acclaimed weekly web series (2014-2016)

Cabin Fever by Alex Dahl

Kristina is a successful therapist in central Oslo. She spends her days helping clients navigate their lives with a cool professionalism that has got her to the top. But when her client Leah, a successful novelist, arrives at her office clearly distressed, begging Kristina to come to her remote cabin in the woods, she feels the balance begin to slip. When Leah fails to turn up to her next two sessions, Kristina reluctantly heads out into the wilderness to find her. Alone and isolated, Kristina finds Leah’s unfinished manuscript, and as she reads she realises the main character is terrifyingly familiar.

Call Down The Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

Ronan Lynch is a dreamer. He can pull both curiosities and catastrophes out of his dreams and into his compromised reality. Jordan Hennessy is a thief. The closer she comes to the dream object she is after, the more inextricably she becomes tied to it. Carmen Farooq-Lane is a hunter. Her brother was a dreamer and a killer. She has seen what dreaming can do to a person. And she has seen the damage that dreamers can do. But that is nothing compared to the destruction that is about to be unleashed.

Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman

This is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blooms between 17-year-old Elio and his father’s house guest, Oliver, during a restless summer on the Italian Riviera. What grows from the depths of their souls is a romance of scarcely six weeks’ duration, and an experience that marks them for a lifetime.

Carry On: The Rise and Fall of Simon Snow by Rainbow Rowell

Simon Snow just wants to relax and savour his last year at the Watford School of Magicks, but no one will let him. His girlfriend broke up with him, his best friend is a pest and his mentor keeps trying to hide him away in the mountains where maybe he’ll be safe. Simon can’t even enjoy the fact that his room-mate and longtime nemesis is missing, because he can’t stop worrying about the evil git. Plus there are ghosts. And vampires. And actual evil things trying to shut Simon down. When you’re the most powerful magician the world has ever known, you never get to relax and savour anything.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

Paranormal romance stories for young adolescents.

Chaos by Edmund White

In this collection which features ‘Chaos’, a novella, and short stories, Edmund White explores different aspects of ageing, romance and sex with an unsparing look at gay midlife.