Today is International Women’s Day. The theme this year is: ‘Think equal, build smart, innovate for change’. The focus of the theme is on innovative ways in which to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women, particularly in the areas of social protection systems, access to public services and sustainable infrastructure.

Next week is the third annual LBT Women’s Health Week (taking place from 11-15th March 2019). Check out this website to find out more about the week and how to get involved.

The aim of LBT Women’s Health Week is to raise awareness about lesbian, bisexual and trans women’s health inequalities, to make it easier for service providers to empower service users and for communities to support LBT women.

The week is also an opportunity to celebrate, highlight and learn from the work of groups and services which provide dedicated support to lesbian and bisexual women.

The main focus of LBT Women’s Health Week 2019 is visibility. We’re organising, leading and supporting a number of events and activities, and also providing you with facts and information to help explain why LBT Women’s Health needs to be made a priority. We’re particularly excited to be launching a network for women working in the LGBT sector and releasing the results of some interesting new research on LGBT women’s health.

LBT Women’s Health Week 2019 will include the following activities:

• Three Webinars
• Twitter Q&A
• Sharing data and research
• Social Media takeovers
• Information and views from our Ambassadors
• Sharing your pledges (see below)
• Events and discussions
• Targeted clinics and support groups
• Launch of the LGBT Sector Women’s Network

 

 

Trips & Adventures – 7 March 2019

We met at Dough Pizza Kitchen, an independent pizza restaurant in the heart of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, at 12.30pm and enjoyed various pizzas, pastas and salads (including beetroot risotto). The service was excellent and we were seated quickly and given our drinks orders very promptly. There was also a really good ambience in the restaurant and overall the food was good. Some people even managed a sweet!

We then crossed the road to the Centre For Chinese Contemporary Art, where we had a private tour of the Chinternet Ugly – a group exhibition of young artists working in video and digital media, part of the Art and Resistance programme.

Today, China is home to 802 million internet users and is the world’s largest online community. The exhibition exposes the reality of an internet with Chinese characteristics of censorship, hyper-regulation and surveillance. The young artists use humour, irreverence and wit to confront the complex and contradictory facets of China’s digital realm.

This was followed by a workshop on wax resist painting, lead by Jo.

Jo demonstrated this simple form of decorating cloth, using wax and dye, which has been practised for centuries.

When we posed for the group photo, someone bent over and revealed their “Lucky Pants”. Once seen, it was an image that cannot be erased from the memory!

Thanks for a great afternoon to Alistair for the tour and to Jo for the workshop.

Trips & Adventures – 28 February 2019

The Bury College Three Seasons Restaurant serves a wide range of gastronomic delights which are prepared by the catering and hospitality students and supervised by experienced professional catering staff. This is a regular treat on our calendar of events as the food is great and only costs £7.50 for a three course meal including tea or coffee.

After our meal we made our way to the Bury Art Museum to view the exhibition of Victoria Wood memorabilia. Stuart gave us a tour of Bury as he used to live there.

BAFTA award winning comic Victoria Wood is Bury’s most famous daughter. She was best known for her BBC sketch Acorn Antiques and the comedy Dinner Ladies, and was one of the nation’s most respected and loved comedians.

We never miss a chance to dress up, so we tried on the icon yellow beret worn by the character Kimberley’s Friend: “Have you seen ‘er, Kimberleh, she’s realleh, realleh tall and realleh realleh wide.”

The exhibition features some well-loved and recognisable scripts for shows such as Wood and Walters, As Seen on TV, An Audience With, Pat and Margaret, Acorn Antiques – The Musical and Housewife 49. Also on display were photos, numerous awards and costumes from two of her Christmas Specials.

We saw school magazines from Bury Grammar School when she was a pupil in the 1960s, exam certificates and school reports.

We ended our trip with a quick visit to the Art Picture House where we reminisced about “the good olde days”. Ken was very knowledgeable which is surprising as he is only 39!

Trips & Adventures – 21 February 2019

We caught the train from Piccadilly at 10.35am and arrived in Macclesfield just 20 minutes later. Macclesfield is a mill town in the east of Cheshire and has been accused of having few cultural amenities; in 2004, research was published in The Times naming Macclesfield and its borough the most uncultured town in Britain, based on its lack of theatres, cinemas and other cultural facilities.

From the train station we headed for the hilltop church of St Michael and All Angels which is approached from Water’s Green by a flight of 108 steps, which themselves are a local landmark. After climbing all those steps we had to take a break and have a coffee in Costa. 

We then had a very good meal in the Society Rooms, before visiting the Silk Museum.

Macclesfield was once the world’s biggest producer of finished silk – in 1832 there were 71 silk mills operating. The booming textile industries generated wealth and social change, and this wealth resulted in Macclesfield gaining collections of Egyptian antiquities. Two fiercely independent Victorian women (reading between the lines two lesbians), Marianne Brocklehurst and Mary Booth, known collectively as the MBs, are responsible for the Ancient Egypt collection in the Silk Museum. They were life-long companions and together they explored Egypt buying important objects from dealers and rummaging in the sand to find artefacts themselves.

Whilst in Luxor in March 1874 the MBs visited an Egyptian family who were selling some interesting antiquities. Under cover of darkness they entered their home and were struck by the painted mummy case which they purchased. The next problem was how to smuggle it on board their boat. The first attempt was unsuccessful. The MBs panicked at the sound of gunshots from the riverbank, but they managed to get the mummy on board. After opening the case, the MBs worried that the strong smells of resin and incense  would attract attention, decided to bury the body on the banks of the Nile!

We then had a private tour of a working mill museum, next door, Paradise Mill. Our expert guide, Tim, was very informative and we learnt a lot about the art of silk throwing and Jacquard weaving. It was a very interesting day out.

For more photos of the trips please go to photos

Trips & Adventures – 14 February 2019

Happy Valentine’s Day to all! (singles as well as couples). The ancient Romans may be responsible for the name of our modern day of love. Emperor Claudius II executed two men — both named Valentine — on February 14 in the 3rd century AD. Their martyrdom was honoured by the Catholic Church with the celebration of St Valentine’s Day.

On this romantic day we travelled to Saltaire – a village near Bradford in West Yorkshire. It is named after Sir Titus Salt who built a textile mill, known as Salts Mill, and this village on the River Aire. Designed by architects, Lockwood and Mawson, Salts Mill was opened on Sir Titus Salt’s 50th birthday, 20 September 1853. In December 2001, Saltaire was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

We had a fantastic lunch in the Boathouse Inn – a chic contemporary pub / restaurant set in a refurbished, riverside Victorian boathouse. The food and service were excellent even though the place was very busy.

We explored Salts Mill which features exhibitions of paintings by David Hockney as well as books and lots of interesting curios. Unfortunately we were not able to take a cruise down the canal as we were off-season, but we had a very pleasant walk round Roberts Park on the other side of the River Aire. It was a great day out.