UCC LGBT

Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and the popstars getting behind gay rights

Check out the article from The Guardian here!

November 22 2010 | Of Interest | No Comments »

Rebel Awards!!!

The UCC LGBT Society are now the proud recipients of the award for Outstanding Social Group 2010!!! Thank you so much to the Rebel Awards Committee, we are  honoured and proud to be a part of it!

November 13 2010 | Of Interest | No Comments »

Supporting Queer Notions 2010

THISISPOPBABY and Project Arts Centre
present

Queer Notions 2010

Glorious Outsiders. Bold investigation. Riotous fun.

Queer Notions | Project Arts Centre | December 7-11, 2010 | thisispopbaby.com

New work from Ireland’s biggest boundary-pushing queer artists Mark O’Halloran (Garage, Adam and Paul), Neil Watkins (Heidi Konnt, Dublin City Counselling) and Una McKevitt (565+, Victor and Gord) are among the highlights of this year’s Queer Notions, the second annual queer arts festival curated and produced by THISISPOPBABY (WERK, Electric Picnic, Panti – A Woman in Progress).

The five-day festival, conceived as a Platform for Outsiders, brings plays, art, music, lecture, dance, film and politics to Dublin using the queer aesthetic as a jumping-off point.

As well as showcasing the best of queer performance and ideas from Ireland, the festival will present extraordinary international artists with work never before seen in Ireland, including New York lesbian icon and self-proclaimed gender bender Peggy Shaw, drag fabulist Johnny Woo, acclaimed Welsh dance artist Eddie Ladd and London underground neo-cabaret star Dickie Beau.

A festival highlight is Qasim Riza Shaheen’s stunning video exhibition inspired by the trans-gendered Dublin Filipino community (Liliquoi Blue: God made me a boy), while two new elements this year are Queer Spiel, a series of provocative curated discussions, and Queer Encounters, a programme of live art happenings taking place around the Project Arts Centre building.

Queer Notions will also host the official launch of the Queer Notions Anthology, a record of some of the most important performative ideas that have shaped queer culture and performance practice in Ireland in recent times; and Queer Futures, a panel discussion on the future possibilities of queer arts practice, hosted by the Trinity Long Room Hub (TCD).

Queer Notions is a platform for magnificent outsiders, provocative investigation and riotous fun. Queer Notions is produced by THISISPOPBABY and Project Arts Centre, and is supported by The British Council, Dublin City Council, Trinity College Dublin, ABSOLUT and CityArts.
QUEER NOTIONS – FULL PROGRAMME
THEATRE

THE BIG DEAL
(Work in Progress)
Directed by Una McKevitt (Ireland)
Wed 8 and Thurs 9 December | 7.30pm | 60 mins | €8
Following the recent hit show 565+ at the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival, and nationwide success with Victor and Gord, Una McKevitt directs this poignant and gritty work-in-progress showing based on letters and emails between two real life friends undergoing male to female gender reassignment.

TRADE
(Rehearsed Reading)
Written by Mark O’ Halloran, directed by Tom Creed (Ireland)
Presented by THISISPOPBABY and Project Arts Centre
Friday, 10 December | 7.30pm | 60 mins | €8
In a run down B+B in the north inner city, a chaotic and vulnerable rent boy meets with a middle-aged, happily married client. At first their meetings are simple, money/sex exchanges, but as they get to know one another, the man experiences a troubling burden of care and a moral awakening that threatens to pull his domestic life apart. In this searingly honest look at the murky relationship between money, sex and desire, leading Irish writer Mark O’Halloran (Garage, Adam & Paul) explores the nature of desire, the shifting sands of the morally ambiguous transaction and the overwhelming need for power and control.

THE YEAR OF MAGICAL WANKING
Written by Neil Watkins, directed by Phillip McMahon, presented by THISISPOPBABY (Ireland)
Friday 10 and Saturday 11 December | 9.30pm | 60 mins | €12 / €8 concession
Neil Watkins has wanked more than is healthy, allegedly.  In 2007, Neil woke in the night to be greeted by the vision of Amma, ‘the Hugging Saint’.  She’d hugged him in Dublin the night before. Standing at the foot of his bed, her face changed into that of Jesus and back again. “Do you still want to kill yourself?” said the vision, “because you can come with us now.” “No,” said Neil, shitting it that his number was up, “I want to stay”. “Well then…tell your story.”   On orders from heaven, this is Neil’s story through the wilderness of queerness: from Catholic Ireland to the cruising bars of the world; from Finglas head shops to Native American ceremonies. Bitterly funny, devastatingly tragic but always entertaining, Watkins explores what it is to remove the resistance in his life and reach his highest potential. 

DANCE/MULTIMEDIA
THE BOBBY SANDS MEMORIAL RACE
Created and performed by Eddie Ladd (Wales)
Tuesday, 7 December | 7.30pm | 50 mins | €12 / €8 concession
Bobby Sands was a long distance runner as a teenager. During his time in the infamous Maze prison in Belfast, Sands wrote articles and essays on endurance and running. His essay, ‘The Loneliness of a Long Distance Cripple’, is the inspiration for Welsh choreographer Eddie Ladd’s extraordinary show The Bobby Sands Memorial Race. Set on a 12ft X 6ft running machine, Ladd’s stunning solo piece follows the sixty-six days of the hunger strike and considers the long-distance goal of resistance.
Eddie Ladd is one of Wales’ most exhilarating artists. She makes breathtaking performances that combine dance, text, music and new media technologies.

PERFORMANCE/LIVE-ART

FAGGOT
Written and performed by Jonny Woo (England)
Wednesday, 8 December | 9.30pm | 60 mins | €12 / €8 concession
IRISH PREMIERE
Making his Irish theatrical debut, London club land’s brightest star Jonny Woo’s legendary performances are packed with wonderful euphoric highs and deliciously dark lows. An icon of London’s East End fashion, performance art and gay scenes, Jonny has thrown parties for Sharon Osbourne and supported Peaches at the Royal Festival Hall as well as having a number of sold out runs at the Soho Theatre. Jubilant gay anthems, twisted storytelling, sucker punch poetry, sublime characterisations and deranged drag are all ingredients in the Jonny Woo show cake.

RETROFLECTION
by Dickie Beau (England)
Thursday, 9 December | 9.30pm | 60 mins | €12 / €8 concession
IRISH PREMIERE
Reframing the myth of Narcissus for the You Tube generation, Retroflection is a sensual shape-shifting one-man show by London-based performance artist and drag Fabulist Dickie Beau. His avant-garde blend of cabaret, drag, music hall, theatre and clowning merges the sensibility of contemporary culture with queer twists and informed echoes of the past.

SWAGGER – THE BEST OF PEGGY SHAW
Written and performed by Peggy Shaw (USA)
Saturday, 11 December | 7.30pm | 60 mins | €14 / €10 concession
IRISH PREMIERE
A one-off chance to see living legend and sublime gender bender Peggy Shaw performing in Ireland for the first time with a full show. A truly iconic lesbian performer in the height of her prowess, Swagger is Shaw’s favourite moments from her worldwide hit solo shows – You’re just Like My Father, Menopausal Gentleman, To My Chagrin and Must.

VISUAL ART

LILLIQOI BLUE – GOD MADE ME A BOY
By Qasim Risa Shaheen, curated by Liz Burns (Ireland and UK)
Tuesday 7- Saturday 11 December | 5pm-11pm | Free
In 2009, Qasim Riza Shaheen, a Manchester-based British visual artist was invited to develop work that responded to the changing demographics of Dublin City Centre, where an abundance of hair dressers, beauty parlors, restaurants and karaoke bars have emerged over the past ten years, created by and catering largely for the new immigrant populations. Qasim connected with members of the transgendered Filipino community in Dublin through the north inner city hair salon they frequent, and through these connections developed Liliquoi Blue: God Made Me a Boy. The piece consists of three video adaptations titled Father I have sinned I, II and III that explore ideas around beautification, gender, memories and fantasies, while also telling very personal stories of longing and transformation. Presented in partnership with CityArts.
TALK

QUEER SPIEL
Wednesday 8- Saturday 11 December | 6pm | 45 mins | €4
Hearty discussion and cheap talk; Queer Spiel is a series of robust chats by leading queers on hot topics. Irreverent, nostalgic, divisive and enlightening – this intimate series will fire up the neurons and spark debate.

Wednesday, 8 December | 6pm: Qasim Riza Shaheen: Sexual Revelation – The Relationship between Sexual Identity and Art
Thursday, 9 December | 6pm: Willie White, Fiach MacChonghaile: Public Outcry–The Changing Face of Queer Performance at Project Arts Centre 1976-2010
Friday, 10 December | 6pm: Tonie Walsh, Impure and Revolting: A history of gay cruising in Ireland.
Saturday, 11 December | 6pm: Marie Mulholland and Una Mullally: Dykeotomy – How Irish Lesbians stopped being invisible
PANEL DISCUSSION

QUEER FUTURES: REHEARSING THE (IM)POSSIBLE
Venue: Neil/Hoey Lecture Room, The Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College Dublin
Friday, 10 December | 3.30pm | 120mins | Free, Open to the public
A unique opportunity to encounter groundbreaking artists, working with different media, as they discuss their queer cultural interventions. Discussion will focus on the past achievements, current urgencies and future possibilities of queer arts practices. Speakers include Liz Burns (Curator, Ireland), Mark O’Halloran (Actor/Writer, Ireland), Stacy Makishi (Live Artist, UK), and Peggy Shaw (Artist/Performer, USA). The event will be chaired by Dr. Fintan Walsh (TCD). Part of ‘Queer Theory, Culture and Society’, a yearlong interdisciplinary seminar series hosted by The Trinity Long Room Hub, which is open to the public. Sponsored by The Trinity Long Room Hub and a Visual and Performing Arts Fund (TCD).

SPECIAL EVENTS

QUEER ENCOUNTERS
Wednesday 8-Sat 11 December | 7pm | 15 mins | Free
Stop. Your heart beats faster and your pupils dilate. It’s over before it sinks in that it’s really begun. Catch your breath and continue on, your day a little stranger, a little richer, a little wilder than before. Start. Queer Encounters is a series of free live art happenings around Project Arts Centre building at 7pm during the Festival. Featuring Fanci Smanci and Anne Fetamine, Fionn Kidney and Caroline Campbell, Shane Byrne and special guest artist Stacey Makishi.

QUEER NOTIONS – THE BOOK
Tuesday 7 December | 6pm | 60 mins | By invitation
The Queer Notions anthology, edited by Dr Fintan Walsh, is a record of some of the most important performative ideas that have shaped queer culture and performance practice in Ireland in recent times, principally in the years following the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1993, up to the present.  Contributors include Loughlin Deegan, Deirdre Kinahan, Neil Watkins, Verity Alicia Mavenawitz, Phillip McMahon, Niall Sweeney, Úna McKevitt and Panti.

The book will be officially launched during the Queer Notions festival 2010, and copies will be available to purchase from Project Arts Centre box office at a special festival price of €25.

BOOKING INFORMATION

Queer Notions
at Project Arts Centre | Dec 7-11,2010
In person at the Project Arts Centre
Online at www.projectartscentre.ie/queernotions  and and www.thisispopbaby.com
By Phone: 01-881-9613
About THISISPOPBABY

Established in 2007, THISISPOPBABY rips apart the creative space between popular culture, counter culture, queer culture and high art, providing a vehicle for artists’ dreams and an electrifying access point to the arts. In four short years, THISISPOPBABY has an outstanding track record of award-winning, sold-out, critically acclaimed arts events, including eight original theatre productions; three phenomenally successful years with a 1000 capacity tent at Electric Picnic; a historic late night performance club at the Abbey Theatre called WERK; and the multidisciplinary arts festival Queer Notions. THSISPOPBABY has won two major theatre awards, been nominated for six others, are Irish Arts Entrepreneurs of the Year 2009 and a part of Project Catalyst, the associate artist initiative of Project Arts Centre. THISISPOPBABY are working with producer Lynnette Moran (Live Collision, Project Brand New) on Queer Notions 2010.

“THISISPOPBABY are redefining theatre for people left cold by traditional drama”
The Irish Times

For more information on THISISPOPBABY please visit www.thisispopbaby.com

/ends

For media information, pictures and press tickets please contact:

Nik Quaife
Zoetrope Arts PR & Marketing | T: +353 87 799 7989 | nik@zoetrope.ie <mailto:nik@zoetrope.ie>

November 09 2010 | Of Interest | No Comments »

M.O. and O.C.M. positions open!

Our Members’ Officer (M.O.) and two Ordinary Committee Member (O.C.M.) positions are now open.

We would first like to thank Steven O’ Riordan for his invaluable work and contribution to the society and members. We are sad and he had to leave and wish him all the best!

The M.O. position is decided by interview only. The candidate must show maturity. In relation to what the position consists of: the M.O. runs the Buddy System; provides support to members; organises coffee posses and  is generally the first point of contact for new members.

We will also be co-opting 2 O.C.M.s onto the committee. These committee members would help out the Events Officer and Campaigns Officers with  their organising and general pitching in, perhaps helping out at stands, Rainbow Week or putting up some posters etc.

If you are interested in either of these positions, please get in touch by Friday (Nov. 5th) evening by just e-mailing us at lgbt@uccsocieties.ie

November 02 2010 | Of Interest | No Comments »

“My Two Mums”-Check it out on TV3 10PM this Wednesday!

On Wednesday (27th October) TV3′s Midweek (broadcast every Wednesday at 10pm), we’ll be meeting Conor Pendergrast and his two mums, Ann and Bernadette. Conor (24) tells us what it was like growing with gay parents while Ann and Bernadette will be talking about how they raised Conor and how the new Civil Partnership Act needs to go further to protect the rights of children who have gay parents. That’s ‘My 2 Mums’ this Wednesday, October 27th at 10pm on TV3.

‘Midweek’ is a prime time weekly chat show presented by TV3 news anchor, Colette Fitzpatrick.

October 22 2010 | Campaigns and Of Interest | No Comments »

What’s on Today and Tonight!

If you’ve got a talent you would like to show off (or know soomeone who does!), come along to the UCC’s GOT TALENT sign up that is on today on campus outside the library. Sign-up to get into the competition to show off your talent and win kick-ass prizes. They’ll be outside the library from 11-2pm today so don’t miss them!

Don’t forget to wear purple today in rememberance of the gay teens who took their lives due to bullying. R.I.P. You can visit our wall and see Ellen and Neil Patrick Harris speaking about this here.

On tonight at 9pm in the Mardyke in association with the Atheist Society we are having Bowling and Karaoke for just 5euro. You can meet us at the Student Centre to walk over together at 8.45 this evening. Afters we will have concessions for Freakscene.

See you all there!

October 20 2010 | Events and Of Interest | No Comments »

Update from MarriagEquality

“Claiming Our Future”

Claiming our Future is a new initiative, which evolved from a series of meetings between Is Feider Linn, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Environmental Pillar of Social Partnership, the Community Platform, Social Justice Ireland and TASC to explore a new vision for Ireland in these difficult times.

Claiming our Future has now evolved into a movement which includes different civil society organisations; trade unions, environmental groups, migrant worker organisations, youth groups, community groups, older people’s organisations, cultural groups, student groups, developing world groups, rural networks, women’s organisations, disability groups, social media and social justice organisations.

On the 30 October next, Claiming our Future are hosting an event of the same name in the RDS, Dublin to give people a space and opportunity to talk about the issues facing Ireland, how we can make this a better society and what steps need to be taken to fulfil this vision.

This event offers the opportunity to power a progressive movement to reshape Ireland’s recovery and claim our social values. It also offers an important opportunity to position equality at the core of our society, so we can shape a better Ireland for all.

Over the next two weeks, events will be taking place locally in the lead up to the conference – you can find out details about these events by visiting: http://www.claimingourfuture.ie/?page_id=64

Places are filling up quickly, so if you are interested in attending, please register as soon as possible at: http://www.claimingourfuture.ie .

October 13 2010 | Of Interest | No Comments »

Amnesty International Mental Health Anti Discrimination Campaign

You can e-mail Jay at amnesty.cork@gmail.com for further details!

October 13 2010 | Of Interest | No Comments »

*Gay Prom 2010*

The event takes place on October 24th in Dublin and is not only the best thing since sliced bread it’s also a fundraiser for BeLonG To Youth Services, the youth group that work specifically with LGBT young people. Tickets are €50 and it’ll be hosted by David Norris and Katherine Lynch. The night will be so so much fun and a truely special one. For so many people who didn’t attend their Debs this is such a special event in their lives!

BeLonG To: Gay Prom 2010!
A Coming Out Party For All Ages From 18 to Infinity!
Hosted by Senator David Norris and Katherine Lynch
Special Guests Shirley Temple Bar, Veda, Bitches with Wolves and more to be announced!
Destiny awaits you at The Gay Prom 2010.
BeLonG To invite you to celebrate the coming of age of another batch of fabulous lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered young people at The Coming Out Party” of the year!

Join Senator David Norris, Katherine Lynch, Brendan Courtney, Veda Beaux Reves, Shirley Temple Bar and a gaggle of celebutantes, debutantes and luminaries on the red carpet at the swelegant surroundings of the Radisson Blu Hotel in the heart of Dublin’s fair city.

This is your chance to have the big, fat, gay debs you always wanted while supporting this amazing organisation.

Featuring an array of special guest performers, fabulous food and dancing until very late, together with the crowning of The Prom King and Queen, The Gay Prom 2010 is shaping up to be the most exciting and glamorous night of the year!

Dress your best, we’re already impressed…

Doors 8pm. Dancing Debutantes til late

BeLonG To Youth Services’ Annual Fundraising Ball to Support lesbian, Gay Bisexual & Transgender Young People in Ireland (Charity No. 16534)

October 13 2010 | Of Interest | No Comments »

Pink Training 2010

Hey everyone,

It's that time of year again!

Pink Training 2010 will be on from 12th-14th of November (Fri-Sun) in UCC
this year.

The cost for the ticket will be around 25 to 30 euro per student.

'What is Pink Training?' I hear you ask? It is a weekend that usually
consists of talks, workshops, guest speakers, presentations, safe
spaces...and of course a night out or two! Workshops and talks this year
will be likely to include sexual health, coming out, ice-breaker type
activities, Trans *101, how to run a successful LGBT society, the fight for
same-sex marriage, open spaces and so on.

Pink Training is really an amazing experience and I encourage everyone to go
if they can!

* We will need to know as soon as possible how many people would like to go,
so if you wouldn't mind just emailing us in your name and phone number
a.s.a.p, that would be awesome  *

October 08 2010 | Events and Of Interest | No Comments »