By Caf Fean

Monday June 7th brought in a new high note to Hastings’ LGBTQ+ folk, heralding the first in-person meeting of All Choired Up, a community formed online during the first lockdown thanks to the tenacity and sheer bloody-mindedness of choir leader Carol Prior with support from Good Stuff in St Leonards. Finally, the group can now meet in real
life, albeit under government restrictions of six people singing at any one time. I caught up with Carol to find out a little bit more about her life, times and choirs. 

“I moved to Hastings in 2006 – my partner at the time lived here. It felt like home more than Brighton and even London. Born in Stepney, my cockney side often comes out: I don’t play by the rules – sometimes loud and outspoken. Of course – I come from a long line of people who had it hard. My ancestors wouldn’t recognise the life I’m living: a life with masks.

“What really gets my goat is that football matches are going ahead, with throngs of people singing together: there are two million amateur choirs in the UK. People are allowed to sing if they’re professional, but not amateurs. Things only really change when the oppressed rise up – it’s my right to sing in a choir with people in real life. It all feels like a Monty Python sketch.”

Carol has had a colourful life, full of challenges and triumphs over adversity. Setting up a choir in lockdown is another feather for her cap. “The Hastings and St Leonards LGBT community is growing – we are at a really good place because we’re a much more diverse and younger community. LGBT people are moving to the town – there is a need for the community to continue, support itself and grow. It’s not just a haven for retired folk and cheap housing for artists.”

Having lived here since 2006, the time felt right to take up the mantle and bring an LGBTQ+ choir to the town. “I got into teaching singing as opposed to being a singer – I did one-woman shows in 80s with my own repertoire – it was funny, comical sometimes quite angry. I had a really great opportunity to sample life over the pond in the US, where I attended a lesbian festival in Michigan. Having intended to stay for six weeks I ended up staying for six months. On returning I decided I’d be a singer/ songwriter.  However, I ended up teaching people who think they can’t sing to sing. There has always been a tension between the entertainer and the teacher in me. Being a performer can be a lonely, soul destroying life – lots of egos around – my ego isn’t big enough. Get easily set back.

“It’s a performance every time you teach singing. Join a choir! It’s the closest thing to heaven – it’s full of one-offs. The underlying thing is that it’s soulful, kind and inclusive. We’re not saints, but there is a spirituality to it. I’ve just got this feeling that it’s something to be really proud of – it takes longer to grow something here. Once grown, It’ll be here to stay.”

All Choired Up meets at St John The Evangelist Church, Pevensey Road 7.15pm on Mondays.

The group is open to newbies, so come along, sign up and sing with your people!

• For more information, please visit goodstuffinstlens.com/all-choired-up

Queer arts have always enabled LGBTQ+ communities to deal with the particular bigotry of the age, either by creating visible, joyful acts of resistance or work which interrogates and challenges that bigotry. And in Hastings, with its burgeoning and exciting queer scene, we can look forward to an exciting summer of LGBTQ+ arts. 

One reason is Hastings Pride, which went from a small event in 2016, through sun and rain, to an impressively big, colourful and energetic one in 2019. Last year, they made the difficult decision to cancel, but this year, they’re planning to come back with a bang. 

Loud Proud Spirit

A 1980s themed event will bring Hastings communities together in loud, proud spirit on August bank holiday. For all its fun and fancy dress, the theme also reflects some echoes of the age being felt now. Says organiser Natasha Scott, “On the main stage you can expect a mixture of local acts and 80s legends, as well as some fantastic big names, and we are also hoping to have a revitalised and exciting Arts Tent., plus, for the first time, a Youth Tent.” Hastings Pride has always been an inclusive Pride, so it is important to the organisers that it remains a free, non-ticketed, event. This year they have launched a Crowdfunder to ensure the event goes ahead,
so to support it, please visit Hastingspride21.com. 

Another reason for the flourishing of arts is the number of queer venues in the town – or rather LGBT-friendly venues, which are open to everyone but cater for the queer community with performances, quizzes and arts events. Wayne Shires and his team, including the amazing Gina, run The Fountain on Queens, the Sovereign in Bexhill and now the Trinity Townhouse on Claremont.     

PICTURE: Alice Denny

Queer on the Pier

Last year was the inaugural Queer on the Pier, an outdoor festival celebrating the diverse and eclectic LGBTQ+ scene. It’s back this year, restrictions lifted and dancing now allowed, with an incredible lineup including UK Drag Race royalty as well as local legends. With only a few tickets left, make sure you snap one up. 

Participation in the arts is also hugely important. Home Live Art is an LGBTQ+ led charity based in St Leonards dedicated to supporting live performance and bringing queer communities together through creative actions. Supported programmes include Good Stuff in St Leonards, who are currently recruiting for two projects. The first, Re:Create, is a small, friendly and free LGBTQ+ performance group looking for actors, writers, designers and technical support for a brand new production called Dreamland. The second is All Choired Up, a welcoming LGBTQ+ choir for all abilities, led by Carol Prior. From June 7th they’ll meet weekly at 7pm at St John’s Church Hall in St Leonards. To join either, visit goodstuffinstlens.com. Home Live Art is also bringing some amazing performances to our town, including Duckie, Lucy McCormick and Katy Baird at the Stables Theatre, Queer performance party Salty and Birmingham Drag Queens doing disco tea parties. (homeliveart.com). 

It looks as if we have an exciting summer of Queer arts ahead. 

Claudine Eccleston

“We know that all too often this phrase is used as a blunt tool to shut down dialogue. I hope that Playing the Race Card Project will open up the conversations that I have everyday in my community and present an opportunity for an inclusive town-wide discussion.” 

Eccleston was closely involved with the Black Lives Matter protest in Alexandra Park earlier this year and annual celebrations of Martin Luther King. With funding from Good Stuff in St Leonards and the support of artists Maggie Scott and Becky Beasley, Black Butterfly director Dawn Dublin and Katy Baird of Home Live Arts, she has devised this two-year project to facilitate wider debate about racism.

BAME artists are underrepresented in East Sussex exhibitions, and this scheme seeks to both examine the term’s historical significance and celebrate diversity through visual art – paintings, drawings, photography or collage.

Two virtual, creative Playing the Race Card workshops will take place on Saturday 21st November at 1pm and 3pm, with a specific young people’s session on Saturday 29th November: 1pm to 3pm.

Artworks must be submitted by 31st December 2020. A £500 cash prize will be awarded via a public vote on the Playing the Race Card website and social media platforms, and a £100 cash prize for 16-18 age group.

An online exhibition will be launched on Martin Luther King Day – 17th January 2021, followed in April 2021 with an exhibition featuring commissioned artworks alongside a series of talks and discussions.

The Playing the Race Card Project (PRCP) is run in association with Black Butterfly, a non-profit cultural heritage and social justice organisation supporting people of minority ethnic communities. 

Based in Hastings, it aims to raise awareness of equality issues and engage communities in coming together through creative art and social activities. PRCP is also supported by Good Stuff in St Leonards – a creative programme of activities and events led by local artists.

Free to enter submissions are invited from anyone in the UK who identifies as black, including people whose ancestral origins are African, South and East Asian, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, Romany, the indigenous people of the South Pacific Islands, the American continents, Australia and New Zealand.

• More information and how to submit artwork: www.playingtheracecard.co.uk

By Caf Fean

Over the past six months of editing HIP’s Wellbeing page I have sought out people who are making a difference to the health and wellbeing of our community. One of the questions I asked them was: “What kept you going through lockdown?” The answer for me has been working with the team and participants on Good Stuff in St Leonards. We put in an application for funding from Creative Civic Change, which was successful. 

The Good Stuff in St Leonards project is all about the community setting the agenda for creative activities in the area. Thus far we have supported the St Leonards Dance Troupe – a dance club for the over 60s; re:create – an LGBTQ drama group; All Choired Up – an LGBTQ choir; and Flexed – a group of local people supporting projects for young LGBTQ people. Lockdown meant that the dancers and drama folk transferred their activities over to Zoom, and All Choired Up had its first ever meetings online. Flexed, a young LGBTQ project team, has been formed and are busily cooking up plans for a Pride Prom in winter 2021. Many more projects are brewing, and a call-out to the community for ideas for new projects has been launched, accepting funding proposals for grants of up to £2,000 to help deliver new creative projects in St Leonards.

Good Stuff in St Leonards has absolutely ‘kept me going’ and kept my faith in community, creativity and connection in the face of adversity very much alive. As a facilitator of the various groups I have joined in dance routines from my living room, sung loudly at my laptop, laughed and cried at the incredible stories told by our drama group, and debated over how to create something meaningful for young local LGBTQ people. If you have an idea, and want to see it happen then please put ‘pen to paper’ and fill in the pitch form on the website: www.goodstuffinstlens.com

The St Leonards Dance Troupe, August 2020
PICTURE: Caitlin Lock

Current projects are all on a one-month break, and will be returning either in person or on screen, in October. Each of the projects is open to new members and the activities are free of charge. The St Leonards Dance Troupe has been busy with online performances for Posh Club* members, and has much more planned for autumn. 

I asked some of the dancers to explain why it’s worth doing. 

“I feel the St Leonards Dance Troupe is very much worthwhile as it has created a fun group of people who might otherwise have thought twice about joining because we have no barriers, agenda or restrictions and just love to dance and laugh, which of course is great exercise for our minds, bodies and spirits. We hope to grow and expand our group in the future to the wider community, especially, when hopefully life will return to normal soon” 
Margaret Trowell

“Most forms of exercise are becoming increasingly difficult. […] Forget the aching limbs. Just dancing together lifts the mind and for many adds a new lease of life” 
Rachael Young

“Inhibitions are thrown aside, restrictions on movements due to stiff joints which in many ways prevents a beautiful fluid movement to the routines doesn’t matter. […] The best part is making new friends and laughing at our mistakes. It has been so much fun.”
Despo Hawkins

re:create, the LGBTQ drama group, performed a work-in-progress show live, online via Isolation Station Hastings in the midst of lockdown in May. “Previous LGBT+ drama experiences have been some of the most nourishing of my life: one of the few places where I can feel seen for who I really am. And there’s nothing like the feeling of finally seeing somebody else like me represented on stage.” 
Benny Lewis, re:create Facilitator

All Choired Up is “an LGBTQ choir where I can feel comfortable to be myself” according to one participant. “Carol Prior has been a wonderful choir leader. She has given us huge energy and encouragement, helped us bond as a group, and provided us with great material. Leading sessions on Zoom must have been incredibly difficult but she has kept her sense of humour and given us great experiences.”

Good Stuff in St Leonards has absolutely kept me going, and kept my faith in community, creativity and connection in the face of adversity very much alive

Good Stuff in St Leonards is supported by local company Home Live Art, who hold the funds and are on hand to help and support the groups as they develop and grow, bringing expert advice on staging events, performance art and linking professional mentors to projects if required. The hope is that the ‘Good Stuff’ projects take on a life of their own and become self-sustaining. This project is hyper-local and all of the activity was planned to take place at St John the Evangelist’s Church Hall, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Creative Civic Change was launched in response to the Inquiry into the Civic Role of Arts Organisations by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation with the aims of exploring a new approach to funding community-driven projects and to share experience and learning to inspire others to use the arts and creativity to make positive local change. The organisations backing it share the belief that creativity can be harnessed to engage, inspire and mobilise communities, and showcase the difference individuals can make as they develop collectively as a whole.

• If you have an idea for a creative project that will bring the community together, remember that Good Stuff in St Leonards are currently accepting proposals for grants of up to £2,000 for community projects by and for the residents of St Leonards. The deadline for applications is 6pm on Friday 18 September 2020. Visit: bit.ly/goodstuffpitch2020

• Creative Civic Change partners are: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, National Lottery Community Fund, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Local Trust. Link: localtrust.org.uk/other-programmes/creative-civic-change

*The Posh Club is a glamorous performance and social club for older people held regularly in five locations across London and the South East. Visit theposhclub.co.uk/clubs/hastings

To the tune of Mambo No 5

by Gill Sutton 

1,2,3,4,5
Dancing with girlfriends keeps my body alive,
Grapevine to the left swivel to the right,
Dancing with all friends feels alright,
A little bit of laughter here and there,
Wearing fancy baubles in our hair,
Some steps right some steps wrong,
All helped out with impromptu song,
Join our gang you’ll have such fun,
Make great friends just come along.