Celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month with Manchester Libraries.

Word Central Open Mic Night Thursday 6th February Central Library 6-8pm Free Event. Everyone Welcome.

Flapjack Press present a special open mic night for LGBTQ+ History Month featuring guest poet Ben Mellor. Free event. Everyone welcome.

Rosie Garland and Friends An Evening Celebrating Queer Culture in Manchester Friday 7th February Central Library 7-9pm Tickets are £2 plus booking fee and can be booked here.

Novelist, poet and singer with post-punk band The March Violets, Rosie Garland has a passion for language nurtured by public libraries. Her latest novel The Night Brother is described by The Times as “a delight: playful and exuberant… with shades of Angela Carter.” She is inaugural writer in residence at The John Rylands Library, Manchester, and in 2019 Val McDermid named her as one of the Top 10 LGBTQ+ writers in the UK today.

Joining Rosie will be…

Okey Nzelu. Okey Nzelu’s prose and poetry has been published in various magazines. He was the recipient of a 2015 Northern Writers’ Award for his debut novel, The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney, a comedy about family and making mistakes.

Roma Havers Roma Havers is a Manchester-based queer poet and performer, whose current work explores, failing bodies outness and how poetry can shorthand memory into something new.

Afshan D’souza-Lodhi Afshan D’souza-Lodhi was born in Dubai and is of Indian/Pakistani descent. Afshan writes plays, prose, performance pieces and occasionally passive aggressive tweets. She has worked with Manchester Lit Festival, The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Eclipse Theatre, Paul Burston’s Polari and one day hopes to take over the world.

Helen Darby Helen Darby is a poet from Manchester who has been appearing at spoken word nights around the North West since 2018. Her red-pill poems will wet your eyes, offer Kleenex, then slice your fingertips off with Stanley knives, so you can touch pain in ways you’ve never imagined.

Queering the Archive with the LGBT Foundation Thursday 13th February Central Library 1-2pm Free Event. Everyone Welcome.

The Queering the Archive event will be a talk about Manchester’s LGBTQ+ heritage by the LGBT Foundation and will explore the Foundation’s archive. There will be a chance to see items from the collections and to talk about your own memories and knowledge of the history of the community.

Valentines Party with Angel Delight Friday 14th February Central Library 7-10pm Tickets are £8 and can be booked here.

Once, twice, three times a lady!

The gorgeous Angel Delight is back by popular demand for her 3rd party night at Central Library! This time we’re celebrating LGBTQ+ History Month with lots of games and fun, including a queer version of Mr and Mrs called Me and You! Over 18’s only. Doors open at 6.30pm

Family Saturday Spectacular Saturday 15th February Central Library 1-4pm. Free event. Everyone Welcome.

It’s party time in Central Library, with lots of events for the whole family. Including a Drag Queen Storytime, family craft sessions, green screen photography, animation sessions and a ‘Dance Yourself Dizzy’ Disco!

LGBTQ+ Mixtape Wednesday 19th February Central Library 6-7.45pm Free Event. Everyone Welcome

This LGBTQ+ History Month Unlocking Our Sound Heritage presents an intimate room of curated archive audio and immersive projections.

Manchester’s LGBTQ+ community took to both the streets and the dancefloor in response to the AIDS crisis and the introduction of Section 28.

The event explores these vital spaces of defiance by pairing key BBC Radio Manchester news stories with Manchester’s favourite disco tracks.

You can find out more about the national Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project at the British Library’s website. Unlocking Our Sound Heritage is supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
https://www.bl.uk/projects/unlocking-our-sound-heritage

See you on the dancefloor.

‘Maurice’ Film Screening. Central Library. Thursday 20th February 7pm Tickets are free and can be booked here.

A special screening of EM Forster’s classic novel to mark the 50th anniversary of Forster’s death in 1970.

An Edwardian precursor to the James Ivory scripted ‘Call Me By Your Name’, ‘Maurice’ is a landmark of gay cinema in it’s positive and enriching portrait of first love from the team behind ‘Room with a View’ and ‘Howard’s End’.

Beyond “There is Always A Black Issue Dear” Film Screening. Tuesday 25 February, 6.30 – 8.30pm. MMU, 70 Oxford St, Manchester. M15HN. Free Event. Everyone Welcome. Tickets can be booked here.

Beyond ‘There’s always a black issue Dear’, explores and celebrates black LGBT identities,  to demarcate the particular influence that Black LGBT culture has had upon Fashion, Fine art, Dance, Music and Language, much of which has been appropriated by the cultural mainstream.  The cast vividly recall daring to be different. Ballet dancing boys, and make-up wearing, gender-fluid school days, are candidly described.

Their experiences shed new light on the UK in the 1970s/80s. Creating their own identities in a time when, ‘if you were black you could be either Reggae or Soul’, these are untold stories. Soul and Disco, Punks and Blitz Kids meet.  From underground clubs, like The Four Aces in Dalston and Crackers in Soho to the explosion of queer culture at Taboo. Beyond captures a vital historical period. Here are the trailblazers

Join us for pre film refreshments and a post screening panel & Q&A with Director Claire Lawrie and guestsManchester Libraries in partnership with LGBT Foundation, Rainbow Noir & MMUFreeTicketed event: 

Telling LGBTQ+ stories in primary schools – a workshop for Teachers. Thursday 27th February 4-5:30pm at Powerhouse Library, 140 Raby Street, Manchester, M14 4SL. Free event. Book tickets here.

The Proud Trust is a life saving and life enhancing organisation that helps LGBT+ young people empower themselves, to make a positive change for themselves, and their communities.

The LGBT History Month session, run by The Proud Trust will explore wonderful children’s books that allow children to better understand themselves, their friends and the world around them. The session will include:

  • an introduction to the basics around identity, specifically gender and attraction
  • opportunity to read through our selection of LGBT inclusive children’s books and resources
  • to demystify and celebrate the wonderful LGBT inclusive work primary schools and educators are undertaking
  • chance to ask questions about the curriculum, LGBT inclusive work and anything else related to the topics explored on the day

Drag Queen Family Storytimes . Free events. Everyone welcome.

  • Wednesday 12th Withington Library 10-11am
  • Saturday 15th Central Library 1-2pm
  • Saturday 22nd North City Library 2.30-3.30pm
  • Monday 24th February Arcadia Library 10.30-11.30am

Half Term LGBTQ+ Family Activities.

All activity sessions are free to attend and open to all. Full addresses of the community libraries and opening times are here.

  • Brooklands Library, Mon 17 Feb 2-3
  • Longsight Library, Mon 17 Feb, 2.30-3.30
  • Newton Heath Library, Mon 17 Feb 2.30-3.30
  • Barlow Moor Library, Tue 18 Feb 11-12
  • Withington Library, Tue 18 Feb 2-3
  • North City Library, Tues 18 Feb 2-3
  • Gorton Library, Tues 18 Feb, 2.30-3.30
  • Burnage Library, Wed 19 Feb 11-12
  • Forum Library, Wed 19 Feb 2-3
  • Hulme High St, Weds 19 Feb, 2.30-3.30
  • New Moston Library Wed 19 Feb 2.30-3.30
  • Chorlton Library, Thur 20 Feb 2-3
  • Didsbury Library, Thur 20 Feb 2-3
  • Fallowfield Library, Thur 20 Feb 2-3
  • Avenue Library Thur 20 Feb 2-3
  • Beswick Library Thur 20 Feb 2.30-3.30
  • Miles Platting Library Thur 20 Feb 3.30-4.30
  • Powerhouse, Thur 20 Feb, 3.30-4.30
  • Northenden Library, Fri 21 Feb 10.30-11.30
  • Arcadia Library, Fri 21 Feb, 2.30-3.30
  • Forum Library, Sat 29 11.30-12.30
  • Brooklands Library, Sat 29 2-3pm