OUT140 in the news

Fab article about the launch of "OUT140: the Little Book of Coming Out Stories" in this week's Great Yarmouth Mercury. I am so very proud of this project. It was brilliant when Sophie from Radio Norfolk said the newsroom staff loved the book and were all fighting to read it. I'm sure it will become an internet/publishing phenomenon at some point!! It has been wonderful to work with Poet/Artist Vince Laws on OUT140. Check out his website www.vincelaws.com and look out for him and his I AM A POEM exhibition in Brighton Library in LGBT History Month in February.

You can read all the OUT140 stories we have collected so far at www.twitter.com/OUT140. You can buy a copy of the book from the Greenhouse Shop on Bethel St or by emailing me at shell@shellytelly.co.uk. It's been lovely developing a book and seeing it in print and it is soooooo dinky - about the size of a credit card. I'd love to do a book about community filmmaking too - I've learnt so much over the last 12 years.

Sew Gay's Pride Patchwork

The Sew Gay group started meeting again today. We meet from 12-2pm on the big table on the first floor of the Millennium Library in the Forum, on the last Saturday of the month. We are doing a brilliant project, led by curator Stevie. We are trying to capture over 50 years of LGBT history in a quilt, each square representing a significant event that year. The inspiration comes from Lillian Dring who in 1951 created the "Patchwork of the Century" for the Festival of Britain. She gathered together women with no sewing experience to produce a quilt documenting advances in women’s rights over 100 years. This photo is of some of the first Pride patches to be completed. The finished quilt is going to be AMAZING. For more information go to www.sewgaynorwich.shutterfly.com

No to Hate in the Advertiser

Great piece in tonight's Norwich Advertiser about the No to Hate Vigil. I particularly like the way that Ann Nicholls from Look, See, Click Photography gets her own blue box acknowledgement for her photo. Ann worked for me on the Young Carers Big Day Out event earlier in the year capturing all the fun on camera. You can see some examples of Ann's work on her Blipfoto site: www.blipfoto.com/lookseeclick. Big thanks to everyone who helped at the Vigil - it's brilliant to see such a strong message from Abraham Eshetu at Norfolk Constabulary about tackling Hate Crime. My friends from Opening Doors also spoke. They are a self-advocacy organisation for people with learning difficulties and it was helping them to to film their Hate Crime conference in 2008 that inspired me to set up Norwich Pride. I was so appalled by the stories of hate crimes against people with disabilities that I felt I needed to do something. I realised that one of the things I had to face first was that I was part of an oppressed minority who also lived in fear of hate - I would think twice before holding my girlfriend's hand in public. So I needed to tackle my own fears first. Being involved in Norwich Pride has given me loads more confidence in myself and my sexuality and I love Opening Doors speaking each year at the Vigil - a reminder that the best way for us to tackle hate crime is for everyone to work together and say No to Hate.

Top 10 Tips for Getting Your Health Check

Don't forget your Health Check! Top 10 Tips for Getting a Health Check is now on YouTube. Thanks to Kimberley Moore for the fabulous music workshop that created the soundtrack and to all the Action Crew who helped to make the film.

My Pride Life

I was invited by Pride Live!, the Norwich Pride Radio Show on Future Radio every Monday at 6.30pm to record My Pride Life - choose six of my favourite songs and explain why they are relevant to me as an LGBT person. I've grabbed some pics of all the artists I chose - can you guess who they are and what the songs might be? You can hear a podcast of My Pride Life if you click here

Action News

 

Came across a couple of my old newsletters the other day and include one here to inspire me to do an up-to-date one soon. Great to see a pic of Natalie Drury in this edition - this was the first time I filmed her and her mum Pauline for a DVD about Carers' Assessments. Natalie was 25 then - I know because I've just filmed her 30th birthday party for her. Also sweet to work out at last how long my team have been playing in the Norwich and District Table Tennis League - looks like this is our 6th year in the bottom division! But the Action tshirts look great! And of course 2007 was the last time I went to Ghana and had such a brilliant experience with Agnes, Evans and the rest of the Action Crew. It was amazing to be with them as they filmed their Chief in his Palace. These are the moments when I realise how much I love being a filmmaker.

No to Hate Vigil

I worked with a talented team of people to organise the fourth No to Hate Vigil to remember victims of hate crime everywhere. I was so very proud of Action Crew member Ki who did a speech based on the voiceover for the film he made for Evolve Youth Group. Ki's story of being born into the wrong body and being bullied at school for being different was very moving on film but even more so in the flesh, surrounded in candles. You can find out more about the Vigil at www.norwichnotohatevigil.org.uk You can listen to my interview about the Vigil with Jasmine on Future Radio and read a report in the Norwich Evening News

Shelly Telly Table Tennis Team

I have got a team in the fourth division of the Norwich and District Table Tennis Division. Thanks to Di, Colin and Ruth for all your skill and hard work. OK, we don't win very much but we always have fun and every year we win a Team of the Month competition at least once! Check out all our results on the NDTTL website

OUT140: The Little Book of Coming Out Stories

OUT140 is a project that artist/poet Vince Laws and I created for Norwich Pride. We asked people to tell us their coming out stories in 140 characters or less - a tweet on Twitter. OUT140 has taken various forms over the last two years - it began as a multimedia show on the Fusion screen in the Forum accompanied by 12 second films; we had the stories printed huge for an exhibition at the Norwich Art Centre; Vince painted them in speech bubbles for an exhibition in Folkestone; and this year we published them as a book. The Norfolk Library and Information Service has bought copies for every Norfolk library and we celebrated this with a launch at Great Yarmouth library today - National Coming Out Day. You can hear a podcast of an article about it on BBC Radio Norfolk. We were delighted that her Worship, the Mayor of Great Yarmouth Colleen Walker and Norfolk County Council Cabinet Member for Cultural Services Barry Stone, helped us celebrate  by raising the rainbow flag and cutting the OUT140 cake. Photo by Antonella Muscat

Norwich Sound and Vision Festival

On stage at the Norwich Sound and Vision Festival with Marcus from NORCA, Ben from CME, Martin from Media Projects East and Mark from UEA discussing community film and music production.

If you want to buy a tiger

Had a fabulous premiere of "If you want to buy a tiger" last night - a DVD exploring cultural identity for young people in Norfolk. Was so very proud of all the stars sitting on the beanbags in Fusion in the Q+A after the film.