Date: Saturday 14 November 2026 (NB Not Friday as briefly advertised previously)
Venue: Bank Vault bar, Aberystwyth.
Event: CABARRATION ~ Aberration presents a bijou cabaret!
Join us for a fabulous night of queer performance, hosted by our very own Aitch.
Cabarration is back! Our much-loved queer cabaret night is coming to Bank Vault on Saturday 14 November. With comedy from the brilliant Alice Cockayne, music and spoken word from Aber’s own Kitty O’Blitherin + surprise acts! Arrive from 7 for show at 8.
Aitch and Kitty
Bank Vault is a lovely intimate bar / venue in the centre of Aberystwyth. Tickets will be available soon from Aberration 🥳
All are welcome at our LGBTQ+ themed nights, including of course all genders and sexualities and our open-minded straight friends. Together we’re fabulous!
16 Oct 2026, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Stiwdio Perfformio / Performance Studio
Produced by Gayberystwyth Books, supported by Aberration With financial assistance from Literature Wales
Age Restriction: 12+ years
Running Time: Doors open at 6.30 pm, with the author’s talks starting from 7 pm. Each author will read from and give talks on their books and take audience questions. You will also have the opportunity to buy signed copies of the books. Approx finish 9.30 pm
Queer Lit Quarterly is an evening of book talks and book signing hosted by Gayberystwyth Books with the support of Aberration Cymru. This is an opportunity to meet queer authors and researchers and publishers, who will read from their books, speak about their motivation and the writing process and take questions from the audience, finishing the evening with a panel discussion. You will have the option to meet the authors, purchase their books and have them signed by the authors.
DR KIT HEYAM
Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender
(Basic Books, May 2023)
Dr Kit Heyam is a non-binary trans person (they/them or he/him), based in Leeds with a partner and child and is author of the Lammy-nominated Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender, will talk about writing trans history in a trans-hostile political climate – as well as giving a sneak peek at their new work, a trans history of family forthcoming in June 2027. In all their work, Kit is motivated by a commitment to making visible the diversity and complexity of queer experience. “Trans people aren’t monolithic, and neither is our history: this needs to be reflected in our workplace strategies, our heritage narratives and our classrooms.” Before We Were Trans is a new and different story of gender, that seeks not to be comprehensive or definitive, but – by blending culture, feminism and politics – to widen the scope of what we think of as trans history by telling the stories of people across the globe whose experience of gender has been transgressive, or not characterised by stability or binary categories.
JACK SHOULDER
Hotties in Art
(Greenfinch, September 2026)
Jack Shoulder is a writer, historian and educator who encourages people to see the world in a new way, by sharing stories that have been hidden, glossed over and overlooked. Although his dreams of being a Blue Peter presenter never panned out, he has found his audience of art lovers and history buffs by taking a look behind some of the most famous works of art in the world with Museum Bums: A Cheeky Look at Butts in Art History, with callipygian collaborator Mark Small, and the upcoming Hotties in Art – exploring the stories behind our favourite Art History boyfriends as well as his popular tours of museums across the UK and a charming online presence with Museum Bums and #TodayInQueerHistory. Offering a fresh and humorous introduction to art, Hotties in Art searches art history, across movements and throughout the world to find the most alluring artworks – some famous while others rarely ever seen before. Whether you are looking for boyfriend material, a heavenly hunk, a bright young thing or even holding out for a hero, there is a Museum Hottie carefully curated for you.
SACHA COWARD
Queer as folklore: The hidden queer history of myths and monsters
(Manchester University Press, November 2025)
Sacha Coward has worked in museums and heritage for over ten years. For the past three years, he has been freelancing as a historian, public speaker, tour guide and researcher. He has run LGBTQ+ focused tours for museums, cemeteries, archives and cities around the world. Sacha is passionate about queer history, mythology, folklore and storytelling in all their many forms. Queer As folklore is his first book. A celebration of queer history like you’ve never seen it before. Queer as folklore travels across centuries and continents to reveal the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. Featuring images from archives, galleries and museums around the world, each chapter investigates the queer history of different mythic and folkloric characters, both old and new. Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward takes you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies and the graves of the ‘queerly departed’ along the way. Queer communities have often sought refuge in the shadows and created safe spaces in underworlds. But these forgotten narratives tell stories of resilience that deserve to be heard. Join any Pride march and you will see a glorious display of papier-mâché unicorn heads, drag queens in mermaid tails and more fairy wings than you can shake a trident at. These are not just accessories: they are queer symbols with historic roots. To truly understand who queer people are today, we must confront the twisted tales of the past.
CRYSTAL JEANS
Blueprints: A Taste for Oversharing
(Parthian Books, February 2026)
Crystal Jeans is a Welsh author and poet known for her novels, short stories, and essays, including The Inverts and Accidental Darlings. Crystal lives in Pontypridd with her young daughter and partner. Blueprints is a searing, reflective and truthful collection of essays by award-winning writer, Crystal Jeans, as she explores the struggles of addiction and mental health during the turbulent transition of adolescence into adulthood through to the strains of marriage, childbirth and parenting. Growing up in south Wales, navigating gender and sexuality, Jeans writes about her relationships with others as well as her own body with a frank self-awareness. Fiercely feminist, brutally honest and full of sharp cultural references, Blueprints is not another trauma story but a vital validation of the act of writing about pain and loss while grappling with identity in a troubled world.
Access Needs: Please contact venue to book if you have any access needs that will require suitable seating or if you need a designated wheelchair space.
Thanks to Literature Wales for partially funding this event with their ‘Inspiring Communities Fund’.
Coming next year: your Aberration team are already busy planning events for LGBTQ+ History Month UK in February 2027, the grand reopening of Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum in May (with new inclusive displays) and next year’s National Eisteddfod. Watch this space!
… The first time I knew … … passing normal … … king of the dance floor … … making our kind of family … … lost somewhere over the rainbow … … and that was the last time we touched … … my secret queendom … … not your cliché … … I used to believe …. but now … … and then I knew I‘d found my people …
What’s the true story you want to tell? What makes a story queer — beyond the identity of the teller? This workshop offers tools and space to share real-life tales of our LGBTQ+ lives.
In this 3-hour session (with max. 16 participants) we explore how telling stories is not just about language, body and presence, but even more about listening. We’ll listen within ourselves, tell queer true-life tales together and explore the ranges and weird edges of our common ground.
This Aberration workshop is open to everyone in the LGBTQ+ community, aged 16 and up. No stage or storytelling experience required, just the desire to hear and share.
Good disabled access. Break for refreshments (included in price).
Tickets from Aberystwyth Arts Centre – £10 / £5 plus booking fee (pay what you can):
Qwigo Ly Baldwin (pictured above) is our visiting workshop leader. They have a lifetime of experience in theatre and music – on and off the stage – and a passion for community storytelling. With degrees in performance, theatre teaching and storytelling, and advanced training in circle singing, Qwigo works with people of all ages on cultural projects around Germany. Originally from the Pacific Northwest of the U.S., they live in Berlin, where they are part of the Doable Storytelling trio.
Aberration is delighted that Qwigo has offered to work with us on their visit to Wales! As always, the workshop will be inclusive and encouraging for everyone under our rainbow umbrella.
Funding
EVENT SUPPORTED BY DINAS LLÊN / CITY OF LITERATURE via PRIFYSGOL ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY
{ENGLISH} Join Norena Shopland and Aberration, in association with Parthian Books, as they launch Norena’s new biography on the Anglo-Welsh poet Katherine Philips: My Love All Love Excels in the Drwm auditorium at The National Library of Wales (NLW), Aberystwyth on 5 June.
Katherine has many accolades – the first woman to have a play commercially produced; a seventeenth-century Civil War poet of distinction; someone who broke the rules of poetry; one of the first notable female poets in the world; one of the first to write of same-sex attraction, the list goes on.
Katherine’s extraordinary story will be brought to life with poetry readings, songs and talks that will amuse and amaze, and will show why Katherine Philips must be regarded as one of Wales’ best poets.
This major biography of Katherine Philips is published by Parthian Books. Be the first to buy a copy at our launch event and get it personally signed by author Norena Shopland (pictured above).
