Tag Archives: lesbian events

Aberration Goes to Town with VG Lee

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16/5/23 Bank Vault, Aberystwyth

Cyffrous! Aberration yn y Dre efo VG Lee!

<THIS EVENT IS IN THE PAST>

The author and comedian VG Lee is coming to town for Aberration on 16 May at the Bank Vault bar!

The brilliant novelist and short story writer VG Lee is coming all the way from Hastings to entertain us. Venue: Bank Vault bar, 1 New Street, Aberystwyth.

This event is FREE. No booking. Arrive from 6pm when the Bank Vault bar opens for a great range of craft beers, wine, spirits and superior soft drinks!

Please support this lovely venue by buying drinks And please bring cash too, to buy signed books from our special guest. She will be onstage around 7pm.

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ABOUT OUR SPECIAL GUEST: VG LEE

VG Lee (aka Val) is an author and comedian. She’s written five novels and two collections of short stories, the latest being Oh You Pretty Thing (Tollington, 2019).

Past books are: The Comedienne, The Woman in Beige, Diary of a Provincial Lesbian, As You Step Outside, Always You Edina, and Mr Oliver’s Object of Desire – runner up for the YLVA Publishing Literary Prize for Fiction 2017. Val was long-listed for the BBC National Short Story Award 2022. She is a judge for both the Polari Book Prize and The Hastings Book Festival Short Story Prize.

VG Lee also writes for newspapers and magazines including The Guardian, Diva and The Lady. She embarked on a stand-up comedy career just when other people might be planning their retirement – and made it to the finals of Hackney Empire’s New Act of the Year.

VG Lee is an old friend of the Aberration organisers and we are absolutely delighted she is coming to Aberystwyth especially for our fabulous audience. Be there! Edrych ymlaen!

Website: https://www.vg-lee.com/

Next events

Also in our Aberration Goes to Town series: 29 June Mike Parker, 13 July Queer Diary.

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History Month ’23 Calendar

Aberration, Film, LGBTAberration, Aberystwyth, Cymru, film, gay events, lesbian events, LGBT

Events in Cymru for ‘Long LGBTQ+ History Month’ involving Aberration or Queer Tales from Wales

March 2023 – Book now!

Tuesday 7 March, 5pm, National Library, Aberystwyth.
Queer Tales from Wales present ‘A Moral Amazon: The Story of Miss Amy Dillwyn’. A novelist, industrialist and cigar smoker, Miss Dillwyn also loved her friend Olive with all her heart. ? https://www.library.wales/visit/things-to-do/events

Sun 26 March, 2.30pm, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberration will be part of a screening at WOW Festival of A Home for My Heart. This kind and moving documentary follows Suvana Sudeb, an Indian trans woman, through the ups and downs of life with family, friends, lover and comrades. With Q&A.
https://www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk/cinema/wow-home-my-heart-15-short-film-mirrors

February 2023 (past events)

Sun 12 Feb, 12 noon, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.
LezDiff celebrates History Month with films, talks and performances. Queer Tales appear with both ‘Queen of the Lake’ and ‘A Moral Amazon: The Story of Miss Amy Dillwyn’. Also on the bill are our friends Behind the Lines and Norena Shopland.
https://lezdiff.org/lgbtq-history-month-event/

Sat 18 Feb, 2.30pm, Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
Aberration presents: Proud Writing Workshop with Norena Shopland – writing from history. Book early, limited to 15 places.

Sat 18 Feb, 7pm, Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
Aberration presents Dreaming Up the Past: Exciting evening of film, art, music and drama. With Cerys Hafana, Amy Daniel, Sarah-Joy Ford, Lost Knitters + Cranogwen.
https://www.aberration.org.uk/dreaming-up-the-past-18-2-23/

Thurs 23 Feb, 6pm, Conwy Museums & Archives.
Queer Tales from Wales present ‘Two Welshmen in Rome’ – the dramatised story of renowned sculptor John Gibson & his special friend Penry Williams. https://conwylibraries.com/events/out-and-about-lgbtq-history-month-celebration-event

Dreaming Up The Past

Aberration, Archive, LGBTAberration, Aberystwyth, Cymru, gay events, lesbian events, LGBT

Bringing LGBTQ+ histories to life

Our tenth LGBTQ+ History Month! At Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 18 February 2023. Workshop, cafe, and evening event.

Supported by Aberystwyth University & National Library of Wales

Workshop

Please note: Proud Writing Workshop with Norena Shopland at 2pm has now sold out.

Dinner

5.30 to 6.30pm: All welcome to eat together in the Aberystwyth Arts Centre Café – pay as you go. Let us know if you want us to reserve a place in our space by emailing aberrationcymru@gmail.com

Dreaming Up the Past – The main event!

Tocynnau >> Tickets >> £10 / £8

Take your seats from 6.45pm with a welcome at 7pm from your host Helen Sandler.

Cerys Hafana – live music

Cerys Hafana is top of the bill! Cerys is a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Machynlleth who mangles, mutates, and transforms traditional music. She explores the creative possibilities and unique qualities of the triple harp, and is also interested in found sounds, archive materials and electronic processing. Her latest release, Edyf, was Folk Album of the Month in the Guardian.

Especially for Aberration, Cerys has created ‘Queer as Folk’, by interviewing other LGBTQ+ musicians from around the UK and will be playing clips from these interviews as well as singing and playing live for us. A work in progress that has never been heard before!

“Cerys Hafana’s sound is simultaneously ancient in feel and yet impossibly, intriguingly modern. It is also in a field of its own; there is nothing else quite like this” – folkradio.co.uk

“Raw power” – Songlines

“A master of the Welsh triple harp… Hafana also sings movingly, her high voice like an indie-pop soprano shorn of its sweetness.” – Guardian

Behind the Lens – film and Q&A

Screening of Ysbrydion (Spirits) (Welsh with English subtitles), a stunning new short documentary by award-winning film director Amy Daniel. The film features four people sharing their experiences of growing up LGBTQ+ in rural Wales, imaginatively projected into the landscape. Followed by a panel discussion with Amy and participants.

Beloved – lesbian art

Sarah-Joy Ford will talk about her 2022 solo show Beloved: Crafting Intimacies with the Ladies of Llangollen at Plas Newydd. Created after a period of residency, the site-specific embroidered intervention was inspired by the deep and lifelong intimate relationship between the Ladies and the extraordinary home that they created together from 1780.

Sarah-Joy Ford is an artist researcher working with textiles to explore the complexities and pleasures of queer communities, histories and archives.

Tocynnau >> Tickets >>

The Lost Knitters of Tregaron – live theatre

The Lost Knitters take time out from their hard lives gathering wool, spinning and knitting to tell the story of their lives. Times are changing and they gossip about two local girls who cross-dress and have been immortalised in the street-corner ballad ‘Wel Lanciau’.

Then Sarah-Jane Rees – often known by her bardic name Cranogwen – visits to answer their questions. Wondering what to do with your life? Cranogwen has the answer!

Cranogwen (1839-1916) was a writer, sailor, lecturer, and editor of the women’s magazine Y Frythones. Her relationships with women sustained and inspired her. She comes back to life this evening for your edification and delight.

Donations

Please bring cash for donations to AllOut, the international campaigning network that supports LGBTQ+ people wherever their rights and safety are threatened.

Croeso cynnes

All welcome. The evening is suitable for adults and young people interested in LGBTQ+ lives and history. Aberration is a trans-positive space. Event partly in English, partly in Welsh with English subtitles. The venue has good disabled access.

Book now!

Tickets >>

Tocynnau >>

Cefnogir gan / Supported by

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Summer Sizzlers

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Aberration Summer Sizzlers:
Queer History Walk & Beach Picnic
Sat 20/8/22

Dewch i ymuno â ni – dau digwyddiad gwych yn Aber!

TWO GREAT EVENTS ON 20 AUGUST 2022

EVENING

BEACH PICNIC – JUST TURN UP!

7pm onwards on Aberystwyth South Beach near The Hut refreshment stand – look out for the rainbow flags and join the fun! Just turn up (no booking). Bring your own picnic. All LGBTQ+ people and their supportive friends and families welcome. If you are under 16 then your parent or carer needs to be with you.

Join the Facebook event page for updates >>

AFTERNOON

QUEER HISTORY WALK – SOLD OUT!

Manylion (Cymraeg) >> Wedi gwerthu allan!

Profits to AllOut – the grassroots campaigning charity for LGBT+ people worldwide.

Meet 2.30pm at The Bank Vault bar, 1 New Street, Aberystwyth for a guided walk around the town led by Jane Hoy of Aberration & Queer Tales from Wales. Fascinating stories of the queer history of Aber and the people who lived and worked here.

More info>>

Parti Traeth Aberration Beach Party

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On Friday 5 July 2019 we had a fab beach party! Starting out in Bottle & Barrel bar and then with food and fires on Aberystwyth South Beach. A lovely sunny evening social. Here’s a pic while the sun was still out.

Cabarration 2016

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Aberration

CABARRATION

8pm 21 October 2016 (doors 7.30pm)
Aberystwyth Arts Centre – Great Hall
A cabaret night with a very queer bite!

Book tickets here>>

AMAZING ACTS…

Jonathan Mayor

Jonathan Mayor will be entertaining us with his cutting comedy – dressed up in glitter-storm Bollywood drag and delivered with twinkly chutzpah. Coming all the way from Gaychester just to entertain you.

‘A self-obsessed glittery queen with a larger than life personality who arrives onstage in a bamboozling mix of innuendo’ – Manchester Evening News
‘Very funny’ – Michael Palin
‘Marvellously wicked’ – Sarah Millican

www.jonathanmayor.co.uk
Twitter: @jonathanmayor

Lynette Frances

Lynette Frances is a hit wherever she plays, from L Fest to an intimate bar, combining an amazing voice with a love of entertaining. She will play a range of rock and country covers to get us in the Friday night vibe. Later in the evening, Lynette will be teaching us all a line-dance so get your dancing shoes on!

Lynette lives on the south coast of England and has been performing since the age of 12. She runs the Way Out Country Facebook group for LGBT lovers of country music and line-dancing.

lynettefrances.webs.com
Twitter: @LynetteFrances

Ashleigh Owen

Ashleigh Owen will be performing an extract from her one-woman show, ‘The Rise and Fall Of The Hamburger Queen’, which can be seen in full at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool, as part of Homotopia.

Ashleigh’s mum wouldn’t let her dance, because dancing killed her dad. ‘He went down into the splits and never got up again.’ She danced in secret until the day came to break the news to her mother: she was leaving for London to become a famous dancer. Bright lights, big city, wide-eyed Scouser… what could possibly go wrong?

www.ashleighowen.co.uk
Twitter: @AshleighPOwen

Sparkles Hoop Troupe

Hula-hoop dancing from Cardiff’s amazing Sparkles Hoop Troupe. This community troupe is fully inclusive and hooping crazy.

‘The funniest, finest and most dynamic act in Cardiff!’ – We Are Cardiff Press

sparkleshooptroupe.simdif.com
Twitter: @sparkleshoop

Ernie Sparkles

Fun ‘boylesque’ (male burlesque) from Ernie Sparkles. Cheeky in every way!

Bois y Fro

Aberystwyth’s own vocal quartet, Bois y Fro, have been singing together off-and-on for 10 years and more. With a repertoire ranging from folk to classical to modern (and a lot of things in between) in both Welsh and English, there’s sure to be something for everyone when these guys take the stage.

Twitter: @boisyfro

Plus…

Hosted by Aberration favourite Helen Sandler, with raffle and bar. The evening has an LGBTQI+ theme (lesbian, gay, bi, trans, queer, intersex, and all-round inclusive). All open-minded people are welcome at this fun and friendly night. “You don’t have to be queer to be here.” Dress to impress!

Join our event on Facebook for updates>>

Book your tickets now through Aberystwyth Arts Centre>>

Aberration is brought to you by SpringOut and Enfys Aber, in partnership with Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Without the financial and practical support of the Arts Centre, this year's Cabarration could not take place (or not unless we charged three times as much for the tickets) so please come along, show your support for the biggest queer-themed night in Mid Wales and have a fabulous night. Diolch yn fawr!

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New acts at Aberration

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{archived posts follow from previous events}

New acts

More fab performers at Aberration: Out for Summer

Aberration recently put out a call for new performers and we had a terrific response. We are delighted to have two new acts at Aberration Out for Summer on 27 May.

Leonie Campbell is a poetry slam winner and a student on the creative writing MA at Aber. She has won two ECWS poetry slams and been published in The Wait anthology and in Wales Within.

Jess Jones is a singer-songwriter based in Wales who plays melodic, emotional original ballads, and covers a wide range of pop and rock music. Come along and see Jess and Leonie perform at Aberration Out for Summer!

More info

Book through Aberystwyth Arts Centre

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Aberration May 2015 PROGRAMME

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[ARCHIVE RECORD OF PAST EVENT]

Aberration presents:

Hoyw Heddiw // Gay Today

>>Cymraeg yma>>

7pm (for 7.30) Saturday 9 May 2015
Main Hall, International Politics Building,
Aberystwyth University, Penglais Campus
£7 (includes a glass of wine)

What’s it like to be LGBT in Wales (and beyond)?
An evening of live music, discussion and readings

7pm Drinks

7.30pm Introduction by Dr Jenny Mathers, head of the International Politics department, an expert in Russian human rights issues including Pussy Riot and anti-gay legislation.

7.45pm Discussion about being LGBT in Wales, with our fabulous panel:

Jaci Taylor, who served as mayor of Aberystwyth in 2000-01, with her partner as mayoress.

Gareth Lloyd Roberts, director of Aberystwyth Arts Centre, past producer at Wales Millennium Centre.

Paddy O’Malley, co-editor and founder of The Aberystwyth EGO magazine and part of Sgarmes singing group.

Chaired by Elisa Haf, an Aber native with a degree in International Politics from the university and an interest in left-wing feminism.

The panel will be held in Welsh and English, with simultaneous translation. Followed by Q&A – join in with your questions for the panel.

8.45pm Interval

9pm Richard Margraff Turley will read from and talk about his new novel, The Cunning House, about attacks on gay culture in Regency London and the raid on the White Swan molly house.

9.15pm Multilingual live music from Machynlleth’s answer to Edith Piaf – Nicola Burgess & friends.

10pm Ends – come with us up to the Arts Centre to buy a drink in the bar and continue the conversation.

Timings are approximate. Programme subject to change.

Aberration is brought to you by Enfys Aber (Aber Uni’s LGBT staff network) and SpringOut (arts events for women, LGBT folk and friends).

>>View photos of the last fabulous Aberration>>

Aberration Quiz 27 Feb

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Aberration Quiz

Queer Quiz, Friday 27 February 2015

Dickie Beau is performing his show Blackouts: Twilight of the Idols at Aberystwyth Arts Centre and the Aberration team have arranged a fun pre-show quiz in the theatre bar at 5.45pm prompt, as part of LGBT History Month UK.

Bring your friends or join a team to meet new people. Questions will include the queer history of Wales and a photo quiz. Ends in time for a chat or a bite to eat before the show. All welcome, whether you are lesbian, gay, bi, undecided, straight, trans, intersex, whatever.

£1 per person on the night.

Quizmasters Mike Parker & Helen Sandler.

It’s Aberration’s first birthday so we hope you will raise a glass with us to celebrate!

Please book separately for the show, see below.

Quiz organised by SpringOut and Enfys Aber for Aberration.

Blackouts: Twilight of the Idols

Drag fabulist Dickie Beau shapeshifts through a shadowy soundscape of lost souls in a theatrical trip to the subconscious underworld of his future self. Bringing to life extraordinary audio artefacts, Dickie leads us on a bewitching adventure in found sound as he channels the ghosts of his childhood idols. Includes previously unheard tapes of Marilyn Monroe’s final interview.

Book your ticket to the Blackouts show on the Aberystwyth Arts Centre website>>

Cabarration lineup announced

Archive, LGBTAberystwyth, gay events, lesbian events

CABARRATION:

Aberration meets cabaret!

[Rhaglen Cymraeg>>

Cabaret night with a very queer bite
8pm Saturday 8 November 2014, Great Hall, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, £10

Doors 7.30pm (with entertainment while you settle in), main show onstage at 8pm.

Book online now!

Starring:

Sgarmes: Aber’s dynamic close-harmony chorus gives it some glitter, bringing you camp classics, pop covers in two tongues… and surprises.

Mimi Amore: A burlesque star who is sexy, humorous and downright dazzling, Mimi has been voted ‘Legend in the Making’.

Izzy Rabey & Bill Sutton: Izzy’s knockout voice soars through jazz classics and her own soulful songs.

Ali Cocks: Melding dance, gymnastics and aerial arts with pole-dancing in a unique show of fitness and thrills.

Hilary Ramsden: The surreal and funny rebel clown of Ceredigion.

Helen Sandler: Your host for the night.

Ted Wroxley: Amazing table magician with nothing up his sleeve.

Mar Gonga: Juggling her magic crystal ball.

The Swan Vestas: The music hall’s last surviving male impersonator treads the boards in the cheeky style of Tipping the Velvet.

Carey Wood-Duffy: Short passionate poems from the Cardiff American’s new collection, Grit.

George Sandifer-Smith: Aber-based poet engages the audience with both humour and depth.

Emily Farr: … And her guitar!

Plus Raffle in aid of LGBT causes overseas, with acerbic writer and broadcaster Mike Parker, Plaid Cymru’s out gay parliamentary candidate for Ceredigion.

Prizes from Over the Rainbow vegetarian guesthouse, Light of Asia Indian restaurant, Sombrero at Sophie’s, Irie’s cocktail lounge, Rummer’s bar and other friends of Aberration. Proceeds from raffle and popcorn sales will be distributed by Stonewall to LGBT causes overseas.

And at the end of the evening, DJ Boundary (Swing City) returns by popular demand to fill the dancefloor till late.

boundary