Previous Activities

Previous SHOUT Activities:

Over the last four years, the SHOUT Festival has delivered innovative, engaging and provocative work - adding something special and exciting to both the region's cultural offer, attracting high-profile events and artists to present work of interest to the city's LGBT community and contribute to UK Queer culture.  Our programme has seen the best in visual arts alongside theatre, music, literature and comedy.  Below you will find brief biographies of artists and contributors along with past Festival brochures.

 

 

 

Work has been presented by:

 

RACHEL ADAMS (The Modern Lesbian - 2011)

Rachel is a documentary and portrait photographer who has been working with sub-cultures throughout the UK to capture otherwise unseen aspects of British culture.   She is commissioned on a regular basis and has exhibited extensively, most recently with Sale Waterside Arts Centre, Manchester District Music Archive and at Manchester Pride with Curated Place and the original Modern Lesbian project.

 

SANDRA ALLAND (A Spot of b)other - 2011)

Sandra is a writer, performer and visual artist. Her work has been presented at Entzaubert Queer Film Festival 2010 and 2011 (Berlin), Contact Photography Festival (Canada), Equality Network’s Everybody IN LGBT BME Project (Edinburgh), GFest 2010 (London), Kairos In Soho and Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art. Sandra has been artist-in-residence at Banff Centre (Canada), FONCA (Mexico), GoMA and Trongate 103 (Glasgow).

 

ISMA ALMAS (The Laughing Cows Comedy Night - 2011)

Isma arrived in the UK with her parents from Pakistan in 1978. Twenty six years later she delighted them by choosing the sinful and degrading profession of stand up comedy. She won the First Laugh competition at the Sheffield Comedy Festival in 2006, as well as being a semi-finalist in So You Think You’re Funny contest. She has been a finalist in the Funny Women and Hackney New Act of the Year Competitions.   She had a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival with her debut show ‘Isma Almas Bombs’.

AMITY (i AM AMITY, part of Acoustics @ VEGed Out - 2011)

Wolverhampton born Amy Forrester, a self taught singer-songwriter who takes 'going it alone' to an exciting new level.  Combining vocals with guitar, throwing in a kick and snare, looping it all together and playing whatever else is lying around to create honest music that makes you want to laugh, cry and tap your toes.

 

b)other (A Spot of b)other - 2011)

b)other collective formed in Glasgow in July 2009. They have exhibited their work individually and collectively throughout the UK, Europe and Canada with work looking at LGBTI Queer, Trans and Intersex Deaf and Disabled Cultures.  b)other collective comprises: Sandra Alland with Stuart Crawford, Nathan Gale, Robert Gale, Y Josephine, Jennie Kermode, Rebeca Pla, Alison Smith, Penny Stenhouse and Kristiane Taylor.

 

SOPHIA BLACKWELL (Dirty Words - 2011)

Sophia is a performance poet, cabaret vamp, burlesque wannabe, feminist lesbian warrior princess and Italian pasta-momma. Born in Newcastle, polished at Oxford and living in North London, she’s been on the poetry scene for five years after winning her first slam and getting her first paycheque - which was immediately spent on petrol and a curry.

 

TINA C (2010)

Tina C is an American Country singer who has come a long way from her roots in White Trash poverty. Multi Grammy award-winner, worker for global peace and Presidential Candidate in 2008. Tina talks about all of this and sings some damn fine country songs.

 

PAOLA CAVALLIN (Flames, Sapphists, Tribades and Separatists: Italian Lesbian Literature - 2011)

Paola is an established performer and writer. She has toured nationally in the UK and internationally and her work has been published in 'Scatti di Teatro Lesbico' an Anthology of Modern Italian Lesbian Theatre writing. She also the author of 'Nespole, Nurzie e Camionare.Il lesbismo a Bologna negli anni '70 e '80' an historical research of the gay life in Bologna .

 

CAT CHINN (Acoustics @ VEGed Out - 2011)

Cat has already been performing her own acoustic songs for over 10 years. Cat’s style has evolved from a more alternative acoustic approach to upbeat melodic rock performances that are enhanced by her development as an artist over a decade of live performances.

 

EEEK (Acoustics @ VEGed Out - 2011)

Hailing from the Midlands - all female band, Eeek, breathe a freshness into the female acoustic music scene.  Eeek are: Lucy Burton, Lead vocals; Danielle Wilson, Vocals; Mandy Burton, Guitar and Karen Milne, Drums.

JOEY HATELEY (The Gender Joker: Gender Nuances - 2011)

Joey is the Artistic Director of TransAction who performs at a variety of events across the world, devising socio-political interdisciplinary performance in collaboration with a diverse range of organizations. Joey is a theatre practitioner, writer, director, educator and art-activist who has performed and worked with trans adults and vulnerable young people in Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Ecuador, India, Namibia, Peru, Quito, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, USA and the UK.

DAVID HOYLE (Queering the Portrait, Call My Puff - 2011)

Born in Blackpool, Hoyle came to prominence in the 1990s as the Divine David, a kind of anti-drag queen whose lacerating social commentary – targeting both bourgeois Britain and the materialistic-hedonistic gay scene, which he called "the biggest suicide cult in history" – was offset by breathtaking instances of self-recrimination and even self-harm. Following a couple of outré late-night Channel 4 shows and a cameo in Velvet Goldmine, Hoyle killed the Divine David off during a spectacular show at the Streatham Ice Arena in 2000 and retreated to Manchester for "a period of reflection".  Recently he has performed in Copenhagen, Zagreb, Holland, France and Singapore and also Newcastle. David embraces controversy as easily as he embraces the avant guard.

 

JANIS IAN (An Evening with Janis Ian - 2011)

Janis’s songs have inspired audiences for over three decades, from her 1967 debut, to classics such as Between The Lines and albums up to Folk Is The New Black and Best of Janis Ian – The Autobiography Collection. Her songs have been recorded and performed by a list of artists including Nina Simone, Dusty Springfield, Joan Baez and Roberta Flack.

 

 

THE IRREPRESIBLES (2010)

The Irrepressibles are the pop-meets-art project of composer and artist Jamie McDermott. Their Mirror Mirror spectacle is a dark, mirrored fantasy inside which the 10-piece performance orchestra play and move like an extraordinary flock of marionettes.

 

JET MOON (Dirty Words - 2011)

Jet Moon is an artist/activist producing politically engaged creative work that combines performance, writing, and film. Creating events, works and collaborations that push for change, re-evaluation and empowerment in our gendered/sexual and cultural lives. Strongly influenced by  involvement with the alter-globalist movement.

SAYAN KENT (Invisible - 2011)

Sayan has been working in professional theatre for quite a long time. Recent writing includes, Antigone’s Sister (Birmingham Rep, Young Rep); The Contract (The Old Joint Stock, Birmingham, Joint winner of the Capital New Writing Festival); Invisible (Part one, staged reading at Midlands Arts Centre); Another Paradise (Kali Theatre national tour and Edinburgh), shortlisted for the John Whiting Award. Killing Wasps (Soho Theatre, staged reading); musical adaptations of Silas Marner (Belgrade, Coventry) The Good Companions (New Vic, Stoke), three pantos and a short radio play.

AMY LAME (A Night of Queer Cabaret, Launch Event - 2011)

Born and raised in America, New Jersey, Amy is an accomplished writer, entertainer, comedienne and presenter.  She is a regular contributor to a whole host of programmes including: The Wright Stuff, This Morning, Channel 5 News, BBC London News, Daily Politics, Richard and Judy, BBC Breakfast News, BBC Good Food and Liquid News.  Her one-woman show, Amy Lamé's Mama Cass Family Singers wowed audiences at the Edinburgh Festival and met with rave reviews at London’s Soho Theatre.

 

V.G. LEE (Dirty Words - 2011)

Birmingham-born V.G. is the author of the novels The Comedienne, The Woman in Beige, Diary of a Provincial Lesbian and a collection of short stories, As You Step Outside. Her stories are featured in the anthologies including ‘Boys and Girls,’ and ‘Men and Women.’

 

STE MCCABE (Get Your Docks Off! - 2011)

Ste McCabe is a queer-electro-punk singer who conjours up a quirky and sarcastic blend that is sure to delight, energise and politicise his audience .


JOE MERCIER (Cruising, Clubbing, F***ing – 2012)

Joseph Mercier is a choreographer and director from Canada. Originally trained in classical ballet, he now works and teaches primarily in contemporary modes of dance and performance.  He is the Artistic Director of dance-theatre company 'PanicLab', which focuses on contemporary issues around gender, sexuality and the body. 

 

TOM MURPHY (2011)

Tom Murphy is a sculptural and performance artist based in the West Midlands. Dealing with a variety of themes including life, death and immortality, greed, power and wealth, glamour, romance and legend, Hollywood and Americana. Tom's work uses an often humorous and tongue-in-cheek language to explore more serious and philosophical issues.

 

MRS BARBARA NICE (The Laughing Cows Comedy Night, Sing-A-Long Calamity Jane - 2011)

Barbara is the comedy alter ego of Janice Connolly . Janice played Holy Mary in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights and has appeared in Coronation Street and a Taste of Honey.  Janice is also artistic Director of Birmingham-based Women and Theatre.  Barbara is well-loved on the comedy circuit – she is everybody’s favourite housewife and is joy to see.

 

HANNAH PHILLIPS (Invisible - 2011)

Hannah is Course Director of the BA Community & Applied Theatre / Dance Theatre at Birmingham School of Acting / Birmingham City University. Previous positions include, Director of Young People's Theatre at Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Artistic Director of Birmingham Library Theatre Company and Pink Space Theatre Company and Associate Director of Y Touring Theatre Company in London. Hannah's areas of specialism are Young People's Theatre, theatre making and Feminist and Queer Theatre. Hannah was also the performance Co-ordinator for SHOUT festival in 2011.

 

MANDY ROMERO (Stevenage - 2011)

Mandy is a transgender artist, a created identity but not a conventional alter ego. The artist has produced films, writing and has performed in plays and cabaret but her main performance focus is on Live Art actions and interactions, which she has carried out in places as diverse as Barcelona, Shanghai, Copenhagen and the Pearl River Delta.  She is based in Liverpool and has had a long association with the Bluecoat Arts Centre.

 

QASIM RIZA SHAHEEN (2010)

Qasim is an artist based in Manchester. His work has been presented at prominent festivals throughout the UK, including: The National Review of Live Art, Glasgow; Liverpool Biennial; British Dance Edition; Victoria & Albert Museum in London; Brighton Festival.  He has been Associate Artist at the Greenroom in Manchester since 2004 and is the founder and artistic director of Anokha Laadla, a live art company based in the UK.

ALISON SMITH (A Spot of b)other - 2011)

Alison is a poet who performs her work in British Sign Language.. Alison's work has featured in publications with commissions for proudWORD and English Heritage. She was part of b)other collective's exhibition at GOMA in 2009, and has performed and led workshops in Germany, USA and UK. She has also featured at Edinburgh's Cachín Cachán Cachunga Queer & Trans Cabaret.  Alison is the founder of Pesky People, a campaign to challenge digital discrimination faced by Deaf and Disabled.

 

MATT SMITH (Queering the Museum – 2010)

Matt is a founder member of ‘Unravelled’, a group of artists developing site specific work in stately houses and is about to start a PhD in Queer Craft at the University of Brighton.  Matt’s work has been shown at the Society for Contemporary Craft, Pittsburg, the Aspex Gallery (which awarded him their annual arc award) and numerous of commercial galleries. It has also featured on Radio 4’s You and Yours and in the Sunday Times, Observer Magazine, Ceramic Review and Artists Newsletter.

PENNY STENHOUSE (A Spot of b)other - 2011)

Penny is a Glasgow based artist who is always working on ways to get more jewellery into your life. It’s very serious business. Penny also creates bizarre happenings at art galleries across the UK at b)other collective openings and other events. Her project, “I Am One of Them”, draws (humourous) attention to the othering of people from backgrounds perceived as different and inferior.

 

RYAN STYLES (2011)

Ryan Styles studied Jewellery design at Middlesex University and went on to train in clown at Ecole Philippe Gaulier, Paris. His work is theatrical, highly stylised, physical, and works within the genres of live art, drag and mime.  Ryan has performed all over the world in theatres, museums, Working Men's Clubs, gay bars and supermarkets. He has presented at The Guggenheim Museum NYC, Royal Festival Hall, V&A Museum, Space Ibiza, The Whoopee Club, Tower Ballroom Blackpool, and Ascot.

ROBERT TAYLOR (Imagining Intimacy - 2011)

Robert is perhaps best known for his portraiture, with work held at the National Portrait Gallery, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and several private collections. His work has been exhibited and published widely both here and overseas.  His skills in stylishly and provocatively celebrating the diversity of human beings and their bodies were much in demand in the 1980s and 1990s for anti-HIV/AIDS health education campaigns. Perhaps the most notable example was Peter Tatchell’s ground-breaking sex education book for gay men, SAFER SEXY, which was a major success both here and in the USA.

ROSIE WILBY (The Laughing Cows Comedy Night - 2011)

Rosie Wilby is an award winning comedian and former musician who has headlined gigs at Sydney Mardi Gras and appeared on E4, Carlton TV, Radio 4, 5, BBC London and LBC. Her solo show Rosie's Pop Diary received rave four and five star reviews at Edinburgh Fringe. She presents and produces Resonance FM's LGBT show and is a regular correspondent on Gaydio.

 

MAUREEN YOUNGER (The Laughing Cows Comedy Night - 2011)

Maureen works as a stand up comedian and compere all around the UK and abroad and was a finalist for the prestigious Hackney Empire New Act of the Year Competition.  In 2008 Maureen was one of the warm up acts for the Puppetry of the Penis tour; and in 2009 supported Shazia Mirza for part of the tour of her one woman show as well as being the support act in 2010 for Kojo at his recent one-man show at the Soho Theatre. 

ZORRAS

Scottish-Canadian writer and artist, Sandra Alland, and Belgian-Venezuelan musician, Y. Josephine, formed the multimedia performance troupe, Zorras, in Edinburgh in 2007. In 2009, they were joined by Argentine photographer and filmmaker, Ariadna Battich.  Zorras have become internationally known for their uniquely queer and bilingual mixture of text, sound poetry, percussion, singing, guitar, electric bass, megaphones and projected images. They inject passion (and a good dollop of humour) into both personal stories and cutting observations of our troubling times.

 

Speakers and Lectures

In addition to exhibitions and performances, SHOUT has presented debates and talks designed to explore the discourses around Queer Culture.  Key speakers have included:

 

CHARLOTTE ROSS (2011)

Charlotte Ross is a lecturer in Italian Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Birmingham. Her research explores issues of feminism, gender, sexuality and embodiment in 20th century and contemporary culture. Contact c.e.ross@bham.ac.uk

HENRY ROGERS (2011)

Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at Birmingham City University and project organiser

He is the Director of the Arts Based Masters Programme at Birmingham City University and responsible for the development of MA Queer Studies in Arts and Culture, the first free standing named award in Queer Studies at Masters level in the UK. Queer Theory is implicit in his practice and he is interested in the conceptualization of queering as a methodology. He is also interested in the performed nature of the production of artworks, their representation and performative circulation within culture.

Publications include:

Making a Scene: Performing culture into politics (ARTicle Press: 2000)
Art Becomes You!: Parody, Pastiche and the Politics of Art (ARTicle Press: 2006)
The Art of Queering Art: (ARTicle Press: 2007)

MICHELE AARON (2011)

Senior Lecturer in American and Canadian Studies at Birmingham University
She has a continuing interest in theories of gender and sexuality, especially as they interact with the construction of Jewishness and race more broadly. She have published and presented a series of pieces on the intersection of queerness and Jewishness. Grounded in the discourses of race and gender of late nineteenth century Europe, these explore Hollywood, European and Yiddish film and history, and more recently television.

Publications include:

Spectatorship: The Power of Looking On (Wallflower; 2007)
The Body’s Perilous Pleasures (Edinburgh University Press, 1999)
New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader (Edinburgh University Press, 2004)

Professor FABIO CLETO (2011)

teaches English Literature at the University of Bergamo in Italy
He is interested in fictional mass culture and the politics of representation and his research within the field of queer studies is typified by his work on ‘Camp’ in which he provides a challenging rethink of camp, and a historical/theoretical framework for research on the subject. In this he explores the multi-layered issue of camp, whose inexhaustible breadth of reference and theoretical relevance to the issues taken up by academic research in recent years have made it one of the most salient and challenging issues on the contemporary critical stage.

Publications include:

Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999)

JOSE ARROYO (2011)

Lecturer, Department of Film & Television Studies, Warwick University
José Arroyo is currently researching the effect of changing mediascapes on traditional questions in film aesthetics. His ongoing interests include issues of national and sexual representation, Spanish cinema and contemporary Hollywood cinema. He is currently writing on Antonio Banderas and Javier Bardem, and his next project is on ‘Impact’ Aesthetics. He is a regular reviewer for Sight and Sound.
Publications include:

‘Queering the Folklore: Genre and Re-presentation of Homosexual and National identities in Las cosas del querer’ in Bill Marshall and Robynn Stilwell eds. Musicals: Hollywood and Beyond Bristol: Intellect Books, 2000.

'Death, Desire and Identity: The Political Unconscious of "New Queer Cinema", in Joseph Bristow and Angelia R. Wilson (eds.) Activating Theory: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Politics xi 266pp, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1993.

'La ley del deseo: a gay seduction' in Richard Dyer and Ginette Vincendeau (eds.) Popular European Cinema, London: Routledge, 1992.