A round-up of the bizarre and brilliant of the web corralled by the University of Portsmouth Library.
People who identify – or who others identify – with more than one minority group experience social violence, oppression and disadvantage from all the different aspects of their minority identity. Black trans women are the archetypal minority within a minority – living with daily intersectional violence targeting women, trans people, trans women in particular, on top of racism.
Trans people have doubtless existed for all of human history, and the surgical advances needed for people to transition came about in the mid-twentieth century, so it might seem strange to some that trans people are still feared and vilified today. Yet, trans lives are threatened on a daily basis by rising levels of violence and hostility and failing healthcare.
Bring your children to the Global Week children’s storytime in the University Library! On Wednesday 13 March 2024, we are inviting staff, students and members of the local community to bring their children to a storytime event in the University Library starting at 4 pm, where we will read translated children’s stories sourced from around the world.
Today’s LGBTQIA+ Pride Marches are an ongoing celebration of the changes that started outside the Stonewall Inn. We now have specific Black Pride marches, and Trans Pride marches as well, which draw particular attention to sub-groups of the LGBTQIA+ community that are peculiarly vulnerable. Pride is a protest that is in danger of becoming a party, causing many young people, both within and outside of the LGBTQ+ community, to begin to question the point of pride. The point of Pride is that LGBTQ+ rights are very recently won and it would be only too easy for all the progress towards equality to be rolled back.
February is Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans, Queer, Intersex and Asexual (and all the other strands of sexual and gender diversity) awareness month. I will be posting regularly here on the Library blog about the history of how the understanding of sexual diversity developed since the concept of sexuality was discovered or perhaps invented in the nineteenth century, through the fight to develop greater awareness, tolerance and freedoms for all people throughout the twentieth century and then looking at the state of LGBTQIA+ rights today.
I’d like to start this LGBTQIA+ History Month with a focus on some largely forgotten LGBTQIA+ artists. There are several art exhibitions featuring works by LGBTQIA+ artists that you can visit between February and April 2024, including several in London and one in nearby Chichester you could visit, any of which will make for a pleasant day out.
Are you a budding artist, designer or hobbyist? Are you passionate about a social issue, your home country, or an academic subject? Is there an academic or work-based project that you have completed that fascinated you and that you would like to share with others? The library display space is available to all students and staff to share their interests with the world, from art and design to photographic collections, painted miniature collections, academic posters suitable for a general audience or more conceptual pieces.
Christmas can be an exciting time for some but a trying time for others. Whether you are wondering how to keep yourself entertained in Portsmouth over the holidays or facing a return home you would rather forego, entertainments, help and advice are all on hand. Whatever you need, there is something or someone who can help.
If you enjoyed the University Christmas carol concert that toured parts of the campus last week, or even if you missed it entirely, you might be interested that Portsmouth Light Orchestra is holding a free hour-long concert of Christmas music on Sunday …
Are we alone in the universe? Why do people regularly fancy they see alien spacecraft sojourning in plain daylight in Earth’s lower atmosphere? If not aliens, what explains all these unidentified phenomena? Celebrating 200 episodes this week, the University’s Life …
