Queer Heritage South: Live Archive is excited to present a community workshop to discuss, encourage, and foster lesbian inclusion in archives and heritage in the city. We aim to have four standalone events throughout 2026, starting with Lesbian Strength: Lesbian campaigning and the role of lesbians in change.

Join Community Champion and Brighton’s own LGBTQIA+ pioneer Kate Wildblood for a Queer Heritage South: Live Archive session, discovering her account of the Lesbian Strength movement in the Brighton & Hove community during the early 90s.

Expect Kate to take you on a dyke dive into the campaigning roots of lesbian Brighton back in the early 90s and the work of Lesbian Strength, a Brighton Pride offshoot that aimed to empower lesbian lives, embrace community action and encourage safer sex. A campaigning group of its time - booted and not suited, forever enraging the letter page of the Evening Argus but enjoying their moment in the May sun. Butch, femme, whatever. As long as it could fit onboard the Lesbus we were up for it.  Shameless and always the Hussies, Lesbian Strength brought community together for the dyke cause. The lesbians were reclaiming, resisting, revolting. The lesbians were fabulous. And It’s time to tell the tale. 

Afterwards, make your own badge inspired by the queer badges of the 70s and 80s. In the absence of social media, your body and your clothes became your profile statement. Badges, visible on a coat, jacket, or jumper, defined your tribe, who you were, and what you believed in. 

Ensuring lesbian visibility is never in doubt, Queer Heritage South: Live Archive will create a space for exploration, recognition, and celebration. Creating a community proudly connected to our past as we share the tales we always treasured but never found the space to tell. An opportunity to reunite, claim the narrative and direct the story ourselves, deciding how and what we wish to share.

A selection of vegan/vegetarian refreshments will be provided. The event is free, but spaces are limited, so booking is mandatory.

Queer Heritage South; Powered by Marlborough Productions. Made possible thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.