Two of Lavender Menace’s directors, Sigrid Nielsen and Bob Orr, will convene a group of friends and associates to reflect upon personal and political experiences of HIV/AIDS in Edinburgh during the 1980s and ’90s. Lavender Menace, which developed out of the bookshop West & Wilde, aims to give space to hard-to-find and out-of-print queer books.

This discussion will explore the personal experiences of inhabitants of Fairy Heights – the colloquial names given to a housing block in Edinburgh’s Grassmarket area – where several queer people lived in the 1990s and ’00s. In addition, it will contain reflections on the production of the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt, a community project to celebrate and commemorate the lives of those lost to the virus. The UK quilt project launched at the Edinburgh Festival 1990.

Optional £5 donation will go to Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive – lavendermenace.org.uk