Alongside hosting Sean Burns’ film Dorothy Towers (2022) in 2023, EAF curated a public programme to explore its queer community themes. The events link the film, which traces the story of two Birmingham tower blocks at the core of the city’s queer community, to the context of Edinburgh.
During the year, Burns worked with three partners in Edinburgh: art historian Dr Cole Collins, Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive and the Lothian Health Service Archive, each of whom hosted an affiliated event. Together, the programme examined regional queer experiences in the UK during the 1980s and ’90s — what they shared and how they differed, during a time of political change and social trauma.
All events were free, with an optional donation going towards Waverley Care, Scotland’s leading HIV and Hepatitis C charity.
Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive
23 August 2023
Two of Lavender Menace’s directors, Sigrid Nielsen and Bob Orr, convened 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 Queer Books Archive, which developed out of seminal queer bookshop West & Wilde, aims to give space to hard-to-find and out-of-print queer books.
This discussion will explored 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.
Lothian Health Services Archive
24 August 2023
Drawing on original material from the Lothian Health Services Archive — an NHS collection held at the University of Edinburgh Library — this event examined the role of archives in the preservation of queer histories, providing an opportunity to hear how the archive operates and exploring original material relating to HIV/AIDS awareness and activism in Edinburgh.
Sean Burns hosted a discussion with archivists Dr Louise Williams and Louise Neilson exploring material from both archives, providing an opportunity to hear how the resources operate through original material relating to HIV/AIDS awareness and activism, and queer communities in Edinburgh.
There’s No Place Like Home
27 August 2023
Sean Burns and Dr Cole Collins, lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art, led a roundtable conversation on queer space that considers historical examples in Edinburgh, including nightclubs, housing and social spaces. Aiming to reflect on the relationship between architecture and community, the discussion was held in an informal setting.
Collins offered a series of provocations intended to initiate deeper discussion around, for example, housing for queer residents in urban environments, such as Dorothy Towers, and the architecture of nightlife spaces, such as Birmingham’s legendary club Rum Runner or Edinburgh’s Taste clubnight. Food and drink was also served — including Fire Island non-alcoholic IPA, EAF’s collaboration with Bellfield Brewery and Waverley Care, named for Edinburgh’s first gay nightclub.
