We love our lives!

We had a FABULOOOOOOOOOOOOOUS premiere for Down's Syndrome Norfolk's DVD "We love our lives" on World Down Syndrome Day on 21st March. I booked Rod the Harper to play music as people arrived; Ruski ace photographer to be paparazzi for the evening; Dicee to DJ. We were in Fusion in the Forum which is my favourite place in the world for premieres - I love seeing kids lounging on the beanbags watching themselves on the big screen.

Anam Cora

I had a sweet time making a little promotional movie for Anam Cora  and their "music for the soul". At times meditative, at times enlivening, at times juicy, their singing includes natural harmonies that arise from deep listening. You can find out more about them on Mary Benefiel's website.

Great Yarmouth BLAH LGBT Youth Group launched

We had a great launch of the Great Yarmouth BLAH LGBT Youth Group last week at the local library. Loads of local organisations and young people came down to say hi. Sadly my stint as  BLAH Development Worker is just about to finish. I've had a wonderful time developing the group in North Norfolk and doing all the LGBT awareness-training in schools and youth groups. I'm really proud that in my year with the Norfolk LGBT Project we've set up two new Youth Groups and spoken to over 3,000 schoolchildren! I finish on 31st March. Can't wait to see them all again at Norwich Pride on 25th July.

Norwich Rising 2015

We had another wonderful V-Day in Norwich and over 200 people took part in our "Break the Chain" dance outside the Forum as part of the One Billion Rising global campaign to stop violence against women.

 

Find out more about the campaign at www.norwichrising.wordpress.com

3,2,1 Action!

I had a gorgeous afternoon filming my friends Ellie, Kizzy and Peggy who are starring in the new DVD for Down's Syndrome Norfolk. Ellie lives in her own place and she invited her pals over for home-made lasagne. I've known these young women since they were children so it was delightful to see them as adults having a lovely time together. I was very pleased they agreed to don their Action Ts to pose with me for this photo.

Getting On in Bowthorpe

I am representing the Norfolk LGBT Project on the Getting On In Norwich Steering Group, a partnership of loads of organisations who are preparing for a Big Lottery Project to tackle social isolation amongst older people. We're using an ABCD asset mapping approach. ABCD = Asset Based Community Development. It's a grassroots system of working with local people to map their communities and the things that keep them well and keep them connected. I made a little movie of the first workshop in Bowthorpe.

Stop Homophobic Bullying Education Pack Launched

I developed a new education pack called STOP HOMOPHOBIC BULLYING that we launched at Sheringham High School with Year 8 pupils as part of Hate Crime Awareness Week. The pack includes stories from young, local LGBT people who have experienced bullying (taken from a brilliant booklet that the Norwich BLAH Youth Group created a couple of years ago) and activities to make young people think about how they could support friends being bullied. It also offers ideas for how to challenge the use of the word ‘gay’ as an insult. The lessons went down well with pupils and comments on the feedback forms included, 'perfect', ‘it’s brilliant, keep it as it is’, 'there is nothing to make it better.' There were several calls for 'more sweets' so I'll bear that in mind!!

 

You can read more about the pack on the international Gay Star News website where over 2,000 people shared the post on facebook!

Proud Schools at Norwich Pride

I organised a multimedia exhibition in Fusion in the Forum called "Proud Schools". It showcased all the different ways Norfolk schools are tackling homophobic and transphobic bullying in the classroom and the playground. I made a 15 minute film featuring eight different schools. The exhibition was opened by two of my heros - Rita Adair, Senior Educational Psychologist at Norfolk County Council who has done so much to tackle bullying in Norfolk schools; and Elly Barnes, a pioneer who runs training courses all over the country to make schools more LGBT-friendly. Hundreds of people visited the exhibition including lots of the kids in the film. We had some brilliant feedback.

 

Dandifest!

The Norwich Dandies have organised an amazing festival st St Margarets Church of Art and they asked me to make a couple of films for them. This one is of the opening night and features Vince Laws performing his "My Mental Helmet" poem. Check out my YouTube site to see their "Dress, Pose, Paint like a Dandy" movie.

A new job with the Norfolk LGBT Project!

I have got a little part-time job! For the next year I will be working 10 hours a week as the North Norfolk BLAH LGBT Youth Development Worker. The job involves setting up a Youth Group for young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and those questioning their sexuality and gender identity; as well as running LGBT awareness raising sessions in schools and youth groups. Here's a pic of a flag a child made at Angel Rd Junior school. We did a lesson based on the rainbow flag and I asked them all to make flags that represented who they are.

Premiere!

Great coverage of the Great Yarmouth Equal Lives Youth Forum Launch in the local paper.

Join the Youth Forum!

Had a fab time filming the Equal Lives Youth Forum last night at Pizza Express with my pal Nicki. Looking forward to the premiere at the launch of the Great Yarmouth Youth Forum on Friday 10th January with special guest Jessica-Jane Applegate MBE (Paralympian – Gold Medalist)

Shelly Teddy is a celebrity!

Shelly Teddy is to open the Sing with Pride Jumble Sale! :)

Steal like an artist

Am loving the book Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. You can watch a trailer here: http://vimeo.com/37086074

http://vimeo.com/37086074 

http://vimeo.com/37086074 

Finding my mojo

Was really pleased to be recommended this little film by Future Radio presenter Di Cunningham. It's all about being a MOJO - a mobile journalist - with an iPhone. Loads of great tips and tricks. I love making films on my iPhone. It feels a bit of a cheat turning up to film with an iPhone or flip camera and yet it allows me to get some really natural responses from people.

NCFC LGBT

I was proud to be at the inaugural meeting of Norwich City Football Club's LGBT Supporters Group last night and took a photo that has been retweeted loads on Twitter. Next step is to find a name - my bet is on Rainbow Canaries.

No to hate

This year's No to Hate Vigil to remember victims of hate crime everywhere was filled with unforgettable moments....watching the moon light up the clouds during the two minutes' silence; the sound of Sefo Kanuteh's music echoing through the park; my friend Poppy's brilliant speech; singing "Everything Possible" in public for the first time with the choir; people queueing to take a photo of Edith's candle bags; listening to Manny speak to us from St Petersburg.

Shelly Telly Table Tennis Team in the news

I'm sure you guessed it wouldn't take long for my team to get in the paper now I am the league's press officer, but even so I was pleased with the huge pic in the Evening News tonight. It had been a big week for us - new boy Jacob winning with Ruth in the doubles and securing a much-needed point.

Dug digs OUT140

I had a very creative pint with actor and theatre director Dugald Ferguson who was full of ideas for how we can turn OUT140 into a play. Dugald is a British / New Zealand artist based in the UK working on solo, collaborative and commissioned pieces in the visual arts and performance. He is co-founder of the Immersive Theatre Company Living Structures and Artists Collective The Norwich Dandies. Here’s what Dugald says about OUT140:

“I am wildly excited about ‘OUT140: THE PLAY’, taking these honest, moving, hilarious, delectable coming out tweets and turning them in to a feast of performance. The little anecdotes are so universal and versatile in their wide appeal and human interest, easily adaptable into a wide array of performance, music, puppetry, live art, circus, installation acts which will be a totally awesome Cabaret of Coming Out! Above all the constantly growing nature of the OUT140 project with Shelly Telly – the insatiable collector of tweeted tales – means this play / event / happening can expand, evolve and respond to the ever changing landscape of LGBT human rights.”

Shelly Telly - Sports Journo!

I am now the Press Officer for the Norwich and District Table Tennis League and write weekly reports for the Evening News. Now it's a pretty easy job because we have a wonderful website created by a lovely, talented guy with huge technical knowledge called Steve Annison. Steve's created a site where Divisional Secretaries can upload scores and reports and give their views on the week's results. They also copy them to me and I edit a summary. Wendy Durrant, my predecessor did a brilliant job for several years and the only way I could see to make any improvement was to make things a bit more visual, so I was DELIGHTED to see nearly a whole page in tonight's Evening News and the EDP with a huge photo I took on my iPhone of Thomas Connelly, one of the rising stars of Taverham E - who sadly beat us 10-0! I am now scouring the internet for ideas for poses that I can make players strike for pics. There are over 60 teams in the league and well over 200 players so I've got plenty of people to perfect my sports photography on!