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!

OUT140 coming out in Northampton

I had the most wonderful day in Northampton Museum with OUT140. The borough council and the local LGBT network FAN worked together to put on an event to celebrate National Coming Out Day and they booked me and OUT140 to be part of it. I got dozens of new stories and particularly loved this one spelled out in magnetic letters in this photo.

 

The full story read: "In Africa, 12 years old, my friend told me he was a girl. She ran away from home. We don't know where she went. Maybe she will read this?" 

For more information on OUT140, check out my website www.out140.org.uk

Jean "Binta" Breeze

Happy Black History Month! I went on an amazing poetry masterclass with Jean "Binta" Breeze today. It was organised by the Writers' Centre Norwich. I loved her vocal warm ups - how she got us to play with phonetic letters to see where they formed on our tongues, our lips, our teeth, our throats. I loved the way she talked about the power of silence  - how the audience hush before a poet speaks is beautiful and the poet must ‘seduce the air’(thanks Laura for recording this so perfectly in your blog). I asked her if she chose poems in advance when she's doing a performance and she said no, she has her book and she responds to the audience and the atmosphere, almost like a DJ. I thought there was something very person-centred about this. It wasn't a case of "listen to me, I'm the great poet", rather she listens to the audience to see what they need. It was such a privilege to spend the afternoon with her - an unforgettable experience.