A new festival for the LGBTQ+ community together is set to go ahead in Southampton next month. Write It Out will take place on May 16 and 15, as part of God’s House Tower’s 2021 programme. Curated in collaboration with Reconnecting Rainbows – a Southampton-based LGBTQ+ network – the...
Suburban Safari: City Safari
by Katie Isham. Meet you at the bridge? Fellow eastsiders will be all too familiar with the hassle of crossing the mighty River Itchen to get into Southampton city centre. And as a teenager, it was a trek comparable to crossing the Sahara. But cross it we did, every...
Walk: River Hamble Country Park in Bursledon
by Nathan Goldsmith. Bursledon has always been a place that has meant a lot to me. It’s a place I’ve journeyed to since I was a child – with my family and family friends – and now, exploring on my own or taking my friends with me, I still...
Southampton protest over bus driver’s sacking
Demonstrators will be in Southampton on Monday (April 12) to protest against the sacking of Declan Clune, a bus driver and activist, by Bluestar bus company. The demonstration, which is set to take place from 9am to 11am at the Bargate in Southampton centre, is being organised by the...
Suburban Safari Part Nineteen – Back to the Beach
by Katie Isham. Restrictions are lifting, travel is allowed and so the time has come. We’re visiting the Solent shoreline. A trip to the beach is not just about the destination: it’s about the feeling of space you get by the sea. It’s that feeling you get nowhere else,...
Parenting a child with autism: lots of days I cry because I don’t understand him and feel that I’ve failed him
by Sally Churchward. A Southampton mother shares the difficulties she experiences in getting the support for her autistic son that he needs. Judgements – Laura Jones* has had enough of them. “To judge me as a parent is easier and quicker than giving my son the help he needs,”...
Opinion: Kill the Bill – joining Southampton’s protest against the controversial bill
by Charlie Hislop. Kill the Bill! Kill the Bill! That was the cry when 400 or so people assembled in Southampton’s Guildhall Square on Good Friday to protest the Government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. In front of a crowd of mainly young people, a succession of speakers highlighted the wide-ranging measures in...
Southampton’s Kill the Bill demonstration against legislation restricting the right protest
by Sally Churchward. Protesters will be gathering in Southampton city centre on Friday (April 2) to protest against the government’s Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. The Kill the Bill protest, which is part of nation-wide action, will be held at Guildhall Square from 5.30pm. It follows events elsewhere,...
‘Cavalcade’ protest by anti-austerity group in Southampton this weekend
by Sally Churchward. Protesters will be taking to the streets of Southampton on Saturday (April 3) for a ‘Covid-Compliant Cavalcade’ organised by anti-austerity campaign group Southampton People’s Assembly, with a view to promote ‘fairer, kinder politics’. The Cavalcade procession will weave through the streets of Southampton in what...
Suburban Safari: Sholing bloomstrolling
by Katie Isham. The recent Spring Equinox has lifted me out of my winter slumber. I took this as a shot in the arm (not the one I’m after, but this’ll do for now) to take a more positive view. Time to fling open the doors and spend an...