by Claire Dyer. There’s a poem in Yield called ‘Trans’. It imagines travellers from another planet who, on reaching Earth, see for themselves some of our ideas around gender stereotypes. There are two types of mother in this poem: and there are those they call mother who sometimes...
Features
Celebrating 40 years of music in Southampton with Stick it Where?
by Geoff Wall. January 2021 sees Southampton’s very own STICK IT IN YOUR EAR! musical enterprise celebrate its 40th anniversary with the publication of STICK IT WHERE? – the illustrated history of Stick It In Your Ear! ….and other true stories – a 500+ page CD-rom e-book that’s directly...
New Forest children’s Christmas trail
by Sally Churchward. This self guided Christmas trail was written for use in the New Forest, but should be suitable for most woodland areas. Cut and paste it onto your own document, making sure that the answers are on a separate sheet! It indicates that a prize is on...
The sometimes surprisingly radical history of the humble tea towel
by Martin Brisland. In life you often start in one direction and end up going in another. I was researching the history of radicalism in our region (Southampton) with a view to writing an article for In Common. I started off looking into the Independent Labour Party and ended...
Southampton Top 10 The songs that come from the SO
by Howard Bowden. When The Beatles released their 1969 single The Ballad of John and Yoko – opening line: ‘Standing in the dock at Southampton’ – it would become the first of THREE number ones in just 32 months to reference events in the SO postcode area. Two years...
First union for disabled people launches, renewing fight for equality
The Disability Union has launched, in order to build power and a national voice for disabled people powerful enough to influence policy; whilst also helping people with their day-to-day disability struggles. The date of this launch is significant as last month marked the 25th anniversary the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995. The...
Southampton – City of Culture?
by Charlie Hislop. City of Culture? Southampton? Really? Too right! The announcement that we are competing to be UK City of Culture 2025 is the best news for the city in a long time. Strange right now with COVID lockdowns, theatres closed, and empty streets – but what an...
Photography: A little black and white
by Mike Daish. Once again, thanks to lockdown 2, I am shielding, so have been taking a few photos while out getting my daily exercise. I gave myself a little challenge to shoot some black and white images and to do as little post editing as possible. I am...
Experience: Cancer in a time of covid
by anonymous. There is a very thin line that holds the fabric of our lives together. Things can change at any minute. These are my reflections from the perspective of going through the journey alongside a person with cancer. The Second World War broke out on 3rd September in...
Identifying outside the boxes – non-binary people share their journeys of self-identification
by Sally Churchward. “I’d draw my own box and tick that.” B Parsons, a gender queer non-binary drip artist and performance poet from Winchester. They/their/them. “Before, I tried out different terms for myself, but I didn’t identify with them. When non-binary was put to me, I realised ‘That’s my...