A Brew & A Blether

In this episode we discuss LGBTQ+ representation in history, both in schools and more widely in popular culture. Members of the Kairos Women+ Equalities Collective: Jules O’Brien, Katie Leck and Emmagayle Harper explore the exclusion of LGBTQ+ people from the school curriculum, even after the revoking of Section 28 which we discussed in our last episode. They also consider how representation in the media and public spaces affects our understanding of our identities.

We then hear an excerpt from a biography written about John ‘Marie’ Campbell who lived in Victorian Renfrew, assigned female at birth yet living most of their adult life as a man, to provide an example of how LGBTQ+ people have always existed in Renfrewshire but are often obscured from our understanding of local history.

Here are some resources for more info on LGBTQ+ issues in Scotland and the UK:

https://www.categoryisbooks.com/

https://www.lgbthealth.org.uk/

https://www.lgbtyouth.org.uk/

https://www.stonewall.org.uk/

https://www.ukblackpride.org.uk/

If you like what you’ve heard, you can follow us on social media and if you have any questions or comments on this series we would love to hear from you: annie@kairoswomen.org

Twitter: @kairos_women

Facebook: /KairosRenfrewshire

Instagram: @kairos_women

Website: https://kairoswomen.org/

You can also find Erskine Arts on social media:

Twitter: @Erskine_Arts

Facebook: /ErskineArts

Instagram: @erskinearts

Content warning: this episode does cover homophobia and transphobia as themes so be kind to yourself and switch off if you find anything triggering.

In this series of A Brew & A Blether, we’ll be talking about our experiences collaborating with Paisley Museum, poorhouses and poverty in Renfrewshire, the legacy of slavery in Scotland, and Section 28, LGBTQ+ education and representation.

In this episode we hear from 11-year-old Erin McAleer and her mum Leah McAleer who live in Lochwinnoch. As head of her house in P7, Erin campaigned to change the name of her school house from ‘McDowall’ after Colonel McDowall, a slave trader from Scotland who settled in Renfrewshire. Erin reads us an article written in the Kairos Chronicle by Leah about Cato’s story - a runaway enslaved child from McDowall’s estate in Castle Semple, documented in a newspaper clipping from the Caledonian Mercury (2nd February 1748) - and why this story deserves to be told. We will then hear an interview by Kairos volunteer Arti Gosai with Erin and Leah about their experiences as anti-racist campaigners and the wider implications of not acknowledging the brutal aspects of Renfrewshire’s past. We leave you with Laura Hamilton talking you through Renfrewshire Leisure's (now renamed One Ren) Frederick Douglass walking tour, which you can do in your own time to remember his work as an abolitionist campaigner and his time in Paisley in 1846.

Find more information about Colonel McDowall's involvement in the slave trade at: https://www.mearnshistory.org.uk/

Read the article by Leah McAleer in our Kairos Chronicle (Issue 4, October 2021): https://kairoswomen.org/our-zine/

Find out about the One Ren Frederick Douglass walking tour here: https://educationteam7.wixsite.com/fdouglasswalkingtour/

Pachedu is a charity working with Black and Minority Ethnic communities in Renfrewshire: https://pachedu.org/about-us/

If you like what you’ve heard, you can follow us on social media and if you have any questions or comments on this series we would love to hear from you: annie@kairoswomen.org

Twitter: @kairos_women

Facebook: /KairosRenfrewshire

Instagram: @kairos_women

Website: https://kairoswomen.org/

You can also find Erskine Arts on social media:

Twitter: @Erskine_Arts

Facebook: /ErskineArts

Instagram: @erskinearts

In this series of A Brew & A Blether, we’ll be talking about our experiences collaborating with Paisley Museum, poorhouses and poverty in Renfrewshire, the legacy of slavery in Scotland, and Section 28, LGBTQ+ education and representation.

This episode will cover what life was like for people in the poorhouse in Victorian Scotland, with a focus on the lives of women. Lil Brookes, artist and social historian, will tell us more about the background to the Abbey poorhouse in Paisley, followed by a conversation with Annie Tothill, project worker at Kairos Women+, exploring how poorhouses were the beginning of the state’s responsibility to deal with poverty and how the lives of women were very much marginalised until the Suffragette movement of the early 1900s.

We will then hear from Ann Lister, Lynda McInally and Kate Clarke - members of the Making Her Mark project - a collaboration between Kairos and Glasgow Women’s Library - about their experiences researching the Abbey poorhouse and the poor law records both from home and at the Heritage Centre in Paisley. Kate wrote a narrative, imagining what life would have been like for two sisters that she discovered whilst looking through the archives, brought to life by Kairos’ volunteers Ruth and Lynda. We will leave you with a reflective reading of names of some of the women inmates of the Abbey poorhouse and asylum from the 1881 Census, whom we know existed but know very little about. Members of Kairos Women+ today invite you to remember these women and imagine some of their stories, since no further details have been documented.

A Brew & A Blether's Heritage Series was made possible through the Great Place Scheme, a project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and delivered through Renfrewshire Council. The music you’ve heard is by Lakbay Lahi, the song ‘Pag Ibig’ which means ‘love’ in Filipino. Love is central to our ethos at Kairos, and a lot of love and volunteer time goes into all of our projects. Thanks to the guests and volunteers who gave their time to make this podcast happen and a special thanks to Erskine Arts for their support, training and studio time recording and editing this series.

For more information on Paisley Museum Reimagined, visit: https://reimagined.paisleymuseum.org/

If you like what you’ve heard, you can follow us on social media and if you have any questions or comments on this series we would love to hear from you: annie@kairoswomen.org

Twitter: @kairos_women

Facebook: /KairosRenfrewshire

Instagram: @kairos_women

Website: https://kairoswomen.org/

You can also find Erskine Arts on social media:

Twitter: @Erskine_Arts

Facebook: /ErskineArts

Instagram: @erskinearts

In this series of A Brew & A Blether, we’ll be talking about our experiences collaborating with Paisley Museum, poorhouses and poverty in Renfrewshire, the legacy of slavery in Scotland, and Section 28, LGBTQ+ education and representation.

This episode will dive into the heritage work we have been involved in at Kairos Women+. Our project Kairos Museum, in co-production with Paisley Museum, aims to make the lives of women+ - both today and in the past - more visible, and museum spaces more representative and accessible. When the Museum reopens in 2023, we’ll be telling the story of the local Women’s Co-operative Guild through their banners and objects, as part of the Paisley Museum reimagined programme.

A Brew & A Blether's Heritage Series was made possible through the Great Place Scheme, a project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and delivered through Renfrewshire Council. The music you’ve heard is by Lakbay Lahi, the song ‘Pag Ibig’ which means ‘love’ in Filipino. Love is central to our ethos at Kairos, and a lot of love and volunteer time goes into all of our projects. Thanks to the guests and volunteers who gave their time to make this podcast happen and a special thanks to Erskine Arts for their support, training and studio time recording and editing this series.

For more information on Paisley Museum Reimagined, visit: https://reimagined.paisleymuseum.org/

If you like what you’ve heard, you can follow us on social media and if you have any questions or comments on this series we would love to hear from you: annie@kairoswomen.org

Twitter: @kairos_women

Facebook: /KairosRenfrewshire

Instagram: @kairos_women

Website: https://kairoswomen.org/

You can also find Erskine Arts on social media:

Twitter: @Erskine_Arts

Facebook: /ErskineArts

Instagram: @erskinearts