SLAP! -and we're off

It is so cool to be on schedule with our main project this year: the LGBT online archive for North East England named after a popular DJ: Michael "Sal" Lumsden who died of lung cancer in 2007; The Sal Lumsden Archive Project (SLAP!). We had our first "scanning party" tonight at 'The Dancing Peppermill'- formerly 'Pride Cafe' with which I was involved for a few (ultimately painful) months last year.

The idea is to get people to bring things they might have kept that tell a story about LGBT events and people: posters, fliers, programmes, photos to be scanned for inclusion on the website along with their comments and memories... We're asking organisations to share their constitutions and records of important decisions etc and we will be interviewing people to get their stories on audio or video. We want to capture the stories of older people and to honour their contributions to the LGBT communities around the region.

Fewer people turned up than I'd hoped , but they brought more stuff than I expected so it turned out well in the end. Some of what we have collected is a bit NSFW- but not actually obscene; they include adverts for a short-lived club night where I think sex was encouraged. Some of the images sparked concerned debate among the straight members of the team, I was interested by the fact that I hadn't batted an eyelid and I reminded my colleagues that they weren't the target audience for the project and that audience, like me, were very used to such sexualised imagery. The project has a "Steering Group" of straight, gay, and trans professionals so we have deferred the issue to them, it will be interesting to see the outcome.

Take a look (in development): http://slap.foundation/ 

We're creating an exhibition to tour the region, organising discussion groups and public debates, a film club and some "Old School" club nights ( or "Discos" as they were called when I was young and frivolous). Yesterday I collected the rest of Sal's VAST record collection which will be donated to a brilliant club called World Headquarters, still run by one of Sal's friends; Tommy Caulker. I just need some help to catalogue at least 4,000 record!

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