NewBridge Gallery is now closed until Friday 16 October.
You can join us on 5 September and 3 October for Saturday Social. You can still shop NewBridge Books throughout the weekdays!
“Futures emerge from getting together and learning to rely on each other – what will come will be formed and grown together. The logic of collective transformation breathes air into the worlds for all of us.”
— Nat Raha & Mijke Van Der Drift (Pluto Press), Trans Femme Futures
The Reading Room collaborated with Conal McStravick, Holly Argent, Kaan K and Leo Hargreaves to create a contextual reading list to sit alongside Kaan K’s Programme Committee Season Cuttings: Ceremonies of Trans Grief. Cuttings offers a programme for collective grieving, gathering and revisiting queer and trans histories.
Throughout Cuttings there will be a series of workshops and screenings, including PDG X GRA by artist Conal McStravick, a screening of Pedagogue by Stuart Marshall and Neil Bartlett, and A Day With(out) Art in partnership with Visual AIDS. We hope these events offer a place to explore how grief has entangled its way through queer history and create a space to come together, hold and support each other.
The books selected help us to reflect on these ideas as well as queer British history; from section 28, the AIDS Epidemic to the current debates around the Gender Recognition Act (England) and Gender Reform Bill (Scotland). This collection of selected texts provides insight into what we have learned from those who organised, rallied, and stood in solidarity with each other.
It is important to look at these books and remember the resilience, joy and community found and maintained throughout LGBTQ+ history. This reading list doesn’t just help us to reflect on queer history, but also prompts us to look forward, figure out what we need to do next and imagine what a queer future could look like.
The Swimming Pool Library (Vintage Classics)
Deep Sniff (Repeater Books)
Queer Footprints (Pluto Press)
Homie (Chatto and Windus)
Blue (David Zwirner Books)
Taking Liberties: AIDS and Cultural Politics (Serpents Tail and in association with the ICA)
Transgender Marxism (Pluto Press)
Variations (Influx Press)
Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives for Suicide for Teens, Freaks & Other Outlaws (Seven Stories Press)
Gay Macho: The Life and Death of the Homosexual Clone (New York University Press)
Family Abolition (Pluto Press)
Who Was That Man? A Present for Mr Oscar Wilde (Serpents Tail)
Trans Femme Futures (Pluto Press)
Outrageous!: The Story of Section 28, And Britain’s Battle for LGBT Education (Reaktion Books)
Gender Heretics (Pluto Press)
About Ed (NYRB)
Braiding Sweetgrass (Penguin)
Gathering Moss (Penguin)
Reframing Bodies: AIDS, Bearing Witness, and the Queer Moving Image (DUKE)
The Transgender Issue (Penguin)
The End of Innocence: Britain in the Time of AIDS (Faber)
Out & About with Linden: A Queer Archive of the North (Pariah Press)
The Reading Room has also curated a selection of resources designed to foster understanding and offer support. This includes Switchboard—a charity offering community support and information for LGBTQ+ individuals—these resources provide insights into LGBTQ+ history and lived experiences. Among them is Fatally Disruptive, an episode from The Log Book podcast that explores LGBTQ+ life in Britain through the voices of Switchboard volunteers.
We encourage you to explore LUX online: Stuart Marshall by Ian White. Stuart Marshall (1949 – 1993) was an artist, video maker, teacher, activist and founding member of London Video Arts in the late 70s. He was a committed advocate of British video art and campaigner for gay rights. Through works such as Bright Eyes, he explored and challenged misrepresentations of homosexuality during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Marshall was a dedicated teacher in a number of art schools throughout his career, including Newcastle Polytechnic, where he made Pedagogue with Neil Bartlett and his students.
For additional resources, including information on trans rights, please visit our Trans Rights are Human Rights page.
The Reading Room is a collaborative project opening up local spaces and providing a wealth of educational tools which will be a catalyst for creative thinkers and critical minds in partnership with Pluto Press and Left Book Club. Our physical library space can be found on the first floor, next to the gallery, and is stocked with thought-provoking books from Pluto Press and Left Book Club.
The Reading Room at NewBridge offers a programme invites artists, authors and researchers to host workshops, screenings and discussions inspired by the books housed in the library. Taking the lead from our communities, the topics of these events may include, the environment, LGBTQ+ issues, structural racism and much more.
Our collection of books continually expands with suggestions from exhibiting artists and the NewBridge Programme Committee.
The NewBridge Project is a charity, registered charity no. 1173849.
We are grateful to our funders, including Arts Council England, Newcastle City Council, Garfield Weston Foundation, Jerwood Foundation, Community Foundation North East, Newcastle University and the The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority.
We are proud to be a Gallery of Sanctuary.
