Section 28 and its afterlives

This LGBTQ+ History Month, join us at the University of Greenwich on Wednesday 25 February for the launch of a public exhibition exploring what Section 28 meant for those who lived through it – and why understanding this history has never been more important or more urgent.

We are celebrating the launch of the ‘Section 28 and its afterlives’ exhibition with a number of related events: a collage workshop, reception, and performance by artist Alice Gale-Feeny. These will all, in different ways, reflect on the history and legacies of Section 28, a piece of homophobic legislation in force in England and Wales between 1998 and 2003 that sought to ban schools and other local authority bodies from ‘promoting homosexuality’. As well as looking back, these events will ask whether this history is truly past, reflecting on the troubling legacies and parallels we can see in attacks on hard-won LGBTQ+ rights today.

From 3-5pm, we’ll be engaging with this challenging period of recent LGBTQ+ history in a hands-on, empowering way, using collage to subvert and repurpose historical material about Section 28 with humour, anger and joy.

At 6pm, join us for a drinks reception in the Heritage Gallery, where you can browse the exhibition. There will also be some brief introductions and reflections from the ‘Section and its Afterlives’ team.

Finally, at 7pm Alice Gale-Feeny will perform ‘Gen S28: Press Up/Fold In’. This performance was developed through residencies at the Women’s Art Gallery and Newington Green Meeting House London. Partly biographical, part citational, this performance amplifies art and writing protesting Section 28. It is a response to living under the law without knowing it, and an ongoing experiment being with books, paper and research differently.

These events are FREE but registration is required.

N.B. The workshop will take place in QA210. Please meet in the Heritage Gallery at 3pm and we will take you up to QA210, which is a little fiddly to get to. If you are running late, please just head straight there.

Image credits:

‘Tales we must tell our children’, artwork produced at Section 28 and its Afterlives workshop, 2023

Info: From 3-5pm, we’ll be engaging with this challenging period of recent LGBTQ+ history in a hands-on, empowering way, using collage to subvert and repurpose historical material about Section 28 with humour, anger and joy.

Info: At 6pm, join us for a drinks reception in the Heritage Gallery, where you can browse the exhibition. There will also be some brief introductions and reflections from the ‘Section and its Afterlives’ team.

Info: Finally, at 7pm Alice Gale-Feeny will perform ‘Gen S28: Press Up/Fold In’. This performance was developed through residencies at the Women’s Art Gallery and Newington Green Meeting House London. Partly biographical, part citational, this performance amplifies art and writing protesting Section 28. It is a response to living under the law without knowing it, and an ongoing experiment being with books, paper and research differently.

Also check out other Arts events in Barking, Exhibitions in Barking, Workshops in Barking.