When they first opened their doors in 1982, one Edinburgh bookshop was providing important literature for a community that was still ‘strongly stigmatised’.
Now, 40 years later, the team at Lavender Menace secured funding from The National Lottery Heritage fund to continue their work. Founders Sigrid Nielson and Bob Orr hope to continue creating a safe and welcoming space, while putting vital information into readers hands.
Sigrid and Bob launched Lavender Menace Queer Books Archive in 2019 to turn the books accumulated in the shop by into a permanent, accessible archive. Now with £148,250 support from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, they are launching a community project that will centre around the archive’s collection of historic books, and preserve LGBT+ memories and heritage which are in danger of disappearing.
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Sigrid Nielsen said; “This project is about a 40-year-old dream. Lavender Menace was the only possible source for many of these books in the 1980s and 90s.
“Our bookshop, which later became known as West & Wilde, survived for fifteen years – a time the world was opening up for LGBT+ people. Writers and a host of new publishers created a flood of creativity. Readers saw themselves in these books and magazines, and gained positive views of their lives. They reached out to form an open, proud community”.
Bob Orr said; “Former customers told us how important the bookshop had been in their lives and that’s what drove us to create this archive to preserve LGBT+ books and create a new gathering place for LGBT+ readers.”
The National Lottery Heritage Fund will support a new project of outreach work by the archive. The Community Project will revive the bookshop’s author events with an intergenerational focus, bringing younger and older LGBT+ readers together. Classes and discussion groups, based around the archive’s collection of 1200 books dating from 1970-2000, will create new opportunities for the stories of an era of liberation to be told.
The Project will also create living memory workshops, tracing older LGBT+ people’s involvement with books, magazines and libraries. Their memories will be recorded and published and an exhibition will celebrate LGBT+ history and help to build the community’s future.
Maruska Greenwood said; “Thanks to Lottery players, the Project will be able to employ a Volunteers and Events Coordinator and a Living Memory Workshop Coordinator. It will offer the archive’s volunteers a chance to gain skills and experience which will help them find future employment and enhance the community’s knowledge.
Bob Orr added: “We’re thrilled to be able to keep the original aims of the bookshop alive in an organisation which meets the needs of the community today.”
Caroline Clarke, Heritage Fund Director for Scotland, said; ”Lavender Menace was more than a bookshop for many people, it was somewhere that opened a door into a world that reflected and celebrated their own lives.
“It became a centre for creativity and I am delighted that thanks to National Lottery players we are able to support the archive to continue to be a safe, welcoming hub to foster new creative talent.”
You can find out more about Lavender Menace here.
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