Building on the success of Gay Birmingham Remembered, the ‘Gay Birmingham, Back to Back’ project researched as far back as the 1850s up until the 1970s. The project looked at the social, political and personal circumstances of LGBT people in these time periods.

After a period of research, project partners Women & Theatre developed a series of site specific performances at the National Trust Back to Back Housing on Hurst Street, Birmingham. We uncovered and characterised the lives of real life gay men Charles Record and Fred ‘Jester’ Barnes and through a series of reminiscences and interviews created characters representing the lives of lesbian and bi women during World War 2 and the experiences of Black lesbians during the 1970s.

Read four short published articles from our community researchers…

Charles Record in the 1800s
Fred ‘Jester’ Barnes, musical superstar
Before Stonewall 1930s – 1950s
Gender, Race & Sexuality in the 1970s

The project was a resounding success with sell out performances at the Back to Backs during November 2011s SHOUT Festival. A DVD has been made of the production and will be available soon. All research materials will be deposited in Birmingham Central Library’s LGBT Archive.