By Leah Conway –
The UK’s first-ever national Pride took place in Huddersfield on 4 July 1981.
For its 40th anniversary, a series of arts and archive events will take place until autumn 2022.
The West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS) is calling out to anyone who attended or watched for photos, banners, posters, badges and flyers from the march.
WYAS will hold Pride 81 Submission Day, the first of two hosted at Kirklees Archives’ new home in The Piazza Centre and will take place on Saturday 25th September, 11am-4pm.
All are welcome to drop in and add their items to the archive. The public will have the option to have items scanned and returned on the spot.
As part of the project, the pictures will be made available online free for anyone to view and will become a permanent part of the archives collection for Pride 1981.
The project will also curate a small exhibition of some of the existing items in the archive on Pride 1981 on the day.
Photographic Exhibition & Immersive Performance
As well as adding to the archive, there will also be two arts strands to the project:
Photographic Exhibition: Huddersfield born and Internationally renowned photographer Ajamu X will take a series of 20 portraits of people who marched in 1981 and people who are part of the LGBTQ+ community in Huddersfield today.
A Street Exhibition in February 2022 will show some of the portraits at key parts of the original Pride 81 route, along with some of the new archive photographs.
The full set of portraits will then be displayed at the Lawrence Batley Theatre from 1 June to 31 August 2022. After that, they will become a part of the permanent collection at Huddersfield Art Gallery.
Immersive Performance: Inkbrew Productions is creating an immersive performance recreating Pride 81.
The audience will be participants in the march, co-creating the piece with actors playing activists from 1981, who tell their stories as they march.
The piece will also be performed at the Lawrence Batley Cellar Theatre, Huddersfield and the Kings Arms, Salford, from 1-3rd July 2022.
The events are funded by the Arts Council of England, Kirklees Council and LGBT+ History Month UK.
Read More: 40th Anniversary of Pride in Huddersfield to be marked with yearlong celebration
“Help us preserve this remarkable story!”
Robert Clegg, Kirklees Archivist with WYAS, will be running the day. He says:
“We do have some images of the Pride 1981 march, but there must be loads more out there. It’s an event of national historical importance. If you hold any items relating to the march, then we’d love to see you on the 25th September.
“Please search your cupboards and attics to help us preserve this remarkable story for future generations! Your items will become a part of history and the celebration of this 40th anniversary.”
Stephen M Hornby, Inkbrew Productions, will be writing some of the immersive show and will be present at the Archive Day to chat to submitters about their memories. He says: “We’re delighted to be a part of this important project, restoring to Huddersfield the memory of an event of such importance. Huddersfield was the centre of the LGBT+ universe in 1981!
“It’s such a shame that we don’t have more records of the event and this archive call-out is a great way to grow our knowledge of what happened and who was there. I’m hoping people will turn up not just with some photos, but with some great stories too, which might then become a part of the show.”