The Quilt

The Quilt: Living memories of queer Britain & Northern Ireland

An audio exhibition open to anyone, anywhere, at any time of day, produced and hosted by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.

Born from a collaboration between the producers of the award-winning podcast The Log Books and the UK’s first and only LGBTQ+ museum Queer Britain, The Quilt challenges who and what makes queer history.

The series takes the listener on a journey across the UK, collecting queer memories, from queer people. The Quilt weaves together all these stories and histories, into a beautiful documentary patchwork series.

The Quilt is an audio archive for the future.

Episode transcripts available here.

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Episodes

8 | The Wave

Cornwall has a long history of drawing artistic types, for the space, the light, and the rhythm of the waves.  In this final episode of The Quilt, Tash travels to the South West for a personal exploration of how queer creatives especially have been inspired in the region. They meet Veronica the queer pirate created by artist Scamp Niemz and queer historian Sophie Meyer, sing sea shanties with artist Rhys Morgan of Seaweed in the Fruit Locker, spend a night in the old home of the poet Charle...

Dec 31, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 8

7 | The Voice

Rhaid newid popeth medd hoywon a lesbiaid! How can you describe your desires and sense of yourself when they don’t seem to fit with the language you use? In this episode Adam travels to South Wales to meet Dafydd Frayling, a pioneering activist who disrupted arts festivals and radio broadcasts in the 80s to show how Welsh speakers needed new words so they could make queer people feel more included. He also meets young queer writers today, Leo Drayton and Nia Morais, who are making work about the...

Dec 24, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 7

6 | The Hidden

Northern Ireland’s intriguing queer history draws Tash to Belfast.  In exploring stories that are often kept out of view, Tash hears tales of jailed men, a pioneering community helpline, and intersex experience. They speak to Michael Lawrence, a historian looking into the prison records of men who were convicted of buggery, and digs into the archive of charity Cara-Friend looking back over the letters people sent across its long and heartwarming history with Community Development Manager Ad...

Dec 17, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 6

5 | The Community

People have moved to The Midlands from all over the world — so how has this migration shaped the region’s queer community? In this episode, Adam meets Ranjit Khutan who tells the story of his parents moving to England from India, and how they raised him with a community spirit. This led him to run the first support group for South Asian men who have sex with men in Birmingham in the 1990s, and do pioneering work in sexual health. Bursting out into Birmingham’s Gay Village at the same time was th...

Dec 10, 2024•49 min•Season 1Ep. 5

4 | The Pride

If the world has made it hard for your community to keep going, how do you still find the pride? In this episode, Tash travels to the northeast of England, to the old mining town of Stanley in County Durham. They hear about the history of mining and shipbuilding, and what the wake of those industries has meant for queer people living there. There are stories from Sharon McIlvaney, who reflects on her own upbringing as a bisexual woman who now runs a local queer community youth group called Freed...

Dec 03, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 4

3 | The Missing

Scottish history is laden with the sense of loss, from the Highland clearances to... Glasgow’s lesbian bars that closed down in the 1990s! In this episode, Adam takes a tour of those voided queer spaces with one of their old disco dykes, Natalie Wilson. He also hears from archivist Mel Reeve about the missing queer and bisexual elders from our collective past, and Rob Crawford, who reflects on the decades he lost due to gay shame. Finally he heard the story of Reach Out Highland, a trans-inclusi...

Nov 26, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 3

2 | The Faith

The northwest of England is famous for progressive thinking, from women’s liberation to power for the working classes.  In this episode, Tash meets some of the folks who are bringing this forward-thinking towards faith and spirituality. From Adelaide Harris and the pioneering church of St James and Emmanuel in Didsbury Village, to Saha (Surabhi Kandaswamy), a trans woman who moved to the UK from Southern India and feels connected to her ancestry and queerness through the birds, butterflies ...

Nov 19, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 2

1 | The Unravelling

The city of Norwich, in East Anglia, has a history of welcoming strangers and people who are a bit different. In this episode, Adam meets some of Norfolk’s wonderful misfits. From Serena James, an older trans woman who discovered a remarkable photograph from the 1960s, to Steve Peck, who bought a shirt 40 years ago on a memorable holiday. Finally there’s Beau Brannick and Alice Bigsby-Bye, who brought together a whole community to make a gorgeous (and now famous) quilt. He’s also given a local h...

Nov 12, 2024•53 min•Season 1Ep. 1

Introducing... The Quilt

From the producers of the award-winning podcast The Log Books, The Quilt is a new queer history podcast featuring untold stories that are rooted all around the UK. In this short intro episode, hosts Tash Walker and Adam Zmith head back into the studio to plan the new series. We’ve partnered with Queer Britain, the UK’s first LGBTQ+ museum, to travel around the UK collecting intriguing, moving, and deeply important stories from the queer family. Hit follow or subscribe now to hear the first full ...

Nov 04, 2024•5 min

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