Generations of Love: A Queer Up North Panel Event
Join Manchester Histories and Queer Up North for a panel discussion exploring how queer culture can build community, connect generations and sustain radical creative practice.
How can we build community through culture, and why was that so important for us – then and now? How important is intergenerational connection and passing on the ‘knowledge’? What was Queer Up North building on?
The discussion will also consider how we can maintain a space for transgressive, experimental work and radical queer practice in an increasingly commercial world.
The panel will raise the following provocations:
Provocation 1: What was QUN building on and what did it build?
Provocation 2: How can we build community through culture (or culture through community?) in 2026? What can we learn from QUN?
Provocation 3: How can we maintain radical queer practice in an increasingly commercial world?
🎟️ Book your free tickets HERE 🎟️
Meet the Panel
John E McGrath – Moderator
John is Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Factory International where he has has commissioned some of the most ambitious new work seen in the UK for the company’s venue Aviva Studios. For Factory International, John also curated four editions of Manchester International Festival, featuring new work by an international range of artists including Yoko Ono, Philip Glass, Skepta, Ibrahim Mahama, Tania Bruguera and many more.
Prior to this role, John was the founding Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales. He has also led Manchester’s Contact Theatre, and was Associate Director at Mabou Mines in New York. He has a PhD in cultural theory from New York University.
Gavin Barlow – Panellist
Gavin was co-founder of the Queer Up North festival in 1992, remaining as co-Director of the festival with Tanja Farman until 1998. He subsequently became Executive Director of Contact Manchester, and Chief Executive & Artistic Director of the Albany in Deptford, South East London. He was Director of We are Lewisham, the Mayor of London’s Borough of Culture 2022, and, as of 2026, he is Co-Director/founder of Future Arts Centres, a network of more than 180 venues across the UK.
Dr Phoebe Patey-Ferguson
Dr Phoebe Patey-Ferguson specialises in the social contexts of contemporary performance, focusing on queer and trans practices in festivals, nightlife and Live Art. Their work considers how countercultural practices by marginalised artists generate community, resist assimilationist narratives and embrace radical methodologies. As a lecturer and Programme Director of MA Queer Performance at Rose Bruford College, they are dedicated to developing queer pedagogical approaches to studying and creating performance. Phoebe co-convenes the Queer Futures Working Group of the International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR), is the co-research lead for The Night Club: an international queer performance research network, and is co-chair of the board for Duckie.
Claud Cunningham
Claud Cunningham is a Manchester-based producer. In the late 1990s she co-founded Black Angel, the pioneering Manchester club night for queer women of colour and their allies. It grew into a multi-city event, building community across cities over fifteen years. She holds an MFA in Producing from the NFTS, where she was a Toledo Scholar, a scholarship endowed by producer Duncan Kenworthy OBE. Her award-winning short films have been selected for Tampere and British Urban Film Festival. She is now launching a digital studio commissioning scripted originals from underrepresented creatives for underserved audiences. She has recently taken up Petanque.
Accessibility
British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation will be provided throughout this event.
Manchester Central Library has step-free access and accessible facilities. You can view our Manchester Central Library Access Guide here.
If you have any additional access requirements or questions, please contact us at info@manchesterhistories.co.uk or call 0161 306 1982.
This event was made possible thanks to generous funding and support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Granada Foundation.
Thanks to National Lottery players.
Stay connected
The Queer Up North website is the best place to keep up with the project. Visit the site and join the mailing list to receive future updates.
