How can Nottingham better support and celebrate its LGBTQIA+ communities? How can the city create a greater sense of belonging for LGBTQIA+ people, improving their quality of life?
Key decisions about Nottingham’s infrastructure and services tend to emerge from a top-down, statistics-driven model, rather than the lived experiences and voices of LGBTQIA+ residents. This talk, hosted by journalist CJ De Barra, invited a range of community members, including policymakers, creatives and researchers, to explore how we change this.
About the speakers
CJ De Barra – Host
CJ De Barra is an Irish, non-binary journalist, author and oral historian whose work uplifts the voices of Nottingham’s LGBTQ+ community. As founder of The Notts Queer History Archive, they’ve preserved over 170 lived stories, creating a living memory of joy, resistance and change. By hosting events, public tours and publishing their recent book, Neuroqueer, CJ builds spaces where queer history is not only remembered – but celebrated, together.
Dr Hongwei Bao
Dr Hongwei Bao is a Nottingham-based writer, poet and creative producer, whose work explores queer desire, Asian identity, diasporic positionality and transcultural intimacy. Alongside his academic research as an Associate Professor, he creates poetry, performance and public projects that celebrate community, creativity and belonging. He is a member of Fifth Word Playwrights and GOBS Collective and has led numerous arts initiatives across Nottingham and beyond.
David Edgley
Devoted LGBTQ+ activist, David Edgley, has been involved in community organising since the 1970s, supporting groups like the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, Nottingham Gay Switchboard and Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Heritage. He’s a passionate editor and archivist, having produced newsletters including Chimaera, QB and Notts Rainbow Review, preserving local queer history and voices through decades of change.
Sam Harvey
Sam Harvey is a Nottingham-based LGBTQ+ activist, and co-director of the Nottingham Pastel Project, working to further the fight for trans rights and establish Nottingham as the UK’s first official sanctuary city. Over the past five years, Sam has collaborated with national charities including Stonewall, LGBT Foundation, and Just Like Us, focusing on policy, training and fundraising to advance trans rights and community support.
Chan Fagan
Chan Fagan is a Nottingham-based artist, DJ and creative programmer whose work explores imagined futures, transhuman hybridity, and queer world-building. Blending sound, writing and digital image-making, Chan envisions realities beyond rigid systems – where beings exist outside of oppressive ideologies. Their practice often includes participatory workshops, inviting others into speculative, more-than-human ways of thinking.
Lucy Buckle (The Nottingham Forager)
Lucy Buckle, also known as The Nottingham Forager, has spent 20 years rooted in Nottingham’s LGBTQ+ community. She leads inclusive foraging walks, local history events, and led the popular Queer History Walk with her wife, which attracted over 140 people in 2025. Lucy also champions safe, welcoming spaces through her work at a late-night city centre venue, blending nature, history and inclusivity in everything she does.
About the Building an LGBTQIA+ Friendly Nottingham project
A collaborative art project led by City Arts. The project sought to better understand the lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people in Nottingham. In a series of workshops, LGBTQIA+ community members worked on a zine featuring poetry, writing and art. The project was run in partnership with Nottingham Poetry Festival and Nottinghamshire’s Rainbow Heritage. It was supported by the University of Nottingham’s Institute of Policy and Engagement through its Civic Impact Champion Programme.