About this project
Hello! My name is Angela Mascolo and I am an MA Public History graduate at
Royal Holloway, University of London, with a passion for LGBT+ issues and heritage.
Haringey LGBT+ Histories is an online oral histories exhibition created by me for my MA final project to share Haringey's LGBT+ heritage and highlight its pivotal role in Britain's LGBT+ landscape.
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Photo taken at Haringey LGBTQ+ Love Stories event (Feb 2020). From left to right: me, Ric Sajor, Colin Ward (1923-2021), Niranjan Kamatkar and Subodh Rathod.
Growing up in Haringey, I never got to learn about the borough’s rich LGBT+ history until I started my final undergraduate year at university. In writing my undergraduate dissertation on Black LGBT+ communities in Britain in the 1980s-90s, I came across a number of archival material relating to LGBT+ history in Haringey at the Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives. I was fascinated by the work of LGBT+ people of colour in the borough, such as that of Savitri Hensman, who was involved in Haringey Black Action in the 1980s and served as community representative on Haringey Council’s Lesbian and Gay Sub-Committee.
I realised there was so much LGBT+ history close to home that was not discussed in larger narratives about LGBT+ history in Britain, and many LGBT+ individuals in Haringey have yet to be given an opportunity to share their struggles and achievements. My aims with this exhibition are therefore to uncover, preserve and make accessible the lives and experiences of LGBT+ people with connections to Haringey.
All the oral histories can be accessed via the Oral Histories page. The full recordings are deposited at the Haringey Archive Service based at Bruce Castle Museum.
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Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to add your oral history to the site! More stories and information related to Haringey's LGBT+ history can be found in the Further Research section.
A massive thank you to:
My interviewees, parents, my supervisor Dr. Amy Tooth Murphy, Andreas Koumi from Exposure Organisation, Bruce Castle Museum, the Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives and Stefan Dickers
for supporting this project.
Copyright
Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders and obtain permission to reproduce the images and archival material on this website. Please get in touch if you have any questions or information relating to the images and material or the holder.
The original image of the headphones on the homepage is by ZeroTolerance on Pixabay with edits by me, and the rainbow border used for the website banner and logo is by MeganLeeB on Pixabay.