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LGBTQ+ Proud Writing in Wales: A new collection inspired by The Beat of Our Hearts
,
Norena Shopland,
Natalie McGrath
Swansea University Author:
Charlotte Jones
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PDF | Version of Record
© 2025, The Authors, Swansea University. The text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY 4.0 license. All images and illustrations are subject to separate copyright; all image rights reserved. All illustrations, unless otherwise credited, © Elly Jahnz 2025.
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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUbook.70113
Abstract
On 8 February 2025, we shared Natalie McGrath’s LGBTQIA+ play, The Beat of Our Hearts, in Wales for the first time. From within the colourful basement collections at the Museum of Cardiff, a group of us passed around carrot cake and brownies while we watched a film of the production, then took part...
| ISBN: | 978-1-911503-18-7 978-1-911503-19-4 |
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| Published: |
Swansea University
2025
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa70113 |
| Abstract: |
On 8 February 2025, we shared Natalie McGrath’s LGBTQIA+ play, The Beat of Our Hearts, in Wales for the first time. From within the colourful basement collections at the Museum of Cardiff, a group of us passed around carrot cake and brownies while we watched a film of the production, then took part in a creative workshop led by local historian, Norena Shopland. The Beat of Our Hearts served as our stimulus for the day. This was a play that Natalie wrote in 2021 in response to her local environment: a story of LGBTQIA+ loneliness and belonging in a small unnamed coastal town. Sharing the play, we were moved by the way that local LGBTQIA+ audiences related to its themes, but we were curious to know how experiences outside of the southwest might coincide and diverge. At our gathering in Cardiff, we asked whether The Beat of Our Hearts resonated with the group’s experiences of living in rural or coastal communities in Wales, as both a nurturing and challenging place for queer life. We asked the group to reflect on their own communities and the stories that get told (or not told). What stories still need to be shared about queer life in Wales? |
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| Item Description: |
Design & illustration by Elly Jahnz www.ellyjahnz.co.uk; Logo design by Frank Duffy www.frankduffy.co.uk; Production photography by Craig Fuller www.craigfullerphoto.com |
| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Funders: |
The Beat of Our Hearts 2021-2022 was funded and supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Arts Council England, and the film screening and workshop at the Museum of Cardiff was funded by Swansea University’s AHRC Impact Acceleration Account. |