A newly-formed LGBTQ+ choir is looking to celebrate how far Jersey has come from a time of occupation to its current vibrant and accepting nature – on Liberation Day and beyond.
Scholar and artist Adam Perchard started the island’s first LGBTQ+ choir when Jersey Arts Centre asked them to put together a show to mark 80 years of liberation this May.
In two evenings of “absolute joyful chaos”, the performance will feature the new choir, a “mini Battle of Flowers” with one-person floats, and a pantomime dame extravaganza – bringing together every dame in the island.
“I’m preparing to be completely upstaged,” said Dr Perchard.
When you think of our time under fascist occupation, it just makes me value our present-day freedoms all the more and that’s what I really want to celebrate with everyone
Dr Adam Perchard
With almost 30 sign-ups already, they hope to get as many people as possible involved in the choir, whether from the LGBTQ+ community or allies, of any age.
The choir will be led by Esther Rose Parkes Heinrichs, one of the artists behind the Lullaby Project, and no music experience is needed.
“Absolutely everybody” can join, said Dr Perchard. “The more the merrier!”
They continued: “It’s a really big, inclusive and joyful community enterprise celebrating our island.
“I think the island is such a vibrant and gorgeous place and it’s so accepting, and I really want to celebrate that.
“When you think of our time under fascist occupation, it just makes me value our present-day freedoms all the more and that’s what I really want to celebrate with everyone.”
Dr Perchard is also looking for anyone who’d like to put together a one-person Battle of Flowers float for a parade in the show – whether they are “old hats” in the Battle scene or newcomers.
“We’re celebrating everything that is most colourful in the island so we have got to have the Battle of Flowers in there,” they said.
“It’s been at the heart of the island for so long.”
Every pantomime dame in the island is also taking part in the show – with some coming out of retirement – to sing ‘Nothing Like A Dame’ together.
Costumers from the Green Room Club and the Jersey Amateur Dramatics Club are involved with “some of their best Dame outfits”.
The show has a more serious aspect, with excerpts from ‘Ballads from the Bunker’, which sees Dr Perchard and violinist Alexander Lee-Briard dive into the stories of the slave workers who were held in the island.
“There are going to be lots of big, quite solemn celebrations,” said Dr Perchard.
“I wanted to do something that was more joyful, but I still through that joy wanted to have those moments of what that history looked like.”
Will the choir continue to exist after Liberation Day?
“We really hope that it will,” Dr Perchard said.
GET INVOLVED…
Anyone wanting to get involved as a choir member or as a Battle of Flowers float can contact Adam Perchard on Instagram, Facebook, or email the Jersey Arts Centre.
‘Liberation Sensation’ will take place at the Arts Centre on 9 and 10 May from 19:30.
Tickets are available on the Arts Centre website.
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