Our team

Queer Heritage South is a small team passionate about Brighton and Hove's LGBTQIA+ heritage. We are part of Marlborough Productions, based in the heart of the city.

  • David Sheppeard

    Project Director/ Marlborough Productions Creative Director & Joint CEO

    David Sheppeard

    Project Director/ Marlborough Productions Creative Director & Joint CEO

    David (he/him) co-founded Marlborough Productions in 2009.

    His work for the company has encompassed a wide range of projects from the groundbreaking national LGBTQIA+ touring theatre project New Queer of the Block to the heritage project Queer in Brighton.

    He specialises in live events made for unusual contexts that challenges notions about how and where queer culture can be presented. David was a Clore 18 fellow supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund in 23/24 and previously completed the Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy fellowship in 2020.


    As an independent producer David has supported a diverse range of artists to realise their creative visions, most recently Marisa Carnesky and Harry Clayton-Wright.


    David continues to develop his own artistic work as a writer and performance-maker.

  • Roni Guetta

    Senior Heritage Producer

    Roni Guetta

    Senior Heritage Producer

    Roni has been working with Queer In Brighton / Queer Heirtage South in the various iteraitons of the project, from its early days History Club events, to the most recent Queer The Pier Exhibition and Resilient Heritage project.

    Through heritage she hopes that people can feel salient and find meaning and belonging in a  long lineage of queer life and queer people in the city.

    Roni is passionate about the power of community and community organising. She loves working on projects that bring people together in engaging and affirming ways, be it heritage events, talks, live art, or parties.

    Outside of the project Roni has been a producer of live queer events for the past 12 years, including Traumfrau and The Big Drag Pageant.

  • Bee Fogah

    Project and Volunteer Coordinator

    Bee Fogah

    Project and Volunteer Coordinator

    Bee (She/they) is a Project and Volunteer Coordinator with the Queer Heritage South team. She has a coaching, marketing and events production history that focuses on empowerment, compassion and community. She's a firm believer in the value that we all have in our experiences and to have a place to show this to the world. She's previously run Queer writing groups in Brighton, voice acted for Brink Literacy Project, spoken on panels supporting Women in Games and delivered roundtables centering effective allyship to marginalised communities. Outside of community projects, she has been volunteering for over fifteen years and now being a coordinator wants to make volunteering inclusive, accessible, supportive and most of all fun. 

     

  • Kate Wildblood

    They/them

    Community Champion

    Kate Wildblood They/them

    Community Champion

    Is a DJ whose special interest will always be disco and a LGBTQI+ cultural geek focused on the nightlife that made us, the people who created them, the flyers that sold them and the tunes that soundtracked them. Writer, 1BTN radio presenter and producer, curator of Strike A Brighton Pose and Brighton Pride 25, co-creator of Brighton Supports LGBTQ+ Russia campaign, co-founder of Brighton’s first lesbian house club night Shameless Hussies in 1992 and proud partner to our Queenie.

    Kate has joined the project team to ensure that no one can ever question the visibility of lesbians in Brighton and Hove again, by creating the space to tell our tales, document our struggles and highlight the joys. To celebrate the objects, places and events that reflected our lives and to capture the stories older lesbians have to tell through podcasts, radio, archiving, photography, music and exhibition curation. Reconnecting us and our communities as we relive our past and celebrate the futures we created together. 

  • Rowan Rush-Morgan

    Community Archivist

    Rowan Rush-Morgan

    Community Archivist

    Rowan (he/they) is the Community Archivist within the Queer Heritage South team. He has a passion for collecting, preserving and sharing LGBTQ+ history and his role involves caring for the Queer Heritage South digital archive. Rowan holds a PhD in queer geographies, with research interests in queer and trans economies and the lifecycles of queer digital records. Rowan has previously worked in a range of traditional and community archives, always aiming to improve the accessibility of underrepresented heritage. 

  • Siqing Zhan

    She/they

    Digital Archive Assistant

    Siqing Zhan She/they

    Digital Archive Assistant

    Siqing is the Digital Archive Assistant within the Queer Heritage South team, responsible for cataloguing, digitising community archives, and organising community engagement events.

    Siqing is a diaspora ESEA queer feminist and a first-generation immigrant. Having lived in the UK for four years, Siqing has been working and volunteering in museums and archives focused on diaspora queer communities throughout this time. Siqing is also a textile artist, with a strong passion for exploring the intersectionality of archives, textiles, community, and gender, and organises the ESEA Art Fair in London.

  • Josh Thaker

    he/him

    Marketing Coordinator

    Josh Thaker he/him

    Marketing Coordinator

    Josh covers marketing across Marlborough Productions and Queer Heritage South. He has worked in Communications since completing his MA in Communication Design at Falmouth University in 2019.

    He has a passion for cultural studies and the lived, LGBTQIA+ experience. Growing up as dual heritage, Josh enjoys meeting new people and brings an empathic and curious stance to the team and the projects we deliver.

  • Jaime Starr

    They/them

    Associate Exhibition Curator

    Jaime Starr They/them

    Associate Exhibition Curator

    Jaime Starr (they/them) is a queer, trans, deaf and disabled curator, oral historian and heritage consultant working with museums and galleries across the UK – including People’s History Museum, Queer Britain, National Football Museum, Tyne & Wear Archives – to unearth and uplift under-told and hidden LGBTQIA+, disabled, and working-class histories of community and activism.

    They are a co-author of Twenty-Eight: Stories of the Section 28 Generation.

    Jaime is a Northern Bridge PhD researcher at Newcastle University, mapping the LGBTQIA+
    archives of the Northeast.

  • K Shields

    Digital Producer

    K Shields

    Digital Producer

    K Shields (any pronouns) is an Autistic, chronically ill multimedia artist with over 10 years experience as a digital marketing and social media professional within the non-profit and Arts sectors.

    K has lived and worked in Brighton for 17 years DJing, performing and running creative events and queer club nights with various collectives. They are passionate about using their digital skills to support local non-profit organisations in reaching wider and more diverse audiences.

    K is both an ancient and local history nerd, a gamer and a lover of Ballroom culture. When not working, K can usually be found playing video games, visiting museums and galleries, watching films and…resting. Because rest is important!

  • Laura Edmans

    she/they

    Community Champion

    Laura Edmans she/they

    Community Champion

    Laura (she/they) is one of the community champions, working with the QTIBPoC community.She has worked across the arts, in theatre management, administration, producing, audio description and community work. Her experience working as the Project Manager for Radical Rhizomes is what made her a good fit for this role with QHS and she started working on the project in 2024.Laura prioritises working with people and groups facing barriers and inclusion and is passionate about equity. diversity and inclusion. QTIBPoC voices aren’t very present in Brighton and Hove’s history. What Laura is keen for now, is that the current community and voices don’t get forgotten. She wants to work with the community to make sure people know the beauty and power of this community, in a way that feels right.

  • Nu McAdam

    they/them or he/him

    Community Champion

    Nu McAdam they/them or he/him

    Community Champion

    I am passionate about community activism, agency and local projects which enable minority groups to be more in charge of what they want to achieve.

     As a community champion I hope to be able to give disabled people A voice in their own local history as well as advocating for smaller minority groups of Disabled People Who often get looked over.

    I believe that we all have our own personal Histories to tell and what better place to make that happen than in this beautiful city.  Disabled movements have been happening in quiet spaces around Brighton and Hove and it's time to get shouting about them!

  • Riaz Thompson

    He/Him

    Web Developer

    Riaz Thompson He/Him

    Web Developer

    Riaz (He/Him) is a Freelance Web Developer, working with Queer Heritage South, to develop and maintain the website.  Having studied with developing games, changing over to web development was a challenge but one that he greatly enjoyed and stuck with learning and adapting to different projects and tasks. 

     

    He moved to Brighton for university and ended up for his love and acceptance of the city, helping himself come out  as by and out of his shell. He hopes to be able to emulate that similar experience for others by helping with this project and any other queer initiatives that may need any technical know-how.

Explore

  • Our story

    Queer Heritage South is a heritage learning project powered by arts charity Marlborough Productions in the heart of the city.

    Read more

  • Volunteer

    Can you spare a few hours to help support LGBTQIA+ history and community?

    Read more

  • Support us

    Your help can enable us to continue to collect, share and celebrate the rich cultural life of LGBTQIA+ people in our city.

    Read more

  • Contribute to the archive

    Upload your memorabilia, photos and stories to help preserve LGBTQIA+ history for future generations.

    Read more