A thousand apologies for getting this to y’all a day late. A thousand and one apologies for not having anything jucier to put in the opening bit. Let’s get to it.

Upcoming Events

Bootblacking Social / Repairs at Home Workshop

Our next bootblack social is on Wednesday 17th June, at Adrian’s on Victoria Road (G42 8RW) from 7pm till late. This one will be on the repairs you can’t just do at the stand. Heavy stuff!

July Bar Night

Our next bar night will be on Wednesday 1st of July, at Game Over on Drury Street (G2 5AA) from 7pm till 11:30pm(ish). Same deal as usual! Remember to bring cash for bootblacking tips but I can also take card payments now! (£5 for the basic stuff; £10 for more involved care.)

Solidarity Pride Hub

Wow it’s pride month and we’re only a month away from Pride. But we won’t be at the regular corporate pride. Instead, we’re going to the Glasgow Solidarity Pride Hub all day on Saturday 18th July at The Pyramid at Anderston on Argyle Street (G3 8DS). (Shameless cross promotion here cause this is also a me and Bootblack Rowan joint.) If you also want to get involved either as a volunteer or as an org you can sign up here. Anyway it’ll be good fun, so see you there.

Queer Classics Club

This is hosted by our pal Grey (who I can attest is “very niceys”). They’ve written their own blurb so here’s the pitch:

New Queer Classics Club (Grey (club facilitator, amateur leather dykes enthusiast, raging Femme dyke)):

I've just started a new Queer Classics* Club at Category Is Books! We'll be meeting in the bookstore every second Thursday of the month at 7pm. Our first meeting is August 13 to discuss Goodbye to Berlin (1939) by Christopher Isherwood (the book that inspired Fosse's 'Cabaret' (1972)).

I'm hoping to build a trauma sensitive and curiosity driven space for folks wanting to become familiar with our communal and intergenerational heritage. All readers welcome, from professional literature nerds to those who are picking up a book for the first time since school. Other upcoming reads include Kitchen (1988) by Banana Yoshimoto, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953) by James Baldwin, Hurricane Season (2017) by Fernanda Melchor, and Stone Butch Blues (1993) by Leslie Feinberg.

If you want to join the mailing list, please email queerclassicsclub@gmail.com (be forewarned, you are signing up for my monthly stream of conscious yapping and secondary reading/viewing materials recommendations). Also I pinky promised I'm very niceys and I tried really hard on the poster :))))))

*classics here is defined as canonically important queer books, not all old stuff by white people.

Leatherdykes Recommend…

Alice isn’t Dead, by Joseph Fink (Morwen)

“I have criticisms of this book, to be sure, but it made me feel good and it made me sob like a baby so I think on those grounds I can recommend it to anyone who is as comfortable with horror as me or more. It's adapted from the podcast series of the same name, which tells the same people's stories in a different way, as far as I can tell, but was just a little too creepy for me when I last tried to listen to it.”

Blog

There is, uh, not much to put in the blog, I am going to be real. We are almost sold out of the Leatherzine. It continues to be (just about) available at the bar nights but you might have to wait until October potentially for an additional printing. (And with that in mind, keep your eyes open for Leatherzine #2, featuring more writers than just us, probably.)

In other small runs of self published material related news, a few copies of my novella, Pick-Up Play, should be available at Category Is. So you can nab that if you fancy some short stories about dyking out around Glasgow. I hope y’all enjoyed the two essays on Leather from the last bar night also. I will continue distributing free zines until morale improves.

As always, I love you (singular) and you (plural).

With dry contacts, bloodshot eyes, and a secret third thing,
yr girl, yvette, for Glasgow Leatherdykes