Preview: Our Story at Nottingham's Libraries.

To begin, what's happening with Our Story at our libraries this summer?

Rosalie Spring: Our Story is a multi-media exhibition made by young people from Mansfield. Photographic portraits of trans and gender diverse people from across the county, all shot by the young people themselves, in places you’ll recognise: Wollaton Hall, Lace Market Theatre, Broadway Cinema, The Abdication and Nottingham Central Library. There are extracts from oral history interviews that the young people conducted, their artwork as well as a sound installation of five audio plays directed by Jo Tyabji, and written by Chris Bush, Jo Clifford, Mika Onyx Johnson, Lettie Precious and Luke Skilbeck, written as another creative response to the recorded oral histories. 

It is currently touring five libraries in Beeston, Retford, Workshop, Arnold and Newark this summer, after launching at Mansfield Museum and Nottinghamshire Archives. It’s a free, drop-in exhibition, and you don’t need to know anything about the project to walk in and enjoy.  

Realistically, you can walk around it in twenty minutes or you can enjoy it with the headphones on for an hour to listen to each short play - either is fine! 

Alongside this, Fifth Word is running some participatory creative activities with upcoming sessions including Storytelling workshops in Nottingham on August 22nd.    

So how did this all come about? 

Rosalie Spring: It all started in a youth centre in Mansfield. We were running creative workshops with young people there and what started to become clear was that young people who were exploring their gender identity, or working out whether they may be trans or LGBTQ+, were lacking the space, stories and histories that they felt belonged to them. Speaking to Nottinghamshire Archives, who also saw a gap in the archives documenting trans+ stories and experiences -  we built the project around that gap, specifically aiming to provide young people a creative opportunity to creatively explore heritage that was relevant and interesting to them.

From October 2025 to this August, working in partnership with Nottinghamshire Archives, we worked with a group of 16-25 year olds, training them in film-making, photography, oral history, wellbeing, creative writing, and exhibition curation - then, we went out and did it for real.

As Project Producer, I’ve had the privilege of bringing together the Our Story project and team; from recruiting the creatives and practitioners, meeting the young people, and getting to know the contributors. Our Story has been shaped by every single person who has worked on it, and those unique personal touches can be felt and traced across the exhibition and audio plays. It’s been special to see this intergenerational community come together - stories shared and listened to, confidence grown, and identity explored, in what has become both a professional and personal highlight for me.

What kind of research took place?

Rosalie Spring: The young creatives visited Nottinghamshire Archives and went on our walking tour around Nottingham with Sparrow Nest Archives to learn about archival practice, existing LGBTQIA+ histories that have been documented, and the power of archiving as a form of resistance. 

Through a creative training programme, the participants learned not only technical skills but also how to record stories ethically and using non-extractive, trauma-informed approaches in making space for, and holding, the stories and experiences of the Our Story contributors. 

What was clear was that - despite some representation of queer history in the local archives (and existing projects working to capture this history) - there is a very real absence of trans and gender diverse lives specifically, with very little to find, which isn’t because these lives weren't here - it's because they weren’t documented.

Is there a need for these plays?

Jo Tyabji: There is a deep and abiding need for these plays because they do something that is core to us as humans. We are a social animal, and what these playwrights have done is to listen carefully to specific lives, particular human experiences, and then receive that experience with open arms and conjure new stories into being with it, in an active creative love. 

And that those true stories, the real experiences they have listened to are those of trans and gender diverse people from their twenties to their older years living in Nottinghamshire is all the more needed because we are living in a time of unfathomable hostility towards trans people in Britain.

The richness and playfulness of these original new plays opens the door for listeners of all genders and all ages to a wonderland that our society has decided not to imagine on a regular basis. Too often, we're given “coming out” stories of young trans people in a particular frame in our wider media. And what I love so much about these plays as a body of work is that they are playful and varied, and play with genre and form in a way that is really exciting on their own terms. 

As a body of work, as a set of plays, they open out a conversation on what it is to be trans, sure, but also what it is to be burnt out, what it is to be tired, what it is to be a parent, what it is to be looking for a friend in a city that doesn't recognise you and finding one in the most unexpected of places. All of those experiences are ones that our great listening ear of human society should be hungry for and I think we'll all have a great time getting to know. 

Are the stories relevant to today’s young people? 

Jo Tyabji: Absolutely. But the relevance isn’t really about issues surrounding trans and gender diverse experiences. A lot of what came out of these interviews is around the everyday - jobs, families that were supportive and families that didn’t, hobbies, a good night out, community activism, chosen family and friends. If you are 17 and trans in Nottinghamshire right now, the version of your life you mostly see is the politicisation of your identity in the media and on the internet. What you don’t see is a 70-year-old who is doing well, has mates, a job, a garden - who was also 17 once upon a time. 

Another thing worth saying is that the young people we worked with were not the subject of this project - they actually were part of running it! They held the camera, and asked the questions, had active roles in the recording studio, and co-curated the exhibition you can visit today.

Is society becoming more hostile towards trans and gender-diverse people?

Jo Tyabji: Yes. In the last five years trans and gender diverse people have been under more scrutiny than at any point I can remember in the last 20 years. More headlines, and harmful legislation is changing the way they can live their lives. This hostility is real and growing, and it makes trans and gender diverse people unsafe both emotionally and physically.

But the absence of trans people from our history books and archives is a more insidious form of hostility, one that's been going on far longer, and it's the one we've spent the past year confronting, and will continue to. Trans and gender diverse people have always been here in history. The erasure of them from our histories, and from the way society has been documented, is a systematic disenfranchisement and it causes real pain.

As for what to do about it, honestly the first thing is to centre and listen to trans and gender diverse people. Understand what their experiences actually are, and let that shape how we offer support and take action. As part of Our Story,  the young creatives interviewed ten trans and gender diverse people from across Nottinghamshire who each spent time answering questions like this one on camera; and it is their viewpoints that should be spotlighted. They're in the exhibition, and they'll be in the archive permanently. Or reach out to trans people in your own life, your friends, your family, your colleagues, and be an ally. Show your support and your care. Be a friendly voice and take action against this backdrop of increasing hate and noise. There are some brilliant organisations already doing this work, locally and nationally. Here in Notts, we have East Mids Trans Network who supported Our Story and run peer support and social spaces. Similarly Notts Trans Hubs runs social spaces. Nationally TransActual, Gendered Intelligence, Not A Phase and the Good Law Project are all advocating for trans+ rights. Follow them and amplify their work. 

Are the plays aimed for the LGBTQ+ community or will ‘straight’ people find them helpful or insightful too?

Jo Tyabji: The plays are aimed for both and all (with some age restrictions). This is local history so if you’ve lived in Nottinghamshire, these are your neighbours, colleagues and your friends. They are real people who share your city and county with you, so why not get to know them?

For trans and gender diverse audiences, there’s representation - of yourself or maybe your past or future self - that you may not easily find elsewhere.  Several of our contributors said the interview was the first time they’d felt the weight and power of their own story, which says a lot.  The plays are funny in places, as well as bringing up very real and difficult conversations that spotlight the nuances of our contemporary moment. 

It’s free and in your local library - five incredible short audio plays by exciting writers, so come down and catch them while you can. 

Anything else you’d like to share?

Jo Tyabji: Yes - we’d like to credit all the incredible people who are part of Our Story, as this project belongs to them!

The young creatives: Bee, Dray, Felix, Noah, Phoebe, Iris Maé, and Raven.The contributors: Al, Alex, Guy, Kate, Laurie, Noah, Onni, Patricia, Sarissa and Shell. The playwrights: Chris Bush, Jo Clifford, Mika Onyx Johnson, Lettie Precious and Luke Skillbeck. The creative team: Jo Tyabji, Joseff Harris, and Louis Blatherwick.  The practitioners: Roxanna Barry, CJ DeBarra, Stephanie Coley, Rumi Dahar, Olivia Hayes, Frit Tam, Holly Revell and Leo Welton.

A big thank you to Mansfield Museum, Westfield Folkhouse Young People’s Centre, East Mids Transgender Network, East Midlands Oral History Archives, Loughborough University, Mermaids, Curve Leicester and New Perspectives and all the venues across Nottinghamshire that opened their doors during the filming days. 

Finally, if you don’t get a chance to see the plays as part of the exhibition tour, we will be releasing them as a podcast in the Autumn 2026, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

The Our Word tour continues at Worksop Library from 8th to 20th of August. Arnold Library from 15th to 28th August. And Newark Library from 21st August to 4th September. More information about the project can be found at Fifth Word.