Sydney Gay Liberation Quire scrapbooks

MLMSS 12161

fonds

May 1981 to August 1987

9680497

0.16 metres of textual material (1 box), includes photographs - typescript, manuscript

Paul van Reyk was born in Sri Lanka in 1952. He emigrated to Australia with his family on 1 November 1962 and lived in Singleton, New South Wales, then in Sydney. He became a gay activist and served as a donor for lesbian couples who could not legally access IVF. He currently works as a social worker and food writer.

The Sydney Gay Liberation Quire was formed in 1981 by Paul van Reyk and fifteen other gay men amidst the gay and lesbian movement in New South Wales as a result of the 1978 Gay Mardi Gras. Their first public performance was on 27 June 1981 and over the choir's six-year existence until 1989, they performed over 300 times at various gay and lesbian functions, community fairs and events with trade unions, Indigenous land rights groups, and women's and anti-apartheid movements. Van Reyk wrote many of the lyrics to songs the choir performance, typically to well-know, out-of-copyright music. In 1983, they released an EP "Hormones or Jeans: The Gay Liberation Quire Goes Down on Vinyl".

References:
Library acquisition file.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). "An extraordinary journey and an unusual family". Accessed 27 May 2024. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/360-documentaries/an-extraordinary-journey-and-an-unusual-family/5589780

Gay in the 80s. "1981. Music: Sydney Gay Liberation Quire". Accessed 27 May 2024. https://www.gayinthe80s.com/2013/11/1981-music-sydney-gay-liberation-quire/

This material was created and collected by Paul van Reyk between 1981 and 1987.

3 scrapbooks of handwritten and printed ephemera including song lyrics, clippings, flyers and photographs amongst dated schedules and song lists relating to the performances of the Sydney Gay Liberation Quire and the associated social and political events it supported, including nuclear disarmament and unemployment.

Scrapbook 1: "May 1981 - May 1982"
Scrapbook 2: May 1982 to September 1983
Scrapbook 3: September 1983 to August 1987

23 additional typed and numbered pages of song lyrics.

In copyright:
Copyright holder:: Paul van Reyk
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder