A story and a student space

Hello friends,
Welcome to our May 2021 newsletter. 

Here in the UK we seem to coming out of a long lockdown. Its hard to feel completely positive about this knowing that large parts of the world are still battling hard against the effects of the virus. We hope you are all safe and well and to those of you who still struggling with the impact of the virus, you are in our thoughts.

April was a busy month for us with our regular Open Minds and Art Collective groups and a joint group with Asra and Sarbat on alcohol and LGBTQ+ Punjabis.

This month we're taking a break from our regular groups to take a bit of a rest and will restart the groups at the end of June. The details for the groups should be released early in June.

Other things to look out for this month:

• Open Minds Student Spaces!
  A free joint project with Taraki for adult (18+) students who self-identify as Punjabi LGBTQ+. Kirath and Pavan, our fantastic volunteers, will be creating an open and non-judgemental space to connect, learn and support each other.
  
  The sessions recognise how hard this last year has been for students and the first session is called 'Unpicking our lockdowns'.
  
  You can find out more and sign up on the Open Minds Eventbrite page.
  
  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/the-open-minds-project-31813056391
   
• 'My Story' - 4 Parts
  One of our community members has submitted a collection of writings on their journey as a gay Punjabi man and you can read all 4 parts in the Our People part of our website.
  
  It's a really powerful description of how they moved from self-acceptance to inviting the world into their LGBTQ+ life.
  
  https://www.theopenmindsproject.org/our-people
   
• Jodi Dancers
  I took part in an online interview with Jodi Dancers (Insta @jodi.dancers) earlier this year.
  
  They are a married couple who are obsessed with Bhangra and improving conversations about 'difficult topics' in Punjabi settings.
  
  They interview will be released towards the end of the month and watch our socials for details.