Our History

Rainbow Noir was dreamt up by 4 black queer women in Manchester in 2012 after having had enough of being erased and overlooked in Manchester’s LGBT+ scene, as well as within our cultural communities. In February 2013, the very first Rainbow Noir meeting was held, housed by The LGBT+ Centre in Manchester. The group has continued to meet on the 2nd Thursday of the month ever since, holding a regular social space for LGBTQI people of colour to meet, connect, heal and socialise.

Since 2013 some of the activities we’ve been involved in include:

• Attending local strategic partnership meetings
• Attending local pride parades to platform our community’s visibility
• Talking on academic, health related and creative panels
• Featured in local and national magazines and online platforms
• Volunteering to help support local youth work (see Colours Youth Festival)
• Supporting local charities and groups work for LGBTQI people of colour
• Holding larger community events alongside our monthly social, including open mics, food shares, film screenings, exhibitions, stories shares, our birthday party events

2013

2014

2020