From Eurovision-style international reading competitions and multilingual showcases to comprehensive, urgent programmes on gender-based violence and the singular poetry of David Berman, Manchester Poetry Library’s autumn/winter season offers a spellbindingly diverse array of free readings, discussions and interactive events for verse enthusiasts and budding poets alike over the coming months.
On Thu 28 Nov, Actual Air celebrates the peerless poetry of singer-songwriter and Silver Jews founder, David Berman.
Hosted by poets Zaffar Kunial, Calebn Nichols, Lenni Sanders and lyricist Paul Rafferty, the one-off event honours Berman’s lone titular collection of verse, published in 1999 – twenty years before his tragic passing.
Since its publication, Actual Air has developed a devout cult following through its resonant and profoundly influential themes of isolation, memory, banality and malaise in the forgotten realms of Middle America.
Developed with an ethos of increasing cultural participation within cities while platforming local talent on an international stage, the ever-popular ‘Eurovision for the Spoken Word’ comes to Manchester on Thu 12 Dec.
Featuring a captivating blend of live and livestreamed performances from sister cities around the world, the showcase of emerging poetic talent promises an unforgettable evening of verse for all literary tastes. Last year, Manchester-based poet Esther Koch won the tournament, bringing the competition to the city with Griot Gabriel as the hometown representative. On the night, Griot will face off against poets from the fourteen UNESCO Cities of Literature to determine this year’s champion.
Returning for another instalment on Fri 21 Feb, the library hosts its third multilingual open mic night in celebration of International Mother Language Day.
Open to all with readings welcomed in any language, participants can recite their own verse or works by other poets, whether world-renowned or lesser-known, while anybody who remains unsure of their choice can pick something spontaneously from the library’s collection. Alternatively, guests are free to stay and listen without any pressure to read on the night.
On this occasion, an assortment of special guests will appear to honour and amplify the Poetry Library’s various multilingual projects and partnerships.
Places to read will be allocated on a first come, first-served basis. Refreshments will be provided.
The following evening, multinational poetry event UNDERTOW unites sonneteers from around the UK and Singapore via livestream to explore the thrilling multilingual future of verse, in a joyous and hopeful celebration of self-expression untethered from national borders and literary categories.
The one-off event will include readings and an insightful discussion of multilingual creativity from poets in the Poetry Translation Centre’s UNDERTOW initiative, which platforms young talent from mixed heritage and diaspora backgrounds in the UK and seeks to unlock the boundless potential of polylingual lyricism. They will be paired with young creatives from Singapore, a smorgasbord of language where English, Chinese, Tamil and Malay are all common tongues, as well as the unique Singlish dialect, an English creole which has organically grown into an established language through osmotic contact between every vernacular in the city state.
Manchester Poetry Library, Manchester Metropolitan University, Ormond Building, Lower Ormond Street, Manchester M15 6BX
www.mmu.ac.uk/poetry-library
- Words:
- Wolf McFarlane
- Published on:
- Wed 13 Nov 2024
Comprising the central force of Manchester Poetry Library’s autumn/winter season, the 16 Days of Activism programme features a sprawling series of readings, panels and workshops led by academics and experts in a stirring and timely examination of the power of poetry in facilitating transformational change in social policy on gender-based violence around the world.
Developed in response to the international campaign hosted by UN Women, the series launches on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and concludes on Human Rights Day, with a lineup of unmissable events including an evening of poetry and engaging discussion with Forward-prize-winning poet Dr Kim Moore and feminist writer and activist Laura Bates, an erasure workshop in which participants are invited to create new poems by erasing words from existing pieces of text and a reading by Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa who will be sharing pieces from her live literature show, Cane Corn & Gully.
Elsewhere, Dr. Derek Bousfield and Professor Helen Mort will delve into their research on how poetry can examine the language of gaslighting, and Professor Khatidja Chantler will share groundbreaking and transformative research into domestic homicide followed by a performance of ‘i-poems’, while writers and researchers Char Heather (University of York), Charlotte Shevchenko Knight (Manchester Metropolitan University), and Naomi Morris (University of East Anglia) host a panel unpack the intersections of their creative critical work in a discussion on feminist approaches to illness narratives.
Check out our overview of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence here.
The festival is wheelchair accessible and will take place in-person at the Manchester Poetry Library and Lowry Building at Manchester Metropolitan University, as well as online.
This is a trans-inclusive event.