Free things to do this week ft. The Hangnails, First Draft + more

Bang The Drum All Dayer at Odd Bar (pictured)
If you swing by Odd Bar this Monday afternoon, you should find plenty to keep the long Easter weekend going. They’re hosting an all-dayer – well, all afternoon-and-eveninger – with a packed bill of seven different bands and musicians. Headlining the gig is York-based punk duo The Hangnails, a band well-established on the Yorkshire scene with six years of performance under their belt and support slots for groups such as The Fall and The Damned peppered through their CV. If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, the rest of the eclectic roster covers everything from folk to disco to psychedelic, so there’s genuinely something here for everyone.
Mon 17 Apr, Odd Bar, 30-32 Thomas Street, Manchester, M4 1ER. 3pm – 11pm, www.eventbrite.co.uk

First Draft at The Castle
Spoken word night First Draft returns to The Castle, with this offering based around the theme of illness. From this prompt, the performers will spin stories in their chosen genre, whether it be poetry, true-life confessional, comedy or music. And it’s quite the line-up of performers: With local poet Fat Roland, comedian and Idiot’s Guide To Kink creator Ros Ballinger and Thom Hammersley of weird rock group Rocketship Forest all performing on the night. In keeping with the theme, this will be a sick night.
Mon 17 Apr, The Castle Hotel, 66 Oldham Street, Manchester, M4 1LE. 7.30pm – 10pm, www.facebook.com

The Poppy Retake & From the Shadows of War and Empire Preview at Z-arts
Hulme-based arts centre Z-arts launch two new exhibitions this week and you can catch a free sneak preview on Tuesday. The Poppy Retake is a video installation from artist and Black Arts Alliance co-founder Kooj Chuhan, which takes aim at the ‘lest we forget’ slogan that came out of the Great War, and how the era’s most enthusiastic pacifists blithely failed to recognise the suffering in colonial conflicts. The similarly-themed second exhibition – From the Shadows of War and Empire – is a documentary installation that looks at how colonies were exploited for the war effort. For this preview, there will also be a number of speakers and poets performing on the night, as well as live music performances from Serge Tebu and Emmanuela Yogolelo.
Tue 18 Apr, Z-arts, 335 Stretford Road, Hulme, Manchester, M15 5ZA. 6pm – 9pm, www.eventbrite.co.uk

Last Chance to See Extinction or Survival at Manchester Museum
The Manchester Museum’s ecology exhibition Extinction or Survival comes to a close this Thursday. The exhibition is a humbling look at the ways in which mankind has irreparably damaged biodiversity and wiped out species through malice, negligence and dumb accident. See our full preview for more information.
Until Thu 20 Apr, Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL. Tel: 0161 275 2634, 10am – 5pm, museum.manchester.ac.uk