New exhibition: Making the News – The Portico remembers the Peterloo Massacre

One of the last remaining buildings to ‘witness’ the Peterloo Massacre, The Portico Library is presenting a special exhibition to mark the bicentenary of this tragic event. ‘Making the News’, which runs from July to September, will use the Library’s collection and its own history to provide context for an exhibition by Robel Temesgen. An Ethiopian artist, Temesgen creates hand-written newspapers that confound the reader, slipping between pro and anti-establishment messages and exploring the role of printed information in the shaping of democracy. A new piece, created in collaboration with members of the Manchester Centre for Place Writing, will commemorate Peterloo and connect it to 21st century audiences. Accompanying Robel’s works will be extracts from the newly published graphic novel ‘Peterloo: Witness to a Massacre’. Developed with historian Robert Poole, it presents word-for-word testimony of the event’s observers, with illustrations by graphic novelists Polyp and Eva Schlunke.

Fri 5 Jul – Mon 23 Sep, The Portico Library, 57 Mosley Street, Manchester, M2 3HY, Tel: 0161 236 6785, 9.30am – 5.30pm, FREE, www.theportico.org.uk/events