Reds & K 1000 - Exhibition
2021-06-02 09:30 - 2021-09-18 16:30 UTC | First Floor Display Cases
‘Reds’ Andrew Redmond met documentary photographer Karin Albinsson after completing a prison sentence. When ‘Reds’ told Karin of the 1,000 photos he had taken and lost six years ago, this project was born. During the last couple of years, they have met up regularly to retake the photos lost. Reds has spent most of his life in and out of institutions. During the project he has rebuilt his life. While Reds rediscover Manchester through connecting to graffiti and street art, Karin captures his stories.
The Exhibition include nine collages with 2,400 photos of graffiti and street art with a storyline under each collage.
‘Reds&K1000’ © Andrew Redmond and Karin Albinsson
Photos of graffiti and street art by Andrew Redmond.
Facilitator, portraits, text, postproduction, curator Karin Albinsson
Project funded by Volition, Manchester Cathedral
Free – please drop in

Manchester Hip Hop Archive Exhibition
2021-07-01 08:00 - 2021-09-28 17:00 | First Floor Exhibition Hall
Spotlighting the impact of the genre on the region’s community with a free exhibition of Hip Hop memorabilia and materials from the 1980s to present day, marking over 40 years of Hip Hop lifestyle and culture in the city.
Made up of clothing, photographs, cassettes, records, graffiti sketchbooks, posters, flyers and oral histories documenting the historical journey and growth of the youth movement, the exhibition digs deep into sub genres and time-lining the scene changes, weaving the rich tapestry of Manchester’s underground story the project tells a story; of a disillusioned yet resolute youth that strived for something beyond the grey skies and gloom of post-industrial decline and the economic depression of the early 1980’s.
The unique collection is quickly growing to showcase Manchester’s position in the history of UK Hip Hop – from the early days of pioneer breakdance crew’s, Broken Glass & Street Machine, dancing to the sounds of electro funk and breaks from the boom boxes or import record store, ‘Spin Inn’ Top 10’ weekly feature on Stu Allen’s seminal Hip Hop radio show on Piccadilly 261. From inception and til this day, Manchester’s home-grown talent and its new wave of shining stars remain at the forefront of UK Rap. Artists such as Aitch, Bugzy Malone and Children of Zeus are firmly carrying the torch that was once lit by the youth of the 80s in parks and city clubs such as, Legends and The Bistro. This exhibition showcases the journey and gives an insight into the 5 elements of Hip Hop culture and the impact it’s had on Manchester and today’s society.
Free – please drop in

Henry Normal in conversation with...
2021-07-14 12:00 - 2021-09-01 12:00 | Online
Join Henry Normal as he chats and shares poems with award-winning wordsmiths from Flapjack Press. With audience Q&A.
A series of live stream events, 12 – 1pm each Wednesday from 14th July to 1st September. Brought to you by Flapjack Press, Manchester Libraries and New Poetry Society. What better way to spend your lunchtime?
Free but booking essential.
Henry Normal is a poet, writer, TV and film producer, founder of the Manchester Poetry Festival (now the Manchester Literature Festival) and co-founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival. Henry co-wrote and script edited The Mrs Merton Show and the spin-off series Mrs Merton and Malcolm. He also co-created and co-wrote the first series of The Royle Family and has collaborated extensively with Steve Coogan. Setting up Baby Cow Productions Ltd in 1999, Henry Executive Produced all and script edited many of the shows during his tenure as MD. Highlights of the Baby Cow output during this time include Oscar-nominated Philomena, Gavin and Stacey, The Mighty Boosh, Red Dwarf, Nighty Night and Alan Partridge. In 2017 he was honoured with a special BAFTA for services to television. Since retiring, Henry has written and performed seven BBC Radio 4 shows in his ‘occasional series’ A Normal…, combining comedy, poetry and stories about his life and family.
“Shove up national treasures. We need to make room for Henry Normal.” Radio Times
YOU CAN BOOK FREE TICKETS HERE.

Gerry Potter is a poet, playwright, actor, director, and both creator and destroyer of the infamous gingham diva Chloe Poems. A favourite son of Manchester and his hometown Liverpool, he trained at Everyman Youth Theatre and National Museums Liverpool lists him amongst the city’s leading LGBTQ+ icons. The portrait documentary My Name is Gerry Potter premiered at Homotopia in 2015 and his first volume of domestic/fantastic theatre-verse, 2009’s Planet Young, was championed on BBC2’s Between the Covers.
“Will amuse, move, inspire and provoke.” Polari Literary Salon

Geneviève L. Walsh founded Halifax’s spoken word night Spoken Weird in 2013, was a core member of the acclaimed troupe A Firm of Poets until their 2017 swansong, and has been a host/curator with Manchester’s Stirred Poetry collective since the same year. Walsh debuted and toured their one-person show, A Place in the Shade, in 2019. Their second poetry collection, Vitriol Works, was published in 2021.
“A unique and passionately inclusive voice.” Steve Nash, UK Performer of the Year

Thick Richard has presented BBC Radio 6 Music’s Beat of the Day, performed on BBC Radio 4, hosted NME parties, and gigged with Kae Tempest, John Hegley, Arthur Smith, The Fall, Jerry Sadowitz and (sort of) Dr John Cooper Clarke. He co-curated spoken word franchise Bang Said the Gun’s Manchester events during its run at The Dancehouse Theatre, and his one-man show, Swear School (a crash course in everything you wanted to know about bad language – with puppets), toured nationally. His flamboyant use of profanity once saw the official Edinburgh Fringe radio station temporarily closed down and he has been kidnapped on two separate and unconnected occasions. His latest collection of acerbic wit and wisdom, Read ‘em and Weep, was published in 2020.
“His words are rattling and brilliant and shoot life back at you in all its futility and chaos and wonder.” Kate Tempest, poet

Anna Percy co-founded Stirred, the influential pro-feminist collective which organises poetry performances and writing workshops throughout the north-west of England. Her award-winning poetry is written for both the page and the stage, is post-pastoral, occasionally surreal, and an exercise in hope for sexual equality and an advocacy of women’s rights. Her third collection with Flapjack Press, Jumping into a Waterfall, was published in 2020.
“A fabulous feminist fighter.” Shirley May, poet

Tony Curry is a performance poet, playwright, workshop facilitator, soundsmith and enabler. He runs literature-in-the-community projects with a specific leaning towards mental health and wellbeing across the north-west. His solo shows and plays have been performed at Manchester’s Royal Exchange and Contact theatres, and his work has been exhibited at the city’s art galleries and museum. Tony is also host of Word Central, the monthly spoken word event at Manchester Central Library coordinated by Flapjack Press and Manchester Libraries. His third poetry collection, We Kid Ourselves, was published in 2021.
“This is our poetry. These are our poems.” Tony Walsh, poet

Dominic Berry is a performance poet whose work for adults and children has taken him across five continents. He has been Glastonbury Festival’s poet-in-residence and his awards include winning Manchester Literature Festival’s Superheroes of Slam, New York’s Nuyorican Poets’ Café Slam, and he has twice been publicly voted Sabotage Review’s Best Spoken Word Performer. Dominic regularly performs at the Edinburgh Fringe and his TV appearances include BBC’s Greg & Celia’s Festivals Highlights, Rhyme Rocket and Channel 4’s My Daughter the Teenage Nudist. His third collection for adults, No Tigers, was revised and reissued in 2020, and his fifth poetry adventure for children, Best Adventure Ever!, was published in 2021.
“Emotive, intelligent and raw… quite delicious and totally engaging.” City Life

Rose Condo is a Canadian poet now based in Salford, England. With a background in theatre, she has been writing, performing and teaching for over twenty years and was longlisted for the inaugural Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship. Rose has won numerous poetry slams and her poetry theatre show, The Empathy Experiment, received critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and went on to win the award for Best Spoken Word Show at the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival 2019. Her debut collection, After the Storm, was published in 2020, and contains the scripts of her three award-winning poetry theatre shows: The Geography of Me, How to Starve and Artist and The Empathy Experiment.
“A steadying reminder of compassion in a world tipped off its axis.” Rosie Garland, poet & author

Paul Cookson has worked as a poet for over three decades, performing in schools and libraries, and at literature festivals and events across the world. As well as being Poet-in-Residence for The National Football Museum and Everton in the Community, he is Writer-in-Residence for Sing Together, which involves 125 Lancastrian schools with over 5000 children and 400 teachers. In 2020 he was commissioned by the BBC to write and perform a poem for the Women’s FA Cup Final. Paul has more than sixty titles to his name and over a million book sales – and with a quarter of a million copies sold alone, the anthology The Works has become a teacher’s ‘poetry Bible’. The third volume of his poem-a-day lockdown diaries, Pig’s Ear, Dog’s Dinner, was published in July. A fourth and final collection, Nail on the Head, is due in November.
“Every day should have a Paul Cookson moment.” Simon Mayo, broadcaster & author

“Publishes the most cutting-edge poetic performers” – Writing Manchester
Shortlisted Saboteur Awards’ Most Innovative Publisher & Northern Soul Awards’ Best Northern Publisher

Queering the North
2021-08-23 10:00 - 2021-08-28 16:00 | Performance Space
The OUTing the Past International Festival of LGBT+ History (est. Manchester in 2005) has teamed up with the Museum of Free Derry to create the first retrospective showcase of NI Queer Activism. A rare insight into the previously unacknowledged tenacious heroism of queer activism in Northern Ireland before, during and following “The Troubles”. The project was greatly enriched by the support of several archival collections and regional LGBT+ groups and queer veterans.
The Queering the North Exhibition aims to bring to a wider a public an expansive and nuanced reading of the history of the LGBT+ community in the North of Ireland/Northern Ireland. It brings together archives and recollections from a range of key activists within a scaffolding provided by academic research. The exhibition includes an expansive chronology of key events, commencing with the deliberate exclusion of NI from the decriminalising legislation offered by the 1967 Sexual Offences Act through to the introduction of Equal Marriage to NI (January 2020).
Museum of Derry Curator Adrian Kerr described the exhibition as a natural step for his institution: “This is a part of our collective past that has been kept hidden, and this is reflected in the nature of the information available for the exhibition. It is the hope of all involved that this will act as a provocative spur towards the creation of the first comprehensive reading of our LGBT+ history.”
The Mayor of Derry City, Cllr Michaela Boyle: “I had the great pleasure of hosting a reception in the Guildhall for the Exhibition Launch. I believe that this exhibition goes a long way towards creating a better understanding of the sensitivities and changes faced by the LGBT+ community and how we can all work collectively to create a better informed and respectful environment on this important issue.”
Sue Sanders (Founder & Chair of Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Trans + History Month UK | Professor Emeritus of the Harvey Milk Institute): “A thrilling and crucial exhibition that reflects the vital importance of working together to seek human rights for all.”
The Exhibition Tour will commence as part of the large Féile an Phobail (West Belfast Festival) – 5 to 13 August 2021 – before coming to Manchester for Pride – it will then start its re-scheduled Tour of the North (deferred due to the COVID pandemic).
Free – please drop in
