Talks

Celebrate the rich cultural heritage of Manchester’s diverse Muslim communities revealed in the archive collections of the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre. Speakers: Jennie Vickers, Hannah Niblett, Laura Briggs Tickets for this event are free and can be booked below, but if you are able to, please make a voluntary donation to show […]

What do George V, Gypsy Rose Lee and Bernard Bresslaw have in common? Which musician was once thrown out of the Language and Literature Library? What you would find now in the space where Patrick Stewart and Helen Mirren - amongst many others - played their first roles? All these questions - and many more […]

Anne Lister of Shibden Hall, Halifax (1791-1840) was a landowner, scholar and diarist. Her 4-million word journals, partly written in her private code, recorded her lesbian affairs with other women. BBC1’s drama series, Gentleman Jack (spring 2019), opens in 1832. Jill Liddington asks: how could Anne Lister do all she did in 1832?

Making and sharing music is easier than ever thanks to digital technology. But can you make money? Join us and hear from a panel of musicians and music technology experts: Afrodeutsche: the British born Ghanain/Russian/German composer, producer and DJ based in Manchester. Her productions cross a wide range of styles including classical solo piano, techno, […]

As part of our celebration of LGBT History Month, join us for a special In Conversation with Christine Burns, hosted by Carl Austin-Behan. Trans people have been on a long journey for recognition and respect. Former campaigner Christine Burns has a lifetime’s experience of that journey and uses it to enable untold stories to be […]

The Gaming and Apps industries are BIG business. Nearly 2.2 billion people play games worldwide, and the global market for video games was worth $138 billion dollars in 2018, set to rise to $180 billion in 2021. Nearly half of that will come from Mobile revenues. Our panel of industry experts will discuss what it […]

Michael Bristow, BBC World Service’s Asia and Pacific editor will talk about his eight-year stay in Beijing and why he decided to write about the country’s modern history. To assist him he asked for the help of his language teacher, who was born just two years after the communist party came to power in 1949. […]

Manchester Histories are delighted to welcome Billy Bragg to open the commemorations of Peterloo 2019. Songwriter, musician and activist Billy Bragg will be in conversation with writer and broadcaster Dave Haslam, with an introduction from Young Identity, Manchester’s young spoken word collective. At a time when opinion trumps facts and truth is treated as nothing more than […]

Clearing out his parents house after his mother’s death two years ago, Michael Wood found a box of memorabilia. There were photos, letters, postcards, and books that had belonged to his father, whose family had lived in Failsworth in Manchester from the 1720s. Among them was a photograph from 1884 showing a group of eleven […]

In partnership with the University of Manchester and The Guardian, we will be hosting a series of discussions to mark the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo massacre. Join our panel of speakers, as they debate whether the root causes of the Peterloo massacre are already playing out in 2019 Britain. When in 1819 tens of […]

A public talk from Dr Shirin Hirsch (Manchester Metropolitan University and People’s History Museum) on the colonial context and implications of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, alongside spoken word performances of black voices past and present, responding to the themes of slavery, oppression and protest.