What's on

Word Central: Open Mic Night

WORD CENTRAL a semaphore-exploding mind-flow open mic poetry & spoken word hosted by Tony Curry Wednesday 6th September Manchester Central Library 6pm – 8pm Free entry To get your name on the September reserve list please email mail@flapjackpress.co.uk

Family Sunday Funday

Performance Space

Grab your nearest and dearest, put on your dancing shoes and join us as we celebrate with free family fun. Heritage Open Days – as part of this festival we are offering two behind-the-scenes tours.  Find out how the North West Film Archive is saving the region’s filmed heritage and see their conservation and storage […]

Reading is Important: Get a Life! by Vivienne Westwood

Performance Space

A celebration of books For fashion designer, environmentalist and businesswoman Vivienne Westwood, books have always been among her great loves. At this special event she shares her passion for reading and the inspiration it can bring to all, with selections from some of her favourites. This free event is broadcast live from the British Library […]

Alison Light Public Lecture: ‘Family History for a Floating World’

Alison Light, author of Common People, will be talking about family history and genealogy. Alison will be reflecting on the work she did for her own family history, published as the acclaimed book Common People. Talk starts at 5.30pm This event is sponsored by Ancestry.com and is part of a two-day event considering International Family History Free […]

It was 50 Years Ago Today –  Scratch choir & concert

Performance Space

  Join a choir for the day, to rehearse and perform a selection of songs from the ground breaking Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper plus other well-known songs from the era. As a choir, you will learn distributed material from scratch, rehearsed during the day by choral director Eleanor Mottershead with piano accompaniment from Tim Mottershead […]

£22.50

Celebrate ‘Older People’s Day’ at Swing Time!

Performance Space

Think you know your Lindy Hop from your Charleston or your Slow Drag from your St Louis Shag? We’re celebrating Older People’s Day with a smooth afternoon of jazz classics featuring the fabulous Rachel Rogers and the Swing Kings!! The afternoon also includes welcome mocktails on arrival and interval treats of tea, coffee and cakes for everyone! […]

Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf & Clare Pollard: The Sea-Migrations

Performance Space

Asha Lul Mohamud Yusuf is fast emerging as one of the most outstanding Somali poets. Although she has lived in exile in the UK for twenty years, through recordings, TV and the internet, her poems are well known among Somalis both at home and abroad. A powerful woman poet in a literary tradition still largely […]

Roddy Doyle

Performance Space

THIS EVENT IS FULLY BOOKED Join us for an intimate evening with one of Ireland’s best-loved writers, Roddy Doyle, discussing his books, his films, and his forthcoming novel, Smile. It tells the captivating story of Victor Forde, for whom a chance meeting in a pub conjures up long-buried childhood memories – and it’s a book about how we all […]

£10

Will Self

Performance Space

THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED A sharp-eyed, merciless commentator on modern times and modern mores, from the sublime to the ridiculous – no one writes quite like Will Self. Join us for a conversation with the cult author, broadcaster and critic about his new novel, Phone, a wildly funny send-up of contemporary British life. Through the chronicles of Jonathan […]

£10

In Person: World Poets Film Screening

Performance Space

To celebrate the publication of the new Bloodaxe DVD-anthology, In Person: World Poets, we are delighted to present a special film screening featuring some of the most extraordinary contemporary poets from across the globe, including Robert Adamson, Tishani Doshi, Roy Fisher, Choman Hardi, Jaan Kaplinski, Nikola Madzirov, Ruth Stone, Arundhathi Subramaniam, Brian Turner and Chase Twichell. […]

Alan Hollinghurst

Performance Space

In 1940 Evert Dax and David Sparsholt, two men from very different backgrounds, are thrown together at Oxford University, amid the fear and recklessness of war. In Alan Hollinghurst’s long-awaited new novel, The Sparsholt Affair, we follow the two through the decades as fashions change and their country is transformed around them, ending in a […]

£10