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 […]
Henry Normal is a writer, poet, TV and film producer, founder of the Manchester Poetry Festival (now the Manchester Literature Festival) and co-founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival. In June 2017 he was honoured with a special BAFTA for services to television. Raining Upwards is Henry’s first all new poetry collection in over twenty years. […]
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! […]
A poignant look back at at Manchester Airport as seen through the lens of acclaimed photographer Shirley Baker, thirty years ago, having spent a day at the airport in 1987 capturing the experiences of passengers using the airport. The exhibition includes photos chosen by the public and Manchester Airport staff. As well as capturing various areas of […]
Light up your Saturdays in October - take part in the Diwali lantern parade. Celebrate Dashehra Diwali Mela at our family lantern making workshops. Everyone at the workshops can take part in the main procession on Saturday 14 October. The procession will lead into the spectacular finale performance and firework display in Albert Square. Don’t […]
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 […]
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 […]
Manchester Metropolitan University’s Manchester Fashion Institute is involved in an exciting new project that explores the individual and civic identities of Greater Manchester’s young people through style, fashion and dress. Academics Jo Jenkinson, John Earnshaw and Zoë Hitchen have been working with young people to establish how clothing can be used as a catalyst for self-awareness and personal expression, capturing portraits of […]
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 […]
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. […]
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 […]
THIS EVENT IS FULLY BOOKED When Harriet Harman entered politics, a woman couldn’t sign for a mortgage and jobs were advertised at a lower ‘woman’s rate’. We’ve come a long way since then, but as Harriet shows in her new book, we have longer still to go. Join us for a searching and intimate conversation with the leading Labour […]
From dedicated performance spaces to stairwells, screens, nooks and domes, Central Library might directly inspire your next event or intervention. Contact us to arrange a tour.
