Library Live

Caroline Criado Perez: Invisible Women
2019-10-06 16:30 - 18:00 UTC | Performance Space
Manchester Literature Festival presents…
It really is a man’s world. In her latest book Invisible Women, writer and feminist campaigner Caroline Criado Perez (Do It Like a Woman) considers how the perspective we have of the world has been recorded and shaped by men, leaving silence and gaps when it comes to the stories and needs of women. From the temperature in the office and the height of shelves, to smartphones and fitness monitors, work-related cancers and crash-test dummies, Caroline reveals how the data bias impacts in hidden ways on women’s health, well-being and how we live our everyday lives.
Caroline’s most notable campaigns have included getting Jane Austen – the first woman other than Queen Elizabeth II – to appear on Bank of England banknotes, and successfully campaigning for a statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett to be erected in Parliament Square. Caroline will be in conversation with host Alex Clark.
For tickets call the MLF box office on 0843 208 0500 or use the link below

Cathy Newman: Bloody Brilliant Women
2019-10-06 14:00 - 15:30 | Performance Space
Manchester Literature Festival presents…
Bloody Brilliant Women, Channel 4 journalist Cathy Newman’s fascinating history of British women, asks two important questions: what were the sources of female power in the 20th century?, and what have women used this power to achieve? Cathy introduces us to women who’ve been long overlooked – from bookbinder Emma Paterson (founder of the Women’s Protective and Provident League) to engineer Beatrice Shilling, who invented a brass collar to prevent fuel flooding RAF plane engines. From journalist Claudia Jones (founder of Notting Hill Carnival) to those who are leading the march onwards in the 21st century. Cathy will be in conversation with host Alex Clark.
For tickets call the MLF box office on 0843 208 0500 or use the link below

Dashehra Diwali Lantern Making Workshops
2019-10-05 00:00 - 2019-10-12 23:59 | City Library
In preparation for the Dashehra Diwali celebration on 12 October, we will be holding lantern making workshops for those wishing to be a part of the lantern parade on the evening of 12 October.
There are three sessions to choose from –
Saturday 5 October 11am–1.30pm
Saturday 5 October 2 – 4pm
Saturday 12 October 1 – 5.30pm
Free event. Suitable for ages 7+, places are limited.

Clementine Ford: Boys Will Be Boys
2019-10-04 19:00 - 20:00 | Performance Space
Manchester Literature Festival presents…
‘The status quo might revere men as a class, but it destroys them as individuals.’ In Boys Will Be Boys, Australian feminist Clementine Ford’s furious and funny new book, she considers why toxic masculinity isn’t just bad for women, it’s also bad for men and boys. Through research, culture and anecdotes, Clementine looks at our approach to gender, and how it represses children and the adults they become. Rather than discussing how to arm and protect girls, Clementine flips the question and asks how should we protect boys from masculine stereotypes and raise them to be feminist allies? Hosted by Anita Sethi.
For tickets call the MLF box office on 0843 208 0500 or use the link below

Word Central Open Mic Poetry and Spoken Word
2019-10-03 18:00 - 20:00 | Performance Space
Hosted by Paul Neads with special guest poet Gerry Potter.
October’s guest Gerry Potter is a poet, playwright, director, actor, and both creator and destroyer of the infamous gingham diva, Chloe Poems. A favourite son of Manchester and his home town 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 published works are included in both the poetry and philosophy collections at Harvard University. Gerry (and Chloe) has nine collections of poetry and plays published by Flapjack Press, the most recent being Manchester Isn’t the Greatest City in the World: The Rise and Rise of The Bourgeois Zeitgeist (2018). A new collection is due in 2019.
You can book your open mic slot from Thursday 12th September via mail@flapjackpress.co.uk.
N.B. Open mic slots are 3 minutes maximum and allocated on a ‘first come first served’ basis. If the open mic slots are already filled you will be offered a space on the reserve list.
In association with Flapjack Press and Manchester Library & Information Service.
www.flapjackpress.co.uk | www.facebook.com/WordCentral | www.twitter.com/@WordCentralMcr
Manchester Central Library, St. Peter’s Square, Manchester M2 5PD. 6pm – 8pm [doors open 5.30pm] – Free Entry.

Food Mania!
2019-10-03 17:30 - 19:00 | Performance Space
Let our expert Speed Mentors help you turn your new food business into a tasty success

The UK’s food and drinks sector is going from strength to strength with developments in street food and markets, pop-up catering, hospitality and myriad innovative new product launches all contributing to our growing reputation as a nation of foodies. With almost 7,000 micro, small and medium businesses in the food and drinks manufacturing sector last year, there’s certainly no shortage of new brands eager to take a bite out of the market.
Whether you’ve got an idea for a new product or service that will shake-up the sector, or you’re already small business owner in the sector with ambitions to take a bigger piece of a profitable pie, don’t miss this opportunity to chat to our seasoned food sector experts.
This fun and informal event brings together a team of experts in the food, drink and hospitality sectors to provide insight, support and guidance on everything from funding to flavour, product to packaging and seasoning to sales!
Mentors include:
Edwin Booth CBE, Chairman & CEO of Booth’s supermarkets
Emma Wren from Geordie Seoul, Korean street food
Joe Harper from Just Bee Drinks
Jason Bailey from Grub Manchester
Yetti Tabai, founder of Yetti’s Kitchen (Caribbean fusion restaurant) and author of Food Business From Home
Claire Kelsey from Ginger’s Comfort Emporium
Rachel Gilkes, Senior Enterprise Co-ordinator Back On Track
Nick Jeffs from Plant Meats Food
Alex Shaw from Kickback Coffee
If you’re a food business owner with an appetite for success, don’t miss this event.

Swinging 60's Party
2019-09-28 13:00 - 15:00 | Performance Space
SORRY, THIS EVENT IS NOW SOLD OUT.
You are invited to a poptastic afternoon celebrating Older People’s Day and everything 1960’s..

Featuring the fabulous Poppy Holiday!
Downtown
These Boots are made for Walking
My Boy Lollipop
Stupid Cupid
Jimmy Mack
and many more…
So get your beehives perfected, platforms polished and get ready to shimmy, twist, frug and hitch-hike the afternoon away!
Tickets are limited so please book early by calling us on 0161 234 1932.
GROOVY BABY!

Banned Books Week: Walled In
2019-09-23 19:00 - 20:30 | Seminar Suite, Floor Two
THIS IS A LIVE SCREENING FROM THE BRITISH LIBRARY
Writers consider walls in literature and in our lives
With David Hare and Ben Okri. Chaired by Samira Ahmed.
David Hare is a playwright and film-maker. He has written over thirty plays which include Plenty, Racing Demon and Skylight. His many screenplays include The Hours, The Reader and the Worricker trilogy.
Ben Okri is a poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer and playwright. His novels include the Booker Prize-winning The Famished Road, the first in a trilogy, and The Freedom Artist, published in 2019.
Samira Ahmed is a freelance journalist, writer and broadcaster at the BBC, where she has presented Radio 3’s Night Waves and Radio 4’s PM, The World Tonight, and Front Row. She presents the Intelligence Squared podcast ‘How I Found My Voice’.
This is a Banned Books Week event in partnership with the British Library, English PEN, Free Word, Hachette UK, Index on Censorship, Islington Council’s Library and Heritage Service, Libraries Connected, Media Diversified and The Publisher’s Association.

THE MINISTRY OF LOST AND FOUND
2019-09-14 11:00 - 16:00
A LONG, LONG TIME AGO, THE GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONED THE MINISTRY OF LOST
& FOUND — A SECRET DEPARTMENT TASKED WITH PROTECTING THE MOST CURIOUS AND PRECIOUS OBJECTS EVER LOST OR FOUND.
Calling all secret agents, the Ministry has been thrown into chaos and Frankie Found needs your help to find Leo Lost. Frankie has called everyone she knows, and Leo still can’t be found!
Since the Ministry’s 123rd anniversary in 2018, Leo hasn’t been seen and we think he’s somewhere in Central Library. Is he lost, hiding somewhere or has something more mysterious happened? All in all, we need your help on the mission to find him!
Join Frankie and all our Ministry friends for quests, adventures, fun and games on an expedition around Central Library. For one day only, not to be missed!
P.S. With so much to see, do, make and play, you’ll most certainly find an appetite along the way. So, don’t forget your picnic and stay for the day.
FREE FAMILY EVENT, NO NEED TO BOOK*
*some activities have limited capacity and required booking on the day at the venue.

Walk Without Fear
2019-09-13 08:00 - 2019-10-12 17:00 | Lower Ground Floor Link
MAG (Mines Advisory Group), a Manchester-based landmine clearance charity, is celebrating 30 years of life-saving work across the globe. The Walk Without Fear exhibition tells the stories of people affected by landmines in Angola, and MAG’s campaign for a world without landmines by 2025.

Spy Kids
2019-09-10 18:00 - 20:00 | Performance Space
Spy Kids, the last feature Robert Rodriguez ever shot on film, tells the tale of Carmen and Juni Cortez who must save their parents from danger upon discovering they are secretly ex-spies. The 2001 film, which features stars such as Antonio Banderas, Alan Cumming and Danny Trejo, grossed more than triple its budget at the worldwide box office and resulted in a memorable trilogy.
Join us for a special screening introduced by film journalist and self-proclaimed Spy Kids fanclub president Millicent Thomas, to celebrate the unique creativity of this modern classic.
Doors open at 5:30pm. Film starts at 6pm.

Libertalia
2019-09-10 08:00 - 2019-10-12 17:00 | Lower Ground Floor Exhibition Space
On the anniversary of Peterloo, we want to transport you to the world of ‘Libertalia’ a place where all are free and equal, a ‘way of being’ the people of Peterloo wanted so much for Manchester.
‘Libertalia’ was a city founded by Madagascan pirates in the 17th century. Here the pirates acted as “vigilant guardians of the people’s rights and liberties” against wage labour and capitalism. 100 years later the people of Peterloo became the just same guardians for Manchester, their actions heralding a new era towards social justice.
This exhibition will see Manchester as the new ‘Libertalia’. Weaving tales of ‘liberty’ guardians and launching a new manifesto to help set ourselves free.
Led by an international collective of artists, educators and academics from three continents formed in 2017 to protest the gender gap. Coordinated by Isabel-Alexis productions and Huddersfield University. With the support of Canadian Connections.
Photo: Libertalia Pirate House 2 by Isabel Lagos
Free – please drop in

Treasures of Manchester Central Library: two Nuremberg Chronicles (1493) and their early modern readers’.
2019-09-09 13:00 - 14:00 | Seminar Suite, Floor Two
Dr Nina Adamova presents ‘Treasures of Manchester Central Library: two Nuremberg Chronicles (1493) and their early modern readers’.
The talk will explore the most famous early-printed world chronicle – the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel (1493). The presentation will focus on how the Nuremberg Chronicle was read and perceived in Europe in the age of Reformation, featuring two copies held by Manchester Central Library. The both books bear the marks of being read and used by several readers, representing different reading practices in early modern Europe.
Dr Nina Adamova is an Associate Professor at St Petersburg State University and a Visiting Fellow of the British Academy at Manchester Metropolitan University. She specialises in early modern cultural and religious history, with a special focus on the book history and reading. Her current research project ‘Reading sacred history in Reformation Europe’ explores how people in early modern Europe used to read and interpret the books on church history.

Word Central Open Mic Poetry and Spoken Word
2019-09-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Performance Space
Hosted by Melanie Rees with special guest poet copland smith.
copland smith, a mathematician and ecologist, is a poet (three times being amongst the runners-up in The National Poetry Competition), fiction writer, songwriter, playwright, translator, essayist, naturalist and photographer. Born and adopted in Liverpool, brought up in Wallasey and North Wales, he now lives in Manchester, where he runs Manchester Poets.
Open mic slots for September are fully booked, but to get your name on the reserve list please email mail@flapjackpress.co.uk.
In association with Flapjack Press and Manchester Library & Information Service.
www.flapjackpress.co.uk | www.facebook.com/WordCentral | www.twitter.com/@WordCentralMcr
Manchester Central Library, St. Peter’s Square, Manchester M2 5PD. 6pm – 8pm [doors open 5.30pm] – Free Entry.

Colson Whitehead
2019-08-28 19:00 - 20:15 | Performance Space
‘You can change the law but you can’t change people and how they treat each other.’ American author Colson Whitehead won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Underground Railroad. We’re thrilled to welcome him with Manchester Literature Festival to discuss his stunning new novel The Nickel Boys. In Jim Crow era Florida, teenager Elwood Curtis is about to start taking advance classes at college when he’s prosecuted for a crime he didn’t commit. Sent to Nickel Academy reform school, Elwood tries to hold on to the words of Martin Luther King, but soon he has to learn how to survive in a school that’s trying to break him. Colson Whitehead will be in conversation with author Dave Haslam.
Image copyright: Chris Close

Queer August - remarkable stories that made Manchester and Global Pride possible
2019-08-23 18:00 - 20:00
Queer August – remarkable stories that made Manchester and G Pride possible
The huge, inclusive success of the global Gay Pride was made possible by extra-ordinary people standing-up and being counted in the ongoing struggle for fairness and truth that is the human rights movement. Those extra-ordinary people are rarely acknowledged then and especially now that the political, legislative and cultural momentum has picked-up. Those inspirational queer pioneers now marginalised by professional politicians seeking popularity, powerful commercial interests carving-up their shares of the ‘pink pound’, all falling over each other to jump on the ‘respectable’ parts of the queer bandwagon. A deliberate silence has fallen on the courageous journey and stories of those extra-ordinary people and their/our supporters.
Queer August on the eve of Manchester Pride is an attempt to shine light and provide insights into the remarkable history that got us here: a celebration of our still hidden queer past. Paul Fairweather a pioneer of Gay Politics in the city from the 1970s will give a short introduction to the hard-fought campaigns to get the first local government funded Gay Centre built in All Saints, Manchester.
The second speaker will chart the journey within her workplace and trade union to get employers and her union (UNITE the Union) to recognising and now increasingly embracing the Trans agenda.
After a short break Inkbrew Productions, will present a read-through of “The Lesbian Liberator” a dramatisation of when in 1978 the Burnley bus driver Mary Winter was sacked for wearing a Lesbian Liberator badge at work. The play looks at the reactions to the sacking and the role of the emerging women’s movement in supporting the reinstatement campaign.
By showcasing this brief insight into the extra-ordinariness of the remarkable stories that made Manchester and Global Pride possible the hope is that more people will better understand the wonderful, remarkable and sheer hard work over decades that made it all possible.
Manchester Central Library, St Peters Square, City Centre, M2 5PD
Friday 23rd August 2019
Doors Open and light refreshments served 6pm
Start 6:15 pm
Finished time to 7:45pm
Ticketed seats can only be held until 10 minutes before the commencement of the event. Any unclaimed ticketed places will be offered to the last minutes unticketed.

LGBT Foundation Archive Handling Session: Pride Special
2019-08-22 12:00 - 14:00 | Archives+ Ground Floor
Celebrate Pride with us at this special archive handling event with our wonderful LGBT Foundation volunteers.
Free – please drop in

Ellen's Longest Night
2019-08-17 14:00 - 15:30 | Performance Space
Ellen’s Longest Night dramatises the amazing life, thoughts and achievements of “Red” Ellen Wilkinson: one of Manchester and Britain’s best loved, most iconic, personalities.
From poverty stricken Ancoats to one of the world’s most influential women, we visit great events in Ellen & our city’s history. Particularly 7th November 1923 at The Free Trade Hall– built on the site of Peterloo. 3000 Mancunians crowd in to see two extraordinary, charismatic politicians. Ellen, stunted by poverty and illness, yet commanding a fierce intellect and fun loving empathy that endeared her to the public. A relentless commitment to social justice and female equality making her our first woman Minister for Education & Shapurji Saklatvala. Scion of the fabulously wealthy Tata dynasty of India. Politicised by the terrible lives of Manchester workers, “Sak” was elected as Britain’s only Communist MP in October 1922. Later imprisoned for incitement in a Trafalgar Square speech for the General Strike 1926; banned from his birth land India and had a Spanish Republican Regiment named after him.
During the performance there will be AV elements with Images and video of the great events with which they were involved.
Written & Directed by Nakib Narat who previously worked with Royal Exchange Theatre, Home, BBC Radio 4 and Granada Television.
Ages: 13+

Peterloo Page and Screen. Professor John Belcham and Dr Jacqueline Riding In Conversation
2019-08-15 18:00 - 19:00 | Performance Space
Historians Jacqueline Riding and John Belchem explore the events and characters behind Mike Leigh’s epic feature film ‘Peterloo’ and the process of transferring history from books and archives to the big screen.

Jacqueline Riding was the production historian and head of research on Mike Leigh’s ‘Peterloo’ (2018) and author of the highly acclaimed tie-in narrative history ‘Peterloo: The Story of the Manchester Massacre’ (hardback 2018, paperback May 2019) described by The Guardian as “Gripping … quite simply magnificent: splendidly researched, thoroughly well written, and very difficult to put down.” She is also the author of the award-winning ‘Jacobites: A New History of the ’45 Rebellion’ (Bloomsbury 2016) and is currently writing a biography of William Hogarth.
John Belchem is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Liverpool, chair of the Society for the Study of Labour History and a member of the Mayor’s Task Force for the Liverpool World Heritage Site. He has published and broadcast extensively on the history, culture and character of his adopted city where he aspires to the title of honorary scouser. The bicentenary of Peterloo, however, has prompted him to return to his initial area of research expertise: popular radicalism in the early 19th century. His biography of ‘Orator’ Hunt: Henry Hunt and English working-class radicalism, first published in 1985, was reprinted in 2012. For those prepared to sit through to the bitter end, you will notice his name in the credits for Mike Leigh’s ‘Peterloo’.
Image: Jacqueline Riding speaking to the “Manchester Female Reformers” during filming of ‘Peterloo’. Photo: Simon Mein © Thin Man Films
Free – booking required

Peterloo Film Screening
2019-08-15 13:00 - 16:00 | Performance Space
Join us for relaxed screenings of the Peterloo Film every month from June – August.
The Peterloo Massacre was a defining moment in British democracy which also played a significant role in the founding of The Guardian newspaper. Written and directed by Mike Leigh, Peterloo is an epic portrayal of the events surrounding the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter’s Field in Manchester turned into one of the bloodiest and most notorious episodes in British history. Each month we’ll be screening Mike Leigh’s Peterloo to mark 200 years since this watershed moment.
Suitable for ages 12+
Pay what you can – £3 / £5 / £8

Greenham Women Everywhere
2019-08-14 12:00 - 16:00
This year, The Heritage Lottery Fund South West funded a partnership project between Scary Little Girls and The Heroine Collective to gather the in-depth oral testimonies of almost 100 Greenham Women. The team have travelled up and down the country interviewing the women, taking original photographs and collecting material from a variety of archives. This exhibition offers an intimate look at the sights and sounds of the camp, gives voice to these radical women and asks you what change you want to see in the world.

A partnership project between Scary Little Girls Association and The Heroine Collective. Funded by Heritage Lottery South West. Supported by The University of The West of England in Bristol, Cornwall Council, Falmouth University, The Women’s Library at The London School of Economics, The East End Women’s Museum, Goldsmiths University of London, The Hypatia Trust, The Feminist Library, the UK Parliament Vote 100 Project and Dreadnought South West.
Images supplied by Sandie Hicks for Exeter Women for Peace
Free – please drop in

1819-1981 Exhibition
2019-08-13 09:00 - 17:00 | Performance Space
Linda Brogan, Excavating The Reno, who excavated the Reno cellar club in Moss Side MCR, and Manchester Histories have joined forces to present 1819 – 1981. This one day exhibition (running on Sat 15 June, Thurs 18 July and Tues 13 Aug) will tell the stories of the memoirs of police and communities from the 1981 Moss Side riots to give voice to the long dead 1819 Hulme Hussars and the Peterloo protesters.
At the end of each day people will be invited to have discussions about the issues provoked by the exhibition, and the Peterloo story of deprivation, laws, the people’s journey to fight for their rights, the conflict, aftermath, and how it relates to today.
Free – please drop in

In Conversation with Carolyn O’Brien
2019-08-10 14:00 - 16:00 | Performance Space
Carolyn O’Brien’s novel, The Song of Peterloo tells the powerful story of Manchester mill-worker, Nancy Kay. Desperate to provide for her ailing mother and sensitive son, Nancy is drawn into the agitation for reform. But as she risks everything to attend a great assembly on St Peter’s Field, Nancy is unaware the day will go down in history not as triumph, but as tragedy; the Peterloo massacre.
Carolyn will be in conversation explaining her inspiration for the novel and exploring its central theme of change, as well as taking questions and book-signing.
Carolyn was born and brought up in Manchester and studied English at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge before qualifying as a solicitor. Her short stories have appeared in a number of anthologies, magazines and on-line. The Song of Peterloo is her debut novel. It is published by Legend Press on 1 August 2019.

The Song of Peterloo: A Performance
2019-08-08 17:00 - 19:00 | Performance Space
Carolyn O’Brien’s novel, The Song of Peterloo tells the powerful story of Manchester mill-worker, Nancy Kay. Desperate to provide for her ailing mother and sensitive son, Nancy is drawn into the agitation for reform. But as she risks everything to attend a great assembly on St Peter’s Field, Nancy is unaware the day will go down in history not as triumph, but as tragedy; the Peterloo massacre.
A result of a collaboration between Carolyn O’Brien and fellow Mancunians – composer, Shane Cullinan and soprano, Claire O’Brien – The Song of Peterloo: a Performance will combine readings from the novel with music from the time, together with newly-created work inspired by Nancy’s story and the brave reformers of 1819.
As the therapeutic power of music unites two of the novel’s central characters, the performers will be joined on piano by Brigitte Schwarting, a therapist from Nordoff Robbins, the national music therapy charity. The event is held in aid of this remarkable charity. Carolyn will be signing copies of the book after the performance.

Peterloo Poems by Manchester People
2019-08-06 14:30 - 19:30 | Performance Space
Join us for this special event where we’ll have poets reading their own poems on the themes of Peterloo, with an audience to cheer them on.
Or if you are a mum with a young child bring them in the afternoon to our fun rhyming session ‘We’re Going to St Peters Fields.’
This event is organised by Seven Arches Publishing

The International ArtActivistBarbie Flashmob Day
2019-08-03 10:00 - 16:00 | Performance Space
Come and see Central Library transformed into the International ArtActivistBarbie FLASHMOB DAY headquarters. Featuring “ArtActivistBarbie”, an activist who draws attention to inequality and injustice by posing in museums and galleries around the globe. See her work on Twitter @BarbieReports.
The space will live stream “ArtActivistBarbie” in action, as it happens across 72 countries. Everyone can post photographs of their activism on a special Twitter hashtag for the day.
“ArtActivistBarbie” workshops:
11am – 1pm – Book Now
2pm – 4pm – Book Now
You can also drop in and join the “ArtActivistBarbie” workshops to become an activist for the day. We will take “ArtActivistBarbie” into Manchester’s cultural spaces to pose for pictures, ask questions and make a comment. Feel free to bring your own activist doll along.
Led by an international collective of artists, educators and academics in partnership with NSEAD and InSEA (International Society for Education through Art). By activist Sarah Williamson, University of Huddersfield. With the support of Canadian Connections.
Photo: ArtActivistBarbie by Sarah Williamson
Free – no booking required

The Road to Peterloo
2019-08-01 18:00 - 19:30 | Performance Space
Musical concert performance of street ballads written around the time of the Peterloo Massacre, telling the story of the underlying circumstances, the events of the day, and the aftermath. Songs are performed by folk musicians Pete Coe, Brian Peters and Laura Smyth, with a variety of acoustic instruments.

A Black Kingdom May Take The Place Of The White One
2019-07-30 18:00 - 19:00 | Performance Space
‘A black kingdom may take the place of the white one’ – Henry Christophe I and The Kingdom of Hayti (1811-1820)
A talk by Marlene L. Daut, Associate Professor, University of Virginia.
On 1 January 1804, an army led by formerly enslaved Africans in the French colony of Saint-Domingue declared themselves independent and free of slavery forever. The leader of these revolutionaries, General Jean Jacques-Dessalines, had succeeded in defeating Napoléon Bonaparte’s famous army, the largest expedition to ever set sail from France. But in October 1806, Dessalines, who had declared himself to be the Emperor of the newly renamed Haiti, was assassinated by political rivals. Following this, the country would be divided into two separate states. General Henry Christophe established himself as president of the northern part of Haiti, while General Alexandre Pétion governed a completely separate republic in the southern and eventually the southwestern parts of Haiti. However, in March 1811, President Henry Christophe surprised everyone when he named himself King Henry I. Haiti’s first and only kingdom subsequently attracted the attention of the world.
As part of Manchester Histories 2019, this talk will explore how the leader of a modern black kingdom, 4,000 miles away from England, fought for and helped establish freedom for the Haitian people, in the same era of revolutionary upheaval and state violence that led to the Peterloo Massacre.
Free – booking recommended

Peterloo Liberty Cap Workshop
2019-07-27 12:00 - 16:30 | Performance Space
Help revive the Peterloo liberty cap as a symbol of freedom and democracy by making your own with professional artists Paul Fitzgerald and Eva Schlunke.
These will then become part of a sea of raised liberty caps for a mass participation art event during the August 2019 Peterloo Bicentenary commemorations in Manchester.

Retro Silent Disco
2019-07-26 20:00 - 2019-07-27 00:00 | Performance Space
GET UP, STAND UP, STRUT YOUR FUNKY STUFF!
The Retro Silent Disco is back by popular demand this July, Dance the night away in the brilliant Central Library to classic hits from the seventies, eighties and nineties. Bar open all evening.
Doors Open 8pm. 18 and over.
