You may have been living on a prayer that our super popular Silent Disco was ever going to return, but we were never gonna give you up! If you're desperate to strut your funky stuff to the best retro pop, rock and soul, Central Library is the place you wannabee. Since you've been gone, the […]
This unique collection of photographs shows aspects of life in Cheetham Hill and Salford in the 1950s and 60s. There are images of whit walks , shops, factories, schools, family snaps, products and fashions of the period. There are also photo's of the diverse migrant communities who came to live in Cheetham Hill and their […]
Photographer Ian Smith presents this exhibition with the objective of raising awareness of prostate cancer in the under-represented. It focuses on the lack of understanding of how prostate cancer affects minority groups. The message is aimed at the general public to dilute the stereotyping of ‘the under-represented section of the population – groups with cultural […]
The history of Caribbean Carnivals is much more complex than many realise. Carnival has origins based in colonialism and religious conversion, but it has now become a festival and celebration tied to freedom and emancipation from slavery. Learn about how established African-Caribbean communities transferred the traditions associated with carnival to Manchester as we explore the […]
On 4 June 1976, the Sex Pistols played for the first time in Manchester at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. The gig is seen as the catalyst for the Manchester music scene which followed. Paul Welsh was the only person there on the night taking photographs, which have since been sold world-wide through Getty Images. […]
Two award-winning stars of Irish writing join us to discuss their acclaimed novels. Jan Carson’s The Raptures is a playful, inventive whodunnit set in the small town of Ballylack. Hannah’s classmates are dying of a mystery plague to which she’s immune. As each of the dead children visit her, Hannah begins to question her religious upbringing as […]
‘I live with the dread that one day when my young muscles rebel, can take no more stillness and the brutal confinement of my very self, I will stand and strip naked and burst out of my skin.’ Without Warning and Only Sometimes is Kit de Waal’s memoir of a childhood of opposites and extremes. Raised in […]
It's 1746 and Georgian London is not a safe place for a young Black man, especially one who has escaped slavery. So how does Charles Ignatius Sancho meet the King, write and play highly acclaimed music, become the first Black person to vote in Britain and lead the fight to end slavery? In his captivating debut novel, The Secret […]
One family, four decades, four funerals, one unfulfilled promise. Winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, Damon Galgut joins us to discuss his masterpiece The Promise, a gripping, beautifully written family saga based around a farm in South Africa. Through the members of the Swart family, Damon explores personal and political change as the family splinters and […]
The bestselling and much-loved author of Brick Lane, Monica Ali visits MLF to celebrate her brilliant new novel Love Marriage, her first book in a decade. Yasmin’s engaged to fellow Junior Doctor Joe, but when they bring the two families together – one love-matched, long-married Bengali immigrants who thrive on home cooking and the other a single white […]
Award-winning BBC broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake brings a defibrillator to our ailing ability to connect through conversation. In Let’s Talk: How to Have Better Conversations, Nihal considers what’s happened to discourse, both public and private, over recent years. How Brexit, lockdown and social media have led to division, monologues, and a lack of in-person discussions. Through skills honed by […]
From Millworkers to Millennials: paintings, drawings and screen prints by Jean Hobson When Jean Hobson started drawing Manchester’s old buildings in 2007, she did not realise she was charting a pivotal moment in the City’s history. This new body of work explores the story of Manchester’s second renaissance. It looks at how the city’s rich […]
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.
