Community Post Type: News

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF), the longest running annual festival of Arab arts and culture in the UK, returns for its 23rd year this July.

Founded in 1998, LAAF exists to support and champion creatives from across the Arab region and its diaspora, in the belief that art and creativity have the power to express a shared humanity.

The festival also celebrates Liverpool’s unique identity; a city, with a global community and brimming with artistry, that looks outwards across the world and welcomes and accepts all who arrive within it.

This year’s festival theme is Nostalgia, which will be explored through a diverse range of disciplines, including music, theatre and performance, visual art, literature and film – with the programme culminating at the ever-popular LAAF Family Day.

Nostalgia evokes a longing for the past, both in individual and collective experiences. Whether rooted in childhood memories or recent defining moments, it often has an idealised or romanticised connotation.

Within the Arab world and its diaspora communities, you will find that nostalgia transcends mere sentimentality. Indeed, it translates the need to reclaim and preserve cultural identities, acting as a parallel resistance to the internal changes and surrounding shifts that shape them. Increasingly, MENA artists use the culture of nostalgia to bridge between nations and generations, while unlocking connections of the past and present. Whether by revising treasured memories or revisiting historical narratives, it has become a powerful means for honouring, revival and continuity.

This is the journey LAAF would like to invite audiences on at this year’s festival. From one-person performances and family events to film screenings, a golden music era homage, authentic embroidery and cultural cuisine workshops, talks and literature events; the notion of nostalgia is woven throughout this year’s festival programme, it will undoubtedly resonate with the challenging context we witness today.

At a time when war and violence fill screens on a daily basis, LAAF believes passionately in the ability – and in the freedom – of artists who are documenting and narrating change.

Visit their website here

Goodison Park’s final season as home to Everton Football Club will be documented from a fan’s perspective, through a new photo display opening on 5 April at Museum of Liverpool.

Featuring nine photographers from the club’s fanbase, Goodbye to Goodison is a love letter to the home stadium of Everton Football Club in its final season. The display of photos taken during the final season looks at the relationship between this iconic ground and the loyal fans who congregate around the stadium.

Goodbye to Goodison brings together fan photographers that document the matchday experience at Goodison Park. The photos selected highlight matchdays away from the Premier League glamour – the chippies, pubs, meeting places and family moments shared during the final season.

As the club moves into the next chapter of its rich history, relocating to a state-of-the-art stadium, fans are savouring the final moments in one of the country’s last great football stadiums.

Chris Wardle, co-curator and contributor to Goodbye to Goodison, said: “While a lot of attention is focused on the pitch for Goodison Park’s final season, I wanted to shift our focus to the pre-game experiences and moments that, to me, make this old ground so special.

“The display celebrates the streets, landmarks and establishments that have become an extension of the ground over the years.

“We’re lucky, as a fanbase, to have a talented group of photographers who have taken it upon themselves to document Goodison’s legacy from their own perspective. I am excited to showcase the work of these photographers and pay tribute to one of the great stadiums in world football.”

To mark the final game, museum curators will select an image taken from the final game of the season, capturing the emotion and importance of the final game at The Grand Old Lady.

Karen O’Rourke, curator for sport, music and performance at Museum of Liverpool, said: “Leaving a space for an image from the final game at Goodison Park seems like an important thing to do. We are hoping the photographers involved can capture the emotion that will no doubt overflow before and after the last game. The display pays tribute to a landmark of the city, before the club moves to its new ground on the banks of the River Mersey.”

Goodbye to Goodison opens in Museum of Liverpool’s Skylight Gallery on Saturday 5 April and runs until Sunday 10 August.

On Thursdays throughout the run of the display, visitors will be able to see additional images from the photographers and share their own memories and experiences of going to the match.

Running alongside the display, the museum will release an episode of the NML Podcast talking with staff, ex-players, ex-managers and other important figures who know Goodison Park best. Online a wider selection of photos from around the ground will be available to view.

For more information on Goodbye to Goodison, the photographers and special events, please visit: Liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/Goodison-park.

 

St Helens Theatre Royal is in the running for two top accolades at the UK’s prestigious annual Pantomime Awards this spring.

Not only is Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the theatre’s most successful ever panto production, entertaining more than 37,000 theatregoers over Christmas, but it has now also been recognised by the UK Pantomime Association.

Chantelle Nolan is shortlisted for Best Direction while St Helens Theatre Royal’s sound technician Conrad Kemp is contesting the Best Sound title in the 2025 awards, due to be announced on 13 April. Conrad was also nominated in the same category two years ago.

The UK Pantomime Association was founded in 2021 to explore, share and celebrate pantomime by investigating the genre’s rich past, engaging with contemporary practice and inspiring the future.

Its hotly contested annual awards celebrate the wealth of talent on show at theatres across the country, highlighting the breadth of skill, enthusiasm and hard work of those on and off stage who work tirelessly to deliver first-class entertainment to audiences.

There are 22 categories up for grabs this year, with 52 judges collectively visiting 216 venues and watching almost 500 performances to choose the successful shortlisted nominees.

The winners will be revealed during a special awards evening at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking, staged in partnership with sponsors Trafalgar Entertainment and ATG Entertainment.

The world’s best-loved fairytale is set to cast a spell over St Helens this Easter – and family audiences are being invited to join Cinderella for a right Theatre Royal ball.

The Regal Entertainments production promises an enchanting experience complete with lavish costumes and sets, fantastic choreography and a soundtrack of songs to get you dancing in your seat.

Coronation Street’s Kimberly Hart-Simpson returns by popular demand to reprise the role of the titular heroine in a rags-to-riches story packed with glass slippers, magic pumpkins, a fairytale carriage, outrageous Ugly Sisters and a fabulous Fairy Godmother.

Cinderella tells the story of a beautiful girl reduced to a life of servitude by her two ugly stepsisters.  But all of that is about to change when an invitation arrives for a grand ball at the palace. With a bit of magic, and help from her loyal friend Buttons, Cinderella is transformed into the belle of the ball. But what will happen when the clock strikes midnight?

It runs at St Helens Theatre Royal from 5-21 April 2025. Tickets are on sale now costing from £18.

Tickets can be booked over the phone or in person at the box office between 10am and 5pm, from Monday to Friday. Tickets can also be purchased online. For more information please visit www.sthelenstheatreroyal.com

The Reader is excited to welcome award-winning Barnsley-born poet, novelist and professor Andrew McMillan next Thursday (13 March) where he will be ‘In Conversation’ talking about his critically acclaimed debut novel, Pity.

Is this your first visit to The Reader in Liverpool’s Calderstones Park?

It will be yes, although I lived in Liverpool for a couple of years whilst I worked at Liverpool John Moores University; it’s a lovely city and The Reader is an organization that I’ve always greatly admired!

The Reader has just been celebrating the 30th anniversary of World Book Day – can you name three of your favourite books as a boy/young adult?

Treasure Island was the first book I remember truly loving, I’d get mum to read to me from the Ladybird Children’s Classic edition every time I was off school ill. And then after that Goosebumps books, the Animorphs series as well.

Your award-winning poetry collections physical, playtime, pandemonium and debut novel Pity all have the letter ’P’ in common. Why is this?

I wish there was some deep and meaningful reason; in truth I just enjoy it, it amuses me; I like how they all line up on a shelf next to each other too. There’s something nice, too, in the challenge of finding the exact right word that suits each different project.

You must be delighted with the recognition and excellent reviews from critics Pity has received. What has particularly resonated with you?

It’s been really lovely that a lot of people have understood what I wanted to do and gone along with what isn’t the easiest of novels in terms of form and structure; it’s best to not take on board any reviews really, positive or negative, but I did see one review that mentioned they’d never read anything where someone took such care of a place as I did with Barnsley in Pity, and that felt very special.

Pity seems ripe for a TV adaptation – are there any actors you can imagine playing the main characters, Alex, Brian, Simon and Ryan?

I think Dame Judi Dench should play each one, and we’ll use CGI to put all the versions of her onto the screen together!

You recently coedited the acclaimed anthology 100 Queer Poems (Vintage, 2022) – is this something you felt was an important literary milestone and are there any particular poems or poets’ work which mean a lot to you?

It was such a special thing to be involved in putting together that anthology- it really did feel like an important moment, a bringing together of this real flowering of queer poetry we’ve seen over the last decade, but also a chance to reassert a different canon of queer poetry. So much of the work means so much to me in there, all 100 poems.

I have to say Nathan Walker’s piece, and Joshua Jones’ poem are two that are personal and treasures favourites, and the Ashbery poem we included has one of my all-time favourite lines of poetry: ‘There is nothing to do for our annihilation, except wait in the horror of it, and I am lost without you’,

What’s next for you in 2025…any exciting plans? Another novel? Screenplay?

So, it’s poetry next, in the next year or so, and then after that who knows! If anyone wants a screenplay they can get in touch!

The Reader’s In Conversation with Andrew McMillan will take place on Thursday 13 March, 6pm – 7.30pm, in The Reader Bookshop, Calderstones Park, Liverpool. There will be an opportunity for a Q&A with Andrew and book signings after the talk.

For further information and to book tickets please visit here.

 

Looking for local things to do with your mum in L18 or some ethical gift ideas?

The countdown to Mother’s Day is on. Here are four gift ideas from The Reader in Calderstones Park for Sunday 30 March so you can spoil the first lady in your life or sneak a wish list under your children’s or other half’s noses – and support a local Liverpool-based charity at the same time.

Every week, The Reader – the UK’s biggest Shared Reading charity – brings people together at Shared Reading groups at its home in Liverpool and across the country. Here, people connect and share experiences using stories and poems. There is no pressure to talk or read aloud.

All profits are reinvested into The Reader’s work as a charity providing free Shared Reading groups.

Book a Mother’s Day Roast

Treat mum to a Sunday roast where no one needs to do the cooking or washing up. It will be served in the gorgeous, restored grade II-listed Georgian-style Mansion House set against a backdrop of Calderstones Park in the Spring surrounded by daffodils and trees in bloom. Live music will soundtrack the afternoon.

What’s on the menu? A choice of three starters, two mains of pan chicken supreme or cauliflower steak with all the trimmings then finish off with raspberry Eton mess or chocolate caprice cake. There are mini portions for children.

How much? £40 for three courses or £32.50 for two courses; and for children £15 for three courses or £12 for two.

Book a table here.

6 literary treats for mums

Jamie Barton, Bookshop Manager at The Reader Bookshop in Calderstones Park – one of Liverpool’s independents – has recommended six books for Mother’s Day which include a mix of poetry, prose as well as two new novels to get stuck into and two books celebrating motherhood.

She said: “We suggest a couple of highly anticipated brand-new releases, both are touching and speak to the complexity of human relationships, but in very different ways. We also include two books celebrating memoir and motherhood – real and honest reflections on the joy, anguish and complexities of mother-child relationships.”

Bedside Companion for Gardeners

“A mix of fact and fiction, fantasy and experience, this book is a treasure trove of green-fingered inspiration where practical advice blends seamlessly with poetry and prose from intrepid gardeners past and present. Dip in and out of this collection with an entry for every night of the year that draws on writing through the ages and from across the globe.”

ISBN: 9781849947138

How much? Hardback price: £25

A Poem to Read Aloud Every Day of The Year

“An anthology of 366 poems from around the world and throughout history, all especially selected for reading aloud, with one glorious poem for every day of the year.”

ISBN: 9781849948463

How much? Hardback price: £25

NEW: Three Days in June by Anne Tyler

“A funny, touching, hopeful gem about love, marriage and second chances.”

ISBN: 9781784745752

How much? Hardback price: £14.99

NEW: We Do Not Part by Han Kang

“Like a long winter’s dream, this haunting and visionary new novel from 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang takes readers on a journey from contemporary South Korea into its painful history.”

ISBN: 9780241600269

How much? Hardback price: £18.99

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride

“This is the remarkable story of an eccentric and determined woman: a rabbi’s daughter, born in Poland and raised in the Deep South who fled to Harlem, married a black preacher, founded a Baptist church and put 12 children through college. A celebration of resilience, faith and forgiveness, it is an eloquent exploration of what family really means.”

ISBN: 9780747538325

How much? Paperback price: £10.99

Nobody Told Me by Hollie McNish

“A collection of poems and stories; Hollie’s thoughts on raising a child in modern Britain, of trying to become a parent in modern Britain, of sex, commercialism, feeding, gender and of finding secret places to scream once in a while.”

ISBN: 9780349726571

How much? Paperback price: £12.99

To see this list and further Mother’s Day recommendations from The Reader Bookshop where books can also be ordered online please visit here.

Experience gift ideas for culture lovers

Surprise your mum with a ticket or if your mum lives in the city, close to the park and is a frequent visitor, how about a year-long Calderstones Membership?

Later this spring The Reader is paying tribute to one of English literature’s greatest writers. A special Jane Austen Day celebrating the author’s 250th birthday includes a Georgian-inspired lunch with dishes from Pen Vogler’s Dinner with Jane Austen recipe book, a talk from Lizzie Dunford, Director of Jane Austen’s House in Hampshire and a Pride and Prejudice Shared Reading session.

Date and time: Sunday 27 April 2025, from 10.30am.

How much? £50 including food.

Book here.

If your mum loves live theatre, treat her to a ticket to see one of five newly announced open-air theatre productions for this spring and summer in the restored Art-Deco Garden Theatre in Calderstones Park.

What’s On? Twelfth Night (10 July), Much Ado About Nothing (1 August), Pride and Prejudice (3 August), Pan and the Eternal Wreck (13 August) and HMS Pinafore (21 August).

How much? Adult tickets range from £10 to £18 per person.

Full programme details here.

A Calderstones Membership entitles people to a range of benefits across 12 months, including 10% off food and drink in the cafes (excluding alcohol), books in the Reader Bookshop, the Ice Cream Parlour and tickets for events at The Reader and The Storybarn, as well as priority booking.

How much? £25

Where can I find out more? Visit here.

Gift ideas for green thumbed mums

Is your mum is a beginner or seasoned gardener? Is she is looking to improve her gardening design know-how, learn how to propagate plants or create a wildlife haven? If so, this spring The Reader has joined forces with highly experienced and qualified horticultural experts from Estuary Botanics who will be providing real-life hands-on advice and tuition in three hands-on practical gardening courses. They include:

A one-day workshop on designing and planting vibrant, long lasting and sustainable summer containers.

Date and time: Saturday 5 April, from 10am – 3pm

How much? £45

Book here.

A one-day hands-on plant propagation workshop learning techniques in seed sowing, taking cuttings, and dividing perennials to create new plants for free.

Date and time: Saturday 3 May, 10am – 3pm

How much? £45

Book here.

A six-week wildlife course learning to create a beautiful and sustainable garden from how to find the best spot for a bird box to creating a pond and planting a nectar-rich flowerbed.

Dates and time: Starts Thursday 12 June, 10am – 1pm and runs at the same time every Thursday for six weeks.

How much? £145

Book here.

For further information about The Reader visit here.

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS:

For further information or interview requests, please contact catherinevonledebur@thereader.org.uk

About The Reader

The Reader is a charity that uses the power of literature and reading aloud to transform lives across the UK. Our volunteers and staff bring people together to read great stories and poems – creating powerful moments of connection. We call this Shared Reading.

In a world that feels increasingly divided, and with increased pressures on our mental health, Shared Reading offers us time and space to share what matters to us.

They read with children, families, adults in libraries and community spaces, people in care homes, people with physical and mental health conditions, those coping with or recovering from addiction and people in the criminal justice system. Our work improves wellbeing, reduces loneliness and helps us find new meaning in our lives.

The Reader is supported using public funding by Arts Council England, players of the People’s Postcode Lottery, and Garfield Weston Foundation, as well as The National Lottery Community Fund.

Find out more at thereader.org.uk / @thereaderorg

The Reader – Charity Number 1126806 (SCO43054 Scotland)

In keeping with venues up and down the country, Southport Contemporary Arts’ gallery, the ArtHouse in Eastbank Street, will once again be showcasing a wide spectrum of original and captivating works of artwork during its own eagerly anticipated Spring Open Exhibition.

Co-Director of SCA, Norrie Bewick-Calvert explains the focus for this year’s entries: “The theme is going to be ‘Emerge’, which we thought was an apt one as we move from the gloom into the sunshine.”

Profiling not only SCA members, the SCA Spring Open traditionally also offers the wider artistic community the opportunity to display their own work in the gallery.

SCA already has a reputation for bringing together a range of high quality contemporary art and craft from both emerging and established artists throughout the year and this annual celebratory exhibition will once again celebrate the scope of creativity and artistic talent across the region from Ceramics and Jewellery, to Oil Paintings and Mixed Media Collage.

Norrie confirms: “In this year’s exhibition, open to all artists and makers living and working in Liverpool City Region and Lancashire, we are inviting participants to respond to the theme in their own distinctive way using inventive and original methodologies.  Entrants have been asked to reflect on emerging from our hibernatory Winter mode into a Spring filled with light and a sense of progress. The whole exhibition will create an uplifting and inspirational collection of unique work for all to enjoy. It is always a pleasure to welcome in new work and meet so many creatives, especially at this time of year when we have all been a little cocooned.”

Freelance artist and printmaker, Mike Goodwin from Litherland, who works mainly in pen and ink to bring his detailed humorous graphic illustrations to life, offers his own personal take on this year’s theme: “The protagonist, Teddy, ’emerges’ from his bedroom window to greet the brand new day!”

Teddy Boyle is Mike’s 87 year-old rock ‘n’ roller, who is often seen coiffured with or without his giant wig.

Despite no formal training, Mike was a past winner of the Sefton Open Arts competition and continues to exhibit locally: “My pen and ink drawings often take weeks to complete. I’m not a fast worker and tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, so I have to be quite patient in order to get it right (in my eyes)”.

Leaded glass artist, Margaret Maule, has also been burning the midnight oil preparing her new Tiffany style glass panel for the exhibition: “I have always loved glass, the variety of colours and effects it can create. It’s such an ancient material, which has stood the test of time. My inspiration for it came from a visit to Blackwell House in the Lake District. The Arts and Crafts interior has, in my opinion, not dated in over a hundred years, which is what I wanted to celebrate in my panel. It is called “Blackwell Bloom” and I have used some, not all, handmade glass in its construction.”

Also exhibiting will be Neil Prior, a professional artist from Ainsdale. Neil already has an established track record of commissions in oils, including portraits, still life, landscapes and more recently, his popular, dog portraiture. Hot on the heels of his recent homage to Vermeer solo exhibition – “The Art Detective” – his featured painting, “Eastern Promise”, lives up to its title depicting a mysterious woman’s face seductively ‘emerging’ from beneath an embroidered black headscarf trimmed with silver jewellery.

No stranger to the local art scene, Pauline McNulty has been drawing and painting now for over forty years: “I initially engaged with art through Adult Education in the ‘80s. Since then I have extended the depth and breath of my experience and skills through classes and courses in watercolour, acrylics, life drawing, linocut, silk painting and pastels backed up with extensive academic study”.

The natural world has always provided the stimulation for Pauline’s accomplished technique: “I just love to sketch and paint animals, wildlife and flora”.

In keeping with this year’s theme, Pauline’s pen and wash entry – “Sunflowers and Honey Bees” – depicts a springtime swarm of Honey Bees emerging from their Hive.

Norrie concludes: “We are hoping that visitors will feel uplifted from their visit to the Gallery and that the Artists taking part will feel the positive impact of their creative connectivity, that is such an important part of what SCA sets out to achieve.”

This year’s Spring Open will run from 25^th March until 12^th April at ArtHouse, 65 Eastbank Street, Southport PR8 1EJ.  Opening times: Tuesday – Friday: 10am-3pm & Saturday: 11am-4pm.

The Wirral’s newest record shop, Dig Vinyl in West Kirby, is excited to once again announce its participation in Record Store Day UK on Saturday, April 12th, 2025. This marks the shop’s second year taking part, and after a hugely successful debut last year, the team is ready to go even bigger, bringing even more exclusive releases to the Wirral’s vinyl community.

Record Store Day, which began in 2007, celebrates and promotes the distinctive culture of independent record shops with special vinyl releases made exclusively for the event and stocked only by participating retailers on the day. Over the years, it has evolved into a global celebration of record shops, with thousands of stores taking part across the world, including over 260 in the UK. As the Wirral’s destination for new releases, classic reissues, and all things vinyl-related, Dig Vinyl is looking forward to once again welcoming collectors through its doors for this year’s event.

Dig Vinyl expanded to the Wirral in November 2023, opening its second shop on the bustling Banks Road, just a short walk from the station and a stone’s throw from the beach. This marked a major milestone in Dig Vinyl’s decade-long journey, which began with the opening of its Bold Street shop in Liverpool back in 2014. After years of growth, including three expansions and a big move within Bold Street, the team was thrilled for the chance to bring their love of vinyl to a new corner of Merseyside.

Since opening, the West Kirby shop has been embraced by the area’s vibrant independent retail scene, quickly becoming a go-to spot for both seasoned collectors and those just starting their vinyl journey. The shop carries the same diverse selection of genres, eras, and sounds as its Liverpool counterpart, with an ever-growing range of records spanning new releases, secondhand gems, and rare finds from the US, Europe, Japan, and beyond. With buyers available in-store on most opening days, they’ve also made it easier than ever for vinyl lovers on the Wirral to sell or trade their collections.

Dig Vinyl West Kirby will be open for Record Store Day at 10am on Saturday, April 12th, 2025. Customers are encouraged to drop into the shop with their RSD requests and fill out the Wishlist located at the counter by March 10th. All Record Store Day releases are exclusive to the event and sold in-store on a first-come, first-served basis, so be sure to plan accordingly, as items cannot be reserved or saved.

Although Dig Vinyl’s Bold Street shop will not be participating in the event, they will be marking the occasion with 10% off all secondhand stock at the city centre location.

Dig Vinyl West Kirby: 156B Banks Road, Entrance Via Alexandra Road, West Kirby, CH48 0QB

View the official RSD release list here: https://recordstoreday.co.uk/rsd-list
Find out more about RSD at Dig Vinyl: https://digvinyl.co.uk/blogs/news/rsd2025