Event type: Festival

Gravity Festival

Gravity festival returns with more conversations that matter

Authors Lissa Evans, Katherine May, Kit de Waal and Tony Schumacher headline exciting weekend of events hosted from Liverpool’s Calderstones Park, 29 September – 2 October.

Gravity is a festival for our times that fuses great books and novels with intimate conversations about life’s ups and downs.

This year’s programme – which takes place online and in person – includes talks from guest speakers and wellbeing activities such as poetry walks, yoga and Shared Reading.

Highlights include:

BBC1 ‘The Responder’ writer, Liverpool-born Tony Schumacher in conversation about the personal experiences that inspired the hit show.

Hannah Chukwu, series editor of Penguin’s Black Britain: Writing Black, will be curating one day of yet to be announced events with a panel of brilliant black writers.

Author of New York Times bestseller, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times Katherine May in conversation with researcher of autism and literature Melissa Chapple and Emeritus Professor of Literature and Psychology at the University of Liverpool, Philip Davis (Reading for Life).

Journalist Tomiwa Owalade and founder and director of The Reader, Jane Davis, share their admiration for the clear sightedness and the sometimes-hard truths found in the essays of American writer James Baldwin.

BAFTA-winning television producer, author of novels for both adults and children, Lissa Evans joins Bootle-born screenwriter and author Frank Cottrell-Boyce for a chat on children’s books, imagination, and Lissa’s award-winning novel Wed Wabbit.

Kit de Waal author of international best seller and winner of the Irish Novel prize My Name Is Leon talking about the difficulties and joys of growing up poor and mixed race, and her powerful belief in love and books.

A draw-along with V&A Award winning author and illustrator Jarvis as they talk about his latest picture book The Boy with Flowers in his Hair.

Roosevelt Montas, author of Rescuing Socrates, talks to Neil Atkinson (Anfield Wrap) and Pranav Sood about how, as a Dominican-born teenager in Queens, NY, great books changed his life.

Tickets are on sale here: www.thereader.org.uk/get-involved/gravity-festival

Mandela Freedom Festival

A free festival will take place in Liverpool later this month to celebrate the visit of Nelson Mandela’s family to the city as a new memorial to the revolutionary leader in Princes Park nears completion.

The event is part of a week-long celebration being organised by Toxteth-based charity Mandela8 which commissioned the official memorial.

The afternoon festival – taking place on Saturday 23rd July from 12:30pm until 5:30pm – has been curated by Africa Oyé who recently celebrated their 30th anniversary with their own milestone festival just last month.

The musical offering promises ‘live performances from the best of South Africa and Liverpool talent’ with headline slots from international stars, BCUC and Nkulee Dube. Merseyside will be well represented by Ni Maxine, Sense of Sound Choir, AMBA, Staged Kaos and Stuart B.

The festival will also feature a range of traders selling food, drinks, arts and crafts, as well as free family workshops from the likes of Movema, LFC’s Open Goals Project, Katumba, LUSH, North West Cancer Research and Scouse Flowerhouse and much more.

The Mandela Freedom Festival will take place on Saturday 23rd July 2022 from 12:30pm until 5:30pm. Entrance is free and you do not need a ticket.

For more information on the festival and other events during Mandela Week, visit mandela8.org.uk.

Pride In Liverpool

The Pride in Liverpool festival, will take place at the Pier Head.

2022 is the year that we all “Come Together”. The Liverpool Pride 2022/23 theme has been chosen to represent not only the city region’s LGBT+ community returning to in-person events and much needed connection to each other, but the need to come together as one united community, now more than ever, as we continue to have our rights and freedoms attacked.

Following the annual March With Pride (registrations now open), the free Pride in Liverpool festival, sponsored by Barclays, will centre around the Pier Head.

In keeping with the theme’s ethos of togetherness and collaboration, LCR Pride Foundation is also supporting events in other parts of the region, including St Helens Pride (2nd July) and Pride at the Seaside (27th August), a brand new event in New Brighton, Wirral.

“Come Together” also speaks to the need for the LGBT+ community and its allies in the region to unite, take action and be heard on issues such as hate crime against LGBT+ people, the exclusion of Trans and Non-Binary people from the proposed conversion therapy ban and continued discrimination against the LGBT+ community.

The new campaign year will see LCR Pride Foundation continue to work with partners from across the region to progress its founding aim of making the Liverpool City Region the most LGBT+ friendly in the UK.

For more information on Liverpool Pride and their theme, events, initiatives and organisational activities visit: https://lcrpride.co.uk

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival 2022

This year marks 20 years since the first Liverpool Arab Arts Festival was held in the city. For two decades Liverpool Arab Arts Festival has provided a platform for Arab art and culture, celebrating Arab artists across a range of artforms including music, performance, theatre, literature, spoken word, visual art and more.

The festival theme for 2022 is  نقطة وصل – Nuqtat Wasl – A Point of Connection.

Some of this year’s events include:

Yemen In Conflict Exhibition
Across Liverpool

Original poems written by diasporic Yemeni communities in the UK, and presented in both English and Arabic, will be exhibited across venues in Liverpool during the festival for Yemen in Conflict.

Listings

Yemen in Conflict exhibition
Multiple Venues (see below)
Thursday 7 July – Sunday 17 July Visual art / poetry
Free

Exhibition of original poetry by the Yemeni diaspora communities in the UK across various venues in Liverpool:

  1. Merseyside Yemeni Community Association, 111 Beaumont St, Liverpool L8 0XA. See online for opening times.
  2. Toxteth Library, Windsor St, Liverpool L8 1XF. Opening times: 10am – 6pm Monday and Tuesday. 10am-4pm Saturday
  3. University of Liverpool, School of Law & Social Justice, Liverpool L69 7ZR – Window display
  4. News from Nowhere, 96 Bold St, Liverpool L1 4HY – Window display

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Film Screening: The Stories We Tell
VideOdyssey, 37-45 Windsor St, Toxteth, Liverpool L8 1XE
Sunday 10 July, 4-6:30pm

£5 / Pay What You Can

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival and SAFAR invite you on a tour of contemporary Arab cinema through a diverse selection of short films which explore the 2022 SAFAR festival theme, ‘The Stories We Tell’.

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A.MAL Presents: Working with Family Archives from North Africa
Monday 11 July, 5-7pm
Free Online Talk

Moderated by Jessica El Mal, A.MAL presents a discussion into this topic from the perspective of food historian Salma Serry of Sufra Kitchen, artist Imane Zoubai and media scholar Elodie Sacher.

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Film Screening: The Grave Digger’s Wife
VideOdyssey, 37-45 Windsor St, Toxteth, Liverpool L8 1XE
Tuesday 12 July, 6-8pm
£5 / Pay What You Can

Guled and Nasra are a loving couple, living in the outskirts of Djibouti city with their teenage son, Mahad. They are facing difficult times: Nasra urgently needs an expensive surgery to treat a chronic kidney disease. Guled is already working hard as a gravedigger to make ends meet: how can they find the money to save Nasra and keep the family together? Part of SAFAR Film Festival.

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Arabic Song Workshop with Camille Maalawy
Merseyside Yemeni Community Association, 111 Beaumont St, Liverpool L8 0XA
Thursday 14 July, 6-9pm
£4

Join Mezzo Soprano Camille Maalawy for a choir performance workshop in the heart of Toxteth, the centre of Liverpool’s Arabic community at Merseyside Yemeni Community Association.

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London Syrian Ensemble
Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room, Philharmonic Hall, Hope St, Liverpool L1 9BP
Friday 15 July, 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm
£13 / £10

A stunning collective of eight musicians and graduates from Syria’s renowned Damascus Conservatoire.

Book The London Syrian Ensemble tickets here.

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Working with Family Archives, An Encounter (Online Workshop)
Saturday 16 July, 11am – 1pm
£3 / Pay What You Feel

Jessica El Mal and Elodie Sacher of A.MAL will guide you through a digital space for a fruitful, collaborative exchange about approaches to working with family archives.

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Book Launch & Event: A Journey to Yemen
Merseyside Yemeni Community Association, 111 Beaumont St, Liverpool L8 0XA
Saturday 16 July, 1-4pm Book launch and event
Free

Join for the launch This free celebratory event at Merseyside Yemeni Community Association will launch Yemen in Conflict, a new publication of poetry from diasporic Yemeni communities in the UK, written in both English and Arabic. It will also feature screenings, talks and food.

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Curfew
Unity Theatre, 1 Hope Pl, Liverpool, L1 9BG
Saturday 16 July, 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm Dance performance
£10 / £8 concs

Hawiyya Dance Company and El-Funoun Palestinian Dance Troupe present Curfew, a contemporary dance production. Curfew speaks to a world that is numbed and no longer able to respond to the constant bombardment of news, surveillance and manipulation.

Book Curfew tickets here.

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Family Day
Sefton Park Palm House
Sunday 17 July, 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Free

The return of our closing spectacular at the Palm House featuring British-Somali musician Aar Manta; the return of the trailblazing duo from the Golan heights, TootArd; Hawiyya Dance Company and El-Funoun Palestinian Dance Troupe; Gazelleband; Ali Al-Jamri’s al-Usra wal-Sufra project; children’s storyteller Elias Matar and more.

A free, all day celebration of Arab art, culture and community in the heart of Liverpool the Family Day brings music and performance to the Palm House, along with a series of stalls including Arabic and Middle Eastern food, craft, traditional practices like calligraphy and activities focused on children, like storytelling.

Check out more of the events that have been announced so far at https://www.arabartsfestival.com/2022festival/

Walton Hall Park Big History Event wit...

Join #ArtsGroupie next weekend at Walton Hall Park for this spectacular FREE event.

Creative workshops, including Drama, Arts, Crafts, Shadow Puppetry, and an appearance by their living statue of Kitty Wilkinson. #Community #Heritage #shadowpuppet #oralhistory

Friends of Walton Hall Park have said,

“Everyone is welcome to come along to our FREE big history event. We have lots going on and lots of activities but we also need you and your memories of the park.

Did you play in the park as a child? Do you have photographs that you can give to us or make copies of? We would love to see them and add to Walton hall parks heritage.

We will be bringing back some of the parks history including the Music with a live jazz band. As this event is funded by the Arts Council for the Queens Jubilee you will also be making nature crowns for our very own Walton Kings and Queens. We have shadow puppets, arts and crafts and much more .”

Saturday 12-5pm
Sunday 12-5pm
Sunday 7-9pm evening concert

LIMF 2022

LIMF is back! and this year’s theme is POWER TO THE PEOPLE & PURPOSE.

As society becomes awakened to the need for social justice, equality, equity and true inclusion, LIMF celebrates those trailblazing people, movements and music genres that have changed the game by manifesting that the power is in the people.

LIMF ’22 will forego the mass outdoor multi-stage festival for a curated and more nuanced programme that will take place across city centre at important venues and spaces. Encompassing international and national household names alongside new voices and emerging sounds, the festival takes off from where it left off in 2019, but with a decidedly different ambition.

So who is on the multi-venue, line-up?

British reggae and pop band legends UB40 ft Ali Campbell, iconic American hip hop trio De La Soul, Liverpool royalty The Zutons, one of the hottest new bands around at the moment Red Rum Club, all-female DJ Collective Girls Don’t Sync, critically acclaimed rapper Kojey Radical, electrifying performers House Gospel Choir and the singer behind the unmistakable M People vocals, Heather Small, are among the first acts to be announced for LIMF 2022.

Venues include the M&S Bank Arena, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, the Bombed Out Church (St Luke’s), Invisible Wind Factory, 24 Kitchen Street, District, Arts Club Liverpool and Camp and Furnace.

It’s a mixture of free and ticketed events, and there’s something for everyone with under-18 gigs such as LIMF Presents… The Shubz which will see a host of BBC Radio 1XTRA DJs including Kenny AllStar, Sian Anderson and Cuppy playing the very best in grime and hip hop.

Salaam Festival

Launching this July, Salaam Festival is a brand new Manchester-based biennial – exploring the future of Muslim arts and culture, through a programme of forward-thinking events, groundbreaking showcases and international collaborations.

This artist and community-led festival will present new and original works from across the spectrum of visual art, music, culture, performance, dance, film, discussion and food. The festival will bring together internationally-renowned artists from different art forms and backgrounds to bring progressive, contemporary work to new and existing audiences across Manchester and the World.

The festival will premiere five ‘New Works’, beginning with an immersive opening ceremony ‘Mehfil’. Zaman presents acoustic and visual artistry in sacred forms by Nouredinne Khourchid and Tunisian street artist Mohamed Koumenji aka Koom. Supplementing the performances, award-winning chef Anissa Helou will treat guests to a sumptuous Moroccan-inspired feast.

Among the new works is also a new composition based on the poet ‘Iqbal’ and his work, written and composed by Rushil Ranjan, performed at the Albert Hall by Manchester Camerata with the stunning vocals of Abi Sampa.

Other premieres include a contemporary dance performance titled ‘Muguwa’ from dance choreographer Abdul ‘Abdanger’ Kineyenya and Ârōōr /ǎ, an Afro-Futurist project that tries to imagine the possibilities of a Somali future written and performed by Elmi Ali, directed by Yusra Warsama and produced by Numbi Arts. Plus, a contemporary Islamic garden-inspired installation by Jameel Prize-nominated artist Sofia Karim at Lincoln Square.

The festival will also feature five nights of music at venues across the city centre, free programming in the ‘Medina’ – the festival hub at St Anne’s Square, and a series of daily conversations called ‘Sohbet’ at Portico Library.

Salaam Festival will take place across a variety of Manchester’s most iconic and exciting venues and buildings, from Manchester Cathedral, Albert Hall and The Portico Library, to Band on the Wall and HOME.

Wirral Summer Pops 2022

The Wirral Summer Pops festival in Cheshire welcomes headliners Hue & Cry and local talent Zuzu for 2022.

As the region prepares for a busy cultural season, the hugely popular Summer Pops at Parkgate Cheshire will be returning to the banks of the River Dee for Marquee Week at The Neston Club, formerly known as Neston Cricket Club, On Friday 8th July the venue will be welcoming a host of gifted and popular musical talents to make sure the visiting crowds will be delighted.

The Summer Pops event will be headlined by internationally renowned group Hue & Cry. This award-winning and bestselling duo, featuring brothers Patrick and Gregory Kane, took the music scene by storm in the eighties, after their first single ‘Labour of Love’ made the Top 10 in 1987.

Hue & Cry then enjoyed a series of hits including ‘Looking for Linda’ and ‘Violently’ which formed a part of their successful album releases during the decade. The band have continued to record and play live ever since, having now sold in excess of two million records worldwide. 

 

Pint of Science Festival 2022

Tickets are now on sale for the world’s largest festival of public science talks that will see University researchers take to the stage in venues across Liverpool this May.

The Pint of Science festival is returning to Liverpool for the first time since 2019 following two years of online events.

The three-day festival, which takes place between 9-11 May, has seen a huge growth in popularity since it started ten years ago, with events in over 25 countries and hundreds of cities around the world.

Twenty-seven Liverpool researchers will be showcasing some of the latest, exciting research happening at the University through a unique line up of talks, demonstrations and live experiments. Talk topics this year include the future of healthcare and work, gut microbes, cancer, air pollution, climate change, Covid-19 research and much, much more.

The festival is being staged at city-centre venues Leaf on Bold Street, Tempest on Tithebarn and The Long Shots.

Tickets cost £5 each and are available from the Pint of Science website.

For the full programme and booking details please visit: https://pintofscience.co.uk/events/liverpool

Beckett: Confined

The University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies and University of Notre Dame in association with Unreal Cities is pleased to present Beckett: Confined, a three-day festival of Samuel Beckett’s plays, associated musical performances and lectures.

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) was one of the 20th century’s most celebrated playwrights and authors, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. His works examine what it means to be human, in all its absurd, existentialist and sometimes bleak comedy.

The programme presents an exciting blend of Beckett’s work, including multiple performances of some of his most rarely performed plays – Ohio Impromptu, Catastrophe, and Krapp’s Last Tape, alongside a musical series featuring Words and Music, his radio play collaboration with Morton Feldman, and a Ghost Trio concert with Fidelio Trio performing Beethoven and Schubert, two of his favourite composers.