Talk - Uncover Liverpool

Thomas Glave & Stephen Small: In Conversation

Thomas Glave and Stephen Small join Dr Amal Abu-Bakare, Lecturer in the Politics of Race and Decolonial Studies at the University of Liverpool.

Thomas Glave is a Professor in the English Department at Binghamton University, State University of New York, author of five books and editor of Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles. A two-time Fulbright Scholar and honorary visiting professor at the University of Liverpool, he serves on the editorial board of Wasafiri and is a trustee of Writing West Midlands and Peepal Tree Press. His latest essay collection, published by Jacaranda Books, will be out in the autumn.

Liverpool 8 born, Stephen Small is a Professor of the Graduate School in the Department of African Diaspora Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He researches the history and sociology of Black people across the diaspora and his most recent book Black Liverpool: ‘the real thing’. West African, West Indian and Afro-American culture at the end of the twentieth century was published by Liverpool University Press.

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Recapture Book Launch

Recapture is a yearlong publishing mentorship that takes budding writers with previous drug and alcohol dependency or mental health issues through the process of becoming a self-published writer. Within the year we have worked with industry professionals, created community workshops and submitted artist grants in the build-up to a public release and launch of full collections of writing: “Black, White and Rainbow Chaos” by Chloe Jones “Little Life Musings” by N.S G “What ye Doin Today?” by Jaimie Cannon “1095” by Simon Taylor These books will go on sale from the Tuesday 24th November , with all proceeds going towards the writers themselves to continue their craft. The first sale will be at the book launch happening at Make: Hamilton on Tuesday 24^th November, 1-4pm. This day will also have exhibitions from the illustrators, guest music and poetry performances, talks around how to start your writing journey and how to network within the creative writing world, no matter your background or literacy level. This an abstinent celebration of the recovery community of Wirral and is welcome to all! Tickets are free and can be booked through this link, Recapture: Book launch Tickets, Tuesday, November 24 • 1 PM – 4 PM | Eventbrite If you are unable to or have issues with Eventbrite, you can email hannah.weiner@spiderproject.org.uk or call 0151 647 7723 Our first cohort are ready to read extracts from there new publications at this community launch event, and would love to invite yourself, or anyone who you may know that would enjoy this event. If you have any questions, please email hannah.weiner@spiderproject.org.uk or call 0151 647 7723

The Folklore of Halloween

The Folklore of Halloween, a talk by Margaret Holbrook

This talk looks at the history of Halloween and how it ties in with our modern celebrations. Whether that be spooky and an evening for ghosts and ghost stories, to mischief making and finding out who or when you would marry. The Victorians, in the main, found a lot of fun with the latter. Trick or treating is an Americanism that is pretty much settled now with us, but in time, something new might come along and overtake that. The feasts between the end of October and into early November (excepting Bonfire Night) are very similar although don’t get a mention much now. And there are also the religious festivals in the days around Halloween – All Hallows, All Saints, All Souls.

Artist Talk with Becky Beasley

Hear from award-winning artist Becky Beasley as she discusses her practice and her touring exhibition A Gentle Man (Part II) (1975-2029).

Beasley is a visual artist, mentor, educator & autism advocate and works across sculpture, photography and writing. She is Professor of Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, London.

Her practice broadly explores objects and spaces of the everyday, and how we might inhabit them. It is concerned with spatial experience, and particularly the interior. She has developed a practice which explores image and the limits of language; referencing both personal experiences and literary references to capture moments of complexity and ambiguity – some of which are intertwined with her autism diagnosis and human experience in this world.

Free, booking required. Donations welcome

The Umbrella Man and other stories

Fresh from a successful run at the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe, Martin Fitzgerald is now taking his one-man storytelling show on tour.

The show is based on Fitzgerald’s critically acclaimed book of the same name, published by Biteback in April 2026. It was a Radio 4 Pick of the Week and Richard Herring has described it as his favourite book of the year.

The Umbrella Man and Other Stories brings a fresh perspective to one of the most enduring subjects of modern history – the JFK Assassination. Rather than getting bogged down by the usual questions of who and why, Fitzgerald instead chooses to focus on the ordinary people who were caught up in the most scrutinised six seconds of the twentieth century.

A man who opened an umbrella on a sunny day. A dressmaker with vertigo. A woman with a polaroid. The mysterious Babushka Lady. And the three suspicious tramps, arrested shortly after the assassination.

These are the strange, true stories of a small group of accidental bystanders to history, who spent the rest of their lives trying to escape it. The Umbrella Man and Other Stories carefully guides the audience through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, taking them back to 1963 and into the shoes of the people who were present that day.

Combining humour, meticulous research and impeccable storytelling, this gripping show shines a new light on the event – whether it’s your specialist subject or you’re a complete novice.

REVIEWS

“Fitzgerald’s approach is full of humanity.” – Hugh Bonneville, Actor – Paddington and Downton Abbey.

“Smart and restrained.” – Al Murray, Comedian and co-host of We Have Ways of Making You Talk.

“Fascinating.” – Robin Ince, Comedian and Broadcaster

“One of the best things I saw in Edinburgh and taught fascinating things about an event I thought I knew a lot about.” – Sarfraz Manzoor, Writer and broadcaster.

“***** – a gripping, intelligent, and deeply human exploration of one of history’s most infamous moments” – Counter Culture

“***** – witty, fast, and packed with detail” – Scottish Field

“Fitzgerald is a master in the art of storytelling. Highly recommended.” – Fringe Review

ABOUT MARTIN FITZGERALD

Martin Fitzgerald is an author and screenwriter from London. His first book, Ruth and Martin’s Album Club (2017), was a collection of reviews of classic albums written by celebrities upon hearing them for the first time. It featured contributions from Richard Osman, Ian Rankin, Bonnie Greer and many more.

Martin’s particular interest is taking well-worn stories, approaching them from a new angle and finding the comedy and absurdity within them.

Content Advisories

Age recommendation 14+

Under 16s must be accompanied by adult

Contains themes of murder and racism

Live Acts: Performance, Practice and Archives

The Bluecoat is more than an arts centre in an iconic building. It is the story of itself, a story woven from encounters and events, people and practices. A repository of experiences, its archives are material traces of live acts. In this talk, Annabel Little, one of many artists to have been based at the Bluecoat over the years, draws on her research around performative methodologies for developing and documenting creative practice.

As the Bluecoat’s upstairs space enters a new chapter, this event reflects on a history of performance, hospitality and conviviality and introduces a performative approach to exploring the archive.

Free, booking required

TEDx Hope Street

Independently organised under the global TED licence, TEDx Hope Street brings together fourteen remarkable speakers, united not by profession or background, but by one powerful idea worth sharing. Among them are speakers drawn from business, the arts, economy, education, entertainment, science, technology and community life. This year’s theme is Dare to Hope, a provocation, a belief, and an invitation to think differently at a time when optimism can feel like an act of defiance.

But this is not only a day of talks. In a world that feels more divided by the day, TEDx Hope Street is built around a belief that ideas change things, and that the conversations which follow them change things too. Between sessions, there is real time to meet the people alongside you, to sit with ideas, and to find the connections that matter. Reconciliation starts in rooms like this one, between strangers who were willing to listen.

This is also the beginning of something larger. TEDx Hope Street is the first chapter of a planned five-year series, rooted in this city, with an ambition that reaches beyond any single event: to build a growing community of people in Liverpool who share ideas, genuine conversation, and a belief in each other. The people in the room on 6 February will be the first to be part of what we hope becomes a movement.

Seated within the Everyman, on the very street that connects Liverpool’s two great cathedrals, this is a day built for a city that has always known how to hold difficult, important, beautiful ideas.

Tickets are limited.

Full speaker line-up at tedxhopestreet.com.

PRE:FAB!: The Insider Screening

The Story of One Man, His Drums, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison

An exciting opportunity to meet Colin Hall, co-author of PRE:FAB!, the captivating memoir that chronicles his early years as a member of John Lennon’s Quarry Men.

This remarkable story is now being adapted into a documentary, and Colin will share exclusive clips alongside behind-the-scenes anecdotes and insights into its making.

She’s Electric: My Strange But True Story

For ten years Vanessa was the one & only woman working successfully as an electrician in the UK film industry. Shoulder to shoulder with male ‘sparks’ in tough conditions she powered up, turned on and lit some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Her story is funny, nostalgic, true… and its got Alec Baldwin in it.

Peek behind the scenes of iconic movies, be inspired and illuminated! .

Vanessa’s tale is funny, unique, it’s true… and it’s got Alec Baldwin in it!

Content warnings: Sexual threat, drug use, mild swearing.

Black History Month 2026: 1919 Walking Tour

Inspired by Writing on the Wall’s hugely successful Great War to Race Riots archive project and the Black Lives and Legacies 1919 project in association with Liverpool University, this walking tour explores a little-known history in our city’s well documented past. The anti-black riots of 1919 were a watershed moment for Liverpool’s black community, the oldest in Europe.

On the night of 6th June unprecedented racial violence erupted in the modern-day Chinatown area that continued for days as gangs of people, reportedly in the thousands, hunted out “any black man they could find … severely beating and stabbing” them. Black homes and businesses were looted and wrecked as over 700 members of the black community were removed from their homes into the main Bridewell, for their own protection.

24 year old Bermudan sailor, Charles Wotton, tragically lost his life during the riots in what would be reported by newspapers of the time as a ‘lynching’. Official reports on the murder are vague but it is said that Wotton, after being chased by police and a large crowd, either was pushed, thrown or fell into Queens Dock. Once in the dock, Wotton was pelted with rocks by the onlooking crowd until he drowned.

Using official court documents, newspaper reports and images from the time the 1919 Walking Tour traces the events of the 6th June, visiting sites mentioned in official reports as well as the tragic last movements of Charles Wotton. On the tour we will discuss the rise in post-war xenophobia that allowed for the riots as well as the longstanding consequences for Liverpool’s black community.

The tour will be led by Dr Andy Davies BA (Hons), MA, PhD who is a Reader in Human Geography in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Liverpool. His research spans cultural, political and participatory geographies, with a particular focus on the legacies of colonialism.

His book, Geographies of Anticolonialism (Wiley, 2019), explores how South Indian anticolonial activists imagined a world beyond colonial rule. He also works on collaborative projects in India and the UK, partnering with communities, schools and local organisations to explore education, environmental resilience and the ways colonial histories continue to shape places today, including Liverpool. Andy played a key role in the development of the 1919 Walking Tour.

Event type: Talk