Join local author Jude Lennon at Allerton Library for –
A reading of her new book ‘Lamby and the Liver Bird’Q & A with Jude.Some crafts and colouring sheets related to the book.
Signed copies of the book will be available to purchase.
Event type: Talk
Meet the Author
Meet local author Jude Lennon at ALDOUS BOOKS.
Here Jude read her new book ‘Lamby and the Liver Bird’. See how many local landmarks you recognise.
Signed copies available to buy on the day.
Colouring sheets to take away.
Beyond the Screen: The Art of Programming – with Rose Butler (Picturehouse)
Ever wondered how cinemas choose the films they screen? Or why some great films never make it into festivals?
Join us for The Art of Programming, a one-off workshop with Rose Butler, one of Picturehouse’s national programmers and former curator at Sheffield’s Showroom Cinema.
This two-hour session explores what it means to curate for cinema, how programmers think, how screenings are shaped, and what makes a film stand out from a programming perspective.
Expect live insight from Rose’s work in independent and national cinema, hands-on creative tasks, group discussions, and a chance to step into the mindset of a film programmer.
Whether you’re a filmmaker, actor, writer, programmer or just a film lover, this session will change the way you watch, select and present cinema.
Art History Festival: Greening the Bluecoat
The Bluecoat is the UK’s oldest arts centre, with a century-long history presenting contemporary art. This illustrated talk by its Director of Cultural Legacies, Bryan Biggs, explores the theme of art and nature through the lens of the building’s 300-year history and artists who have worked or exhibited there, drawing on material from the Bluecoat archive. From trees planted at the front of the building and the rear court being landscaped into a popular garden oasis in the city centre, to artists whose work exhibited at the venue explores the natural world, the arts centre’s connections to nature are revealed.
This event is part of Art History Festival 2025 organised by the Association for Art History.
Thu 18 Sep, 6pmFree, booking required
Women with ADHD Talk: ADHD & Hormones
Ever wondered how hormones might be affecting your ADHD? Do you notice changes in focus, mood or energy throughout your cycle, or during menopause?Introducing the third in our series of talks on Women with ADHD. This time we’ll be delving into the subject of ADHD and Hormones.
Led by Colette Longden, a National Training Officer at the ADHD Foundation – the UK’s leading neurodiversity charity, this sessions will be a chance to learn, ask questions and share your thoughts in a judgement-free space.
This event will be taking place at Pocket Café on Monday 18th August and will last for 2 hours, from 6:30pm – 8:30pm.
There will be a short break part-way through, and the café will be open downstairs if you wish to buy a drink and/or something to eat.
We will be running four ADHD in Women talks in total, and this is our third session. Please note that this talk is a standalone session, and you don’t need to have attended the others to come along to this one.
The event will be held on the first floor of Pocket Café, and unfortunately there is no lift access.
This event is open to everyone, regardless of whether you have ADHD or not. You might be a healthcare professional looking to learn ore, or you might have a friend, partner or family member with ADHD who you are looking to support. No matter your situation, everyone is welcome!Pre-booking is essential, as tickets are limited.
The Harder They Come
THE EVENT
In this mix of crime, blaxploitation and western, Ivan (played by reggae superstar Jimmy Cliff) wants to make it big as an reggae artist. But after becoming victim to the deep rooted corruption that goes on from the police to the record producers, this country boy fights tooth and nail, with blood, sweat and more blood to get what he wants and prove to the city folk that he’s not to be messed with. As writer-director Perry Henzell comments on the complexities of 1970’s capitalism, the prison system, poverty and stardom, we’re left to ask the question, “what would you do to make it?”.
With an iconic soundtrack and cult status in Jamaican cinema, this independence day I want to celebrate with The Harder They Come, good music and good food! Come and grab your ticket today, what are you waiting for?
Tickets start from £1 so grab yours now by clicking the link on the right or on the door!
7:00PM – DOORS OPEN
We’ll be serving refreshments
7:30PM – THE HARDER THEY COME BEGINS
9:00PM – POST SCREENING DISCUSSION
THE FILM
Year: 1972
Runtime: 1h 43m
Certificate: 15
Director: Perry Henzell
Writers: Perry Henzell, Trevor D. Rhone
Country: Jamaica
Languages: Jamaican Patois, English
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Western
Cast: Jimmy Cliff, Janet Bartley, Carl Bradshaw
Synopsis: Wishing to become a successful reggae singer, a young Jamaican man finds himself tied to corrupt record producers and drug pushers.
The Harder They Come trailerThis screening is in collaberation with Liverpool African Diaspora Film Network
Presented by Black Girl Watching Film Club
Heritage Open Days: Built to Last
Responding to this year’s Heritage Open Days architectural theme, this illustrated talk by the Bluecoat’s Director of Cultural Legacies, Bryan Biggs explores the 300-years-old Bluecoat building’s resilience and changes and its long association with architectural practice.
Free, booking required
Book of Sana’a
Join LAAF for a celebration of storytelling, writing, and music from the capital of Yemen, in association with Comma Press.
Although largely unseen behind media rhetoric of war, the city of Sana’a remains one of the most beautiful and enchanting cities in the Middle East. Beset by years of civil war, authoritarian regimes and extreme poverty, it is also the home of an extraordinary community of writers. The latest installment in Comma’s ‘Reading the City’ series is ‘filled with hopes and dreams, with flickers of magic and scathing satire’. It also offers a perfect opportunity to celebrate the writers Sana’a is producing and the art and challenges of translating them.
LAAF, in association with Comma Press, would like to invite you to join us for food and poetry readings, including award winning poet Hamdan Dammag, ahead of readings from the Book of Sana’a.
The event will be chaired by Comma’s Ra Page.
Door open at 12:45pm for light buffet lunch and refreshments and an opportunity to view Mohamed Thulaya’s model of the historic city of Sana’a, followed by readings and music starting at 1:30pm.
Rim Mugahed is a short story writer, essayist, and sociologist from Yemen, currently based in Prague. She is also a programme manager at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, where her work focuses on women, female voices, and social issues.
Laura Kasinof (editor) is a journalist, author and documentary filmmaker. She is a former New York Times Yemen correspondent and has worked in and around the country since 2009. She is the author of Don’t Be Afraid of the Bullets: An Accidental War Correspondent in Yemen (Arcade, 2014) and is currently working on a biography of former Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh (forthcoming from Reaktion Books). Laura will be appearing by video link.
Mohammed Ghalayini is a writer, scientist, translator and occasional journalist, whose translations from the Arabic have appeared in numerous previous anthologies for Comma, including The Book of Khartoum, The Book of Ramallah, Palestine + 100 and elsewhere.
Su Annagib is a singer, lecturer and documentary maker of Yemeni heritage.
Suitable for ages 14+
Trigger warning: this event will include discussion of poverty and war.
The Legend of the Looms
Join LAAF for a screening and conversation with poet and filmmaker Ali Al-Jamri on his first film, described as a poetic ghost story.
The Legend of the Looms is Ali Al-Jamri’s first film: a poetic ghost story.When a visitor to a historic weaver’s house in Rossendale accidentally summons an irate Lancashire weaver’s ghost, his own ancestor, an Arab weaver from Bahrain, materialises to defend him.
Watch the trailer.
Working in film for the first time, Ali Al-Jamri’s The Legend of The Looms is both a poem and a film exploring shared revolutionary histories through handloom weaving. It is a narrative debate poem between two ghostly weavers: one from the North West, where weavers were critical in working class movements; the other from Bahrain, where weaving communities played vital roles in reform movements.
Filmed with the weavers of Al-Jamri’s own family in Bahrain, and in Rossendale Valley, at a historic weaver’s cottage in Rawtenstall, the piece dances between place, fact and folklore, creating a new myth that explores how people of the diaspora can relate to an unlikely new landscape through the interconnectivity of oppressions, craft, and mortality.
Ali Al-Jamri is one of Manchester’s inaugural Multilingual City Poets (2022-2025). The film is commissioned by the Arab British Centre and funded by Arts Council England and the Freelands Foundation. It was first exhibited at Blackburn Art Gallery with the British Textile Biennial.
Who owns the land – and how did they get it?
At Liverpool Makefest we’re holding at cozy conference where speakers are invited to submit talks that help us to understand land ownership and rights in the UK.
From medieval feudalism and royal charters to enclosure, empire, and today’s concentrated ownership, the story of land in the UK is one of power, law, and inequality.
Ignite Talks plus Q&A
1pm – 3pm
Speaker: Dr Kirsty Styles Talk Title: A 300 second round up of the history of land ownership in the UK
Speaker: Julian Tait Talk Title: TBC
Speaker: Cath Holland Talk Title: ‘Elan’ by The Gentle Good is a protest album focused on the Elan valley in Wales, flooded in the early 1900s to supply water for the city of Birmingham. I will look at the notion of such land grabbing, its effects and how the record itself reflects the valley’s past and present.
Speaker: Eamonn Lavery Talk Title: Lough Neagh, colonialism, land ownership and land connectedness
Speaker: Terry Smith Talk Title: The Green Belt, value it or lose it.
Speaker: Ed Gommon Talk Title: Who owns the (some of the) land in L8 and how did they get it? The secret ingredient is crime (allegedly)
Speaker: Lucy Charnock Talk Title: Navigating the housing market as a first time buyer
Speaker: Kaya Herstad Talk Title: How the leaseholder system is essentially feudalism and rigged for the freeholder/landlord
Timetable for the days activities
ACCC History tour: ? Time: 9.30 AM – 12.00PM (from Aigburth)Free Range Liverpool: ? Time: 11:00 AM – 4:00 PM (Central Library)Socialist Singers: ? Time: 12:30 PM – 1:00 PM (Central Library)Ignite Talks: ? Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM (Central Library)