#LAF24 NEIGHBOURHOOD
01 – 30 June 2024
Liverpool Architecture Festival is back, and the June 2024 edition will be bigger and better than ever.
Building on the successes of the 2021 and 2022 Festivals, #LAF24 intends to deliver a full calendar of free, interactive events and exhibitions throughout the Liverpool City Region in Halton, Knowsley St. Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and Liverpool.
The theme ‘Neighbourhood’ intends to help people connect with their local architectural environment.
The Architecture Showcase will be a month-long pop-up exhibition of work from 26 architecture practices based throughout the Liverpool City Region.
Event Details:
1st June – 30th June (Tuesday – Sunday), 11:00 – 18:00
Duets: Poetry Readings with Jennifer Lee Tsai and Joey Chin
Sat 15 Jun, 2pm
Join us for the first of two performances with our artist in residence Jennifer Lee Tsai. For this event, Lee Tsai will be joined by Joey Chin, an artist and writer based in Birmingham. The readings will take place within Michelle Williams Gamaker’s expansive gallery installation, amongst seating made from shredded scripts and posters.
Chin’s work sits at the intersections of text, narrative and visual art, staged through language, poetry, acts and modes of reading. Her key focus is in the development of personal communications between the self, markings of territoriality, and the inner conversations between the two. Chin has been published by Lungs Project, Litro Magazine, Entropy Magazine, and Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Lee Tsai’s work explores themes of ancestral trauma, loss, belonging, transformation, rebirth and strength. Her poetry and criticism are widely published in magazines and journals including The Guardian, Poetry London, The Poetry Review, and The White Review. Jennifer received a Northern Writers Award for Poetry in 2020. She is a winner of the 2022 Women Poets’ Prize. Her second poetry pamphlet La Mystérique (2022) is published by Guillemot Press. She currently holds the Whitenham Bursary, a one year studio bursary at Bluecoat aimed at supporting artists in Liverpool.
The readings form part of The Lives of Artists, a season of exhibitions, commissions and events that asks audiences what might be uncovered about ourselves when we listen to the testimony, histories, and stories of artists reflecting on their lives.
Sat 15th Jun, 2pm
Free, drop in
Future Before it Happens by Stine Marie Jacobsen film screenings and Liverpool Biennial Summer Workshops.
As part of the season, the Bluecoat will also host Liverpool Biennial’s summer long programme of free workshops for children and families in our Second Floor Gallery. The workshops will be based on a project by conceptual artist Stine Marie Jacobsen. A new film, created by Jacobsen with children from St Anne’s Catholic Primary School, will also be displayed.
The film, ‘Future, Before it Happens’, focuses on the wellbeing of young people in relation to the climate crisis.
The film screenings and drop-in workshops will take place from 12-4pm on the following dates: Sun 21 July, Sat 27 July, Sat 3 Aug, Sat 10 Aug, Sat 17 Aug, Sat 24 Aug
Head to biennial.com/events to find out more. This series of workshops is kindly supported by SEVENSTORE.
‘Stories are wild creatures’, the monster said. ‘When you let them loose, who knows what havoc they might wreak?’
Thirteen-year-old Conor has always managed just fine with his mum, even after his dad left. But now, everything’s changing. His mum is seriously ill, his grandmother always meddling, and the kids at school… well, they’re not the friends he thought any more.
One night, Conor hears a stirring from the trees at his window. A monster has come calling. A monster with ancient stories to share. Through their midnight visits, Conor confronts his deepest fears and discovers unexpected truths about love, loss, and healing.
A Monster Calls, based on the novel by Patrick Ness and inspired by an original idea by Siobhan Dowd, devised by Sally Cookson, Adam Peck and the Company, comes alive on stage at the Everyman this summer, directed by Nathan Crossan-Smith and performed by the YEP Actors 18-25 Company.
Three women confront love, desire and memory in stories spanning East and West in the first staged performance of Chambers of the Heart.
Newly divorced and adjusting to living alone in lockdown, 30-something Yasmine turns to online dating but there is something oddly familiar about who she meets.
Reem is a Syrian refugee in her early 40s fleeing her country but unable to let go of the memory of an unrequited love.
Mother is in her early 70s and reluctant to be on stage as she is interrogated by her son who is trying to unlock the past.
Written by Hassan Abdulrazzak, directed by Sepy Baghaei and performed by Laila Alj, this work will debut as a staged performance at Liverpool Arab Arts Festival.
ORANGES AND STONES is a play without words, told solely through physical action and original music that conveys a moving image of occupation and settlement in Palestine spanning over 75 years.
ORANGES AND STONES is a symbolic play, in which we find a woman living alone in her home. She is happy, tending to her orange orchards, until one day, a man walks in, carrying a suitcase, looking dishevelled. She has no idea who he is. She offers him some water. He waves a piece of paper and starts to unpack and move in.
Now more needed than ever, ORANGES AND STONES is conceived and directed by Mojisola Adebayo, co-created with ASHTAR Theatre. Last performed in the UK in 2013, it has been performed all over the world in countries including, Brazil, France, Germany, Jordan, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the USA.
Credits:
Tamasha and Shubbak present ASHTAR Theatre’s production of ORANGES AND STONES
Directed by Mojisola Adebayo.
Screening of the extended cut of Rebel Queers‘ Queer Fighters of Ukraine, with discussion.
Queer Fighters of Ukraine
Alex King and Angelika Ustymenko, 2023, 29 mins
Queer Fighters of Ukraine reveals the experiences of young, queer soldiers after over a year of full-scale war. Former LGBTQ+ activists and queer party DJs now in units near the frontlines share their perspectives on balancing queer identities with life in the military. This is an exclusive screening of the full, extended version of this film.
Doors open from 4.30pm, ready for the films to start at 5pm. This event will finish around 6.15pm.
Please be aware that the content of this film may be emotionally challenging, including references to: violence, mental health, death and suicide, homophobia and transphobia. This event is for attendees aged 18+.
This event is not affiliated with any political party.
About Rebels Queers
Before the full-scale invasion, subversive collective Rebel Queers would defy the heteronormative and patriarchal world by scrawling on the walls of Kyiv: ‘Queer Sex,’ ‘Make Queer Punk Again’. Today, they are focusing on creating short films to support queer people in the Ukrainian army.
Once a cult sensation, Rob Madge’s show has grown in stature to become WhatsOnStage Award winning and Olivier Award nominated and now due to public demand is set to embark on a brand new national tour visiting Liverpool Playhouse for the first time.
When Rob was 12, they attempted to stage a full-blown Disney parade in their house for their Grandma. As Rob donned a wig and played Mary Poppins, Ariel, Mickey Mouse and Belle, their Dad doubled as Stage Manager, Sound Technician and Goofy. Unfortunately, Dad missed all his cues and pushed all the floats in the wrong direction. Mum mistook Aladdin for Ursula. The costumes went awry and Ariel’s bubble gun didn’t work properly. Grandma had a nice time though.
My Son’s A Queer, (But What Can You Do?) celebrates the joy and chaos of raising a queer child and is testament to the power of unconditional familial love.
Originating at the Turbine Theatre in 2021, it had a sold-out season at the Edinburgh Festival in 2022, followed by a national tour and then two West End runs. Three years on join social-media sensation Rob Madge as they set out to recreate that parade – and this time, nobody, no, NOBODY is gonna rain on it!
Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF) – the longest running festival of Arab arts and culture in the UK – returns for its 22nd year this July.
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 will celebrate Liverpool’s unique identity; a city, with a global community and brimming with artistry, that looks outwards across the world. Highlighting the importance of this shared humanity, Port Cities, a brand-new visual arts project in partnership with British Council – MENA, will premiere newly commissioned artwork by four internationally renowned Arab artists exploring the social, historical and cultural links between Liverpool and the Arab region.
With more festival events to be announced soon…
Port Cities exhibition
Friday 12 July – Saturday 20 July / 12pm – 4pm
Exhibition launch event: Friday 12 July / 1-4pm
Space Liverpool, 41 Stanhope Street, Liverpool, L8 5RE
FREE / NO TICKETS REQUIRED
Yalla Neحky – Hadi Badi Books workshop for children 4-8 years old
Saturday 13 July / 12pm – 1:30pm
Liverpool Central Library, William Brown Street, Liverpool, L3 8EW
FREE / BOOKING REQUIRED
Comedy Workshop with Maria Shehata
Saturday 13 July / 1-2:30pm
Liverpool Central Library, William Brown Street, Liverpool, L3 8EW
£6 / TICKETS
Arabs Are Not Funny
Saturday 13 July / 7:30pm
Unity Theatre, 1 Hope Place, Liverpool, L1 9BG
£15.00 / TICKETS
Arab Film Night: At The Library X LAAF
Sunday 14 July / 4 – 7pm
Plaza Community Cinema, 13 Crosby Road North, Waterloo, Liverpool, L22 0LD
£5 / TICKETS (Free for L20, L21, L22 postcodes)
Port Cities Symposium
Monday 15 July / 10am – 4pm
Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX
£10.00 / PAY WHAT YOU CAN / TICKETS
Fundraising Screening: At Home in Gaza and London
Monday 15 July / 6-8pm
Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX
£10 / TICKETS
Janette Ayachi: Exploring Heritage Through Poetry
Wednesday 17 July / 6pm – 7pm
Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool, L1 3BX
£8/£6 / TICKETS
Chambers of the Heart: Hassan Abdulrazzak, Laila Alj & Sepy Baghaei
Friday 19 July and Saturday 20 July / 7:30pm
Unity Theatre, 1 Hope Place, Liverpool, L1 9BG
£15.00 / TICKETS
The Ayoub Sisters
Saturday 20 July / 8pm
Music Room, Liverpool Philharmonic, Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BP
£15.00 / TICKETS
Family Day
Sunday 21 July / 12pm – 5pm
Sefton Park Palm House, Sefton Park, Liverpool, L17 1AP
FREE / NO TICKETS REQUIRED