If you find yourself enjoying the sunshine in the park and fancy reading a story, why not pop in for one of their drop-in sessions? Let your imagination roam and share the delights of reading for pleasure in their imaginative play space.
Come and discover the Storybarn magic for yourself.
No booking required, £2 per person on the door.
Join New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Flavia Z. Drago (Gustavo, the Shy Ghost Leila, the Perfect Witch) at the magical Storybarn in Calderstones Park.
Flavia is excited to meet young book lovers and share a special reading of her brand-new children’s story Vlad, the Fabulous Vampire.
Tickets £5 per child (includes 1 accompanying adult)
Under 1’s go FREE but need a ticket
School’s out! Discover a Holiday Club with a difference.
Every day they will venture out into the gorgeous Calderstones Park, dive into the realm of storytelling in the magical Storybarn, play games and much more.
Every ticket purchased helps support their charitable work with children and young people across the UK.
For children aged 5-10
£30 per child
£25 per sibling
Do the monster mash at their fabulous, family-friendly Halloween party in the Mansion House in Calderstones Park. Join the Storybarn team for ghostly games, dancing, and frightful fun. Each child will receive a delightfully spooky sandwich box included with their ticket.
£15 per child (includes 1 accompanying adult and 1 spooky sandwich box)
Under 1s FREE (spooky sandwich box not included)
Perfect for 4-9yr olds
Show off your frightful fancy dress, play ghostly games, and create a spooktacular craft to take home at their Storybarn specials inspired by Flavia Drago’s beautiful new book Vlad, the Fabulous Vampire.
Pre-order a copy of the book and we’ll have it ready for you to collect at The Storybarn.
£6 per child
£5 per adult
Under 1s FREE
Perfect for 4-9yr olds
The folks at Valley Theatre offer their latest event for this year’s popular Liverpool Fringe, a showcase of original short plays by Merseyside writers.
Audiences will be entertained by two evenings of short, punchy dramas especially written around the theme: A Sense of Place.
“We wanted to stretch the writers,” explains Tom Mclennan, the event producer. “We asked them to anchor their piece in a particular location. The place itself had to play an important part of the action, be almost like another character in it.”
The theme has certainly produced a wide variety of settings, from the deck of a 19th century ship to the dizzying top of a high-rise building.
“We see the event as part of our continuing commitment to bringing new writing to our theatre,” says Martin Ball, director of Valley Community Theatre. “We believe we have one of the best performance spaces on Merseyside and want to make it as accessible as possible to audiences and artists alike.”
“A Sense of Place” will take place on Friday 6th & Saturday 7th of October and give audiences the chance to see 10 completely new works, five each evening.
Tickets are on sale from www.valleytheatre.co.uk or 07746 697 263
Programme starts at 7.30, doors open 7pm.
Leonisha Barley brings you a rehearsed reading and feedback session of her debut play ‘Deported in a Windrush’.
‘Deported in a Windrush’ is a play based on the book: The Windrush Betrayal – exposing the hostile environment’ by Amelia Gentleman. A book which revealed how the government’s immigration policy created a hostile environment for thousands of law-abiding people, when they were wrongly classified as illegal immigrants.
The play ‘Deported in a Windrush’ follows the journey of Claudette Daley an unassuming 61 year old grandmother who love language is feeding people and how the comfortable life she’d built for herself and her little family was turned upside down when she started to receive letters claiming she had no right to be the UK and threatening to have her deported back to a country she hadn’t been back to since she left at the age of 6.
She has a special relationship with her feisty granddaughter Naomi, and we see how she stands up for Claudette and becomes her support system through the turmoil that’s been created in their lives by Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment.’ Claudette and Naomi retell their experience to Jessica, a Guardian journalist who points out the gross imbalances of power and shares the experiences of many more people from the commonwealth countries whose lives were destroyed due to the treatment they suffered when they too were misclassified as illegal immigrants.
Music is used to bring a lighter touch to these harrowing stories as well as caricatures of political figures such as Theresa May who is made to answer for her inhumane decision- making systems during rounds of political question time; throughout which UKIP leader Nigel Farage quite literally spits his dummy out.
As the 75th anniversary of the Windrush generation arriving in England is celebrated across England in it’s important that the stories of the thousands of victims still waiting in for the compensation in 2023, that they were promised back in 2018 are not overlooked but shared with the hopes of reigniting conversations leading to action which forces the current government to give the compensation they promised; which really is the least they can do for the victims of the Windrush scandal.
About the writer
Leonisha Barley is a lover of all things creative and a past participant on WoW’s highly acclaimed Write to Work project. She is an emerging actress and playwright from Liverpool. She endeavours to create work for stage and TV that celebrates culture and life experiences while addressing important societal issues. Leonisha enjoys using poetry as a powerful tool to express emotion and tell a story. She’s looking forward to diving deeper into the creative industry through writing and acting. Hopefully you’ll be seeing her work soon on a stage near you!
Remembering Pastor Daniels Ekarte and the African Churches Mission
Pastor George Daniel Ekarte was a minister and community activist from the Calabar region of Nigeria who arrived in Liverpool about 1915 and established the African Churches Mission in Hill Street, Toxteth in 1931, in which he not only conducted services but also fed and clothed the poor of the community, and housed seamen and others denied accommodation due to the colour of their skin.
He also provided a home for the unwanted children of local white women left behind by their fathers, African American servicemen who returned home when World War II ended. As a radical supporter of pro-independence and anti-racist movements in the African Diaspora, he was regarded as troublesome by the Establishment, and therefore received no state or voluntary support, not even from the Anti-Slavery Society. Nevertheless, he and his mission soldiered on for over thirty years, until the dilapidated building was finally demolished by the Council in 1964.
Using British and International sources, historian Marika Sherwood has pieced together an account of his remarkable life and work, retelling an inspiring story of kindness, activism, Black pride and resilience in a city built on the exploitation of his continent.
Join friends of WoW Stephen Small, Tayo Aluko and Author Marika Sherwood as we explore Pastor Daniels’s life in Liverpool and the history of the city’s Black community.
Marika Sherwood is an internationally recognised scholar, who has dedicated her life to challenging racial discrimination, was given an honorary Doctor of History which she collected alongside hundreds of graduating students. The Hungarian-born historian, who became a refugee in the 1940s, has published 13 critically acclaimed books about slavery, colonialism and the history of African and Caribbean people Britain in a long and distinguished career as a teacher, writer, and social campaigner. She has since been at the forefront of attempts to diversify the curriculum across schools and higher education.
She is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London. She has published many books, including Kwame Nkrumah and the Dawn of the Cold War (Pluto, 2019) and Kwame Nkrumah: The Years Abroad (Freedom Publications, 1996). Her most recent book is World War II: Colonies and Colonials (The Savannah Press, 2013). She has published innumerable articles in academic journals, Pambazuka News, and the Runnymede Trust.
Stephen Small is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, where he has been teaching since 1995. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Berkeley, and his research focuses on the history and sociology of Black people in the diaspora. He has held visiting positions at universities in several countries, including Great Britain, France, and Japan. Stephen is the author of several books, including 20 Questions and Answers on Black Europe, and is currently working on a new book on slavery and imperialism in Black Liverpool. He is also co-editor of Black Europe and the African Diaspora, 2009. Stephen was born and raised in Liverpool and is a child of the Windrush Generation. He has been involved with various Black and multi-racial organisations and was a research assistant to the Right Honourable Bernie Grant, MP, in the 1990s.
Nigerian-born Tayo Aluko is an actor, singer and playwright, based in Liverpool, UK, where he worked previously as an architect. His art is dedicated to encouraging and inspiring progressive activism by showing how Black History is everybody’s history.
A multiple award-winning documentary musical travelling the length of Dublin’s fabled North Circular Road, where local characters share their powerful and emotive stories, accompanied by traditional ballads and folk music that add to the narrative.
North Circular conjures the ghosts of the past, while engaging with the conflicts and celebrations of today, with a little bit of Dublin humour thrown in.
Travelling from Phoenix Park to Dublin Port, North Circular explores the history, music and streetscapes of a street that links some of the country’s most beloved and infamous places. Told in black and white 4:3 Academy ratio, the film evokes narratives from city and national history; from colonialism, to mental health, to the struggle for women’s liberation. Simultaneously, it engages in urgent issues of today, including the battle to save the legendary Cobblestone Pub -the centre of Dublin’s recent folk revival- from destruction at the hands of cynical property developers.
The Liverpool Irish Festival screening marks the second anniversary of the ‘Cobblestone Uprising’ AKA the ‘Dublin is Dying’ campaign.
The film includes musical performances from artists local to the North Circular, including John Francis Flynn, Séan Ó Túama, Eoghan O’Ceannabháin, Ian Lynch & Gemma Dunleavy.
This special event includes discussion and Q&A with the film’s director Luke McManus, in conversation with Dr Nessa Johnston, University of Liverpool. The event is supported by The Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool.
Doors: 18:30. Screening: 19:00.
“Hallo-Queen! This Hallows Eve, Liverpool drag legend, Filla Crack, has brought together some of Liverpool’s best drag and cabaret performers.
There is a new cheaper ticket option of £19, see here to purchase.
Join them for a night of chaos, camp foolery, ghoulish looks and all-round buffoonery. Tik Tok sensation Bailey J Mills will be flying into Liverpool on their witch’s broom-stick to join a line up of stars, here to show you life doesn’t have to be such a drag, alongside Married At First Sights Thomas Hartley, AKA Pam Sandwich, Liverpool’s arthouse witch Dross, and rapping sensation Joy France.
Dress up is highly encouraged!
Ticket includes a welcome drink and meal consisting of 3 slices of pizza, please choose on the “add ons” section – 1 food order per ticket booked.
There is an additional matinee show at 4pm, 28 October.
This event is 18+