Crossing Borders English PEN event 5 December 2015

Details of an upcoming event with English PEN in London:

A journey through the big issues of 2015 on 5 December at Rich Mix, London   Crossing Borders: take a journey through the big issues of 2015 at a day of talks, debate and performance   Saturday 5 December 2015, 2:45pm-late  Crossing Borders – talks: 2:45pm-6pm | £12 / £10 concessions  Crossing Borders – Uniting Rhythms: 7:30pm-late  | £13 / £11 advance Rich Mix Cultural Foundation, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA   Buy your 'Crossing Borders' ticket now   Buy your 'Uniting Rhythms' ticket now   English PEN and Rich Mix present a day of talks, music and performance with an exciting line up of writers and musicians. We’ll be looking back at some of the biggest issues of 2015. It’s been a year in which French cartoonists were murdered for satirising Islam, British universities took to censoring speakers on campus and refugees struggled to find sanctuary in Europe. In a series of discussions and performance, some of the most talented voices in literature and spoken word will resist all censorship and tell it like it is. Book now for the talks and for an unforgettable evening of music and performance from around the world.   Journeys without maps – writing in the 21st century 2.45pm-4.00pm:  How do our journeys make us who we are, and how do they shape our idea of home? British novelist Nikesh Shukla (pictured, author of Coconut Unlimited and Meatspace), and French writer and film-maker Karim Miské (Arab Jazz) explore the impact of displacement and the history of migration on their writing.   You can’t say that! 4.30pm-6.00pm: What are the limits to free speech? Are we too quick to take offence and shut down debate? In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, how do we protect freedom of expression in Europe? Poet and performer Sabrina Mahfouz (pictured), comedian Shaista Aziz and Omar El-Khairy, writer of Homegrown, a play which explores radicalisation among British youth and was cancelled by the National Youth Theatre 10 days before it was due to open, discuss these issues.  Chaired by BBC presenter Ritula Shah.   Share   Tweet   Forward   Buy your 'Crossing Borders' ticket now     Crossing Borders – Uniting Rhythms   Saturday 5 December 2015, 7:30pm–late | £13 / £11 advance Rich Mix Cultural Foundation, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA   Buy your 'Uniting Rhythms' ticket now   English PEN and Arts Canteen have come together to bring you an evening of spoken word and music with a focus on freedom of expression surrounding the issues of  identity, art, music and free speech. Featuring: Virtuoso Syrian Kanun player Maya Youssef; Sudanese-Italian singer Amira Kheir; British Iranian singer and tombak player Somaya; Afghan singer-songwriter and YouTube star Elaha Soroor; Egyptian singer songerwiter Nadya Shanab; Lebanese poet, musician and journalist Juliana Yazbeck; and Palestinian poet and writer Fajr Tamimi MC.     Share   Tweet   Forward   Copyright © 2015 English PEN, All rights reserved.             Our mailing address is: English PEN Free Word Centre 60 Farringdon Road London, Eng EC1R 3GA United Kingdom

Christmas at Media City UK 4-6 December 2015

Details of Christmas at Media City UK events 4-6 December:

 

Like Tweet Forward   Christmas at MediaCityUK Friday 4th to Sunday 6th December   CBeebies Christmas Igloo Join us at MediaCityUK for a Christmas extravaganza with something for everyone! For one weekend only, the CBeebies Christmas Igloo will be located on the MediaCityUK Piazza and visitors will have the opportunity to come face-to-face with some of their favourite CBeebies stars, take part in Christmas arts and crafts and settle down for storytelling- all free of charge and no tickets required. The CBeebies Christmas Igloo will be open from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th December 11am-4pm.   Makers Market Kick start your Christmas shopping with the very finest food, drink, art, design and modern craft carefully selected from local artisans and businesses with the Makers Market during the weekend (Friday 4th to Sunday 6th 11am-5pm daily). There will also be special performances from The Salvation Army Brass Band (Friday 4th 5pm-7pm) and the Stockport Citadel musicians, who will perform a selection of Christmas carols (Sunday 6th Dec 2-4pm).   The Lodge The Lodge- a cosy winter wonderland pop-up bar featuring bierkeller-style wooden tables and a roaring log fire, will be open from Thursday 3rd December (11am-11pm daily until Christmas Eve) serving a wide range of hot and cold festive drinks and food.   Seasonal Menus & Events All the bars, cafes and restaurants at MediaCityUK, will be offering seasonal menus and events, including Love Conquers All, who will have Christmas Karaoke every Friday night in December. Enjoy a visit to MediaCityUK’s newest food addition Pret A Manager and enjoy their famous Pret Christmas Lunch sandwich. For more details about all MediaCityUK events visit: MediaCityUK Events   Coming Soon: LIGHTWAVES 2015 Quays Culture’s free digital light festival, Lightwaves, comes to Salford Quays this December (12th-27th December 4.30pm-10.30pm daily*) with three giant digital light sculptures taking over.  AMAZE, a towering psychedelic maze full of magical moments free to explore will be on the MediaCityUK Piazza, where magical moments await those who enter. Intrude by Amanda Parer is a family of giant, luminous bunny rabbits, reminding us of the natural world, in an edgy, humorous way in the MediaCityUK Piazza Gardens. Head across the water to the Lowry Plaza for Cathedral of Mirrors and weave in and out of the dazzling towers that light up in response to the movement of crowds. *Please note the festival is closed on Christmas Day and operating on Christmas Eve and 27th December 12pm-6pm   MediaCityUK, Salford M50 2EQ Enquiries: +44 (0) 161 886 5300 update@mediacityuk.co.uk www.mediacityuk.co.uk

Free Ticket offer at Seven for 4 December 2015

There is a free ticket offer for this coming Friday at Seven Arts Leeds for the performance of Swan Canaries, details below:

 

Free Ticket Offer @ Seven Five pairs of free tickets available for Arletty Theatre's show, Swan Canaries, at 8pm this Friday 4 December.  June 1918. Polly Barton, her mother, sister and friend, start work in shell-filling factory number six. The work is exhausting, the hours long, but they’re paid 30 shillings a week! With sing-songs and sports to keep up morale, these four women find a new sense of purpose, despite the horrors they hear about in far off fields…until, that is, the terrible day the war comes to Chilwell. Based on real events, Swan Canaries takes us back to 1918 with the songs of the era, and this extraordinary story honouring the bravery of women munition workers, nicknamed ‘Canary Girls’ because of the yellowish-tint TNT gave their skin. Swan Canaries is written by Imogen Joyce with music by Matt Marks, dramaturgy by Andy Barrett and movement by Kitty Winter. Best Theatre Production winner at the 2014 Buxton Fringe. Email info@sevenleeds.co.uk to apply for free tickets. Tickets for most events are found at www.ticketsource.co.uk/sevenleeds/events Where not sold out, tickets are always available on the door. Every £ spent at Seven helps support high quality arts in a local setting. We look forward to seeing you at Seven very soon.

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Cleckheaton Writers Group minutes

 The Cleckheaton Writers Group took place last night with Andy, Neil, John and myself (Karen) in attendance, Martijn, Kathy, Pauline, Pippa and Mandy having passed on their apologies.

WIP updates were as follows: Andy had finished planning and mind-mapping a new idea for a short story today which he had brought to share for feedback, John had nothing new but had brought along an older piece for feedback and Karen had been working on her NaNoWriMo WIP (currently just over 35k words) which she had brought sections of to share for feedback.

Feedback sessions: John shared a short story entitled Outrage that he wrote in 2009. It was a powerful political and somewhat predictive piece based in a scary future that could be more than possible. It was tightly written and could easily have been the beginning or ending of a longer story. The story was very well received and the group did not feel that it had any editing points.

Andy shared a short piece he had written that morning. It had a sword battle with two warriors vying for leadership. The characters in it were very distinct in such a short piece and the foreshadowing using the sword was used to great effect for a tight ending. This led on to a discussion about the merits of the Scrivener programme which Andy has used for sometime now (Andy recommended Googling literature and latte/scrivener.com.php for anyone wishing to purchase).

A discussion took place about well written TV series, where Arrested Development (Netflix), Sleepy Hollow, Peaky Blinders and new series Man in the High Castle (Amazon) featured. The Western Hell on Wheels was also recommended.

Karen shared some chapters of her WIP for feedback on character development. There are three main characters, brothers and a sister, and she wished to know if they were distinctive enough. It was felt that Gabriel was a deadpan sarcastic type (a loner) and Kane was the clearest as there were plenty of pointers to age and personality (it was felt that there was more of her background given which made it easier to feel character), Sammael was the hardest to get a handle on, but that it appeared that this was a deliberate character ploy.  There were a couple of editing suggestions made by the members and it was recommended that Karen watch Night Watch and Day Watch (films).

The next Cleckheaton Writers Group meeting is scheduled for Monday 14 December and it was suggested that this be a Christmas get together.