Diggers and Builders - Writers as community activists
This event will be broadcast on 11 May 2021 at 8pm. It is FREE to access, simply click 'Register' below.
Linda Brogan, Shamshad Khan, Peter Kalu and Jonny Wright discuss 'Diggers and Builders - Writers as community activists'
We often forget that a compelling story can be the result of deep research and digging. This is what gives writers the tools to imagine and build new worlds, creating the stories which can ignite change. Can and should writers become community activists? Is that what they are? What does this mean in practice? What makes writers keep going?
For this special event, Linda Brogan, Shamshad Khan and Peter Kalu promise an enlightening, no holds barred conversation chaired by the multi-talented writer and artist Jonny Wright.
What made playwright, director and dramaturg Linda Brogan want to excavate the Reno nightclub in the first place - a funk and soul cellar club in Moss Side which was demolished in 1987? How does Shamshad Khan's resilient approach to poetry and teaching allow the student or reader to dig deeper and build better? Is it poet, fiction writer and playwright Peter Kalu's belief that 'a world without stories would be like an orchestra without instruments’ which led him to create Commonword - now a major writing development organisation based in Manchester? Playwright, screenwriter, hip hop artist and WritersMosaic editorial team member, Jonny Wright will chair this exciting conversation, building on the work, stories and inspiration of three very different but interconnected literary voices.
This unique event is brought to you by WritersMosaic an online platform funded by The Royal Literary Fund for new writing from a mosaic of literary voices and cultures across the UK. It is run in partnership with The University of Manchester and The Whithworth Gallery