Lemn Sissay, award-winning and internationally acclaimed poet, was stolen from his birth mother and given to a foster family. He was thrown out by his foster parents at the age of 12 and sent to several children’s homes. He has written a memoir to tell his story of loss and healing, and he spoke to […]
Review: Videodrome at HOME Manchester
David Cronenberg’s 1983 sci-fi thriller Videodrome was screened last Tuesday 6 August at Manchester’s HOME cinema. Starring Debbie Harry in one of her first acting roles, the film was presented as part of their Sound and Vision: Pop Stars on Film programme. HOME’s screening of Videodrome began with Ellen Smith, one of the cinema’s Ushers and […]
New York publisher seeking Manchester poets for new ‘Buzzin Bards’ anthology
Local Gems Poetry Press are seeking Mancunian poets of all genres and styles for a poetry anthology entitled ‘Buzzin Bards’. New York publisher Local Gems Poetry Press is expanding into the UK, with Manchester at the forefront, by publishing a poetry anthology consisting of work from poets who reside in or come from Greater Manchester. […]
Campaigners join forces against council schemes they say ignore Manchester’s climate emergency
Local campaigners are joining forces to protest Manchester City Council’s plans to build a five-year, temporary 440 space car park on the former Central Retail Park in Ancoats, as well as the Great Ancoats Street Improvement Scheme, which removes cycle lanes. A protest was held on Thursday by the Northern Quarter residents and cycling campaigners […]
Review: BBC series Years and Years
Every so often a show seems destined to become the king of workplace chat, something with such universal appeal that it becomes the perfect icebreaker for those awkward moments you’re forced to talk to that guy you’ve worked with for 6 months but somehow never spoken to. For a long time Game of Thrones held […]
Who is representing you on Greater Manchester’s local councils?
Three weeks ago, Greater Manchester elected one-third of its councillors to local government. Seats were contested in all ten boroughs, but with a turnout of just 31% across the region, which is typical for local elections, few of us actually had a say in who represents us on the local council. Bolton went to the […]
European elections: find out who your local candidates are and where you can vote for them
The unexpected and ill prepared for European elections are fast approaching on Thursday 23 May. Theresa May repeatedly insisted that we would not take part in these elections because we would have left the European Union by now. But here we are still in the EU, Brexit has not yet occurred, and the European elections […]
Podcast Review of One at HOME Manchester
“Nasi is on a ladder. Heʼs not coming down any time soon”. As we file into the theatre Nasi is there in front of us, standing high up on the very tall ladder. His demeanor is casual and relaxed but unconvincing. This tense sight amplified by the sense that we had intruded midway through a […]
It’s time for Manchester Museum to decolonise
Imagine that news emerged of 18,000 undiscovered historical artefacts relating to Manchester were illegally taken out the country by a museum in North Africa. We can only think what the response in the city would be in such circumstances. Political leaders would demand the return of the stolen goods, public protests would break out and […]
Food Poverty Action Plan aims to tackle hidden crisis in GM
The latest estimates are that 620,000 people in Greater Manchester are living in poverty, and struggle to put food on the table. Of those, around 200,000 are children experiencing food poverty. £30 billion per year has been cut from welfare budgets since 2010. By 2020, Local councils will have lost 60% of central government funding […]