Working Class Movement Library Newsletter

Newsletter 08-06-2016

Manchester Histories Festival Celebration Day
If you are at the Celebration Day at Manchester Town Hall this Saturday come and say hello at the Library stand!
We are very pleased to be part of Manchester Histories Festival’s Manchester Celebration Day 2016 which is taking place across Manchester Town Hall and Central Library from 10:30 to 4pm on Saturday 11 June. Bringing together nearly 100 histories and heritage organisations from across Greater Manchester, the Manchester Celebration Day includes exhibition stands, games, heritage bus rides, craft activities, film screenings, performances and talks. More at manchesterhistories.co.uk

Democracy Drop In
Democracy may be a right, but too often in the world it is a privilege. On Saturday 2 July between 11am and 2pm, as part of the Library's joint project with the People’s History Museum Voting for Change, you can come and see some of the exciting newly acquired objects that help both organisations better tell the history of the fight for the vote. These include an archive of election material from North Lincolnshire - including expenses spent on beer and breakfasts for voters - and an 1819 cartoon arguing it would be ‘the scum’ who would rise to the top if more people got the vote.

This is a drop in session with no need to book and a chance to get up close to these historic objects. A member of staff will be on hand with tea and discussion – neither will be compulsory.

Radical women, 1880-1914 - public conference
On Saturday 17 September 10am to 4pm the Library is organising a conference at the Old Fire Station, Crescent, Salford (courtesy of the University of Salford) with keynote speakers Sheila Rowbotham and Karen Hunt.
It will celebrate the battles and achievements of working class women in the drive to achieve a fairer and more balanced society. Public-facing proposals for 30-minute papers on any aspect of female radicalism have been invited, and details will be announced shortly at www.wcml.org.uk/radicalwomenconf.

Conference fee: £20 waged; £7.50 unwaged (including lunch). Places must be reserved and paid for in advance. Please email Royston Futter, trustees@wcml.org.uk 

Memories of Solidarity
A Manchester Histories Festival event will be hosted at the Library on Friday 10 June at 2pm. 'Memories of solidarity' brings together some of the recent history of solidarity in the Manchester area using people's recollections, photos, posters and other items. Feel free to bring your own story or just come and listen.

Love on the Dole
From 5 to 9 July at 7pm, starting at Islington Mill, Salford Community Theatre will be performing an adaptation of Walter Greenwood's novel Love on the Dole.

Following the story of Harry Hardcastle, a young engineer apprentice at Marlowe’s Engineering Plant, Love on the Dole captures the joys and hardships of working people’s lives in 1930s Salford.

A new adaptation written for a community cast, this production has brought together over twenty local people to create a promenade performance. Using some of the actual locations described in the novel, the production aims to bring Greenwood’s characters to life in Salford today, drawing parallels between the poverty described in the book and the effects of austerity and cuts in 2016.

Tickets (£11/£8 concessions, both plus booking fee) are available online at www.salfordcommunitytheatre.org, or from Creation Cafe in The Angel Centre on Chapel Street every Thursday 11-2pm and Friday 12-3pm. NB Audience members will be required to stand during the first act and some of act 2.

Islington Mill, 1 St James Street, Salford M3 5HW.

Correction re Rochdale WEA talk
In our last e-bulletin we listed a talk due to take place on 25 June at the Rochdale Pioneers Museum. We now understand that the date on the leaflet was incorrect and that the talk has already taken place. Sorry about that - if you picked up one of the leaflets here at the Library, please discard it...

Late news - are you free tomorrow afternoon?

As reported in our last e-bulletin, the Living History performance No Power on Earth, originally commissioned by the Library and again featuring Joel Parry as Salford conscientious objector James Hudson, will be staged on Sunday 12 June at 1pm at the Friends Meeting House in Manchester. Joel and director Sue Reddish are rehearsing at the Library this week and say that they would be delighted to have people come along to WCML tomorrow, Thursday 9 June, at 4.30pm, to be a dress rehearsal audience. If you missed this powerful piece when it was staged at the Library earlier this year, and if you can't make Sunday's performance, you are very welcome to bob along.

http://www.wcml.org.uk/

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