We were particularly pleased to welcome Fousseny Traore, a Climate Refugee from Mali, who spoke about the environmental devastation that is already happening in parts of Africa as a result of the Climate Emergency, and the very real threat to those who speak out about it.

Read a copy of Fousseny’s deeply moving speech here.

Participants took part in a range of workshops during the day led by Eco-educator/Dramaturg Dr Andrew Burton (University of Essex), Theatre Director/Founder Wise Ram Theatre Company Sofia Bagge, Radio Producer/Presenter Michelle Durrant (Chelmsford Community Radio) and Theatre Director/Founder Mad, Who? Theatre Marina Cusi. This was followed by a feed-back and ‘what next’ brain-storming session.

It was, as ever, a very positive day. To have so many eloquent and motivated young people in one space was inspirational and a real credit to Essex. To welcome Climate Refugee Foussney Traore to speak about his journey from Mali to Colchester, and the personal sacrifices he has made along the way, was both a privilege and deeply moving (see attached photograph c. Essex Book Festival).

Ros Green, Festival Director

The Manifesto for Essex, which was set up in 2020 as part of Essex2020, goes from strength to strength. This year will be working with young people from Harlow to Harwich to help raise awareness of the positive actions everyone can take to mitigate the Climate Emergency. We look forward to celebrating their work as part of this year’s Essex Book Festival.

Thank you to Young Reporter, Ellious Woodroof, for this great write-up about the Youth Climate Summit:

Manifesto For Essex: Art and the Climate Emergency

By Ellious Woodroof,
Colchester Sixth Form College

This article was written by one of our Young Reporters, a scheme that gives 14 to 18-year-old school students a chance to write for a real newspaper. Find out more at the Young Reporter website.

This January I attended ‘Manifesto for Essex’ at Headgate Theatre for my third year.

This event aims to help young people tackle the climate emergency through all forms of art – the focus of this year was theatre.

The opening speech from Foussney Traore (a climate refugee from Mali) was incredibly powerful – he spoke in French with translation to English.

He described how women and girls spend days searching for food and water; how Mali and the Sahel have become Climate Change warzones; how his peoples’ subsistence life is collapsing; and how the work of multinationals is destroying the environment, his home.

There were references to the beauty of nature that his uncle taught him to appreciate, countered by the fragility of how the lakes he used to bathe in had become football pitches.

To combat this, he started an online movement ‘Action Sahel’ and is taking his activism international, warning that although extreme impacts of climate change do not reach the UK currently, it is only a matter of time.

I found someone recounting personal experiences brought home the reality, showing how stories shape our view and therefore our actions.

This was followed by a panel discussion on tackling the Climate Emergency through performance, chaired by Marina Cusi.

The panel included a representative from SPARK Chelmsford (a group giving young people a role in shaping Chelmsford’s cultural identity); Richard from Headgate Theatre’s youth troop; Hattie Philips (studying for a degree in Sustainable Futures, and with experience in many areas of activism such as being a youth ambassador for WWF); and Sofia Bagge from Wise Ram Theatre (a group using theatre to explore the climate crisis in ways which are funny and heartfelt).

There were discussions of how theatre can be a space for play and fun while trying to untangle the mess of the climate emergency.

Theatre is also accessible, only needing a space and an audience to bring people together, communicate ideas and create connections.

Hattie highlighted that simple communication is a creative practice and engaging people on issues is an artform itself.

The discussion also explored how interdisciplinary ideas are becoming more important in education, which is particularly significant for the climate crisis which is a huge web of linked issues.

I then did an Eco-Script writing workshop with Andrew Burton where we generated ideas through questions about emotions – what makes us angry, sad, gives us hope – and then linked these to anecdotes of our own, which was a great exercise in being creatively free with writing.

My final workshop was Eco-Podcasting with Michelle Durant from Chelmsford Community radio, and we interviewed Peter Donaldson (chair of Essex Book festival) about climate and books.

This was a great experience of how immediate and responsive audio journalism can be.

The other workshops included Eco-Performance with Sofia Bagge and Eco-Poetry with Marina Cusi.

I found the event extremely valuable for the discussions it sparked, the community it created and the hope it gives me that action is possible.

The post Manifesto for Essex Climate Action Youth Summit appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Free to attend although booking is essential, the Youth Summit provides a platform for young people aged 13-25 years who are passionate about culture and the environment to have their voices heard, build new networks, and explore creative solutions to the Climate Emergency.

This year we will have a strong focus on theatre and performance. If you are a young person or know someone who might be interested in attending the Summit, would like to come along and volunteer on the day, or simply want to find out more about the day, visit the Climate Action Youth Summit event page at essexbookfestival.org.uk.

Climate Action Youth Summit
Saturday 25th January, 10am – 3.30pm
Headgate Theatre, 14 Chapel Street North, Colchester CO2 7AT
Tickets: Free, places limited so booking essential

Registration Link: Climate Action Youth Summit

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The true history of tattoo as both art and profession in the West

Thursday 28th November, 7pm
Firstsite, Colchester
Book tickets at eafestival.com

There is a pervasive stereotype of tattoo culture as relating to an underworld of scoundrels, sailors, and ne’erdo-wells, yet it has existed in the West as a professionalized art practice for centuries. Drawing on extensive new research and unprecedented access to largely unpublished private archives of photographs, art, and ephemera, Matt Lodder offers a new perspective on the history of commercial tattooing in Europe and the United States, beginning even before it emerged as a recognizable profession in the mid-nineteenth century. In the process, he shows that the art of tattoo has long been both practiced and commissioned by individuals across economic, gender, and class divides; he also examines the stylistic trends that have shaped tattoo’s development as an art form over its history.

Matt Lodder will introduce the many artists and professionals who shaped tattoo history, including early figures like Martin Hildebrandt, the first-known professional tattoo artist in the West; prominent woman artists like Grace Bell and Jessie Knight; mid-twentieth-century icons like Sailor Jerry and Les Skuse and the Bristol Tattoo Club; and contemporary industry stars including Ed Hardy, Davy Jones, and the Leu family.

Richly illustrated with rarely published images, this important book is the first to examine the history of tattoo in the west as both a serious profession and an art form.

“Importantly, I want to focus in this book almost exclusively on the artists themselves, and their influences, innovations, interconnections… the specific work of the artists has been too often neglected in the understanding of tattooing beyond the industry itself”

Matt Lodder, Introduction

Matt Lodder is a senior lecturer in art history and theory and director of American Studies at the University of Essex.

The post Tattoos: The Untold History of a Modern Art by Matt Lodder appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Chelmsford Science Festival – 26th and 27th October

First up is Anglia Ruskin University’s hugely popular Chelmsford Science Festival, which is hosting two Family Science Days on Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th October.

Activities include interactive exhibits, hands on activities and talks by leaders in their fields. Essex Book Festival is proud to be playing its part by hosting a Traditional Ink-Making and Eco-Printing Drop-in Activity. Why not come along and dabble in some ancient gall oak alchemy!

Find out more about Chelmsford Science Festival at essexbookfestival.org.uk.

Blythe Spirit – The Remarkable Life of Ronald Blythe
Friday 15th November

It is difficult to sum up the remarkable life of Ronald Blythe, author of Akenfield and countless other books and essays, who spent the last forty years of his life living in Wormingford near Colchester.

However, close friend and writer Ian Collins has done an equally remarkable job of distilling and condensing Ronnie’s fascinating life and work spanning 100 years into his new biography Blythe Spirit.

We are thrilled be partnering with Red Lion Books on an author event on Friday 15th November at the Old Library in Colchester Town Hall featuring Ian Collins in conversation with Festival Director Ros Green, who grew up in the now mythical ‘Akenfield’ in East Suffolk in the 1960s.

It’s not often that the venue plays a starring role in one of our events. Who could have imagined that eighty years later the shy reference librarian affectionately known as Ronnie who worked at the Old Library for 10 years, would one day become one of the UK’s leading writers, essayist and editor. Well, he did, and made Essex his home.

Find out more and book tickets at redlionbooks.co.uk.

Hot Off The Press
Tattoos – The Untold History of a Modern Art

Essex Book Festival is teaming up with EA Festival and Firstsite on another exciting event in November: The Launch of Dr Matt Lodder’s new book Tattoos: The Untold History of a Modern Art published by Yale University Press.

Tattoos is the first book to examine the history of tattoo in the West as both a serious profession and an art form.

Contrary to the pervasive stereotype of tattoo culture relating to an underworld of scoundrels, sailors and ne’er-do-wells, it has existed in the West as a professionalized art practice for centuries. Drawing on extensive new research and unprecedented access to largely unpublished private archives of photographs, art, and ephemera, Dr Matt Lodder offers a new perspective on the history of commercial tattooing in Europe and the United States, beginning even before it emerged as a recognizable profession in the mid-nineteenth century.

The event is taking place at 7pm Firstsite on Thursday 28th November.

For more information and to book tickets go to: ea-festival.eventcube.io/events.

Beach of Dreams

Essex Book Festival is hosting a special weekend of activities for four local community groups on 16th and 17th November to explore and reflect on the fascinating history of Harwich. Participants will be invited to tell their own stories of what the town means to them via workshops led by a writer, digital artist and a local archivist. All of the stories created will feed into a new national digital platform as part of the project: Beach of Dreams.

Beach of Dreams aims to engage hundreds of thousands across the UK in a major interdisciplinary programme responding to coastal, environmental and climate themes, Activities include walks; journeys; participatory creative events; digital activity; talks and other events along the UK coastline in the 4 nations of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from October 2024 to May 2025.

Get involved!

In addition to our four community workshops, Essex Record Office will be hosting a free oral recording session between 4-5pm on Saturday 16th November. If you would like to take part in this session, email hello@essexbookfestival.org.uk The more story-gatherers the better!

Find out more at essexbookfestival.org.uk/beach-of-dreams and beachofdreams.org.

The post Some Autumnal Delights … appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Festival Patron Sarah Perry, our Finale event for the day, summed up the magic of the day in the following words:

“Just the most extraordinary day at University of Essex for the launch event of the Essex Book Festival…I couldn’t be more proud and honoured to be an Essex Girl, the Essex Chancellor, an Essex Book Festival patron and an Essex novelist. The time of mockery is over: the era of Essex has begun!”

What an amazing endorsement!

And that’s just the start. We have so much more to come with events taking place in venues across the county over the coming month. View all upcoming events at essexbookfestival.org.uk/events/.

The post What a start, and still so much to come… appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

University of Essex are celebrating 60 years of making change happen. 60 years of boldness and bravery from their students past and present. 60 years of creating change.

Over six decades they have nurtured thinkers and doers who’ve changed our world for the better.

So, to celebrate, they are showcasing “Sixty Stories” that shed light on how their students, staff, research, and partnerships are creating global impact.

Find out more at 60stories.essex.ac.uk.

The post Sixty Stories for Sixty Years – University of Essex appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

Saturday 1st June – Mark the diary now.

How to get involved

We’re looking for volunteers to join us on the day, If you would like to come along and hold a Beach of Dreams pennant, register your interest by completing this form.

The post Fancy being a flagbearer? appeared first on Essex Book Festival.

On 17 April 1984, as demonstrators gathered outside the Libyan embassy in London, two gunmen lay in wait inside. At 10.18 a.m. automatic gunfire rained down and WPC Yvonne Fletcher fell, mortally wounded. As his friend lay dying, PC John Murray made her a promise that he would seek justice. 37 years would pass before he was able to fulfil that undertaking.

While researching this moving account of one man’s dogged pursuit of justice for a murdered colleague, Matt Johnson uncovered secret-service deals and government duplicity, all part of a plan to force an end to the National Union of Mineworker strike. He discovered the real reason Yvonne’s killers were allowed to go free and how events led to 30 years of growing political control of policing, resulting in the disarray increasingly evident today.

This compelling account pulls seemingly unconnected threads into a coherent and shocking whole. It provides startling insights into how decisions taken by our politicians and the actions of our intelligence agencies, may be anything but.

Full details and tickets from redlionbooks.co.uk

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Holly Pester is a poet and writer. She has worked in sound art and performance, with BBC Radio, Women’s Art Library and Wellcome Collection. Keiran Goddard grew up in Shard End, Birmingham. He is the author of two poetry collections, and two novels: Hourglass, which was widely acclaimed and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott prize, and I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, which will be published in February 2024.

The Lodgers by Holly Pester

A stunning first novel from Holly Pester – a writer already hailed as one of the best poets of her generation.

“What it said to me was that I was here again, I was back, back from the great nowhere of somewhere else, returned, all too officially, to the whereabouts of Moffa.”

After a year away, a woman arrives back in her hometown to keep an eye on her wayward mother, Moffa. Living in a precarious sub-let, she is always on edge, anticipating a visit from the landlord or the arrival of the other resident. But her thoughts also drift back to the rented room she has just left, now occupied by a new lodger she has never met, but whose imagined navigations within the house and home become her fascination.

The minor dramas of temporary living are prised open and ransacked in Holly Pester’s irreverent reckoning with those who house us. This is a story about what it means to live and love within and outside of family structures. It is also a stunning first novel from a writer already hailed as one of the best poets of her generation.

I See Building Fall Like Lightning

Five friends. Five lives. Countless hopes.

Patrick, Shiv, Rian, Oli and Conor grew up together. They played together, skipped school together, and dreamt of everything they’d do with their lives.

Now they are thirty, and only Rian has made it out of the estate and moved away to another city, but his money doesn’t stop him clinging to a vision of the past that is quickly slipping away. Oli is fading by the day, drinking and snorting his way through the endless boredom, while Conor has a baby on the way and a business plan he hopes will change everything. Patrick and Shiv are as in love as ever, but even they are rocked when an old secret opens up new wounds.

Bold, ambitious and stylistically striking, I See Buildings Fall like Lightning asks what happens when all the things we expect from our lives end up not happening. It lays bare the ways that place and circumstance shape us, explores the redeeming and transforming beauty of friendship and examines the true limits of hope and forgiveness

Wednesday 7th February at 6pm
Venue: Red Lion Books, Colchester
£5 ticket price is redeemable against Holly’s book, on the evening.

Book tickets: redlionbooks.co.uk

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Project organisers are inviting you to take inspiration from any moment on walk or the surrounding area to create content under the 2024 theme of ‘Memories’. Submissions could be in the form of, but are not limited to, poems, riddles, local advice, anecdotes, short stories, photography, short films or spoken word.

This competition is open to all ages and abilities, we encourage you to share your memories in your own way. This could be clips from home videos along the route, a spoken account of your first memory of the area or a haiku written about a moment on your journey.

Participating not only offers you the opportunity to be featured on our digital platform but also a shot at the grand prize of £300! Runner up prizes of £200 and £100 will be rewarded to 2nd and 3rd place. Learn more and submit your work by February 29th February 2024 (deadline was originally January 31st) by visiting www.walkwithwords.co.uk.

For exciting updates, excerpts and inspiration be sure to follow @walkwithwordscolchester on Instagram

This project has been commissioned and curated by Colchester City Council and Dallas–Pierce–Quintero.

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