This month a series of free events by Manchester City Council are being held online to celebrate Black History Month.
This October Manchester Central Library is hosting an array of events from inspiring talks to workshops all run by black professionals such as lawyers, poets and artists.
Poet and writer Lemn Sissay will kick the celebrations off with a reading via video of his poems ‘Airmail to a Dictionary’ and ‘The customs men’ to celebrate this month, which can be viewed at www.facebook.com/manchesterlibaries
Lemn came to the city at just aged 17 to engage with the different cultures and diversity with only a fistful of poems and a birth certificate.
All events this year will be held online due the social distancing measures making it impossible to bring people face-to-face to celebrate.
Councillor Luthfur Rahman said: “We are proud to support Black History Month every October and although this year, we are sadly unable to bring people together through face-to-face events in our libraries, that has made us all the more determined to go the extra mile and put together a great programme of free online events for all ages.”
One of the many talks which will take place will be led by Paul Crooks an author and historian whom will talk about how he traced his Caribbean ancestors who suffered in sugar plantations 200 years ago.
Mr Crooks will lead two online events on 19th October at 5:30pm and 20th October 5:30pm and will both last for an hour.
The library are holding events for children too with a reading session with local author Jade Colder’s new children’s book ‘Mummy… What is Black Lives Matter’ a book she wrote to inform her young child on racism and protests in a positive light.
Young people who are looking to go into writing, law or teaching have the opportunity to join the career talks and get the real life insight about the occupations from the professionals themselves.
Not all events will be talks and reading a craft workshop for the more creative is also offered which will be run by local artist Simone in which you can create your very own fantasy Landscape masterpiece.
Each Saturday throughout October an event will be held to celebrate the achievements of black pioneers such as Katherine Johnson, an unsung hero in the space race and Granville Wood, an inventor who made key contributions to the development of the telephone.
If you are interested in any of the events being held you can book your place on www.eventbrite.co.uk for free.
