Linton Kwesi Johnson on the cover of the 2023 Lambeth Libraries Readers & Writers festival
Lambeth Libraries’ Readers and Writers Festival runs through May into June with a programme of inspirational events. We hope you find something to enjoy. For more information contact your local library or email readersandwriters@lambeth.gov.uk
Word from the Cabinet
Cllr Donatus Anyanwu, Lambeth Cabinet Member for Stronger Communities, Leisure and Sport, said: “I’m delighted to welcome you to our Readers and Writers Festival. For coming up to two decades it has been a regular highlight in the Lambeth calendar. In 2023 we have another month of events to suit all tastes – whether you enjoy reading, writing, discussion or simply sitting back and listening. Come and join us and express yourself! You’ll be amazed at the fun you can have in your local library.”
Festival features
Choose writers, poetry, music, art, photography, book clubs, 3D history – and dominoes…
True stories
- Forbidden jazz and rock ‘n’ roll in Soviet Russia
- Ex-MP Chris Mullin charts recent politics – New Labour, Brexit, and four Tory Prime Ministers.
- Linton Kwesi Johnson in Conversation – the poet’s prose, collected for the first time, draws on roots and history.
- Comedian Sadia Azmat finds the funny in horniness, hijabs, and smashing stereotypes. Let her make you feel like a Sex Bomb.
- Historian Naomi Clifford discusses 19th-century societies aiding women ex-prisoners – especially Susanna Meredith, who employed them in Vauxhall and Stockwell laundries.
Gary Younge writes about recent history
- For three decades Gary Younge had a ringside seat for events and personalities impacting the Black diaspora: Mandela, Obama, hurricane Katrina, Archbishop Tutu, Maya Angelou and Stormzy.
- For the 75th Anniversary of Windrush, Tony Fairweather and Alexis Keir discuss their Twenty – Eight Pounds Ten Shillings – A Windrush Story and Windward Family.
- Brixton’s Black Ink independent publishers – part of a wave of ‘70s and ‘80s creativity as young Black people got their voices heard.
- Artist/filmmaker Naresh Kaushal talks building Lambeth’s interactive map for StoryTrails Immersive Storytelling project – “not just cutting edge technology, it’s a platform for untold stories.”
Creative fiction
- Christopher Bowden’s mystery Mr Magenta moves between south London, Brooklyn, Marseilles, and England’s east coast.
Crime novelist William Hussey and book cover ‘Killing Jericho’
- Maame with Jessica George – unforgettable coming-of-age story about becoming the heroine of your own life.
- From London to Ghana, Small Worlds is an exhilarating novel about the worlds we build to live, dance and love in. Join Caleb Azumah Nelson.
- Award-winning William Hussey’s Killing Jericho, features crime fiction’s first Traveller detective.
Book clubs
- Radical Readers discuss William Morris. Best known today for textile designs, Morris argued art’s value should be for the many, not hoarded by the few. For a copy contact 020 7926 1056.
- Join Lambeth Libraries LGBTQ+ book club to discuss Jeanette Winterson’s classic Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit.
Performance
- Folk nights in Clapham Library with Naomi Bedford (writer/singer on Orbital’s Funny Break, Paul Simmonds (The Men They
Folk nights in Clapham Library
Couldn’t Hang’s songwriter) and their Band
- Anglo-French acoustic five-piece Topette! touring albums Rhododendron and Bourdon.
- Community-led arts and health project Black Men’s Consortium take you to unseen dimensions in Brixton and Streatham libraries to consider “what is needed to improve the lives of Black men in the UK?”
- Jill Abram (former Director of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen) hosts a night in Clapham Library with Lucky Lambeth’s Brilliant Bards.
Exhibitions
- West Norwood-based Yair Meshoulam is a maker of paintings and installations, part-time guitarist, and self-proclaimed ‘King of Wallpaper’. Brixton Library opening hours 27 April to 9 May.
- Mark the anniversary of SS Windrush with a new exhibition by award-winning photographer Jim Grover, creator of 2018’s 70th anniversary ‘Windrush: Portrait of a Generation’
- Brixton-based international and national champions, the Immortals, play and teach tricks and tactics for Domino players.
More information
Full event programme to be added soon.
