Digbeth Echoes
Echoes is part of a long-term programme of work by Friction Arts, focusing on the heritage and history of Digbeth and Highgate in Birmingham, UK, from 1960 to 1990. Since 2008, Friction have been collecting stories and archive information about the area, particularly examining the themes of ‘work’ and ‘play’. Their archive has formed an exhibition at BMAG which is currently on show in the Community Gallery. Echoes features several photographic portraits of local residents, including a pub landlord, former bouncer and current market worker, engineer brothers, steel working woman, cabinet maker / youth worker, and member of the Irish community. Using Augmented Reality, visitors can hear the portraits recount anecdotes and short stories relating to the area. Echoes continues until Sunday 15 September 2013, admission free. For more information, including details of talks, tours see: www.digbethechoes.com.
Full programme for Fierce 2013 announced
The internationally acclaimed Festival returns for its fifteenth edition this October, with innovative events and interventions in galleries, clubs, theatres, warehouses and streets across Birmingham, plus a full day of events at Warwick Arts Centre. This year’s festival includes the project Fun with Cancer Patients, a project exploring teenagers’ creative responses to cancer treatment by artist Brian Lobel, who was himself treated for cancer as a teenager. There will be a rare performance from LA-based performance artist and body builder Heather Cassils, plus a late-night concert featuring the legendary Joshua Light Show, the psychedelic light-visuals group who have worked with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Doors and Janis Joplin. French artist Denis Tricot makes a huge outdoor sculpture from balsa wood on the streets of Birmingham, and festival-favourite Frank B returns for a dance duet involving a life-sized animatronic polar bear. Head to www.wearefierce.org for more info / tickets.
Birmingham Literature Festival
To celebrate its new home at the Library of Birmingham, the city’s premier literature event – the much-loved Birmingham Book Festival – has launched a new name, a new look and a new website. Building on its 15-year heritage the new Birmingham Literature Festival (3-12 October) will continue to excite and engage the region’s audiences with this year’s busy programme of events and stellar line-up. To mark the name change and rebrand fans are now able to purchase tickets to ten of the headline events that have been made available on the festival’s new website alongside a selection of exciting writing workshops. Birmingham Book Festival has welcomed hundreds of authors and personalities to the city over the past 15 years. Headline events will include UK Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, writers Lionel Shriver, Will Self, Catherine O’Flynn, Jonathan Coe and Germaine Greer. The festival already has a reputation for a wide and varied programme encompassing literature in its many forms, and it continues to promise an interesting and engaging experience for its visitors. More at www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org.