Time for Action!
The combined tickets for both day and evening events can be found here for £18/£9!
Day Show Details
Venue: The Black - E, 1 Great George St, Liverpool L1 5EW
Date: Saturday 6th May
Time: 1pm
Tickets available from Philharmonic Box Office: 0151 709 3789
Day Tickets: £8/£4
Get your day tickets here
Evening Show Details
Venue: The Black - E, 1 Great George St, Liverpool L1 5EW
Date: Saturday 6th May
Time: 8pm
Tickets available from Philharmonic Box Office: 0151 709 3789
Evening Tickets: £12/£6
Get your evening tickets here
Featuring... Akala, Gary Younge, Francesca Martinez, Natalie Bennett, Raoul Martinez, Chris Nineham, Thomas Barlow, Tom Mills, Kerry-Anne Mendoza, Martha Spurrier, Michael Dougan, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff and many more!
Writing on the Wall has assembled a stunning line-up of front-line writers, authors, journalists, broadcasters, film-makers, commentators and performers who are exposing the lies and hypocrisy of the media and political elite, and exploring and inspiring new ways of organising and alternative ways of living in this ever-changing, politically-charged environment.
Whatever your views on Brexit, Trump, current politics and culture, WoWFest 2017 is a platform and a safe space for people from diverse walks of life to come together to express their views, build networks, and seek answers to the questions: ‘Where are we now, and where do we go from here?’
Journalist and writer Gary Younge will launch Time for Action! with an opening address, followed by panel discussions 'I'm not racist but...’; ‘Fake it till you make it – FAKE NEWS! In a Post-truth world’; ‘Brexit Britain - Bright or Broken?’; and an exclusive interview with Raoul Martinez.
Award-winning performers Akala and Francesca Martinez combine to present an evening of sharp, intelligent and very funny spoken word and comedy you will not want to miss.
Daytime Programme:
Opening address by Gary Younge, award-winning journalist and writer
1pm - 1:10pm
Gary Younge, best known for his reports from America, will open up the day with his perspective on Trump’s America and the so-called ‘special relationship’ with the UK. Gary Younge is an author with five books to his name, broadcaster and editor-at-large for The Guardian. He writes 'Beneath the Radar', a monthly column, for The Nation magazine and is the Alfred Knobler Fellow for The Nation Institute. His latest book, Another Day in the Death of America, which was recently serialised on Radio 4, was described by No Windows author and activist Naomi Klein as his ‘masterwork... Brilliantly reported, quietly indignant and utterly gripping. A book to be read through tears'. Gary has made a series of radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from the Tea Party to hip hop culture.
I'm not racist but...
1.15pm - 2.15pm
Don't miss our panel discussion on racism, the rise in hate-crime and how to fight it. Featuring Gary Younge, and Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, opinions editor at award-winning online magazine Gal-dem.com and Nahella Ashraf. . Brexit and the election of Trump are being blamed for the reported sharp increase in hate crime, racist assaults and abuse on both sides of the Atlantic. The 'I'm not racist but...' brigade are out in force once again, but this time with refugees and asylum seekers, or anyone looking like they may be one, bearing the brunt of their ire. With severe cuts in public spending and attacks on living standards, the idea that someone else is taking your piece of the pie is gaining traction. This is at least one underlying cause of the vote for Brexit and Trump, who have been accused of stoking up populism to hide the truth of their attacks. Are we sliding back to the 1930’s and all that entails, and if so, what can we do about it?
Nahella Ashraf is a long term anti racism campaigner and and is now an activist with Stand Up To Racism. She also recently spoken out after being racially attacked in London. Nahella first became politically active around the build up to the war in Iraq and is Chair of Greater Manchester Stop The War.
Fake it till you make it! - Fake News in a Post-truth World
2.30pm - 3.30pm
After Hillsborough, Liverpool knows a lie can be half-way round the world before the truth even gets its boots on. Fake News! (copyright Donald Trump), no longer the preserve of hateful rags like The Sun and pranksters, permeates the national media. The leading suspect, US President Donald Trump, declares FAKE NEWS! while burying the truth under the glare of ever-more sensational headlines. The allegation of ‘make it short, make it snappy, and make it up’, once aimed at the tabloids, now sits at the door of respected news outlets, including the BBC. Britain's press prides itself on its independence, but is that the case anymore, and is the reality - based on the reporting of Hillsborough and Orgreave, and even going as far back as the General Strike of 1926 – that the press has always fallen on the side of the elite? Join Kerry-Anne Mendoza, Tom Mills and Thomas Barlow for a discussion about the Fake News phenomenon, the incorporation of such news by mainstream media and the rise of a revolution against it.
Kerry-Anne Mendoza is a writer, journalist and social commentator, and the author of Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy. A former banker and management consultant, Kerry-Anne is currently editor-in-chief for The Canary. She has written for the Scriptonite Daily blog and has contributed to major news organisations such as The Guardian, openDemocracy, the New Internationalist and RT UK.
Before joining Aston University in 2016 as a lecturer in Sociology and Policy, Tom Mills was a researcher at the University of Bath where he worked on the ESRC funded project, 'Understanding and Explaining Terrorism: Expertise in Practice'. He also completed his PhD research at Bath, examining how the collapse of social democracy and the rise of neoliberalism impacted on the BBC's organisational structure and culture, work which forms the basis of his book The BBC: Myth of a Public Service.
Thomas Barlow is editor of Real Media, Alternative Media Officer of Manchester NUJ, and an Economics and Politics graduate specialising in foreign affairs. Thomas Barlow has been an active community organiser and activist. He focused on environmentalism and anti-fascism, before creating a platform to promote and support independent media, believing something more was needed to challenge current dominant stories about the poor and the vulnerable.
Brexit Britain - Bright Or Broken?
3.45pm - 4.45pm
Natalie Bennett is a politician and journalist who led the Green Party of England and Wales from September 2012 to September 2016. Speaking last year, she stated Brexit would be an 'environmental disaster' for the nation under this UK Government, and has since argued that politicians, including Labour MPs, have misrepresented the reasons why the public voted in the EU Referendum. In a press conference in September 2016 Natalie said, 'People did not vote Leave primarily on the basis of opposition to immigration.'
Martha Spurrier is the Director of Liberty, a cross-party, non-partisan organisation at the heart of the movement for fundamental rights and freedoms in the UK. Liberty promotes the values of individual human dignity, equal treatment and fairness, as the foundations of a democratic society. Martha specialises in defending access to justice and the rights of women, children and disabled people.
Michael Dougan, Professor of European Law at the University of Liverpool, specialises in EU constitutional law, the Single Market and EU welfare law. Michael’s research has focused on the interaction between free movement rights and social entitlement and its impact on EU citizenship – meaning he’s the perfect brain to pick about the future effect of Brexit on the UK.
Chris Nineham is a founder member of Stop the War and Counterfire. He writes regularly about the War on Terror, domestic politics and mass movements. He was a key activist in the international anti-capitalist movement and one of the organisers of the two million anti-war demonstration on February 15, 2003. Chris has researched the relationship between mass movements and the media and is the author of The People Versus Tony Blair; Capitalism and Class Consciousness: the ideas of Georg Lukacs; and How The Establishment Lost Control: The Left and The return of Mass Politics, due to be published in spring 2017.
Creating Freedom - Raoul Martinez in conversation with Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
5pm- 6pm
Writing On The Wall are thrilled to welcome Raoul Martinez and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to WoWFest 2017.
Raoul Martinez is a writer, philosopher, artist and award-winning documentarian. His first film The Lottery of Birth won the Spirit Award at Hollywood’s Artivist Festival. His paintings have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery. His first book, Creating Freedom: Power,Control and the Fight For Our Future (2016), explores freedom through the
lens of economics, philosophy, political theory and neuroscience.
.
Raoul Martinez will be in conversation with author and journalist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, who describes herself as a 'leftie liberal, anti-racist, feminist, Shia Muslim, part-Pakistani, and…a very responsible person'. Yasmin is a columnist for The Independent and the London Evening Standard and is a regular on TV shows such as Dateline London and The Write Stuff. She has won numerous awards for her journalism, including the EMMA Media Personality of the Year in 2000, the George Orwell Prize for Political Journalism in 2002, and the EMMA Award for Journalism in 2004. Yasmin and Raoul will be discussing the erosion of individual liberties and how people can take action, individually and collectively, to break their chains.
Details
Venue: The Black - E, 1 Great George St, Liverpool L1 5EW
Date: Saturday 6th May
Time: 1pm
Day Tickets: £8/£4
Get your day tickets here
Evening Show
Time for Action with Akala and Franchesca Martinez
8pm til late. Doors open 7.30pm.
Time for Action culminates in a unique evening of comedy and spoken word from award-winning performers Francesca Martinez and Akala. You do not want to miss these celebrated artists, whose works speak out on the fundamental issues of our time - sharp, intelligent and very funny.
The Wobbly Manifesto
The Liverpool premiere of a new stand up show from acclaimed comedian, writer and actor Francesca Martinez which asks Why are we still so damn scared of difference? Without diversity, there would be no evolution, no life, no human beings. Francesca proposes her own ‘Wobbly Manifesto’ which aims to show how embracing diversity as normal would revolutionise the world we live in! Francesca will do a book signing after the performance.
“One of the UK circuit’s most brilliant comedians” THE OBSERVER “Wonderfully challenging… brilliantly busts myths about normality” THE SCOTSMAN
NB Suitable for 16+, expect ‘fruity’ language and adult themes.
Akala
Akala burst onto the underground music scene in 2004 with his debut album It’s Not A Rumour . He is recognised as one of the foremost spoken word artists in the UK, a major talent, and an outspoken voice in the fight for equality. For this special show Akala will deliver a unique spoken word performance drawn from his impressive body of work, including from his graphic novel The Ruins of Empires, which follows The Knowledge Seeker discovering the rise and fall of empires throughout the course of human history. A vocal and incisive historian, Akala’s work chronicles a contemporary perspective on where we’ve been, where we are and where we need to go.
Details
Venue: The Black - E, 1 Great George St, Liverpool L1 5EW
Date: Saturday 6th May
Time: 8pm
Tickets available from Philharmonic Box Office: 0151 709 3789
Evening Tickets: £12/£6
Get your evening tickets here
The combined tickets for both day and evening events can be found here for £18/£9!