WORD

Tuesday 21 June 6-8pm:

Join Key Changes at St. Luke’s Centre for a special International Music Day Open Mic

Key Changes is an Islington based charity that provides music services in hospitals and the community for people experiencing mental health problems. #livinglyrics is commissioned by the Word2016 to engage young people using mental health services in a programme of songwriting, recording sessions and performances. Working collaboratively with music industry professionals and peer mentors the group has developed a thrilling set of lyrical themes with a particular emphasis on exploring mental health and wellbeing in the context of the issues and causes within their community. This performance will feature an energizing and inspiring selection of work from group members and Key Changes service users.

Monday 20 June:

2-5pm Cubitt presents the Summer Ball – at the Assembly Hall on this year’s theme The Graphic Novel – tea dance, live band, performances, art exhibitions, making and more!

Free admission – but places are limited. Call Cubitt on 020 7278 8226 or drop in to Claremont or St. Luke’s Centre to get your ticket.

7pm @ Park Theatre, All Change presents Words of Wisdom  – to mark ‘World Refugee Day’ – an intergenerational evening of poetry and storytelling from young women, young parents and older women from Turkish speaking, Somali, Caribbean and British backgrounds involved in Dispensing Wisdom a project celebrating the stories and voices of Islington women over the past 100 years.

Monday 20-Sunday 26 June is Refugee Week

Refugee Week is celebrated in the UK each year to coincide with World Refugee Day on 20 June.  It is a unique opportunity to celebrate the positive contributions that refugees and asylum seekers make to the UK and to promote understanding about why people seek sanctuary. In the UK, Refugee Week is a nationwide programme of arts, cultural and educational events that celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK, and encourages a better understanding between communities. This year the theme is “Welcome”.

Islington refugee and migrant communities bring to the borough a wealth of culture and Refugee Week events help highlight this whilst emphasising refugee issues, and delivering positive educational messages that counter fear, ignorance and negative stereotypes of refugees, through arts, cultural and educational events.

Look out for a series of special events this week for Word2016 to mark Refugee Week – including Words of Wisdom 7pm, Monday 20 June @ Park Theatre, and Stories of Each Other. Do We Care? 6pm  Wednesday 22 June @ Free Word Centre

Sunday 19 June: 12-6pm

Story Street is part of the Cally Festival, a huge one-day street party on the Caledonian Road. Presented by Word Festival’s very own poet-in-residence Paul Lyalls Story Street will see storytelling, poetry, rap, spoken word and readings with performances from local people and well-known poets and storytellers – including Thornhill, Copenhagen and St. Andrew’s C of E Primary School poets, Joshua Seigal and more. Come and pull up a hay bale and enjoy the show.

.. and don’t miss #living lyrics performance from Key Changes – commissioned by Word2016 to engage young people using mental health services in a programme of songwriting, recording sessions and performances. Working collaboratively with music industry professionals and peer mentors the group has developed a thrilling set of lyrical themes with a particular emphasis on exploring mental health and wellbeing in the context of the issues and causes within their community. This performance will feature an energizing and inspiring selection of work from group members and Key Changes service users.

Saturday 18 June:

All Change and Arsenal in the Community invite Granddads, dads and lads (age 4-11) to join poet Paul Lyalls for a celebration of all things Arsenal FC. Including a behind the scenes tour of the fantastic Emirates Stadium and following in the footsteps of Nick Hornby participants will share stories and experiences of being a fan of the beautiful game in a fun filled workshop for all generations. 10am and 1pm (special session for older men with dementia and their families) Booking 020 7689 4646

11am-3pm Little Green Library @ King Henry’s Walk Gardens

Discover The Garden Classroom’s outdoor, pop-up Little Green Library in parks and gardens across Islington this June. Our library bike will be out and about bringing books for under- fives and their families to enjoy. Settle down and enjoy reading together or listen to a treasured tale. You might even dress up as a story character and act out your own stories. Collect stamps at each venue, get creative with our free craft activities, and become a story explorer in story trails to discover the brilliance of books at your local green space.

1-5pm Letterpress masterclass for adults with Olu Oke – House of Illustration

In the last 10 years Letterpress has seen a massive resurgence but where do you start? How would letterpress fit into your practice? How do you print? What’s a chase, a quoin and what is locking up? Using an Adana Platen press, a HQ flat bed press and a Line-o-scribe cylinder press you’ll learn a little more than the basics. You will set wooden and lead type and print a small collection of type-based prints.

Limited places. £75 per person.

Friday 17 June:

This coming week’s Free Word 2o-26 June is

Crystocopophilia – The urge to look through people’s windows as you pass their houses. 

Linking with the Five Ways to Wellbeing –

Take notice

Thursday 16 June:

British ESA astronaut Tim Peake is in space and he wants you to come too! Tim and his space crew have been working super hard to make his mission, called Principia, a huge success. But Tim needs space apprentices to carry out this historical journey with him. Curved House Kids has provided Islington children with Principia Mission Space Diaries and they will use them as a log book to complete the mission alongside Tim. A project for local Islington Primary Schools. In partnership with Islington Libraries. This project is supported by the UK Space Agency.

Wednesday 15 June:

Book Worlds – a six-week project exploring the inner world of books culminates today led by House of Illustration. A story or a book is a place to escape into, to get lost or absorbed in. This project has supported young people to create a diorama (3D scene) of a favourite book inside a book-shaped box with a hinged door as a cover. Exploring different illustration techniques, participants have had the chance to create a fabulous creative outcome of which they can feel proud.

6.45pm:  Illiberal Democracy – the future of freedom at Free Word Centre

Europe, bastion of hope for more than a million refugees last year. What brought them? A hunger for safety and security? Dreams of freedom? The draw of liberal democracy with its ideals of free expression, equal opportunity and persecution for none? Join major cultural figures from Hungary and Poland to discuss the idea of Europe as not just a place, but a set of values that are rapidly unravelling. This event will feature philosopher Agnes Heller (Hungary); novelist Elif Shafak (Turkey), who has written on Europe for Free Word and writes for the Guardian on the political situation in Turkey; and poet Adam Zagajewski (Poland), author of ‘A defence of ardour’. This event will be livestreamed. Click here to tune in to the YouTube livestream, which will begin at 6.45pm (BST) on Wednesday 15 June 2016.

Tuesday 14 June:

Running until 25 August 9am-9pm daily (Monday-Friday) Free Word Centre curated and produced by All Change visit The Story So Far… Word2012-2016

Since its launch in 2012, the Word Festival has seen thousands of local people of all ages and backgrounds taking part in extraordinary projects and events designed to promote enjoyment in reading, writing and freedom of expression. WORD has encouraged local people to find and express their voice in schools and community centres, parks and playgrounds, football grounds and libraries. This exhibition captures the story so far in their own words and pictures!

Monday 13 June 2016: 6.45pm at Free Word Centre

An Ode to Storytelling: Translating ‘The Book of Pearl’ –

Join Walker Books, publishers of Alex Rider, Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, as they present the imaginative adventure story The Book of Pearl. Hear internationally acclaimed author, Timothée de Fombelle, in conversation with his translators Sarah Ardizzone and Sam Gordon about his journey in creating the story, and theirs in bringing it to life in English. This event will be chaired by Joy Court.

Ahead of the event, you can also read an extract from The Book of Pearl by clicking here.

£5 (£3 concessions) Bookings This event is part of Wanderlust: Great Literature from Around the World, a monthly event series at Free Word. Join us on the second Monday of each month to celebrate the best fiction in translation.