AoA's Hot To Trot Talking Points
Every Friday
Join us to look at what we’ve been passionately discussing in AofA’s FB group this week.
Jane Fonda 88, and Joan Baez 85, in this intimate, reflective photograph. They are still campaigning against Trump and against the wars/occupation and we need them desperately. I am writing this just as Trump is threatening to use nuclear weapons on Iran. We must speak out and Jane and Joan are immutable with their voices of resistance. Thank you Jane and Joan.
In an AofA type of tilt, we go straight to the NYC Easter Bonnet Parade and who can help smiling at such extravagance and flamboyance and effort made. Amazing.
Dr Miriam Stoppard, 88, has a new book - Sex, Drugs and Walking Sticks - out about sex when we’re older and living our best lives at these older ages. She also sent out vibrator with the launch copy to her older female mates. At AofA, we’re definitely not absolute about women Over 80 being as keen on sex as ever. Some are, and some aren’t and that’s okay with us. This was the headline in the Times’ Weekend section.
Exciting new free micro-lit festival - Hey Manchester on April 23rd which is also St Geroge’s Day. Hey! Manchester is a micro arts festival asking what is the future of the country.
April 23rd – Free and 2 until 8pm at the Unitarian Chapel, Cross St.
Hey! Manchester hails from the writer-led section of a rolling series of events across the UK called the Fete of Britain. The latter was created by a collective of activists – from poets to musicians to artists etc – called Hard Art which includes Brian Eno and Carole Cadwalladr.
“Hey! Festival knits together live literature, song, blessing, and political enquiry at a time when our nation has been divided by our leaders and we need to come together. Hey! seeks to use the soft and magical effects of making stories, singing songs, standing side by side in a chapel, to bring people together in troubled times. Hey! comes out of a collective of artists and activists called Hard Art. We meet at Brain Eno’s studio regularly and we are committed to responding creatively to the current climate of division.”
Monique Roffey, winner of Costa Book of the Year 2020 and professor at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Hey! Manchester is a collaboration of WRITERS from Manchester Metropolitan University, ACTORS from The Empathy Museum, organisers, ACTIVISTS from the Hard Art Collective and FAITH leaders from across Manchester as well as from the Unitarian Chapel where William Gaskell was once minister and also home to famed author Mrs Elisabeth Gaskell. There will also be 19th Century Manchester Street songs with legendary BALLAD SINGER, Jennifer Reid. You can also ARGUE WITH A WOMAN, Anouschka Grose. As well as participate with the Ear of Britain, an interactive installation outside the Empathy Museum.
Book here - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hey-festival-tickets-1984055120274?aff=oddtdtcreator
LINE UP FOR THURSDAY 23RD APRIL
2pm – A BLESSING FROM 5 FAITH LEADERS, a call and response for unity and peace
2.45PM – SINGING BACK RADICAL – with ballad singer Jennifer Reid
3.30pm – panel talk - Mrs Gaskell – MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER – with Emma Liggins, Adam O Riordan and Costa Award winner, Professor Monique Roffey
4-5.30pm writing WORKSHOPS
i) FATE WRITING – with author Gregory Norminton, CFF
ii) MAGICAL SOLILOQUYS – WITH Shakespeare expert Vance Adair and Nicholas Royle, on magical thinking and self-transformation
iii) ST GEORGE, A MAN FOR OUR TIME – a chance to explore who this man was through letters and monologues, with author Catherine Wilcox, CFF
6pm - Live Lit Finale with song and new work, live on YouTube with Good Neighbours/ Fete of Britain TV channel
FIND US ON:
Instagram: @thefeteofBritain, @hey.festival, @aheadmmu
Metal Label:
https://hardart.metalabel.com/
FUNDED BY: AHEAD, Centre for Fiction, Hard Art, Unitarian Chapel, Cross Street, Manchester.
And so the season of picnicking in graveyards begins. This is a suggestion from La Mort on Insta. We like it. ‘Did you know that in the 1800s, cemeteries were literally the hottest picnic spots in town? Before public parks existed, places like Mount Auburn Cemetery and Père Lachaise were the destinations for a Sunday stroll and a packed lunch among the dearly departed.
Families spread blankets between headstones. Kids ran around. People picnicked next to whoever had the best shade. It wasn’t morbid, it was community.
Maybe it’s time to bring back the cemetery picnic. Grab a blanket, a charcuterie board, and sit with the quiet. Let death be part of life again. 🌿🪦🧺❤️’
This photo of Kensington Market - which came from Old London Photographs on FB - evoked so many memories of purchases there and the wonderful number of stalls selling everything from loons to patchouli oil. A lot of us frequented Kensington Market.