Thursday 23rd July
4-4.15pm – Welcome to The Lit Collective Sheffield’s Online Festival
TLC welcomes you to the festival and some of our organisers explain the origins of the book club and why we felt it was important to put the book club and festival together.
6-7pm – Sister, Sister
Two sisters, Warda and Sundus Yassin, discuss how books and poetry have impacted their relationship and reflect on their favourite sisters in literary texts.
Sundus is an original member of TLC and Warda is a school teacher who has published the poetry collection “Tea With Cardamom”, which won the New Poets Prize in 2018.
8-9pm – We Will Not Be Erased: A Book Club Discussion About gal-dem’s ‘I Will Not Be Erased’ Essay Collection
Members and friends of TLC discuss Gal-Dem’s “I Will Not Be Erased”, the first text to feature in the book club. Sahra, Aisha and others share their thoughts on the essay collection, reflect on what lessons they would impart on their younger selves and the importance of role models in and beyond literature.
“I Will Not Be Erased” is a thought-provoking and moving collection of fourteen essays, where gal-dem’s writers use raw material from their teenage years – diaries, poems and chat histories – to explore growing up.
Friday 24th July
6-7pm – Imagination and Futurity with Maryam Jameela & Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan
Dr Maryam Jameela and Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan discuss the importance of imagination and futurity within the context of literature and the politics of social transformation.
Maryam recently completed her PhD on Islamophobia, trauma and power at the University of Sheffield. Suhaiymah is an internationally acclaimed poet and educator who recently published her first collection “Postcolonial Banter”.
8-9.30pm – Celebrating Womxn Writers of Colour
A series of performances from womxn writers of colour, including an open mic night for those who wish to share their work, as we come together to celebrate the festival and the huge amount of literary talent in the city and beyond.
Saturday 25th July
2-3.30pm – The Power of Joy: A Creative Writing Workshop with Danae Wellington
This creative writing workshop invites young womxn of colour (14-18) to explore the importance and power of joy with poet and founder of Nyara School of Arts, Danae Wellington. Reflect on and share what artwork, rap lyrics, YouTube videos, magazines, poems, books, plays and/or films bring you joy and use it to inspire an expressive piece of writing.
4-5pm – Home/Britain [?]
University of Sheffield students Mubeenah Waheed, Aniqah Majid (BA) and Loma Jones (PhD) explore the concept of Home in Britain by discussing poetry by Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan and Nat Raha. They also use an essay on Utopian Poetics to discuss ways in which creative expression provides a home of sorts for those who are marginalised and disempowered in physical spaces.
6-7pm – Re-imagining Black Feminist Futures
Amber Lascelles, Amina Jama and Désirée Reynolds discuss what Black Feminism means to them, its relationship with the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the role of imagination in dismantling systemic racism and misogynoir. They end by reflecting on the way in which literature helps articulate Black womxn’s experiences and dreams.
Amber Lascelles is a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds who writes on Black feminist resistance in contemporary black women’s fiction. Amina Jama is an internationally acclaimed writer, poet and performer who recently published her first collection “A Warning To The House That Holds Me”. Désirée Reynolds is a writer, teacher and trustee of The Racial Justice Network who published her first novel “Seduce” in 2013.
8-9.30pm – An Evening With Yvonne Battle-Felton
Closing out the festival, we have an intimate evening in with author Yvonne Battle-Felton. Enjoy a reading from Yvonne’s award-winning novel, “Remembered”, reflect on and discuss motherhood as a literary theme and/or lived experience, before then taking part in a creative writing workshop on the theme of mothering and family.
Yvonne Battle-Felton is an author and lecturer in Creative Writing at Sheffield Hallam University. She published “Remembered” in 2019, a story that centres on an emancipated slave, Spring, who is forced to relive a haunting past in order to lead her dying son home. This debut novel went on to win a Northern Writers’ Award and was Longlisted for the Women’s Prize 2019.
Check out all non-ticketed events via our Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp5ATrCkgj7kK1hE0xLVJ_Q?view_as=subscriber
TLC xxx
The Lit Collective Sheffield 