June comes and brings with it (we hope) summer sunshine and two campaigns close to our heart.
#ReadCaribbean Month takes place across the whole of June and is part of the Caribbean Heritage Month celebrations. As a literature-loving organisation this is a wonderful month for us to collect and share recommendations and find new (and old) fantastic Caribbean authors and books. Spearheaded by Book of Cinz who runs panel talks and book clubs throughout the year to encourage more people to #ReadCaribbean. If it’s bookclubs you’re after we’d also recommend Rebel Women Lit who run a monthly open book club alongside their podcast, bookshop and community library! Headquartered in Jamaica they also run the Caribbean Reader’s Award (just in case you needed any more books to read!)
22nd June is Windrush Day! A chance to celebrate and honour the Windrush generation and their descendents for all their sacrifices and contributions. Established in 2018 to mark the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the SS Empire Windrush on 22nd June 1948. You may have seen our fundraising campaign earlier this year in partnership with Speaking Volumes and the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), you can read more about the ongoing fight for justice for those caught up in the Windrush Scandal on their website. For more ways to get involved for Windrush Day click here.
BackChat: More reading recommendations then you could need!
The International Literature Showcase has highlighted great UK-based writers and facilitated collaboration and exchange for over eight years.
This selection of 50 writers working in the UK was curated by Kei Miller, Elif Shafak, Val McDermid, Jackie Kay and Owen Sheers.
Follow this link to hear from the curators how they picked this list, there’s also a PDF breakdown of every author and which book of theirs to buy – who needs to go anywhere without a book in their hand?
Read more from our Artistic Director Dominique about our upcoming programmes in Rye!
https://buff.ly/4fMIIAW
THIS WEDNESDAY! Join the London Sea Shanty Collective, Hackney Voices and other singers to raise money for Medecins Sans Frontieres' life-saving work ..
StrongBack Productions is thrilled to have been awarded a grant from a private Estate Fund in support of their SongMaps Rye Programme.
Registered Company No 8767837 Registered Charity No 1167818
