Lemn Sissay in conversation
18 October 2020
Lemn Sissay in conversation
The Universities of Manchester, Salford and Manchester Metropolitan University proudly present PAC@75 – In Conversation with Lemn Sissay (MBE)
Join us in this exciting event as we invite you to join student representatives from the Manchester Metropolitan University and the Universities of Manchester, Salford and Bolton in conversation with Manchester Chancellor, writer, international poet, performer playwright, artist and broadcaster Lemn Sissay MBE. Lemn will give a brief talk about his perspective on Pan Africanism and what it means to him.
Following Lemn’s keynote, attendees and the student panellists will join him in discussion on Pan Africanism and the current Black Lives Matter Movement. Lemn will be in conversation with Nana Agyeman Fredua (Postgraduate Officer of University of Manchester Students Union), Emma Barnes (University of Salford student representative), Boluwatife Oyesola (University of Bolton Students Union President) and Rudi May Hart (Manchester Metropolitan University Fine Art and Art History 2018).
Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, this event will be delivered virtually via Zoom (details received upon Eventbrite registration) and live streamed via YouTube. The event is open to all staff, students and members of the general public.
Video
Biographies
Lemn Sissay MBE
Lemn Sissay MBE took up the University of Manchester Chancellorship in 2015. In 2017 he launched the “Lemn Sissay Law Bursaries”, which aims to address under-representation of Black men in the legal profession. Further afield, Lemn has helped the University of Manchester expand its Equity and Merit Scholarships for funded Master’s degrees to include prospective Ethiopian students. Lemn is trustee of The Manchester International Festival and patron of the Letterbox Club. He is a fellow and trustee of the Foundling Museum and was official poet of the London 2012 Olympics. His Landmark Poems are installed throughout Manchester and London. He has authored books of poetry alongside articles, records, radio documentaries, public art and plays. The BBC documentaries Internal Flight and Child of the State were both broadcast about his life, and his TED talk about childhood has three quarters of a million views. Lemn was the first Black Writers Development Worker in the north of England. In 2010 he was awarded an MBE for services to literature. In 2019, he released his memoir My Name Is Why, which focuses on the hurt and institutional neglect of his time in care. The Sissay PhD Scholarship for Care Leavers, the first of its kind, has been running for six years. The Lemn Sissay Foundation, established in Manchester, organises Christmas dinners for care leavers in locations across the UK, including here in Manchester, Stockport and Wigan.
Rudi May Hart
Rudi May Hart is an art historian from Manchester based in Liverpool of Caribbean and white British decent. Her area of study is Caribbean art and art history both in the Caribbean and internationally. Her current focus is on 20th century till present day art by non-white people from the Caribbean and the diaspora. The focus of her masters is on how resistance can take different forms rather than those traditionally considered resistance like slave revolts. European education systems and life experience has taught me that resistance has not ended just adapted. Rudi’s aim is to create educational tools for non-white people to help further the decolonial process.
Non-White Bibliography : Participate now
Emma Barnes
Emma Barnes is a final year AHRC PhD student researching Indigenous Women’s Writing and Settler-Colonialism at the University of Salford. Emma has previously organised public engagement events with Salford City Council as part of Windrush 70, an international conference for the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP), and a university-wide conference at the University of Salford. Emma is also the Postgraduate Representative for the Northern Postcolonial Network.
Nana Fredua Agyeman
Nana Fredua Agyeman (BSc, MSc) is is an international student from Ghana who joined The University of Manchester in September 2019 to pursue a master’s in Development Economics and Policy.
Boluwatife Oyesola
Boluwatife Oyesolais an international student from Nigeria. She graduated from the University of Bolton with a BA (Hons) Accountancy (First Class Hons) and she was the SU president 2018/19. She is currently doing her PhD at the Institute of Management at the University of Bolton.
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