James Daly, Bury North MP A CROSS-PARTY group of northern MPs are uniting to champion culture in the north and drive the recovery and rebuilding of the north’s arts and culture offering in the wake of the pandemic. MPs from the Northern Culture All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) are conducting an inquiry into ‘What Northern Culture needs to rebuild, rebalance and recover’. The group held its first evidence session on Access to Culture with industry experts including Rhodri Talfan Davies, director of Nations at the BBC; Syima Aslam, CEO at Bradford Literature Festival; Nick Grimshaw, head of partnerships at the Creative Industries Federation, and Kelly Allen, executive director for Social Justice, Curious Minds.
BRADFORD schoolchildren have created an animated film exploring their hopes for a post-Covid world. Youngsters at Lapage Primary School on Barkerend Road took part in Zoom workshops earlier this year, looking at themes of light, hope and inspiration for them, their families and communities as lockdown restrictions ease. The result was a poem written by the students which has been brought to life by a children’s animator and is being screened on Bradford Literature Festival’s website. The project is part of the festival’s ‘Bradford Inspired’ programme, delivering a range of free-to-access creative projects using digital technology to engage people at a time when access to cultural and creative resources is limited, and to help people feel connected within their communities.
Caitlin Moran is heading for Bradford. Picture: Alex Lake/PA BESTSELLING author Caitlin Moran is heading for Bradford. The Times columnist and author of How to Be a Woman, How to Build a Girl and new book More Than a Woman, will be at St George’s Hall on Sunday July 4 - and she’ll be celebrating getting older Caitlin will be discussing More Than A Woman, described as “a hymn to the women in their 30s and 40s and their supernatural ability to deal with the stuff you never thought would happen to you: grey hair; hangovers that last for days; ageing parents; having sex with the same person for years and years and still saying ‘thank you’ afterwards - the list goes on”.
The cast of Aladdin and the Stolen Stories. Picture: Lain Furness AN adventure film shot in Bradford has been produced to help families explore parks across the city, with scannable QR codes leading to extra ‘hidden’ stories.. Aladdin and the Stolen Stories is a digital storytelling experience produced by Bradford Literature Festival with Wrongsemble Theatre, as part of Bradford Inspired. The Aladdin tale has been re-imagined in a mix of live action and animation filmed at locations such as Oastler Market, City Park, City Hall and Salts Mill and told through five short episodes free to watch on the BLF website.