NEWS FROM NOWHERE CLUB
Patron: Peter Hennessy
Founded in 1996, the club challenges the commercialisation &
isolation of modern life.
We meet monthly on Saturday evening.
‘Fellowship is life & the lack of fellowship is death’. William Morris
PROGRAMME 2016
** 21stANNIVERSARY YEAR!**
At Epicentre, West Street,
Leytonstone E11 4LJ 7.30pm Buffet (bring
something if you can) 8.00pm Talk &
discussion till 10pm
Travel & Access
Stratford stations &
257 bus
Leytonstone tube (exit left) & 257/W14 bus Overground: Leytonstone High Rd, turn right,
short walk
Disabled access, car park,
bikes can be brought in, quiet children welcome. You can phone to confirm the
talk will be as shown. Meetings open to all - just turn up. Enquiries 0208 555 5248 Free
entry: voluntary donations welcome
‘The
club is a real beacon of light.’ Peter Cormack
Saturday 9th
January 2016
Hounds Off!: The
People’s Campaign against Hunting Speaker: Joe Hashman
Joe joined the Hunt Saboteurs
Association in 1982. He worked for the League Against Cruel Sports & since
2006 has remained part of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
Enforcement Team. Integral to many groundbreaking investigations, exposés &
prosecutions, he has also defended his anti-hunting beliefs successfully in the
European Court of Human Rights & various domestic legal arenas. He is the
founder of Hounds Off (
www.houndsoff.co.uk
).
Saturday 13 February 2016
Libertarian Social Centres: MayDay Rooms
& London Anarchist Resource Centre
Speakers: Georgia Anderson & Howard Slater
MayDay
Rooms, an educational charity, was founded as a safe haven for historical
material. Rather than being a ring-fenced ‘repository’ it’s an active social
resource; a place where, amidst the austerity-driven threats to education &
spaces of dissent, groups can gather to activate the historical material &
feed these into current struggles. The MD Rooms collections are deliberately
eclectic. Whilst we hold larger collections (Greenham Common), most are modest
in size & cover themes from counter-educational initiatives (Schooling
& Culture), to social protest (Poll Tax Rebellion), counter-culture
(Scratch Orchestra) & activist collectives (East London Big Flame). MDR
sees history as a constant inspiration & is working on digitalisation
platforms to make the inspirational efforts of the past more widely available.
A speaker from LARC will tell us about their own way of providing a radical
meeting place.
Saturday
12th March 2016
Crisis? What Crisis?
Re-Assessing the British ‘Winter of Discontent’ 1978-1979 Speaker:
Professor John Shepherd
On
22 January 1979, 1.5 million workers were on strike - the highest number since
the 1926 General Strike. Iconic media images of the industrial unrest that
swept Britain in an arctic winter captured mountains of uncollected rubbish in
London’s theatre land, militant shop stewards turning patients away from
hospitals & a national strike by road hauliers that threatened to bring the
country to a standstill. Even corpses were left unburied. Within weeks the
beleaguered James Callaghan Government fell from power by a single vote. In the
1979 general election, Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister, beginning 18
years of unbroken Conservative rule. John Shepherd examines the causes, course
& consequences of a major turning point in modern British
political history.
Saturday
9th April 2016
ABE GIBSON PERFORMANCE
POET
Speaker/performer:
Abe Gibson
Formerly Poet in Residence at London Transport
Museum,Writer in Residence at Feltham Young Offenders Institute & Ronnie
Scott Club performer, Abe has a formidable way with words, accents &
mannerisms, & delights audiences with his charming, funny, acutely observed
characters. As a caretaker on a Hackney Council estate for 25 years, he’s used
this opportunity to closely study people from all walks of life & portrays
them at least as well as many professional actors. Abe will explain how &
why he writes & performs, & treat us to a rendition of some of his
favourite poems. His poetry collection ‘Violently Tender’ will be on sale.
Saturday 14th May
2016 WRITERS FORUM
Speakers: Derek Smith, Jenny Matthews, David
Gardiner, Irene Rosenfeld
Four London writers discuss why & how they write.
Between them, they have vast experience of producing poetry, short stories,
plays & novels for children & adults. They have been published by major
& smaller publishing houses & have self-published, run writing groups
& blogs & given advice about creative writing & creativity in
general. They will read out examples of their work. Come & hear their
thoughts of what has shaped & helped them, & bring your own questions,
preoccupations & short bits of writing to share with them.
Saturday 11th June 2016
"From Grave to Shrine,
Poet to Priestess: Witnessing the Evolution of a Poet's Grave into a Pilgrimage
Site."
Speaker: Jessica Lawrence
Jessica
Lawrence spent three years in the ancient village of Heptonstall, West Yorkshire,
observing the grave of Sylvia Plath who is buried in the local cemetery. She
interviewed thousands of visitors who flock to Plath's burial site. Her
research, which earned her an MSc in Medical Anthropology, demonstrated that
Plath serves as posthumous mentor & spiritual guide as well as a literary
inspiration to thousands of devotees world wide, who credit her influence as
critical in having helped them find the resolve to make pivotal changes in
their lives, including prevention of suicide, alleviation from self harm &
the decision to pursue a career in literature & poetry. Jessica will
discuss this little known, under-appreciated aspect of Plath's legacy &
will illustrate her talk with slides of the grave which has become a literary
pilgrimage site & a decorated shrine.
July
9th 2016
NOWHERE ……………. Revelations of a Blue Badge Guide
Speaker: Brian
Hicks
When
I originally qualified as a professional Blue Badge Guide some 20 years ago, I
had no idea where it might take me. Educationally I have become a different
person. I always had a fascination with history & now have an excuse to
enjoy learning about the subject. I
think it was George Bernard Shaw who said, ‘You should make your obsession your
profession’. This I have done. So come & learn how you could become a guide
& some of the more quirky historical facts I have accumulated. Find out the
truth about Henry VIII, about Elizabeth 1st’s bad temper, how the present Queen
goes to the theatre incognito & why the Bishop of Durham’s anus is on
display in London! Brian lives in Walthamstow.
August
13th 2016
M11 Link Road:
A Community- Based Mass
Protest
Speaker: Richard
Leighton
Richard,
as chair of "The No M11 Link Campaign", was in the midst of the mass
protest to stop the M11 Link Road: a road proved to be outdated before being
built, which exposed the lengths the Government of the time would go to on
smashing down the community in its way. Richard was born in the area, as
were his parents, & grandparents & lived there 45 years. His father had
opposed the earlier scheme, so it was natural for Richard to oppose the scheme
when it was resurrected.
Saturday
September 10th 2016
**** GALA Evening****!! 21st
birthday
of the News from Nowhere Club
All past speakers invited. Food
& drink in plenty. Exhibition of 20 years of the Club. Screening of ‘Alfred Hitchcock in East London’ film
by Bill Hodgson. Update on setting up local Hitchcock Museum. Readings from
‘News from Nowhere’ utopia by William Morris. Singing of Leon Rosselson’s song
‘Bringing the News from Nowhere.’
*Special EXTRA event to commemorate our 21st birthday*
!!
Monday!!
September 12th 2016
An evening with Iain Sinclair: ‘I take a
walk every morning…’ Speaker: Iain
Sinclair
Hackney
resident, poet, film maker, essayist, award winning novelist, psychogeographer,
‘avant gardeist’ influenced by the Beat generation… Iain’s prolific, unusual
life as a writer, observer and social critic will be the subject of tonight’s
special event. You might like to read one or two of his works before the meeting
to get the measure of his style. He will tell us what his life is like and
answer your questions! The Newham Bookshop will be with us with copies of
Iain’s books.
Saturday
October 8th 2016
What Does Local Community
Action Really Mean?
Speaker:
Jude Leighton
What are the possibilities & limitations of trying to
transform the local area where you grew up? Jude has lived in Leytonstone all
her life & has worked in several organisations, aiming to make a big
difference to the quality of life of her neighbours. She has learnt several
lessons through her struggles & will let us into her most
recent thoughts & revelations, with a chance for the audience to contribute
their own experiences & utopian desires.
Saturday 12th November 2016
Screening of 'The Anarchist Rabbi’ &
discussion with filmmaker Adam Kossoff
“On Yom Kippur,” speaks the
voice of anarchist Rudolf Rocker, “Jewish anarchists & socialists marched
past local synagogues defiantly smoking or brandishing ham sandwiches.” Adam
Kossoff’s meditative documentary focuses on German-born Rocker, who campaigned
with London's East End Jewish immigrants over 100 years ago. He spoke &
wrote in Yiddish, organized garment trade unions & advocated for anarchism
as the solution for class inequality. Through the narration of actor Stephen
Berkoff, Rocker's ghost comes to life as it haunts the locations where the
Yiddish workers’ movement was once vibrant. The Anarchist Rabbi (44 mins) is a reflection on how urban development buries the
history of such vital working class movements. Adam Kossoff is an artist-filmmaker & a Reader in the
Moving Image at the University of Wolverhampton. As well as The Anarchist Rabbi (2014) his recent work includes Animal Architecture (2014), Made in Wolverhampton (2011) & Moscow Diary (2010).
His most recent exhibition, Animal Architecture, was at Wolverhampton Art
Gallery. His work is distributed by Lux. Adam lives in Leytonstone.
Saturday 10th December 2016
MPs & Government Ministers!
How to Arm-Twist Them Speaker: Ron Bailey
‘They
may act like they're invincible, but they're not. They may think they can
ignore you & do what they want willynilly, but you can stop them.
They say politics is about power & it can be: NOT their power but the power
YOU can have. Are all politicians the same? Well, they can be when they've
got their arm twisted behind their back & held damn firmly by YOU. I can tell you a few methods of doing
this. Things I‘ve done. Things that had one MP's wife on the phone to
mine for half an hour begging her to get us to stop our campaign 'against
her poor husband/MP.' Things that prevented another MP from referring to me
without a hurl of abuse because I organised 50,000 leaflets to be put through
every door in his constituency accusing him of actions that helped rape to
happen. And most importantly, things that made them back down! Remember - they want you to get
fed up & go away. Don't give them what they want!’ Ron is Head of
Parliamentary Affairs, Sustainable Energy Assn. Ron used to live in
Leytonstone.
Saturday 9th
January 2016
Hounds Off!: The
People’s Campaign against Hunting Speaker: Joe Hashman
Joe joined the Hunt Saboteurs Association in 1982.
He worked for the League Against Cruel Sports & since 2006 has remained part
of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Enforcement Team. Integral
to many groundbreaking investigations, exposés & prosecutions, he has also
defended his anti-hunting beliefs successfully in the European Court of Human
Rights & various domestic legal arenas. He is the founder of Hounds Off ( www.houndsoff.co.uk ).
Saturday 13
February 2016
Libertarian Social
Centres: MayDay Rooms & London Anarchist Resource Centre
Speakers: Georgia Anderson & Howard Slater
MayDay Rooms, an educational charity,
was founded as a safe haven for historical material. Rather than being a
ring-fenced ‘repository’ it’s an active social resource; a place where, amidst
the austerity-driven threats to education & spaces of dissent, groups can
gather to activate the historical material & feed these into current
struggles. The MD Rooms collections are deliberately eclectic. Whilst we hold
larger collections (Greenham Common), most are modest in size & cover themes
from counter-educational initiatives (Schooling & Culture), to social
protest (Poll Tax Rebellion), counter-culture (Scratch Orchestra) &
activist collectives (East London Big Flame). MDR sees history as a constant
inspiration & is working on digitalisation platforms to make the
inspirational efforts of the past more widely available.
Saturday
12th March 2016
Crisis? What Crisis?
Re-Assessing the British ‘Winter of Discontent’ 1978-1979 Speaker:
Professor John Shepherd
On 22 January 1979, 1.5 million workers
were on strike - the highest number since the 1926 General Strike. Iconic media
images of the industrial unrest that swept Britain in an arctic winter captured
mountains of uncollected rubbish in London’s theatre land, militant shop
stewards turning patients away from hospitals & a national strike by road
hauliers that threatened to bring the country to a standstill. Even corpses
were left unburied. Within weeks the beleaguered James Callaghan Government
fell from power by a single vote. In the 1979 general election, Margaret
Thatcher became Prime Minister, beginning 18 years of unbroken Conservative
rule. John Shepherd examines the causes, course & consequences of a major
turning point in modern British political history.
Saturday
9th April 2016
ABE GIBSON PERFORMANCE
POET
Speaker/performer:
Abe Gibson
Formerly Poet in Residence at London Transport Museum,Writer in
Residence at Feltham Young Offenders Institute & Ronnie Scott Club
performer, Abe has a formidable way with words, accents & mannerisms, &
delights audiences with his charming, funny, acutely observed characters. As a
caretaker on a Hackney Council estate for 25 years, he’s used this opportunity
to closely study people from all walks of life & portrays them at least as
well as many professional actors. Abe will explain how & why he writes
& performs, & treat us to a rendition of some of his favourite poems.
His poetry collection ‘Violently Tender’ will be on sale.
Saturday 14th May
2016 WRITERS FORUM
Speakers: Derek Smith, Jenny Matthews, David
Gardiner, Irene Rosenfeld
Four London writers discuss why & how they write. Between them,
they have vast experience of producing poetry, short stories, plays &
novels for children & adults. They have been published by major &
smaller publishing houses & have self-published, run writing groups &
blogs & given advice about creative writing & creativity in general.
They will read out examples of their work. Come & hear their thoughts of
what has shaped & helped them, & bring your own questions,
preoccupations & short bits of writing to share with them.
Saturday 11th June 2016
"From Grave to Shrine,
Poet to Priestess: Witnessing the Evolution of a Poet's Grave into a Pilgrimage
Site."
Speaker: Jessica Lawrence
Jessica Lawrence spent three years in the ancient
village of Heptonstall, West Yorkshire, observing the grave of Sylvia Plath who
is buried in the local cemetery. She interviewed thousands of visitors who
flock to Plath's burial site. Her research, which earned her an MSc in Medical
Anthropology, demonstrated that Plath serves as posthumous mentor &
spiritual guide as well as a literary inspiration to thousands of devotees
world wide, who credit her influence as critical in having helped them find the
resolve to make pivotal changes in their lives, including prevention of suicide, alleviation from self
harm & the decision to pursue
a career in literature & poetry. Jessica will discuss this little known,
under-appreciated aspect of Plath's legacy & will illustrate her talk with
slides of the grave which has become a literary pilgrimage site & a
decorated shrine.
July
9th 2016
NOWHERE ……………. Confessions of a Blue Badge Guide
Speaker: Brian
Hicks
When I originally qualified as a professional Blue
Badge Guide some 20 years ago, I had no idea where it might take me. Educationally I have
become a different person. I always had a fascination with history & now
have an excuse to enjoy learning about the subject. I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said,
‘You should make your obsession your profession’. This I have done. So come
& learn how you could become a guide & some of the more quirky
historical facts I have accumulated. Find out the truth about Henry VIII, about
Elizabeth 1st’s bad temper, how the present Queen goes to the theatre incognito
& why the Bishop of Durham’s anus is on display in London!
August
13th 2016
M11 Link Road:
A Community- Based Mass
Protest
Speaker: Richard
Leighton
Richard, as chair of "The No M11
Link Campaign", was in the midst of the mass protest to stop the M11 Link
Road: a road proved to be outdated before being built, which exposed the
lengths the Government of the time would go to on smashing down the community
in its way. Richard was born in the area, as were his parents, &
grandparents & lived there 45 years. His father had opposed the earlier
scheme, so it was natural for Richard to oppose the scheme when it was
resurrected.
Saturday
September 10th 2016
**** GALA Evening****!! 21st
birthday
of the News from Nowhere Club
All past speakers invited. Food &
drink in plenty. Exhibition of 20 years of the Club. Screening of ‘Alfred
Hitchcock in East London’ film by Bill Hodgson. Update on
setting up local Hitchcock Museum. Readings from ‘News from Nowhere’ utopia by
William Morris. Singing of Leon Rosselson’s song ‘Bringing the News from
Nowhere.’
*Special EXTRA event to commemorate our 21st birthday*
!!
Monday!!
September 12th 2016
An evening with Iain Sinclair: ‘I take a
walk every morning…’ Speaker: Iain Sinclair
Hackney resident, poet, film maker, essayist, award
winning novelist, psychogeographer, ‘avant gardeist’ influenced by the Beat
generation… Iain’s prolific, unusual life as a writer, observer and social
critic will be the subject of tonight’s special event. You might like to read
one or two of his works before the meeting to get the measure of his style. He
will tell us what his life is like and answer your questions! The Newham
Bookshop will be with us with copies of Iain’s books.
Saturday
October 8th 2016
What Does Local Community
Action Really Mean?
Speaker:
Jude Leighton
What are the possibilities & limitations of trying to transform the
local area where you grew up? Jude has lived in Leytonstone all her life &
has worked in several organisations, aiming to make a big difference to the
quality of life of her neighbours. She has learnt several lessons through her
struggles & will let us into her most
recent thoughts & revelations, with a chance for the audience to contribute
their own experiences & utopian desires.
Saturday 12th November 2016
Screening of 'The Anarchist Rabbi’ &
discussion with filmmaker Adam Kossoff
“On Yom
Kippur,” speaks the voice of anarchist Rudolf Rocker, “Jewish anarchists &
socialists marched past local synagogues defiantly smoking or brandishing ham
sandwiches.” Adam Kossoff’s meditative documentary focuses on German-born Rocker,
who campaigned with London's East End Jewish immigrants over 100 years ago. He
spoke & wrote in Yiddish, organized garment trade unions & advocated
for anarchism as the solution for class inequality. Through the narration of
actor Stephen Berkoff, Rocker's ghost comes to life as it haunts the locations
where the Yiddish workers’ movement was once vibrant. The Anarchist Rabbi (44 mins) is a reflection on how urban development buries the
history of such vital working class movements. Adam Kossoff is an artist-filmmaker & a
Reader in the Moving Image at the University of Wolverhampton. As
well as The Anarchist Rabbi (2014)
his recent work includes Animal Architecture (2014), Made in
Wolverhampton (2011)
& Moscow Diary (2010).
His most recent exhibition, Animal Architecture, was at Wolverhampton Art
Gallery. His work is distributed by Lux.
Saturday 10th December 2016
MPs & Government Ministers!
How to Arm-Twist Them Speaker: Ron Bailey
‘They may act like they're invincible,
but they're not. They may think they can ignore you & do what they
want willynilly, but you can stop them. They say politics is about power
& it can be: NOT their power but the power YOU can have. Are all
politicians the same? Well, they can be when they've got their arm twisted
behind their back & held damn firmly by YOU. I
can tell you a few methods of doing this. Things I‘ve done. Things that
had one MP's wife on the phone to mine for half an hour begging her to get
us to stop our campaign 'against her poor husband/MP.' Things that prevented
another MP from referring to me without a hurl of abuse because I organised
50,000 leaflets to be put through every door in his constituency accusing him
of actions that helped rape to happen. And most importantly, things that
made them back down! Remember
- they want you to get fed up & go away. Don't give them what they want!’
Ron is Head of Parliamentary Affairs, Sustainable Energy Assn.
NEWS FROM NOWHERE CLUB
Patron: Peter Hennessy
Founded in 1996, the club challenges the commercialisation &
isolation of modern life.
We meet monthly on Saturday evening.
‘Fellowship is life & the lack of fellowship is death’. William Morris
PROGRAMME 2016
** 21stANNIVERSARY YEAR!**
At Epicentre, West Street,
Leytonstone E11 4LJ
7.30pm Buffet (bring
something if you can)
8.00pm Talk &
discussion till 10pm
Travel & Access
Stratford stations &
257 bus
Leytonstone tube (exit
left) & 257/W14 bus
Overground: Leytonstone
High Rd, turn right, short walk
Disabled access, car park,
bikes can be brought in, quiet children welcome. You can phone to confirm the
talk will be as shown. Meetings open to all - just turn up.
Enquiries 0208 555 5248
Free entry: voluntary donations
welcome
‘The club is a real beacon of light.’
Peter Cormack
