The Black Country past and present
Arts & Ideas25 Elo 2023

The Black Country past and present

In The Old Curiosity Shop, Charles Dickens portrayed The Black Country as a polluted hellscape where little Nell sickens and dies. So popular was the book that this idea of the region was rivetted into history and endures to this day. In this edition of Free Thinking Matthew Sweet sets out to find the real Black Country, a place whose borders you can cross without knowing, with a reputation for insularity in spite of centuries of migration. In a programme recorded at the Birmingham Hippodrome for the BBC’s 2022 Contains Strong Language Festival, Matthew’s guests are the poet Liz Berry - author of the prize winning 2014 collection Black Country, whose latest collection The Dereliction is a collaboration with the photographer Tom Hicks; dialectologist Dr Esther Asprey, from the University of Wolverhampton, who published the first complete scholarly account of Black Country dialect; the artist and film-maker Dawinder Bansal, who uses her upbringing in her parents' electrical shop, which also rented VHS Bollywood films as the starting point for the art installation Jambo Cinema which was part of The Birmingham 2022 Festival https://www.dawinderbansal.com/projects; and a pair of historians, Dr Simon Briercliffe from the Black Country Living Museum, author of Forging Ahead – Austerity to Prosperity in the Black Country and Dr Matthew Stallard from the Centre for the Study of Legacies of British Slavery UCL who grew up in Wolverhampton.

Producer: Olive Clancy.

The 2023 Contains Strong Language Festival takes place in Leeds from September 21st - 24th at Leeds Playhouse so go to their website for tickets and listen out for programmes on BBC Sounds.

Jaksot(2000)

Free Thinking 2012 - Julie Bindel

Free Thinking 2012 - Julie Bindel

Julie Bindel gives a talk arguing that sexuality is a choice at the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival. In a talk titled Not Born This Way, the feminist, lesbian, columnist and writer Julie Bindel challen...

20 Marras 201237min

Free Thinking 2012 - Hell is Other People

Free Thinking 2012 - Hell is Other People

As our global population increases and technology encourages instant communication, are we becoming more sociable, or lonelier in a high tech crowd? To debate, Anne McElvoy is joined by broadcaster Ka...

19 Marras 201244min

Free Thinking 2012 - Matthew Smith

Free Thinking 2012 - Matthew Smith

Matthew Smith, one of Radio 3’s New Generation Thinkers, explores why the simple peanut has become a battleground of medical debate. Recorded at Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival at The Sage, Gateshead...

16 Marras 201214min

Free Thinking 2012 - Mark Pagel

Free Thinking 2012 - Mark Pagel

Why have humans evolved to speak so many incomprehensible languages? Why do we work against our own survival by going to war with one another? Evolutionary Biologist Mark Pagel explores how humanity w...

16 Marras 201244min

Free Thinking 2012 - Sue-Ann Harding

Free Thinking 2012 - Sue-Ann Harding

Sue-Ann Harding, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk in which she ponders the differences between an expat and an immigrant. She draws on television portrayals of migrants and perso...

15 Marras 201214min

Free Thinking 2012 - Immigration and the Challenge to Belonging

Free Thinking 2012 - Immigration and the Challenge to Belonging

What does it mean to belong? Multiculturalism, integration and social division are increasingly part of the political debate. But what impact does immigration have on everyone's sense of national iden...

15 Marras 201246min

Free Thinking 2012 - Joshua Nall

Free Thinking 2012 - Joshua Nall

Joshua Nall, one of Radio 3's New Generation Thinkers, gives a talk on the Victorian obsession with the planet Mars at the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival. With the recent success of NASA's Curiosity l...

15 Marras 201214min

Free Thinking 2012 - Vicky Featherstone

Free Thinking 2012 - Vicky Featherstone

As Scotland heads towards a referendum on independence, Vicky Featherstone discusses the role of a modern day national theatre in shaping and capturing national identity and history. Recorded at Radi...

14 Marras 201243min

Suosittua kategoriassa Yhteiskunta

sita
olipa-kerran-otsikko
kaksi-aitia
hupiklubi
i-dont-like-mondays
siita-on-vaikea-puhua
ihme-ja-kumma
uutiscast
poks
gogin-ja-janin-maailmanhistoria
antin-palautepalvelu
kolme-kaannekohtaa
rss-murhan-anatomia
mamma-mia
aikalisa
yopuolen-tarinoita-2
meidan-pitais-puhua
rss-palmujen-varjoissa
mystista
terapeuttiville-qa