HuddLitFest 2023 Launch – HYBRID event

Kirklees Year of Music 2023 and HuddLitFest present: our free Festival launch, with a poetry performance from Chérie Taylor Battiste and live music in a PA from celebrated neo-soul pioneer Omar Lyefook MBE. Free event with refreshments served. Sponsored by Sleigh & Story.

A Kirklees Year of Music 2023 event.

6pm Doors open, refreshments served

6.30pm Performance, to include a welcome by the Mayor of Kirklees and introduction to this year’s Festival by Michelle Hodgson, Festival Director

Followed by a short film of Chérie Taylor Battiste’s poem ‘He Remains’ about David Oluwale, set to music created by Omar Lyefook.

Note: The performance element of this event will be live-streamed on our Facebook and YouTube platforms for those who cannot attend in person.

 

Chérie Taylor Battiste is a spoken word poet, writer and actor of Cuban, Jamaican and Bhajan heritage. Her poem ‘He Remains’ about David Oluwale, a British-Nigerian man who died in Leeds in 1969 after being harassed by police, was published in the Saboteur award-winning anthology Remember Oluwale and was performed in 2021 at the conference: Why David Oluwale Matters: race, mental ill-health & homelessness. For our 2023 Festival, we have commissioned Chérie and Omar to work with Kirklees Local TV to produce a special short film, which will be used in local schools and given its public premiere at our launch.

Omar Lyefook MBE is one of the greatest and most influential soul music talents working in the UK – a truly original voice, musicianship and songwriting talent. He has been feted by and collaborated with many legendary artists, from Stevie Wonder and Courtney Pine to Common, Erykah Badu and Soul II Soul’s Caron Wheeler. Omar’s father Byron worked as a studio musician and drummer with Bob Marley, and Omar himself was a musical prodigy who learned his craft classically, playing the trumpet, piano, bass guitar and percussion. Omar is also an acting talent, playing Mitch Baker’s brother Avery in Eastenders in 2022.

Event Date: Wednesday 22 March

Time: 6pm-8pm

Venue: The Parish, The Old Courthouse, Queen Street, Huddersfield HD1 2SP

Free (booking recommended), refreshments served

Age guidance: 14+ (Under 16s should be accompanied by an adult)

Access Guide: Please contact the venue

Access and Covid safety measures: if you have specific access needs or queries and/or prefer to be seated away from other audience members as a Covid safety measure, please contact our Admin at: [email protected] with your request.

There is no need to book tickets for the live-stream, to access please log on to the Huddersfield Literature Festival Facebook page on Wednesday 22 March at 6pm

Book tickets