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Events

HYBRID EVENT: Alan Johnson on Harold Wilson

Hybrid event with live subtitles. 

Harold Wilson was one of the most successful politicians of the 20th century.  

Prime Minister from 1964-70, and again from 1974-76, he won four elections as well as a referendum on UK membership of the European Community. The achievements of the Wilson Era – from legalising homosexuality to protecting ethnic minorities, from women’s rights to the Open University – radically improved ordinary people’s lives for the better. 

In Harold Wilson, former Labour cabinet minister and bestselling author Alan Johnson presents a portrait of a truly 20th-century man, whose ‘white heat’ speech proclaimed a scientific and technological revolution – and who was as much a part of the Sixties as the Beatles and the Profumo scandal. 

Alan Johnson served in the Blair and Brown governments as Work and Pensions Secretary, Trade and Industry Secretary, Education Secretary, Health Secretary and Home Secretary. Having left school aged 15 and failed in his attempts to become a rock star, he joined the Post Office and rose through the ranks to become became the youngest ever General Secretary of the Union Of Post Office Workers. He was MP for Hull West and Hessle through five general elections, standing down at the 2017 election. 

He is the author of three novels and four multi-award-winning memoirs: This Boy, Please Mr Postman, The Long and Winding Road and In My Life – A Music Memoir. He and his wife Carolyn live in East Yorkshire. 

HYBRID EVENT – this is a Hybrid event, which can be attended in person at the venue or accessed online. Simply select General Admission or e-ticket at checkout, and a link for online access will be sent to you the day before the event takes place. 

ACCESSIBILITY – This event will have live subtitling by Stagetext to make it more accessible to those who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. If you are attending with a carer, please book an additional free ticket for them.  

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. 

Date: Sunday 11 May 

Time: 4pm-5pm 

Location: Diamond Jubilee Lecture Theatre, Charles Sikes Building, University of Huddersfield, 78 Firth Street, Aspley, Huddersfield HD1 3BN 

Tickets: £15 (£10 conc), free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & essential carers. Online tickets: £5 

Early Bird tickets have now ended

For further information on concession and essential carer tickets please visit our FAQ’s page.

Age guidance: 16+ 

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/venues/charles-sikes-building-diamond-jubilee-lecture-theatre  

IN PERSON TICKETS: Book In-Person tickets

ONLINE ONLY TICKETS: Book Online only tickets

Please note: When purchasing tickets please download the Eventbrite ‘app’ or ‘create an Eventbrite account’. This will facilitate quicker access to your tickets.

For Directions and Parking please view: University of Huddersfield Campus Map 2022 and University of Huddersfield Public Parking Information Pack

 

This event is sponsored by:

 

 

An evening with Jackie Kay

Event with live subtitles. Share an inspiring, uplifting and entertaining evening with Jackie Kay, one of the nation’s best-loved poets and former Scottish Makar (National Poet), to celebrate her long-awaited new poetry collection May Day.

A poetry performance will be followed by an in-conversation and an audience Q&A. 

The poems in May Day cover several decades of political activism, from her childhood accompanying her parents’ Socialist campaigns, through the feminist, LGBT+ and anti-racist movements of the 80s and 90s, up to the present day, when a global pandemic intersects with the urgency of Black Lives Matter. 

Kay brings to life a cast of influential figures, delving beneath the surfaces of received narratives: the Jamaican model Fanny Eaton, muse of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in England; Paul Robeson, Angela Davis and the poet Audre Lorde; and a ‘what-if’ poem concerning Rabbie Burns and a road-not-taken towards the West Indian slave trade. Woven through the collection is a suite of lyric poems concerning the recent losses of Kay’s parents: poems of grief and profound change that are infused with the light of love and celebration. 

Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh. A poet, novelist and writer of short stories, she has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. Her novel, Trumpet, won the Guardian Fiction Prize. She has published three collections of stories with Picador, Why Don’t You Stop Talking, Wish I Was Here and Reality, Reality; three poetry collections, Fiere, Bantam and May Day; and her memoir, Red Dust Road. From 2016-21 she was the third modern Makar, National Poet for Scotland. She lives in Manchester and is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Salford. 

ACCESSIBILITY – This event will have live subtitling by Stagetext to make it more accessible to those who are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing. If you are attending with a carer, please book an additional free ticket for them.  

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.

Date: Friday 9 May 

Time: 7pm-8pm 

Location: Diamond Jubilee Lecture Theatre, Charles Sikes Building, University of Huddersfield, 78 Firth Street, Aspley, Huddersfield HD1 3BN 

Tickets: £10 (£8 conc), free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & essential carers.  

Early Bird tickets have now ended.

For further information on concession and essential carer tickets please visit our FAQ’s page.

Age guidance: 16+ 

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/venues/charles-sikes-building-diamond-jubilee-lecture-theatre  

Book tickets

Please note: When purchasing tickets please download the Eventbrite ‘app’ or ‘create an Eventbrite account’. This will facilitate quicker access to your tickets.

For Directions and Parking please view: University of Huddersfield Campus Map 2022 and University of Huddersfield Public Parking Information Pack