Origins Season, Library of Birmingham

There’s a whole host of new things to see and do in the Midlands this spring and what better place to start than with the Library of Birmingham’s new Origins Season. Spring 2015 sees the Library continue its successful cultural programme with a range of events and exhibitions centred on the theme of origins.

Running until April events will look at how the past, present and future of the Midlands are inextricably linked from dinosaur bones through to the growth of communities and language in the present day. Each exhibition will be varied and includes Stones and Bones, Survivors of the Ice Age with Professor Alice Roberts through to A Cartoon History of Here.

Rachel New’s One Page Wonders

Rachel New’s One Page Wonders
Birmingham Literature Festival
Daily from 12-6pm until 11th October

From Santa writing to all the children in the World to tell them what he wants for Christmas to the 78-year-old man who travels onboard the top of the number 11 bus looking for love, you can never accuse writer and radio broadcaster Rachel New of having a dull imagination.

Images Season @LibraryofBham

Conveyed in words, captured on film or conjured in your mind, images stand as perhaps the most universal form of human communication. The Images Season, hosted in Birmingham’s dynamic library building, explores how texts, photographs, diagrams and illustrations can express ideas, rouse passions and fire the imagination.

Culture Season @LibraryofBham

After a hugely successful launch and Discovery Season, Library of Birmingham announce the Culture Season, comprising of a brand new exhibition and programme of events for 2014.

ADRIAN UTLEY’S GUITAR ORCHESTRA + Pram

24 November
The Library of Birmingham
0121 245 4455
£15

Earlier this year Portishead’s Adrian Utley re-recorded ‘In C’ by Terry Riley. Widely cited as the most important work in the history of minimalism, Utley is bringing his take on this groundbreaking new work to Birmingham. Adrian Utley has always been a fan of the minimalist approach to playing guitar and this performance is a celebration of his technique, which has been developed from training as a jazz musician to his work as a member of experimental electronic band Portishead. 

VOLUME: Adventures in Book and Print

5-7 December
Library of Birmingham
0121 242 4242

With a keynote from multi-million record selling musician Bill Drummond, speaker events with experts in the field of publishing and pioneers of new media in the digital age, Volume celebrates the best in independent publishing. The Art, Book and Print Fair is part of Library of Birmingham’s Discovery Season and brings together numerous organisations and guest speakers who have been there, done that and got themselves so much more than a t-shirt to prove it.

THE LIBRARY OF LOST BOOKS

Until 24 November
Library of Birmingham, Centenary Square

The day the bookcases of the old Birmingham Central library were emptied was judgement day for hundreds of books. Only the pretty, well maintained and neat books were to be taken forward to their new destination; the polished, glossy shelves of the magnificent new library. However, as the library emptied it became a dusty graveyard to the skeletons of damaged and unwanted books, now too frail to perform their literary duties. 

Area Guide November

The latest edition of Area Guide is here and packed with events for November. This month’s beautiful cover is by Ben Javens who is taking part in the Bicycle Basket Bazaar at Eye Candy which is happening on the 2nd November. Read it online here.

Birmingham Literature Festival

There’s a silence every reader experiences from time-to-time. A cold silence which you sit through; frozen, passive, reflective. It’s a silence which inhabits you and renders you speechless for hours: this is the consequence faced by the reader of a good book. So many books drive us to this incredible state; they leave us fulfilled yet hungry, complete yet lost. Books give us so much, yet we take for granted their existence for our pleasure and rarely consider how they came to be.

4 Squares Weekender 7-8 September

Simmer Down reggae performances to CBSO Ensembles; outdoor aerial performances from Wired Aerial Theatre set against a night sky backdrop; a chance to run away with the incredible Nofit State Circus, and a diverse range of dance workshops and pop up surprises throughout the weekend.  This is just a few things to expect at this weekend’s 4 Squares Weekender in Birmingham city centre.