How to develop a successful freelance career as an author/illustrator with Melanie Abrahams

This session is suitable if you're curious about entering the world of freelancing in literature but aren't sure how to get started or make it work for you. You need to know what to do to make a freelance career work for you and to shape the life you want. How to get noticed. Ways you can manage your finances to maintain balance. What to develop to give you an edge.
This session is delivered via Zoom.
To register please email your expressed interest to Booktrust.represents@booktrust.org.uk

Join us on Emily’s birthday to hear personal responses to Emily Brontë’s life, poetry and prose. Bidisha, Hannah Lowe and Melanie Abrahams, whose work encompasses journalism, oration, poetry, and the spoken word, explore Emily’s independence and self-determination in relationship to the racial, cultural and social histories of the Haworth environment and the wider world she inhabited.  

This event is part of a four-part series curated by Melanie Abrahams for the Bronte Parsonage and Museum as part of Emily 200 (events celebrating the 200th birthday of Emily Brontë).

The headline event for the weekend Emily 2018 celebrations features a stunning array of poets, musicians and wordsmiths, all offering their personal response to the themes of ‘other’ and the ‘outsider’; themes central to Wuthering Heights and pertinent to Emily Brontë . Join us to experience the thrill of performance, perfectly pitched speech, rousing wordplay and the art of Trinidad-style liming. With Patience Agbabi, John Siddique, Jay Bernard, Will Harris, Tobago Crusoe and Melanie Abrahams.

This event is part of a four-part series curated by Melanie Abrahams for the Bronte Parsonage and Museum as part of Emily 200 (events celebrating the 200th birthday of Emily Brontë).

A new quarterly event of talks, live art and performances, mini-lectures, and conviviality. Presented by Leeds Library. Curated and co-produced by Renaissance One

Kei Miller, Naomi Sumner Chan, Sai Murray, The David Oluwale Memorial Association (DOMA), Melanie Abrahams

ON FREEDOM: Kei Miller, a writer of novels, poetry, essays and blogs, and a winner of the Forward Prize for Poetry and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature will examine ideas and conceptions of freedom and emancipation. Playwright, poet and theatremaker Naomi Sumner Chan explores through poems and anecdotes ideas of religious freedom and freedom of sexual expression and ponders the question ‘when we follow religious rules what are we free from and what are we free to do?’. The David Oluwale Memorial Association (Isobel Kamiya and Max Farrar) will talk about their use of the creative arts to reflect on the story of David Oluwale in Leeds, and promote freedom and social justice for all those who are marginalised and excluded today. Ten years on from the FWords: Creative Freedom project and his role within it, poet, writer and graphic artist Sai Murray will reflect on the nature of freedom in our supposedly post-racial Black President/diverse Royal family world. Hosted by Melanie Abrahams.

Walk followed by conversation and performances in the Old White Lion, Haworth

Join Guest Curator Melanie Abrahams and guest speakers and artists John Agard, Sarala Estruch and Joe Williams on a walk of Brontë pathways and moorlands, and listen to unfolding narratives, alternative stories and flights of fancy along both well-trodden paths, and lesser known routes. This is a ‘walk of life’ consisting of curiosity, temptations and opposites.  Suitable for those who like walks with swing. 

This event is part of a four-part series curated by Melanie Abrahams for the Bronte Parsonage and Museum as part of Emily 200 (events celebrating the 200th birthday of Emily Brontë).

A talk on the theme of diversities and a group conversation on the difference/s between writing diversity and living diversity.   

The session includes a consideration of how artists and creative professionals - whether writers, critics, makers or creatives - can shape, steer and shift a broader understanding of diversity - what is meant by it and what is required and wanted for it - in poetry criticism and the arts ecology. 

Part of a day of workshops and events for the Ledbury Emerging Poetry Critics programme co-founded and curated by Sandeep Parmar and Sarah Howe with support from Ledbury Poetry Festival.

Voice Talk: Poetry, Orality and Spoken Word, a talk by Melanie Abrahams of Renaissance One and Tilt, as part of The Complete Works: Diversity in UK Poetry Conference at Goldsmiths. 14:45 - 15:30.

The Change Collective and Renaissance One present How We Feel Now: giving voice through poetry, music and straight talking

An exploration of the state of our times and life in Hull by artists, writers and commentators. The event offers a handpicked soundtrack of words, images and music by Glynis Neslen, Andi Dakin, Cecila Oxaal, David Okwesia, Cassandra Dalton, Asher Gammon, and a reading by poet, novelist, essayist and Forward Prize winner Kei Miller. Hosted and co-curated by Melanie Abrahams and Glynis Neslen.

Experience the spoken word, music and sensations of a Trinidad-style lime where the Caribbean meets Hull in an evening of performances, stories, kaiso, drinks and a guest DJ. Featuring John Agard, Grace Nichols, Chiedu Oraka, Jay Bernard, Melanie Abrahams and special guests, plus award-winning calypsonian Tobago Crusoe, and Reggae, Soca, Afrobeat, Brazilian, Jazz, Electronic music and sounds of the city by Wai Wan.  Go with the flow, unwind, take part!  Curated by Melanie Abrahams.Produced by Tilt ‘Spoken Word Pioneers’ Channel 4

This session will explore how to translate a willingness to create a more diverse workforce into practical steps towards achieving it. We will consider what stops organisations reflecting the wider community in their workforce and how to effect change. With Pauline Tambling, Creative & Cultural Skills; Tony Heaton, Shape Arts; Melanie Abrahams, Renaissance One and Tilt; and Philip Hedley, Theatre Royal Stratford East.  

Part of the CC Skills 2017 conference on the theme of 'Building a Creative Nation: Diversity and Fair Access', which examined the state of diversity, fair access and recruitment practices in the creative industries.  As part of the afternoon breakout sessions, 

Hannah Lowe and Melanie Abrahams discuss and share work on migration, diaspora and seeking your own independence. 

Hannah Lowe will read from her family memoir Long Time, No See which reconstructs the life of her Jamaican-Chinese father, who arrived in Liverpool from Jamaica in 1947. She will discuss the genesis of the book - from the use of the personal archives such as her father's lost-and-found notebook to using public materials including shipping logs, photographs and oral histories. Melanie Abrahams will explore the theme of independence from the perspective of Caribbean descendants in England, and the potential impact and effects it has had on mind and body. Produced by Renaissance One in partnership with National Museums Liverpool and International Slavery Museum. Part of The Independence Project. Project funded by Arts Council England. 
 

Join us in London for an event that encourages the nurture of innovative arts projects in a changing political and financial landscape. At this live event, artists and creatives share their ideas with a panel and an audience for feedback.  Testing Ground is part of the Mentoring Three Ways project. Curated by Melanie Abrahams in partnership with Pop Brixton.  Funded by Arts Council England,

In a panel discussion chaired by writer and broadcaster Colin Grant, Gary Younge interogates his family's and Barbados' history to reveal and distill the powerful effect of independence; Melanie Abrahams reflects on its legacy and impact on the self-autonomy of Caribbean descendants in England; Anita Sethi casts a personal gaze on the hidden stories in Caribbean history; and Dr Raj Persaud playfully puts the panel in the psychiatrist's chair to probe their sense of independence.  Event curated by Melanie Abrahams and Colin Grant as part of The Independence Project.  Produced by Renaissance One.

Hannah Lowe and Melanie Abrahams discuss and share work on migration, diaspora and memory.  Lowe will read from her family memoir Long Time, No See which reconstructs the life of her Jamaican-Chinese father, who arrived in Liverpool from Jamaica in 1947. Lowe will discuss the genesis of the book - from the use of the personal archives such as her father's lost-and-found notebook to the use of public materials such as shipping logs, photographic collections and oral histories. Abrahams will explore selected works that chart the emotional and physical journeys of artists and thinkers from the Caribbean and its diaspora.  She will discuss her experiences of, and concerns with, shaping a life and a career of independence. Produced by Renaissance One as part of The Independence Project, funded by Arts Council England.

Writers, thinkers and makers present and discuss ways to achieve genuine improvements in diversity in the UK literary scene: Melanie Abrahams, Founder of Renaissance One – a literary events company committed to diversity in the arts; Jill Dawson, Orange Prize shortlisted novelist; Louise Doughty, Costa Award shortlisted novelist and former Booker Prize judge; and Varaidzo, Arts and Culture Editor at gal-dem – an online magazine comprising almost fifty women of colour.  Curated and hosted by Emma Claire Sweeney and Emily Midorikawa.  

At this live event, artists and creatives will share their ideas with a panel and an audience for feedback.  You can come along as an audience member or you can put forward a proposal to be discussed with our panel of professionals. Testing Ground is part of the Mentoring Three Ways project, curated by Melanie Abrahams in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University and the Bluecoat, and funded by Arts Council England,

Careers Resources Session: Discover resources, Access tips, Make tracks

Are you looking for fresh ideas and options for your career?  Can you do with a sounding-board or support?This opportunity is offered to all those in the Midlands who make, produce, or develop arts and crafts.  You may be looking for advice or new approaches, and be at an early to mid-career stage.

Join us for an event encouraging the creation and nurture of innovative arts projects in a changing political and financial landscape. This opportunity is offered as a free event to creative professionals.  Testing Ground is curated by Melanie Abrahams and supported by New Art Exchange. The project is funded by Arts Council England,