Mandy Redvers-Rowe
Mandy is a playwright, screenwriter and writer and director and has worked in theatre for nearly thirty years. She has been a Youth Theatre Director with Liverpool Playhouse; The Artistic Director for North West Disability Arts forum; a Disability Arts Lecturer at LIPA; Applied Theatre lecturer at Hope University and is currently Head of Participation at Collective Encounters, a Theatre For Social Change Company based in Liverpool. She wrote an episode for Jimmy MCgovern’s ‘Moving On’.
Cathy Cassidy
Cathy is one of the UK’s top-selling children’s authors. She was an art teacher, a magazine editor and an agony aunt before becoming a full-time writer. She has worked at Shout magazine and previously at Jackie, the magazine named after Jacqueline Wilson. Cathy tours extensively around the UK – meeting over 10,000 young readers in 2012. She has twice won the prestigious ‘Queen of Teen’ award. Cathy lives in Merseyside with her husband, two dogs and a cat. Read more about the author here.
Jack Byrne
Jack was born and raised in Speke, Liverpool to an Irish immigrant father and grandparents. Under the Bridge is his debut novel and follows reporter Anne and student Vinny around Merseyside, as they become involved in a story of unions, crime, and police corruption after human remains are discovered at a construction site.
Levi Tafari
Levi is a crucial, poetic, consciousness raiser and urban griot. Born and raised in Liverpool by his Jamaican parents, Levi’s work is rhythmic and lyrical. In the past he has teamed up with reggae, soul and funk fusion bands, most notably The Ministry of Love. He has also spent two seasons as poet in residence with The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Levi has published four collections of his poetry and his work has been included in many anthologies. Dubpoetry, the title of his first book, is a term coined by him. He has written plays which have been performed at Liverpool’s Unity, Everyman and Playhouse Theatres as well as at the Blackheath Theatre, Stafford. Levi also works in education, running creative writing workshops in prisons, schools and universities. He has toured extensively in the UK and abroad – tapping into the common cultural links that extend across the Black Atlantic, from the African coast to the Caribbean and the Americas.
Ginni Manning
Ginni is a playwright, theatre-maker and writer from Liverpool who co-wrote Dipalo, the ASSITEJ Award winning play, with Lalu Mokuku. She completed the Higher Education Certificate of Creative Writing at the University of Liverpool from 2009-2013 concentrating on Screenwriting and Writing for Performance. She was an inaugural participant in the Everyman and Playhouse Theatres Playwright Development Programme in Liverpool in 2015 and completed the M.R. Advanced Playwright Programme in London in 2018. Ginni has worked alongside the Lantern Writers, based at the Unity Theatre for five years. She is a member of Write Local Play Global, the playwright organisation associated with ASSITEJ (The International Association of Theatre for Children and Young Audiences) and performed at the Assitej 2017 Cradle of Creativity. She has work on regularly in the North West and in the summer of 2018 participated in the Scenic Route Theatre lab with work performed in London. She is a facilitator and writer for Writing on the Wall based in Liverpool. She appeared at the Action Transport Theatre Writers Ball as Writer In Residence and assists their Young Writers group with award-winning playwright Kevin Dyer.
Winnie M Li
Winnie is an author and activist. Her debut novel, DARK CHAPTER won The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize, was nominated for an Edgar Award, and translated into ten languages. She has received grants from the Royal Society of Literature, Jerwood Arts, and the Arts Councils of England and Northern Ireland. Winnie is also Founder of Clear Lines, the UK’s first-ever festival addressing sexual assault and consent through the arts and discussion. Her PhD research at the London School of Economics explores media engagement by rape survivors as a form of activism. Winnie has appeared on the BBC, Sky News, Channel 4, The Guardian, The Times, The Mail on Sunday, BBC Woman’s Hour, and TEDx London. She has an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland in recognition of her writing and activism. http://winniemli.com
Ash Nugent
In 2013 Ashleigh Nugent won the Commonword Memoir Competition for his debut novel, LOCKS. The story follows a narrative inspired by the author, playwright and rapper’s own journey, and the stage version of the book headlined this year’s Blackfest. By the time he was sixteen, Ashleigh had been arrested three times. Each incident was a case of racial profiling on the part of the police. Racism was a regular occurrence for him growing up in 1980s’ Liverpool. These painful, aggravating experiences led him to Jamaica, a place he hoped for change. Instead he found himself mugged, stabbed and in prison, having watched his friend drown. In Jamaica he was the White boy. His book, Locks, and accompanying performances, has been the success it has because it shares a lived experience which manifests through passion. With the heightened presence of the Black Lives Matter movement this year the story has helped many to understand their relationship with Blackness, including those with no experience of it. That’s when he started to RiseUp C.I.C. an organisation focused on meaningful and life changing projects for the hardest to reach in society
Event Date: Monday 25th January 2021 - Monday 20th December 2021
Location: Digital - Online Event
Contact Details: Writing on the Wall
