Queer Contact: Outspoken at Contact

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor

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Queer Contact – Outspoken

Contact Theatre, Manchester
11 February 2023

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Writer Dean Atta (credit 2015 Hussina Raja).
Writer Dean Atta. Photo by Hussina Raja.
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Outspoken takes place only during Contact Theatre’s annual Queer Contact Festival, so make sure you grab the chance to catch this special showcase of some of the North West’s finest queer spoken word artists and poets.

Part of flagship LGBTQ arts festival Queer Contact 2023, a spellbinding evening of performance is promised.

Part of flagship LGBTQ arts festival Queer Contact 2023, a spellbinding evening of performance is promised at the newly renovated theatre on the Oxford Road Corridor. The performers for this year’s Outspoken are yet to be revealed, but previous line-ups have included such luminaries as Burning Eye Books-published Paula Varjack, Peepal Tree Press poet Maya Chowdhury and Gerry Potter, who has a number of tomes of “pomes” (as he calls them) out with Salford-based independent Flapjack Press.

Previous Outspokens have also welcomed award-winning writer, publisher and creative producer, and LGBT History Month Poet Laureate, Young Enigma’s Adam ‘Beyoncé’ Lowe as compère, and “one of the leading lights in London’s poetry scene” (Huffington Post) and Polari First Book Prize-shortlisted I Am Nobody’s Nigger and The Black Flamingo author Dean Atta, running a creative writing workshop for extra points.

What's on at Contact Theatre

Where to go near Queer Contact: Outspoken at Contact

Manchester
Music venue
The Deaf Institute

The Deaf Institute is a vibrant gig venue and nightclub for which it is well worth taking a jaunt out of the Northern Quarter.

Manchester
Catalog Bookshop

Find Peter and his Christiania cargo bike around All Saints Park, a hop, skip and a bunnyhop from Manchester Poetry Library.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
Sandbar

Sandbar, just off Oxford Road in Manchester, is a well-loved watering hole, with a great selection of ales and some eccentric seating.

Johnny Roadhouse store
Manchester
Shop
Johnny Roadhouse

Buffeted by fried chicken outlets, legendary musical instrument emporium Johnny Roadhouse has been serving the local music community for over 50 years.

Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Eighth Day

Eighth Day is a co-operative shop that sells ethically-sourced food, wine and cosmetics. There’s also café that serves hearty, healthy meals in the basement.

Manchester
Event venue
The Proud Place

Based in the heart of Manchester on Sidney Street, The Proud Place houses The Proud Trust and serves as a community hub for the wider LGBT+ population across Greater Manchester and beyond.

What's on: Literature

Deryn Rees-Jones. Credit Alison Dodd Photography
LiteratureLiverpool
Deryn Rees-Jones at Open Eye Gallery

For the seventh Matt Simpson Memorial Reading, hosted by Liverpool Poetry Space (LiPS), Deryn Rees-Jones will be reading from her new collection, Hôtel Amour.

Free entry

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