Brighton, East Sussex – With less than a week to go until the start of the third annual Brighton Book Festival, the team has announced a brand new event and a free photography exhibition accessible to all.
The new event is Mixing It Up, in which Nicole Ocran and Emma Slade Edmondson, of the award-winning Mixed Up podcast, explore the mixed race experience in the UK in the company of Bud Johnston, founder of Brighton’s Black Anti-Racism Community Organisation (BARCO).
The festival is delighted to also welcome the Unfolding collective, a collaborative group of photographers, who will be sharing their work in a free exhibition throughout the week inside the main festival venue at Brighton University City Campus.
Accessible to everyone, even those without a festival ticket, the show will feature work by four members of the collective – Beresford Hodge, Humphrey Nemar, Pierre Alozie and Phillip Lewis. The collective uses different forms of photographic storytelling “to combat the world seen through the lens of a single socioeconomic group” and is driven by a mission to support “equitable access for the next generation of passionate photographers”.
It’s been a whirlwind few months for the festival team, getting ready to deliver the biggest festival yet, with just under 20 events at three venues across the city. There’ll be a poetry cafe, a family morning, a writers’ day, and talks on everything from activism, change-making and refugee voices to food, comedy, crime and fantasy writing.
This year sees 10 local authors appearing at the festival, alongside other established names like children’s laureate Joseph Coehlo and Kelechi Okafor. They include comedian Jen Brister, author and activist Mikaela Loach, life and fiction writer Katy Massey, short story writer Georgina Aboud and cookery writer and former Great British Bake Off contestant, Janusz Domagdala. And of course, Brighton Book Festival ambassador and best-selling author Dorothy Koomson.
In line with its mission to open up the publishing industry to aspiring authors from marginalised backgrounds, the festival will include Writers’ Day – offering access to agents and publishers – and a Poetry Workshop, to help poets hone their crafts.
This year’s evening programme sees acclaimed poet and playwright Inua Ellams bring his chaotic, audience-led poetry event, Search Party, to the city – for one night only.
Every visitor to the festival will receive a free tote bag, thanks to partnerships with publishers and the Booksellers Association.
