Witch; sorceress; fairy; fay; goddess? Magical women in the literature of the fifteenth century and today. De Grey Lecture Theatre, Thursday 5th December, 6pm-8pm. Via Events.
The annual Words Matter lecture is one of the highlights of the English Literature year here at York St John University. This year, Dr Zoë Enstone presents her research on the magical women of fifteenth-century literature and their ongoing impact on contemporary culture.
As modern readers, we are often familiar with the tropes of Arthurian romance such as brave knights, damsels in distress, wise wizards, and dragons to be slain, many of which have been reshaped over centuries into fairy tales or children’s literature. However, the medieval romances themselves were often much more complicated than these aspects would suggest and offer a fascinating glimpse into the social and political concerns of a tumultuous historical period.
Zoë explores the developments of these Arthurian romances, which often featured magical women who were powerful, autonomous, and sometimes threatening figures, acting in ways that challenged the ideals of the court. She examines whether these portrayals reflect broader anxieties within an evolving Christian context, including the rising concerns around witchcraft and magic. Words really do matter, as the interplay of traditions and motivations saw these women shifting between categorisations like goddess, fairy and witch. A mediaevalist by backround, Zoë is nevertheless interested in the ways these works have influenced the more recent literature. In her lecture she introduces the rise of ‘witcherature’ and explores the renewed interest in the magical.
Dr Zoë Enstone is Associate Professor of English Literature and Associate Head of School for English Literature, specialising in medieval literature and medievalism. She has previously published on Melusine and magical women of the later romances and is currently working on a book on Morgan le Fay. More broadly, she’s interested in the ongoing influence of the medieval and has a forthcoming chapter on the ghost story tradition. She is the co-lead of the Interdisciplinary Witches Research Group here at York St John (https://www.yorksj.ac.uk/research/interdisciplinary-witches/).
The English Literature team are recognising outstanding academic achievement by students completing the first year of their degree in both single honours and joint honours cohorts through this year’s Words Matter prizes. This year’s winners are English Literature student Evie Lane and English Literature and Creative Writing student Alice Lind-O’Mara.
Level Four co-ordinator Dr Fraser Mann says that:
‘I’m really happy for Evie and Alice. Their dedication to the subject and their participation in university life are admirable. They have made rapid and remarkable progress and deserve real recognition for this success. They are both an asset to English Literature at York St John.’
On receiving news of the award, a delighted Alice said:
‘I was ten when I decided what I was going to study at university. I’d fallen in love with English. I wouldn’t learn to love school for another few years yet, but English truly captured my heart. When asked about my future plans, I always knew what I would say: “I’m going to study Creative Writing at university!” And time and again, people told me to “be realistic.” Passion was one thing; practicality was another. I almost gave up on that dream entirely, until I took English Literature at A-Level. There, I learned just how fun analysis can be, how satisfying it can feel to pull apart a text and how much you can learn from an author’s choices. Reading informs writing, after all. To now have the privilege of studying both–the dissection of literature as both its audience and creator–is a dream come true. To receive this award is so unbelievably moving, and I am so grateful to know that I am making the most of a dream I almost sacrificed. Thank you so much to everyone who encouraged me to keep going.’
Evie was equally happy and said:
‘Receiving the ‘Words Matter’ award means so much to me and I am truly moved by this incredible recognition. Studying English Literature has been both challenging and deeply
rewarding, and it is so fulfilling to see my efforts paying off. I am deeply grateful for the support and guidance of every lecturer, tutor, and peer; your encouragement has made all the difference.’ Evie and Alice will receive their awards during this year’s Words Matter Lecture. We would like to congratulate them on their success and wish them all the best for the rest of their degrees.
For her third year dissertation, Hollie Whittle explored representations of sexuality, identity and trauma in Keisha the Sket by Jade L.B. and Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams. The following extract is from her section on “code-switching”. Hollie is currently studying for her PGCE at York St John University.
From the 2000’s Black British culture in literary texts increased visibility. Novels written by young black writers meant that young black readers could relate and recognise themselves through fictional characters. The fictional icon at the forefront of Black girl history is that of Keisha the Sket (KTS), written by 13-year-old Jade L.B in 2005. Completely unaware of her impact, Jade began her chapters on Piczo, and became a naughties viral sensation. As stated by Jade in the 2021 published version, it is “a tale of this black girl from inner-city London, and the politics that governed her womanhood and sexuality” (2). […] With its use of slang and ebonics , KTS spoke to black teenage London youths. Carty-Williams was highly inspired by Jade L. B’s work when becoming a writer, describing the story as an “entry point to understanding what sex was” as a teenager and “where (I) understood the perceived value of the Black female body” (323).
The act of code-switching is when “a speaker moves according to context” (Rob Drummond, 642). The language that the younger characters in Queenie and KTS use is known as “Jafaican”, different from both the patois spoken by their family and the language they use outside of their communities. “Jafaican” is a combination “of two crucial (yet incorrect) assumptions about this kind of language”, known as “Jamaican-ness” and “fakeness”. Jafaican was first identified in 2006 (Kerswill, 2014), but was renamed as Multicultural London English (MLE) through Mohammed Emwazi. MLE has created a stir of negative comments by older generations, believing that youths are “literally talking their way into unemployment” (Harding, 2013).
Through the different generations in the novel Carty-Williams explores the variety of experiences within Queenie’s family. Queenie’s grandparents identify less as “Black-British” as they had grown up in Jamaica, compared to Queenie and her mother who grew up in the UK. Queenie’s stepfather, Roy, calls Queenie, who works in the primarily white publishing industry, a “bounty”, suggesting that she is “white on the inside” and “brown on the outside” (297) as Carty-Williams represents Queenie as having a literary ‘formal’ way of speaking. This insult may be also to do with the white settings that she is found in, as Queenie and other young black women navigate a very different environment from previous generations.
Keisha’s world is very small when referring to location, which emphasises the use of MLE, and code-switching seems to be non-existent in her small life of being at school, home and other local youths’ houses. Queenie understands the act of code-switching due to the area that she grew up in, along with her friends and family despite not speaking it herself. Queenie expresses the frustrations of code-switching in order to remain more ‘professional’ in the workplace due to the negative connotations with MLE. Queenie’s friend, Kyazike, converses with Queenie: “Fam, did you hear how I have to switch up my voice out there? The new manager, some prissy white woman, has told me that I need speak ‘better’. Doesn’t want me to ‘intimidate customers’. Can you believe that? The only person I’m intimidating is her, fam” (360). Despite Kyazike’s well-paid job in a bank and hard work, she has to code-switch in order to match her location and the people that she is surrounded by.
Ironically, the inspiration for Queenie would have the original MLE of the title, Keisha Da Sket, later replaced to Keisha ‘the’ Sket when picked up by a mainstream publisher, Penguin. In the original KTS chapters Jade L.B uses constant MLE for all the characters speech and Keisha’s narration, along with a 2000’s text style of writing such as “Ne wayz cum 2 ma yrd in lyk half an hour?” (22). The original KTS chapters created a niche piece of cultural fiction for a targeted audience which is based of life events of youths that Jade L.B was surrounded by. In Keisha Revisited Jade still includes MLE slang in the characters speech, but uses standard English in the narrative. This new publication not only creates an easier understanding to wider audiences, but, the author feels, it also gives more humanity; “Revisiting the text now, attempting accountability and acknowledging my internalised misogynoir is central to embracing and feeling some pride in my role in creating a cultural work that a generation enjoyed” (14).
Due to Keisha the Sket being such a locally popular literary piece from inner-city London, and not aimed for audiences outside that region, there is no definition as to what certain words or phrases mean. Queenie does discuss how the black working-class community area that she grew up in, has become a whiter liberal area that has had small black businesses’ taken over; The sense of community that Queenie had felt as a child has left her when she comes back to visit it when she feels a sense of loss in her own identity.
The beauty in the writings of Black-British writers is that there is always a sense of uncertainty when referring to identity, place and belonging, as woman, working-class and non-white. Candice Carty-Williams and Jade L.B have written about where they grew up and what and where they find familiarity, which is a comfort for readers who might find relation to it but is also an insight for readers that do not. These novels are not meant to generalise the Black-British experience, but to embrace the topics that are very real within communities.
Bibliography
Carty–Williams, Candice. Queenie, 2019
Drummond, Rob. (2017) “(Mis)interpreting urban youth language: white kids sounding black?” Journal of Youth Studies, 20:5, 640-660, DOI: 10.1080/13676261.2016.1260692
Harding, Nick. 2013.“Why Are So Many Middle-class Children Speaking in Jamaican Patois? A Father of an 11-year-old Girl Laments a Baffling Trend.” Daily Mail, October 11
Kerswill, Paul (2014) “The objectification of ‘Jafaican’:the discoursal embedding of Multicultural London English in the British media.” In The Media and Sociolinguistic Change, edited by Jannis Androutsopoulos. Berlin: De Gruyter, 428–455.
Third year student Cameron Stewart has embarked on a regular writing post for the website Outlet Publishing. This is his first blog for them.
Blog One- Introduction “There is material enough in a single flower for the ornament of a score of cathedrals” – John Ruskin.
What do they mean to life? They are an ever-present symbol of the great words of someone else. As a young writer, I see a quote at the start of nearly every book I read. It is almost a comfort to know, both new writers and well-established ones, use others words to give thanks to that person’s creativity with words. Quotes offer a type of anchor in life because there is a quote for everything.
I will start each blog with a quote, which I will then explore in more detail in the article. I have chosen Ruskin’s quote for this blog because he captures the small yet mighty beauty, of one flower against many colossal cathedrals. In a similar way, I am a new young writer in a sea of great writing giants. Yet, I hope to shine some literary light from an original perspective.
A magazine that I greatly admire and find much value in, is Landscape. It contains writing on nature, the seasons and crafts. It is an uplifting read and my favourite part, is the literature quotes throughout it. It is not something you see in other publications. I like to write my favourite quotes into a journal. This will be my source of quotes, and I hope you find these inspiring. The beauty of writing is that anyone can do it. The only key ingredient needed is imagination. If you have that, the writing becomes limitless with opportunities. In my blogs, I hope to capture what life as a young writer is like.
Some days ideas for a piece of writing can flow fast, and I scramble to get them into a type of order. Other days, the reservoir of ideas is dangerously close to drying up. Looking at quotes can help to boost the creative thinking process. After all, every writer has slow days or even weeks. My aim for this blog is to invite you to muse, ponder and reflect what a young writer is today. Going back to Ruskin’s flower- there can be great beauty in small objects as well as the grand. Indeed, each young writer has that individual flourish to share and this is mine.
The next blog will examine how the falling leaves of Autumn, can be like the falling of words onto the page. Should be good. Do not quote me on that!!
Work Cited- 1- Photo- Indrapradja, Frans. “developingsuperleaders”. Developingsuperleaders.Wordpress.com. Accessed, 26th September 2024.developingsuperleaders.Wordpress.com/author/tiardjaindrapradja/. 2- John Ruskin quote- May edition of Landscape magazine.
If you would like to read more from Cameron please go to
It was fantastic to attend Sarah’s lecture, and learn more about her career and her area of study. I found it fascinating to see how Caribbean culture was of deep interest to Sarah, from being a child. The event had a chronological order through life, from child to student then an academic. It was incredible how Sarah had a passion, to write about Caribbean culture and teach it. I enjoyed the literature aspect, of seeing her favourite authors through her years of research.
The underlining theme was interruptions. The planned and unplanned interruptions, of the pizza delivery halfway through the lecture, and technology slowness, was both humorous and very apt. I felt I could relate to the Covid interruption, as it was something everyone collectively went through. It was moving how Sarah discussed both personal, collective and academic interruptions, that can be faced. It was a powerful point of how an interruption, gives a moment to pause, reflect and re-evaluate what is most important in life.
The evening was peppered with jokes, interesting academic research and a life of interest, to share Caribbean cultural perspectives. The event was a celebration of Sarah becoming a professor and by attending, it was a way to support her, in great thanks for all the support she gives her students.
You can watch Sarah’s inaugural lecture here on YouTube.
Drs Alex Wylie and Adam James Smith are delighted to announce that they have secured funding to employ a Student-as-Researcher on their project “Getting Smart: Mapping the Life and Legacy of Christopher Smart (1722-1771).”
This year for Black History Month York St John University are hosting a range of events. These are free events, open to the YSJ community and the public. Many of these are hybrid events, accessible in person or online.
We launch the events on Monday 14th October with Celebrating Black Excellence: Remembering the past, honouring the present, and shaping the future. This in-person event invites us to reflect on the rich heritage and legacy of Black culture, while also embracing the innovation, creativity, and resilience that will drive us forward. View an exhibition of Black heroes of the past and present by Nduka Omeife, an artist local to York. Enjoy music, dance, fashion and poetry.
Next on Tuesday 15th October is Discussing Decolonisation: A guest lecture by Dr John Narayan (KCL), a hybrid event. Dr Narayan’s lecture, Survival Pending Revolution: The Revolutionary Theory of the Black Panther Party. This lecture argues that Black Panther leader Huey P.Newton’s orientation of the BPP away from armed insurrection and towards survival pending revolution was not simply a pragmatic choice of strategy, but rather based on a theorization of what he dubbed reactionary intercommunalism. Come along to find out more.
We end the month on Wednesday 30th October with a talk by Bishop Rose Hudson-Wilkin. She was previously the chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, and was the first black woman to become a Bishop in Britain. An honorary graduate of York St John University, she will be talking about ‘The Church’s Role in Challenging Racism in the Public Square’.
Find out about these and many more events on our YSJ Events Page.
If you would like to review any events or books for the blog, please get in touch with us.
Rachel Bentley and Madz Warley return for the second installment of “Book’d & Busy: A Lit Life On Campus”, the official podcast of the English Literature and Creative Writing Degrees at York St John University!
In January 2024 I was invited to speak on a roundtable at the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (BSECS) annual conference about the future of the eighteenth century. Each speaker was invited to share their aspirations for what they hoped a specific aspect of eighteenth-century studies might look like, before opening the workshop up for discussion about how we might work together to make these visions a reality. I was asked to speculate about the future of eighteenth-century studies from a pedagogical perspective. The following is based on my response to this question.
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In terms of how eighteenth-century literature is taught ten years from now, I hope we will continue to see a move away from chronological survey modules that promise or promote, implicitly or explicitly, a completist account of the eighteenth-century as a literary period. In fact, the way “culture” is packaged, presented and consumed these days (though disconcerting in many ways) does perhaps equip students well for coping with the vast complexities of such a sprawling and self-referential age as the eighteenth century.
How do Gen Z consume media? Through streaming, asynchronous cultural consumption and via sprawling multimedia franchises. They’ve grown up with the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), the DCEU (DC extended universe), the SSU (Sony’s Spiderman Universe, which doesn’t actually contain Spiderman), the MonsterVerse, the Multiverse, the Metaverse, now also the Whoniverse. Yes, there are major problems with the way one one or two huge corporations have come to colonise the popular imagination, but one possible silver lining is that a student who can enjoy a film about an obscure superhero’s flying dog without worrying about how it might fit into the other prior 40+ films and goodness only knows how many TV shows, videogames, cartoons and escape rooms it’s connected to, can probably handle first encountering Alexander Pope by studying Anne Ingram’s ‘Epistle to Pope’, or gradually developing a sense of the significance of Samuel Richardson by reading Sarah Fielding, Jane Collier and Charlotte Lennox.
The recently revised Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) Benchmark statement for English Literature doubles down on the continuity and persistence of disciplinary certainties (for instance, it states that literature is the “distinct analysis of discourse and meaning in communication, including aesthetics and rhetoric”) whilst also advocating a series of themes, which include Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. The statement models really well how it is possible to embrace urgent and emergent themes, approaches and considerations, whilst also maintaining our existing disciplinary procedures.
People often say studying literature promotes citizenship, empathy and kindness, and if that’s true, I can see how it would be the natural consequence of rigorous engagement with texts on a compositional level, because the text—especially the historical text—itself becomes an encounter with difference. It requires generative attentiveness: a consideration of the context, audience and meaning of each alien utterance. With the vast digital archives of primary materials at our disposal, increasingly diverse scholarship, and Broadview Press doing the genuinely heroic work of making lesser-known texts and the stories of their composition more and more available, there are so many new texts to teach and more and more ways to think about and teach them. And I think eighteenth-century literature is a particularly well-suited forum for exploring the kinds of questions relating to matters of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
First, because the eighteenth century is a mess. A huge, sprawling, self-referential, deeply intertextual, massively ephemeral mess. It is this mess of printed matter and the curious, contradictory, and often playful ways in which it promotes, applies, figures and resists concepts, paradigms and performances that makes the period endlessly fascinating. The messiness of it is a feature, not a bug, and something to be embraced. We can enter this maelstrom of ideas, opinions and representations from any angle – you’ll still feel the gravitational pull of Swift, the weight and ripples of Pope, the very long shadow of Dryden, the influence of Richardson, Fielding and Johnson, but you needn’t necessarily start there.
Second, the very same questions we are asking in our present moment—about who is and isn’t seen, who is heard, who is included and excluded and what we can and should do about this—are already there in eighteenth-century literature. The question of who is ‘hailed’ by the print within this public sphere draws attention to discussions that ring hauntingly prescient in our current moment. Whilst the dominant print culture might assume a white middle class reader similar to that of the authorial voice, there are texts which work hard to draw attention to this, to deconstruct it, and to find space for alternate voices and audiences.
In the periodical The Parrot, for instance, Eliza Haywood writes as an involuntarily displaced green parrot who explicitly rejects the implied kinship of his readership, as is often assumed in periodical literature, insisting instead on unfamiliarity rather than familiarity as a means of deconstructing the homogeneity of the white masculine public sphere in which it exists. These dynamics are often at work in the allegories and metaphors of the period. Arabella, the hero of Charlotte Lennox’s Female Quixote, for instance, invents a silent means of communicating in gestures as a way of resisting language prescribed by the dominant patriarchy. And of course, they’re there in the letters of Charles Ignatius Sancho: the complex subjectivities he inhabits, avoids, subverts or, just plays with. depending on who he addresses and why.
‘The Parrot’, artwork by Lauren Fenton.
On my second year early eighteenth-century module on the English Literature programme at York St John University, which is called ‘Dawn of Print’, I frame the module as being about print culture and intertextuality. The whole thing is about the dialogic relationships between these texts (and actually quite a lot about the influence of Don Quixote). So, for these students, their tour of the eighteenth century went: John Dryden, Bernard Mandeville, Mary Leapor and Anne Ingram responding to Pope, Sarah Fielding, Jane Collier, Eliza Haywood, Charlotte Lennox, Ignatius Sancho, James Cook and Lady Mary Montagu, Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels) and Laurence Sterne. And I’m telling you this because over Christmas, an interesting thing happened.
A meme began circulating on X and TikTok called “Classic Bookshelf”, which depicts a “classic map” of 57 titles, and readers are encouraged to colour them in as they read them. A lot of the viral tweets were students sharing the image – which presents a fascinating and deeply traditional vision of canonicity as understood by the public (I suspect it’s American)—complaining that they didn’t know what they were paying their tuition fees for because so few of these featured on the English degree reading lists.
Figure 3. “Classic Bookshelf” viral meme circulated on X in Dec 2023.
But then, one of the students from Dawn of Print, Maddison Warley, produced her own response—the “slayteenth century”—making the point that there are other ways of reading and, at the risk of sounding like a big humble bragger, I was so pleased and surprised by the texts she chose to include.
Figure 4. Response posted on X by Level 5 York St John University English Literature student, Maddison Warley, shortly after completing the module Dawn of Print
I wanted to end with this because it’s fun, but also because I hope this is the future. The eighteenth century has always been a conversable century and if we continue having difficult conversations, keep pushing the boundaries of how we approach this literature and whose voices we centre, I really do believe that in 2034, we can have it all.
Content Warning: Discussions of Suicide and Bereavement
For this year’s Mental Health Awareness week, second-year English Literature student Cameron Stewart recounts his experience of hosting an author event with a focus on mental health.
“On Tuesday the 9th of April, at the Penrith Town Library I was very fortunate to host an author event in my hometown, where I met with Andy Airey, one of the ‘three dads’ from the organisation: ‘3 Dads Walking’. 3 Dads Walking does fantastic work in raising awareness and preventing young suicide, having undertaken three national walks and amassed over a million pounds in support for the mental health charity Papyrus. Their debut book, ‘300 Miles of Hope,’ released in April, provided the focal point for our conversation. Andy has been a friend of mine for a few years and we have done charity work together. Not only was it an opportunity to dedicate time to raising awareness, but the author’s event was also a good opportunity from a literature student’s point of view to discuss the book with him.
The event was really popular with 60 attendees who collectively contributed £200 towards the vital work of ‘3 Dads Walking.’ I am hoping to host a similar event this Autumn at the Minster where we hope to host all 3 Dads. This is still in the planning stages.”
Victoria Walpole is one of our artist liaisons on the Literature at Work module. This week she has been working with our visiting performers from the Ivano-Frankivsk Theatre Company in Ukraine. Victoria tells us more.
I hear that, despite the challenges of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ivano-Frankivsk Theatre Company has continued to showcase plays and even created a humanitarian logistics centre called “Movement of Resistance – Movement of Help” to support those displaced by the war and soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Ivano-Frankivsk Theatre Company has a reputation for producing creative and innovative shows that have established its place in the Ukrainian cultural world, having always been acclaimed for its unprecedented creative “explosions”, highlighting its active artistic position in culture.
This highly respected theatre company has an exceptional cast of star actors, including Ivan Blindar and Mariia Stopnyk, who have joined us this week on our campus. Ivan and Mariia have been working closely with the York International Shakespeare Festival to create an original piece of work in collaboration with volunteer actors from and around York. These include Ukrainian performers who are currently living here.
For the past week, the actors have been hard at work in rehearsals, creating and practising pieces to perform on the first weekend of the festival. The pieces they have created combine Shakespeare’s incredible plays with the contemporary. They blend Ukrainian and English culture to create compelling pieces that will astound audiences. Working alongside Ivan and Mariia has been a privilege and a fun experience for all involved. Their love and passion for their work is reflected in their performances, and it has been a pleasure to be alongside them during the creative process. Through the use of imaginative warm-up exercises and sonnet performances, Phillip Parr has been able to direct the creative process to mould a stunning performance that beautifully symbolises the collaboration between the Ivano-Frankivsk theatre and the festival. Part of this process is making sure everyone who volunteered has a voice in what they want to give and take from the final performance.
During the rehearsals, local artist Lynne O’Dowd has been diligently capturing the dedication and momentous efforts of everyone involved through her paintings. These paintings will be part of the final performance, highlighting the creativity and hard work that has gone into bringing this production to life.
This performance promises to be incredibly imaginative and powerful, so you will not want to miss this! Everyone involved has put their heart and soul into creating a beautiful piece to perform, making these performances even more special. Creating a performance in such a short amount of time is a real feat of skill and everyone involved worked incredibly hard to make this possible.
When and where?
The event will be performed on Saturday the 20th of April at 2 pm and 7.30pm in the York St John Creative Centre Auditorium as part of the York International Shakespeare Festival. Tickets are only £15 at full price, with students and concessions only paying £5.
When buying tickets also look out for and consider buying a Pass It On Ticket which we can offer to community members who may not otherwise be able to attend as we want to make it possible for as many members of the community to come to festival performances!
To buy tickets and or more information about the York International Shakespeare Festival you can go to its website.
Here at York St John University, we are extremely proud to announce our official sponsorship of the York International Shakespeare Festival for its 2024 edition. After the resounding success of last year’s festival, we continue to bring innovative, exciting Shakespeare/Shakespeare inspired productions to the main stage in our YSJ Creative Centre. Several of our students are taking part in work placements with the festival via the Literature at Work module. Here is their overview of the events they have been working on. The YISF 2024 edition runs from 18th-28th April. Student concessions are only £5! Some events are free to attend. Programme information can be found here (click through individual events to book). Pick up a copy of our beautiful brochure! And if you want to get involved, either now or in the future, please get in touch. If you want to review any events for our blogs, please email s.vickerswalkling@yorksj.ac.uk and info@yorkshakes.co.uk
BECOMING OTHELLO by Debra-Ann Byrd introduced by Dulcie Welsh (Artist Liaison)
Come see the UK premiere of Debra Ann Byrd’s critically acclaimed one woman show Becoming Othello: A Black Girl’s Journey, in which she combines Shakespeare’s verse with song and memoir to tell her story. Debra-Ann also founded the Harlem Shakespeare Festival in New York, which supports emerging and professional artists of colour in classical theatre. She will also be providing a performance for visiting schools.
Purchase your tickets here for £15 or £5 for students and concessions. Join us on the 24th of April (7:30 p.m.) and the 25th of April (11:30 a.m.) at York St John Creative Centre Auditorium for an unforgettable experience.
In addition, there is to be a talk by Debra Ann-Byrd in conversation in which she will discuss My Black Girl’s Journey. This event will give people the opportunity to reflect on Debra-Ann’s work and to ask any questions during the discussion afterwards, which is to be hosted by Dr Anne-Marie, Head of Humanities. This will be held in the YSJ Creative Centre Auditorium on Wednesday the 25th of April, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Book your free ticket here.
TWELTH NIGHT by Footsbarn Theatre, introduced by Victoria Walpole (Artist Liaison)
Footsbarn is coming to the York International Shakespeare Festival for their world premiere performance of Shakespeare Twelfth Night! Footsbarn is one of the world’s leading travelling theatre companies and specialises in performing in untraditional performance spaces – they usually travel with a circus big top! Directed by Sadie Jemmett, this production promises to be a unique and vibrant interpretation of the play, exploring gender identity in a thought-provoking way. With spectacles of live music, original songs, and classic comedy clowning, this highly anticipated performance is not to be missed!
Don’t wait, buy your tickets here for £15 or £5 for students and concessions. Join us on the 27th of April (7:30 p.m.) and 28th April (2:00 p.m.) at York St John Creative Centre Auditorium for an unforgettable experience.
Conferences and Symposiums introduced by Esme Bainbridge (Events Organiser)
I’ve been liaising with visiting academics, speakers and panel participants as organiser of the Shakespeare and Identity Symposium which I am convening with Dr Saffron Vickers Walkling. This symposium will be held in The Creative Centre at York St John University on Saturday the 27th of April, 2:00 pm – 6 pm. There will be a wide range of guest speakers, including Dr Varsha Panjwani, discussing the theme of identity in the context of the Indian changling boy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and panels of artists from Ukraine to the UK discussing Shakespeare’s work. Book your free tickets here. There are opportunities for students and staff to speak on one of the panels. If you are interested do get in touch with Esme (esme.bainbridge@yorksj.ac.uk).
In addition to this event, we are also hosting a range of workshops, readings, talks, and displays. With content ranging from a Turkish Production of Macbeth to a celebration of Shakespeare in European Communities– a day of clebration and discovery with those who are making the work – this festival aligns closely with York St John University’s commitment to social justice, inclusion and diversity.
Shakespeare Exhibitions introduced by Grace Tanner (Exhibition Curator with Emily Shaw)
This year’s exhibitions focus on the different representations of Shakespeare. At York St John, there will be a Shakespeare and Manga exhibition running from Wednesday the 24th of April to Sunday the 28th of April. This will be in the Creative Centre Atrium. There will be a short informal opening of the exhibition at 6:30 pm on the 24th, with a chance to meet and talk with the artists. There will also be a talk on Manga: Shakespeare Illustrated featuring five distinguished artists and academics: Inko Ai Takita, Ryuta Minami, Yukari Yoshihara, Chie Kutsuwada, and Ronan Paterson. This event will take place on Thursday the 25th at 7:30 p.m. in Creative Centres Auditorium. Book here for the talk. There is also a chance to take part in a public workshop with the featured artists on Friday the 26th of April, from 2:30 pm to 6:00 pm at St Olave’s Church Hall, York. Book here for workshop . The illustrated talk is £15 a ticket, or £5 for concessions. The workshop is £15 a ticket (contact Saffron about concessions/comps for this off campus event).
At the York Explore library, there will be an Images of Othello exhibition running from the 13th of April to the 23rd of May. Both of these exhibitions feature representations of Shakespeare from all over the world, and they’re free!
Grace Ebberley (Volunteer Coordinator) has written about her work placement experience for the YSJ Life Blog. “My role in this year’s festival is volunteer liaison and recruitment – or, to put it simply, encouraging other YSJ students to get involved with the festival and make sure everything runs smoothly for them.
Continuing our support of Ukrainian artists, YISF have collaborated with the National Theatre of Ivano-Frankivsk from Ukraine and performers from the Ukrainian community in York to bring you an important and prompt new production Working Title: A Collaboration. Practitioners and academics from the YISF will be working with our students across Humanities and Arts. Please consider buying a Pass It on Ticket for a refugee or asylum seeker in York. You can book this for any paid event and it can be reallocated to a show of the recipient’s choice.
English Literature Research Showcase – 15th April 5pm-7pm
The annual English Literature Research Showcase is an evening in which we learn about colleagues’ specialist projects. This is a chance to celebrate the rich and varied range of research that defines the department and shapes our teaching.
This year we will hear about Patti Smith’s punk queering of masculine spaces, Mark Lanegan’s destabilising of grunge myth, Medieval ghost stories, ‘good hating’ from Alexander Pope to Samuel Johnson, and critically controversial diagnoses of Charlotte Brontë’s pregnancy and death.
Please join us in learning about the important work that Literature staff and research students are engaged with. There will some refreshments provided following the event and a chance for some informal conversation.
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