Libraries are a hub of connection.

This year’s Festival of Libraries tagline is “Bound Together, Connected Through Stories” and now, more than ever, we want to highlight the role of libraries in bringing communities together. 

From 10-14th June, you can get involved with more than 100 events, ranging from workshops to performances – create new connections with your community and see your local library in a completely different light.

The following events celebrate community and heritage… 

Jamaican Patois (Creole) on the map | 10th June, Old Trafford Library

This event is part of the new Linguistic Diversity Collective programme, which aims to put an invisibilised language on the map. This year, we are celebrating Jamaican Creole which, although spoken by one of the most vibrant communities in Manchester, is still marginalised in public spaces in the city.

The event will use wordlists to prompt questions about how dictionaries define meanings. You will have the opportunity to teach others about the meanings of words from your variety of Patwah and even attempt to propose your own dictionary entries.

RoundView: Sustainable Words (and Actions) for a Better World | 6th June, Heald Green Library

Sustainability is the focus at this event at Heald Green Library. Are you ready to explore a world where people and nature thrive together? The event will be a fun, interactive drop-in session where science, art, and poetry come together to inspire real change. You will get the chance to solve colourful puzzles, take part in creative activities, and sketch and scribble with the RoundView team.

Community Takeover: 42nd Street | 6th June, Manchester Central Library

Join 42nd Street to connect, create and campaign through poetry and community. Come take part in the first event of 42nd Street’s ‘Building Belonging’ Poetry Project for young people aged 13-25. Whether you are a budding poet, secret poet or just like to listen and appreciate, come down to Connect, Create and Campaign with other young Activists. Poems will be around the themes of ‘How do you Build Belonging in your: VOICE • WORDS • SOLIDARITY?

A Dance For My Foremothers | 13th June, Manchester Central Library

Dance has long brought people together, and is essential to the Baganda People of Uganda. This workshop explores how dance can challenge authoritarian rule, focusing on how Baganda dances strengthen community and empowerment. Led by Peninah Wampamba, a researcher of indigenous practises and women’s health, the session connects dance with politics, health and decolonisation. You will also be invited to take part in dancing yourself.

Writing For Wellbeing | 9th-11th June, Various Libraries

Facilitated by professional writers from the Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester, these workshops invite you to express yourself through writing as a way to relieve stress and emotional turbulence.

Community Takeover: 42nd Street | 6th June, Manchester Poetry Library

Join 42nd Street to connect, create and campaign through poetry and community. Come take part in the first event of 42nd Street’s ‘Building Belonging’ Poetry Project for young people aged 13-25. Whether you are a budding poet, secret poet or just like to listen and appreciate, come down to Connect, Create and Campaign with other young Activists.

Community Takeover: Muslim Social Justice Initiative | 12th June, Levenshulme Old Library

Muslim Social Justice Initiative are holding a screening of the film Ghost Hunting, which follows former Palestinian prisoners reconstructing their experiences of incarceration, at Levenshulme Old Library. This event brings together film, conversation, and collective reflection to explore how storytelling functions in the aftermath of trauma and under conditions shaped by colonialism and imprisonment.

The screening will be followed by a facilitated discussion considering the role of narrative and cultural production in processes of healing, resistance, and political education.

Lines of Love and Resistance – An Evening of Ukrainian Poetry

Join prominent Ukrainian writers Yuliya Musakovska and Olena Huseinova for a reading of wartime poetry that explores the ongoing realities of resistance and survival amid Russian aggression. Alongside their poignant work, the poets will carry the voices of their colleagues serving in Ukraine’s Defence Forces. The poems will be presented in both the original Ukrainian and in English translation.

These events are just a few of the eclectic offerings that are celebrating Greater Manchester’s libraries, to find out more about this year’s festival, explore the full programme here.