Dates for your diary March 2013

Thursday 7th March 2013: First Wangari Maathai* Day

Wangari Maathai, was the first environmentalist and African woman to get a Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Kenyan Green Belt Movement. The Green Belt Movement works at grassroots, national, and international levels to promote:

• environmental conservation
• build climate resilience
• empower communities, especially women and girls

Beacons: stories for our not so distant future

Thursday 7th March, 6.30pm – 8.30pm (Refreshments on sale from 6pm)

International Anthony Burgess Foundation

Engine House, Chorlton Mill, 3 Cambridge Street, Manchester M1 5BY

Free event, no need to book

The Manchester Writing School at MMU, Manchester Literature Festival and Steady State Manchester invite you to explore how literature can connect us with the predicaments of our age.

 Clare Dudman (scientist by training and author of three novels including A Place of Meadows and Tall Trees) and Rodge Glass (author of three novels including Bring Me the Head of Ryan Giggs and Somerset Maugham Award- winning biography of Alasdair Gray), have contributed to BEACONS, a collection of twenty-one original stories by major UK authors. The stories are inspired by, and will be sold for the benefit of, the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition.

 BEACONS editorGregory Norminton (author of four novels including the highly acclaimed Serious Things and creative writing teacher at MMU) and the authors will discuss the challenges of writing about complex issues such as climate change. The readings will be followed by conversations exploring if and how literature can inspire us to think or act differently, and motivate us to create a sustainable future.

For more information visit:   http://www.anthonyburgess.org

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Wangari Maathai Day:  Mark the day.

Tell us your ideas about how you might do this with or alongside us, steadystatemanchester@gmail.com
Ideas for school, youth, community or religious organisations include:

• A film show of Taking Root, the story of Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement Tree planting as part of the Hummingbird Campaign which aims to plant one billion worldwide in Wangari’s memory.
• Link up with Kaoma Environmental Resource Initiative, a grassroots project in Western Zambia who will also be celebrating Wangari Maathai Day.
• Invite a speaker from SSM,
• Organise a ‘Be the change’ workshop,’
• Use teaching resources which have been developed in Manchester and by the Green Belt Movement

* Wangari Maathai, first environmentalist and African
woman Nobel Peace Prize winner, was the founder of the
Kenyan Green Belt Movement which works at grassroots,
national, and international levels to promote
environmental conservation; build climate resilience and
empower communities, especially women and girls; to
foster democratic space and sustainable livelihoods. The
Green Belt Movement has inspired the planting of over
52 million trees.