About this event
Artist, singer and performer Jennifer Reid led a workshop exploring the relevance of work songs, dialect and print culture. The event was delivered in two parts: the first half involved a performance and talk about the legacies of 19th century industrial culture, and in the second half participants created a community banner. Participants explored the human voice as a means of occupying space and empowering individuals, as well as its capacity to reconnect us with the past and shape contemporary identities.
Through this workshop participants will find tools to reconnect with the past, and will be encouraged to identify and research local archives to find songs from working class traditions.
About the Artist
Jennifer Reid is an artist, singer and performer of nineteenth century Lancashire dialect and Victorian broadside ballads. After volunteering at Chetham’s Library and the Working Class Movement Library, she completed an Advanced Diploma in Local History at Oxford University. Her research is focused on nineteenth century music, social history and the alternative pedagogies. Jennifer teaches students from all levels (primary school to higher education) and has delivered talks and seminars for history groups and other non-specialised audiences.
Her work has taken her to Venice, Croatia, New York and lately Bangladesh, where she tested the idea that the Industrial Revolution never stopped, it just moved to Dhaka. She spoke at the first ethnomusicography conference on the Indian sub-continent about her research into Bangladeshi and Mancunian weaving songs. Jennifer researches ballads and applies them to contemporary life.
The event took place in NN’s temporary space at Vulcan Works.
Public Programmes Curator: Paula Zambrano