Hay Festival 2019 Programme

Keep it real with literary activist, pioneering participatory artist, rapper and hip hop educator Rufus Mufasa in this writing and spoken word workshop. Rufus has an infectious enthusiasm that inspires everyone she works with, whether it's prisoners and young offenders in Parc prison or young adults at Hay. Her new album Fur Coats From the Lion's Den was chosen as Wales Arts Review's album of the year.

Comedian, writer and performer Ruby Wax, with some help from monk Gelong Thubten and neuroscientist Ash Ranpura, has delved deeply into what it means to be human in an age obsessed with the latest technology. She now provides a manual to upgrade our minds so that they don’t get left behind. In this event Ruby, Ash and Thubten talk about brains, bodies and mindfulness.

In this lavishly illustrated talk, Miles presents his latest book, St Petersburg –Three Centuries of Murderous Desire, an epic tale of massacre, madness and murder played out against the splendour of a city risen from the frozen marshlands on the western edge of Russia – a city created to be a daring new capital of an old country.

IWA Director Auriol Miller, Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood, equality activist Shazia Awan and politics professor Laura McAllister discuss with Clare Critchley the challenges, frustrations and joys of being a woman in Welsh public life. This event launches issue 60 of the welsh agenda, magazine of the Institute of Welsh Affairs.

Joseph Banks accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage round the world from 1768-1771. A gifted and wealthy young naturalist, Banks collected exotic flora from Madeira, Brazil, Tierra del Fuego, the Society Islands, New Zealand, Australia and Java, bringing back over 1,300 species that had never been seen or studied by Europeans. On his return, Banks commissioned more than 700 superlative engravings between 1772-1784. Known collectively as Banks’ Florilegium, they are some of the most precise and exquisite examples of botanical illustration ever created. Studholme introduces a selection of the images and explains the process of producing them.

Professor Littlemore and Dr Turner are co-investigators on the project ‘Death before Birth’. This examines how people who have experienced miscarriage, termination for foetal anomaly, and stillbirth, reach decisions concerning what happens to their babies after death, how their perceptions of the law impact on their decision-making, and how they communicate their experiences and choices to those there to support them. The project will also be examining the existing guidance on what happens to babies after they have died, investigating how it is interpreted in practice by professionals and the extent to which it takes account of the views, experiences and needs of the bereaved. Jeannette and Sarah will be talking about the ways in which people who have experienced pregnancy loss, and those who support, use language to make sense of and communicate their feelings about their loss.

Cat Clarke’s thriller We Are Young and Juno Dawson’s Clean – a novel of addiction, bullying and gender identity – are powerful examples of YA fiction. Join the writers and two members of the Hay Festival Youth Council, for a discussion of their books and the scope of YA fiction, why they are excited to write it and why it is so influential and popular with readers. Chaired by Julia Eccleshare.

Using a single scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo you can explore how a film-maker brings together camera technique, sound, mise en scene and script to tell a story. Dissecting a scene enables us to see how the director controls the flow of information and manipulates the cinema audience. Learning to ‘read’ a film in this way is the first step to a wider understanding of narrative film. Kiri Bloom Walden is a published film author and teaches film and cultural studies at the University of Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education.

In her first collection of new poetry since 2011's acclaimed Family Values, the captivating and brilliant poet celebrates 'the half-forgotten stories of our lives’ with compassion, wisdom and wit. In several of the poems she reimagines Shakespeare in unorthodox fashion; in others, she offers heartfelt tributes to friends and to public figures including Eric Morecambe and John Cage.

Mitchell spent 20 years as a non-clinical team leader in the NHS before being diagnosed with young onset dementia in July 2014 at the age of 58. Shocked by the lack of awareness about the disease, both in the community and in hospitals, she vowed to spend her time raising awareness about dementia and encouraging others to see there is life after a diagnosis. She discusses her extraordinary book about her condition with the Guardian journalist.

What happens when you bring together two people at the top of their game but from different spheres? Ed Hawkins is a climate scientist and works for the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) and the University of Reading. Ed focuses on improving predictions of climate change and its impacts. Nicola Davies is the author of more than 50 books for children: fiction, non-fiction and poetry. They have collaborated to create an original piece of work that will explore the issues around extreme weather events.
The Trans.MISSION project was created to bring science and culture together with the aim of communicating cutting-edge science to new audiences through new methods.
More information about the Trans.MISSION project can be found here.

BBC Music Introducing presenter Andrew Marston quizzes two of Hay's most prolific hit-makers about the science behind a No.1 record. Alan McGee was the founding father of Creation Records, responsible for signing bands such as Oasis, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine and The Libertines. Alan was also behind a club night which saw appearances from The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Razorlight, Kasabian and The Darkness. Jim Eliot has had seven UK top 10 singles – that’s the same number as Adele. But just who is this one-man hit factory? Jim’s written and produced songs for Kylie Minogue, Will Young, Olly Murs, Ellie Goulding, Christina Perri, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Leona Lewis, James Morrison, Rae Morris, Sigma and Foxes – and does all of this tucked away in the shadows of the Black Mountains.

A brief tour of lightning research, from generating powerful lightning bolts in Europe’s only university-based lightning laboratory, to the role of new materials in protecting commercial aircraft in flight from direct strikes, and to whether increased lightning due to global warming affects tree mortality in the tropics. Mitchard will bring us lots of exciting images and videos, from exploding piggy banks to the Nigerian rainforest, live Tesla coil demonstrations with music and the appearance of a tree struck nine times that survived.

Mr Bingo talks hilariously about his non-standard career, having worked as a commercial illustrator for 15 years for clients such as The New Yorker, the Guardian, TIME, CH4, The Mighty Boosh and the New York Times. In 2015 he launched a Kickstarter with a rap video to fund a book about his Hate Mail project. Three years later, it’s still the most successful UK crowdfunded publishing project ever. Now a self-titled artist, he’s said goodbye to the client world and makes a living from what he calls ‘silly art projects’ such as a nude Advent calendars and Brexit tea towels. Be warned, this event is not for the easily offended.

Four of the best improvisers in the country come together to play with ideas coming from the audience. Tonight will be a brilliant, one-off, never-to-be-repeated, dazzling, hilarious, silly, exciting, dangerous, innovative show featuring real fire (candles). And there will be cake. Actual cake.

Britain’s infrastructure is creaking at the seams, its quality ranked recently by the World Economic Forum as 24th in the World, pushing it towards the bottom of the G7 nations. From congested, potholed roads and overcrowded trains to woefully inadequate cycle-ways and footpaths, travellers in Britain are struggling to get around. And it’s not just problems with transport infrastructure, our housing crisis is well documented, lacking in social housing, prices out of kilter with wages, and as fatally shown by the Grenfell Tower fire, poor, unsafe building standards and quality control. How do we get ourselves out of this mess? Martin Stockley is Deputy Chair of the HS2 Design Review Panel, Vice Chair of the Highways England Design Review Panel and a CABE Built Environment Expert.

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The focus of the PEN chapter this year is to defend and support minority languages within ethnic communities in Wales. When we are given the confidence and liberty to speak for ourselves in our mother tongues as much as in our acquired speech, we demonstrate the diversity, persistence and vitality of language. Three Welsh and three refugee writers are here to speak for themselves and to invite you into the local and global PEN alliance of writers working to promote international freedom of expression and linguistic equality.

Wake up and re-energise with our morning yoga class. Iyengar yoga is characterised by precision, alignment and attention to detail and is an inclusive and accessible yoga practice. Mats are provided; wear comfortable clothing, all abilities welcome.  Wye Valley Yoga