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The Lowry Lounge 2011

Following the Bluecoat's celebration of Malcolm Lowry in 2009, the arts centre staged the first Lowry Lounge in 2010, an evening of activities exploring and celebrating the writer's life and work. In 2011 the second Lounge took place as part of the Bluecoat's Chapter & Verse literature festival and was an all-day event.

15 October 2011

It started with a walking tour around Liverpool city centre led by Colin Dilnot, revealing locations mentioned in Lowry’s ‘lost’ novel In Ballast to the White Sea. The afternoon programme at the Bluecoat included a poetry reading by Helen Tookey and talks from French Lowry scholar Annick Drösdall-Levillain and by Michael Carson about the Lowry plaques he'd surreptitiously inserted into New Brighton’s public realm. The second edition of the occasional Lowry publication, The Firminist was launched and Miguel Mota's film After Lowry was introduced by Ailsa Cox.

Earlier in the year on 31 August, at the invitation of Omar Kholeif, Programme Producer at FACT, the Bluecoat’s Artistic Director, Bryan Biggs gave an introduction to John Huston's 1984 film of Under the Volcano before its screening there.

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Wirral-based Lowry scholar Colin Dilnot led a tour of Lowry's Wirral haunts for the 2009 centenary programme. For the 2011 Lounge he revealed 'Lowry's Liverpool' - locations mentioned in the author's ‘lost’ novel In Ballast to the White Sea, a scholarly edition of which was being prepared, informed by Dilnot's research of the book's Merseyside and North West setting. These walking tours became a feature of the Lounge, an attempt to 'place' the writer in the local landscape. This one took a circular route from the Bluecoat to Mount Pleasant, Lime Street, Haymarket, Manchester Street, Dale Street, Exchange Flags, Pier Head, The Strand, Canning Place, Paradise Street and back to the Bluecoat. The walk was accompanied by a set of postcards, handed out at nine locations on the route including Exchange Flags (pictured here). Each card had an appropriate text on the reverse, selected by Dilnot.
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The walking tour of 'Lowry's Liverpool', led by Colin Dilnot was accompanied by a set of postcards, handed out at nine locations on the route, including the site of the Century Cinema, 'Home of Unusual Films' (referenced here), one of the places mentioned in Lowry's ‘lost’ novel In Ballast to the White Sea. Each card had an appropriate text on the reverse, selected by Dilnot.
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The walking tour of 'Lowry's Liverpool', led by Colin Dilnot was accompanied by a set of postcards, handed out at nine locations on the route, including the site of the Legs of Man pub (the Isle of Man is referenced in this card), one of the places mentioned in Lowry's ‘lost’ novel In Ballast to the White Sea. Each card had an appropriate text on the reverse, selected by Dilnot.
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The walking tour of 'Lowry's Liverpool', led by Colin Dilnot was accompanied by a set of postcards, handed out at nine locations on the route, including the site of the Anatomy Museum in Paradise Street (the back cover of its brochure is pictured here), one of the places mentioned in Lowry's ‘lost’ novel In Ballast to the White Sea. Each card had an appropriate text on the reverse, selected by Dilnot.
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The walking tour of 'Lowry's Liverpool', led by Colin Dilnot was accompanied by a set of postcards, handed out at nine locations on the route, including the Manchester Street 'isthmus', one of the places mentioned in Lowry's ‘lost’ novel In Ballast to the White Sea. Each card had an appropriate text on the reverse, selected by Dilnot, the one pictured here a reference to Lowry's short story 'Through the Panama'.
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The walking tour of 'Lowry's Liverpool', led by Colin Dilnot was accompanied by a set of postcards, handed out at nine locations on the route, including Sailortown (pictured here), one of the places mentioned in Lowry's ‘lost’ novel In Ballast to the White Sea. Each card had an appropriate text on the reverse, selected by Dilnot.
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The walking tour of 'Lowry's Liverpool', led by Colin Dilnot was accompanied by a set of postcards, handed out at nine locations on the route, including the Pier Head (referenced in this card), one of the places mentioned in Lowry's ‘lost’ novel In Ballast to the White Sea. Each card had an appropriate text on the reverse, selected by Dilnot.
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The walking tour of 'Lowry's Liverpool', led by Colin Dilnot was accompanied by a set of postcards, handed out at nine locations on the route, including Cheapside (referenced here), one of the places mentioned in Lowry's ‘lost’ novel In Ballast to the White Sea. Each card had an appropriate text on the reverse, selected by Dilnot.
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The walking tour of 'Lowry's Liverpool', led by Colin Dilnot was accompanied by a set of postcards, handed out at nine locations on the route, including cafes (refenced in this card) mentioned in Lowry's ‘lost’ novel In Ballast to the White Sea. Each card had an appropriate text on the reverse, selected by Dilnot.
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The cover of the second issue of this occasional Lowry journal features an image of one of Michael Carson's public realm interventions - a series of text plaques - in New Brighton, the writer's birthplace which, at the time, barely acknowledged its famous literary son. Launched at the 2011 Lounge, the publication, edited by Mark Goodall and I.Q. Hunter and published by the University of Bradford and the Bluecoat, included: Michael Romer's essay on Lowry's influence on Orcadian documentary film maker Margaret Tait; Julia Courtney's exploration of the concept of time in Under the Volcano; Sherrill Grace's reflection on David Markson, Lowry’s 'first disciple'; Colin Dilnot's selection from his postcard collection relating to Lowry's writing and travels.
PDF Artefact

The 2011 Lowry Lounge programme

2011