Pick of the Week: 8 - 14 June

Safety Last!

At The River I Stand
As their latest exhibition comes in to its final week - if you haven’t caught it yet, be quick! - Contemporary are also showing At The River I Stand, a documentary that looks at the two months leading up to the death of Martin Luther King Jr that also coincided with the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike in 1968. Screened in collaboration with the Centre for Research in Race and Rights at The University of Nottingham, the film will be introduced by their co-director, Sharon Monteith. A reconstruction that gives insight into a time in American history that helped shaped it into the country it is today, this is mid-week culture that you’d be daft to miss.
Tuesday 9 June, free, 6.30pm, Nottingham Contemporary

1914: All Our Heroes
It's crazy to think that the First World War started over a hundred years ago, but as the centenary events continue, it’s still fascinating to hear the myriad stories its survivors had to tell. This play, aimed at young people but we reckon that you’re never to old to learn a thing or two, explores the perspectives of men from the Indian sub-continent that fought for the British Raj. Leaving their homes and families, they were part of the intensive war effort for the British Empire, and through the eyes of Kaka, a soldier’s son, you can discover more about an oft neglected part of the WWI story.   
Tuesday 9 June, 5-6pm, New Art Exchange

Wire and Wool 
If you’re partial to sitting back and having the hell entertained out of you in an alternative folk, blues, poetry way, then you are right in luck. Michael Wetherburn, of Bamalamasingsong and Ulysses Storm fame, will be tickling the ivories for your listening pleasure, and Australian-born Joel Sarakula will be performing his own brand of retro pop tunes on the piano and guitar. Bridging the music and spoken word is an acoustic hip hop act band, Intent, and there’ll be poetry of the best kind from Mouthy Poet Bridie Squires, Coop, Jodie Russian Red and Rory Smith. Phew! Pop in and stop in, it’s going to be good.  
Thursday 11 June, free, 8pm, Alley Cafe

NCN Fashion Show 
It’s that time of year where we get to have a good nosey at what the creative types from our colleges and uni’s have been up to. Happy to show off the fruits of their labour, the fashion students from New College Nottingham have roped in mates to strut their stuff on a pop-up catwalk in Broadmarsh. They’re in the middle of the day, but conveniently timed so that you can pop in on your lunch hour if you’re of the working persuasion. Plus, there will also be a giant cube structure where you can look at the designs in closer detail at any time. With collections from theatrical to modern and simple, the event will culminate in an gala fashion show at 6pm on the Friday. So make like Anna Wintour and saunter on down.
Thursday 11 - Friday 12 June, various times, free, Broadmarsh Shopping Centre

Scalarama Needs YOU! 

Scalarama
The film event that takes over the country may be a few months away, but planning for this kind of stuff doesn’t just happen overnight. Cinema Diabolique are the gang behind the plotting. Last year they were all but strutting about like proud cocks, and no wonder, they put together the largest programme outside of that there London. Yeah, we do like a bit of film round these parts. If you too love film and fancy a bit of a strut, get yourself down to this meet-up to share your ideas and see how you can be involved.
Thursday 11 June, free, 6.30pm, Broadway 

Wollaton Hall: After Hours Tour 
Batman fans, history, architecture and nature lovers beware! You can now have an after hours tour of the grand 1580s Elizabethan country house - definitely Nottingham’s most picturesque architecture, but it’s not only admirable on the outside: Six galleries of taxidermy, minerals and other natural collections and, of course, the setting for Batman: Dark Night Rises, further increases the need to visit. Especially since you’ll get to feel dead special being shown round rooms you can’t normally access. Elizabethan, educational and exciting is how we’d describe this one. Attached to 500 acres of land, including a deer park, means it is fit for all ages, and you’ll get an insight into the past we’re sure you won’t forget.
Friday 12th June, 19:30pm, £15, Wollaton Hall

Gedling Book Festival 
If the thought of camping out in the mud and staying up all hours with crazy techno music blaring through the speakers and murdering your brain cells one by one doesn’t really float your boat, then perhaps a celebration of all things literature might be more your style. Running all weekend, the days of the Gedling Book Festival will be split into the following themes: general fiction, children’s day and non-fiction. With talks including ‘History Through Human Stories’ with Eve Makis, and a spooky story session for the kiddies, you’ll have yer fill of pure literary goodness. There’s even gonna be a blinkin’ Katy Perry tribute act, so you can get plenty a groove on to some pop princess loveliness. What more could you wish for?
Friday 12 - Sunday 14 June, various times, free, Arnot Hill Park

London Philharmonic Orchestra 
The big guns are coming to Notts, folks. Iron your best shirt, polish up yer shoes and get yer glittery clutch bags at the ready cos one of the biggest and baddest orchestras about is bringing a touch of class to Hood Town. Conducted by Enrique Mazzola, the orchestra will play works from both Donizetti and Brahm, with solo violinist Nicola Benedetti taking the reins in Brahm’s Violin Concerto. If you’ve got no idea what we’re on about, then all the more reason to go. There’s even gonna be a pre-show talk an hour before the show so you can get all clued up, courtesy of Neil Bennison, musical programmer for the Concert Hall. Serious, these guys are a big deal, so if you managed to grab tickets before the masses swarm, then you’re in for a beautiful evening.
Saturday 13 June, £10 - £32.50, 7.30pm, Royal Concert Hall

Refugee Week - Launch Party 
If you haven’t managed to have a squizz of our latest mag, you might not have seen our piece on Refugee Week. Well established in Nottingham, they always put on a cracking line-up of events and this year looks set to be even better if their launch event is anything to go by. There’ll be live music from Iranian British fusion group Arian, and Voice of the People, a duo originally from Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Nottingham Refugee Forum's Young Refugees group will also be performing a dance routine created in collaboration with students from Nottingham Trent University. For your hungry tums there’ll be international food tasting from the Women’s Culture Exchange and face painting and activities for big and small people. And somehow they’re cramming it all into an afternoon. Count us in.
Saturday 13 June, free, 1-4pm, Nottingham Contemporary

Safety Last! with live soundtrack
Ever seen that image of a bloke hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street? That man is the one and only Harold Lloyd, a silent film star who was up there with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and the enduring image comes from his most-famous comedy, Safety Last! If you’ve never caught his movies, you’re in for a treat. And if you’re a fan, you’re too are also in for a treat. Not only because watching old films at the pictures is always way better than at home, but because musical duo Unsilent Movies are soundtracking the film live before your very ears.
Saturday 13 June, 1pm, Broadway Cinema

Nusic: Future Sound of Nottingham 
They’re bloody good souls, Nusic. They’re always on the look out for fresh, Nottingham talent, ready to give a leg up to any hardworking musician that comes their way. What more of a leg up could there be than getting the opportunity to play main stage at Rock City? That’s what a bunch of fresh faced Hood Town music folk are gonna get this year, as Nusic’s Future Sound of Nottingham competition comes to a head. The winner is decided upon by a panel of well-read judges as well as crowd reaction, so make sure you get down and support. The champion of the evening then gets to open Splendour main stage. Yes, you heard us right. It’s completely free and completely local, and if that don’t float yer boat then we don’t know you as well as we thought we did.
Sunday 14 June, 7pm, free, Rock City

For the motherload of everything else going on this week check out our comprehensive Nottingham events listings.

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