From 24 July to 1 August the Empire Café is hosting a series of events, talks, walks, workshops and exhibitions exploring Scotland's relationship with the North Atlantic slave trade. Events are free unless otherwise indicated. We recommend you reserve your place in advance via Eventbrite to guarantee a seated place.

Visitors are encouraged to come to the Empire Café at the Briggait, take a look around and take advantage of the festival atmosphere and the fabulous refreshments on offer in the café space.

We can offer groups a designated meeting space, a welcome host and reserved seating in the café and at events. Group visit can be arranged directly by contacting Abigail Daly. A British Sign Language interpreter, Yvonne Waddell MA RMSASLI, will be present at three events - see her invitation to visit here.

CAFÉ OPEN, 11am – 6 pm, managed by McCune Smith.
Saturday 26 July to 1 August

CASH ONLY BAR, 5pm – 10pm The Frederick Douglass Bar, managed by Ethical Events.
Thursday 24 July to 1 August.

Independent booksellers Aye Aye Books will be running a daily book stall.

Download our programme overview here.

Exhibition access throughout the week

RCAHMS Pavilion

Sightlines

Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland's newly commissioned 3D documentary film about the mapping of Kenya is running daily at 15 minute intervals within a bespoke pavilion. This film is partly subtitled and a transcription of this film's script is available.

14 – 18 Now Pavilion

Letter to an Unknown Soldier

We invite visitors to the Empire Café to seek out the 14-18 NOW Pavilion, which hosts the ‘Letter to an Unknown Soldier’ project by Neil Bartlett and Kate Pullinger. Take a few private moments to think, and make your own contribution to the project. You will be able to write to the unknown soldier and say what you want to say about war, with all we’ve learned since 1914, with all your own experience of life and death. More information at 1418now.org.uk/letter. A letter writing workshop will run 1st August, 2-4pm - book now.

War c/w I Murder Hate

Graham Fagen

A new piece of work by Scottish artist Graham Fagen especially commissioned by 14-18NOW for the Empire Café will be exhibited in the Briggait Main Hall throughout the course of the week. Visitors can also enjoy Graham's previous prints and video work that address Scotland's connections with slavery. In his new work Fagen considers the stories of Jamaican soldiers during the First World War through film. More information here.

Scotland v Poverty

26 to 28 July

This exhibition and interactive website explores how Scottish organisations are working together to build a just world and suggests what you can do to help fight poverty and inequality.

Daily Events

Thursday 24th July

The Briggait, Main stage

Tales of the Empire Café

7 – 9 pm

Poet Fred D’Aguiar and novelist James Robertson will discuss Scottish links with the Caribbean created by the North Atlantic slave trade and how they have reflected on this in their own novels (Robertson’s Joseph Knight) and (D’Aguiar’s Bloodlines and British Subjects).

Chaired by Professor Alan Riach of the University of Glasgow
In association with Scottish PEN

Book now.


Friday 25th July

The Briggait, Main stage

Launch of ‘Yonder Awa, Poetry from the Empire Café

7 – 9 pm

Eighteen of the Caribbean and Scotland’s most exciting poets have written new poems for the Empire Café exploring Scotland and the North Atlantic slave trade. Join us for readings from Fred D’Aguiar, Millicent Graham, Kei Miller, Dorothea Smartt, Malika Booker, Jim Carruth and others. Music from Glasgow Integrated Voices.

Introduced by Louise Welsh (writer) & Stephen Mullen (historian)
Cash Bar
Event supported by The British Council

Book now.


Saturday 26th July

The Briggait, Small stage

Poetry and Conversation

5 – 5.45 pm

With Dorothea Smartt and chaired by Louise Welsh

Book now.


The Briggait, Main stage

Torn from the Shore

7 - 9pm

Perspectives on Scotland, the Caribbean and the North Atlantic slave trade. An illuminating and lively cross-disciplinary discussion about how we can examine Scotland’s history through art, academic study, poetry and activism.

Professor Sir Tom Devine, Historian
Graham Fagen, Artist
Millicent Graham, Poet
Graham Campbell, Writer & Activist
Chaired by Susan Morrison, Historian, comedian and director of Previously... Scotland’s History Festival

Book now.


The Briggait, Front door

Walk

2 – 4 pm, please wear suitable shoes and clothes.

Bondage is behind you, freedom is before!’

These illuminating walks developed for Empire Café by Glasgow Women’s Library’s Women’s History Detectives will honour the courageous, inspiring firebrand women involved in Scotland’s abolitionist and emergent suffragette campaigns.

Sold Out.

Glasgow and Empire: The Merchant City Walk

5 – 6 pm

This tour takes the audience on a historical journey around the built heritage of commercial Glasgow and her connections with the slave plantations of the New World. This walk will be lead by historian Stephen Mullan.

Meet at the Briggait 10 minutes before the walk leaves.

Book now


Sunday 27th July

Briggait, Café

The Poetry Café

2 – 4 pm

Tawona Sithole and friends present the Poetry Café. Choose a poem from the menu and the poet will pop out from the kitchen and read it to you. Double chillies = double danger.

Book now.


The Briggait

From Calcutta to Caroni – a culinary journey

2 sittings 5.30pm and 7.30pm

£20 per person (includes a complimentary rum punch)

A unique four course meal prepared by Babu’s Kitchen and Fire in Babylon tracing the route of thousands of Indian indentured labourers on their journey from Calcutta to the sugar plantations of Trinidad.

Book now.


Briggait, Main Hall

Food Sovereignty Market

12 noon – 5 pm

The Briggait will be transformed into a bustling marketplace by Glasgow Local Food Network. Growers from across the city will be selling their produce, alongside workshops, talks and cookery demonstrations.

Book now.


The Tron Theatre

The Lamplighter, directed by Alison Peebles

5 pm

Jackie Kay’s play ‘The Lamplighter’ takes us on a journey through the dark heart of slavery. Four women and one man tell the story of the fort, the slave ship, the middle passage, the life on the plantations, the growth of the British city and the industrial revolution. This rehearsed reading of the play will be followed by a Q & A with Jackie Kay chaired by novelist Zoë Strachan.

A co-production with the Tron Theatre.

Book now.


Workshop

Food and the Multinational Takeover

1:30 – 2:30pm

World Development Movement and the Haiti Support Group present: Food and the Multinational Takeover - The Global Fight for Food Sovereignty


Monday 28th July

Glasgow Film Theatre

Rabbit Proof Fence

6 pm

Three aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff and set off on a trek across the Outback. Directed by Phillip Noyce (2002)

Screening followed by a debate led by Dr David Archibald of the University of Glasgow. Join the Empire Café’s panel of film critics and experts to discuss the portrayal of slavery in film and why we chose a movie set in Australia rather than Scotland or the Caribbean.

Book now.


The Briggait, Main stage

The God of Sugar

7 – 9 pm

Absent Voices is a group of Scottish artists who have come together to explore and preserve in words, pictures, song and sound, the legacy of Greenock’s once mighty sugar industry. Artist Alastair Cook presents work commissioned by Absent Voices from his Filmpoem project in collaboration with award-winning poet Vicki Feaver, who reads and discusses the inspirations for her poem about sugar and empire, ‘The God of Sugar.’ Composer Luca Nasciuti will accompany Vicki live and the evening will be rounded off with an acoustic set by Absent Voices singer-songwriter Kevin McDermott.

Book now.


Briggait, Café

BBC Radio 4, Ginger, Sugar and Tea

2 – 4 pm

Join us to hear three new short stories specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4. The stories are focused on products of Empire and three themes – Jackie Kay has chosen ginger, Fred D’Aguiar sugar and Kei Miller tea. Be the first to hear these stories as we record them for broadcast. Ticketed. Latecomers cannot be admitted. British Sign Language interpreter Yvonne Waddell MA RMSASLI will be present at this event.

Book now.


The Briggait, Front door

Walk

2 – 4 pm, please wear suitable shoes and clothes.

Bondage is behind you, freedom is before!’

These illuminating walks developed for Empire Café by Glasgow Women’s Library’s Women’s History Detectives will honour the courageous, inspiring firebrand women involved in Scotland’s abolitionist and emergent suffragette campaigns.

Sold Out

Glasgow and Empire: The Merchant City Walk

2 – 4 pm

This tour takes the audience on a historical journey around the built heritage of commercial Glasgow and her connections with the slave plantations of the New World. This walk will be lead by historian Stephen Mullan.

Meet at the Briggait 10 minutes before the walk leaves.

Sold Out


Workshop

The Price of Memory

2 – 4 pm

(Dir Karen Mafundikwa, 1hr 30, Cert 15)

This film is a poetic documentary that explores the enduring legacy of slavery in Jamaica and the decades-long movement for slavery reparations. Screened in partnership with Africa in Motion Festival.

Book now.

Rosette making Workshop

11 am

Wear the rosette that the brave have worn!

Women abolitionists and suffragettes changed the face of Scotland.
Learn about them whilst creating a rosette to be worn in their honour on the walk that charts their history.
Honour the firebrand campaigners against slavery and for the Vote, after creating your own stirring adornment and why not wear it on the Bondage is Behind You heritage walk at 2 pm.

With thanks to Glasgow Women's Library.


Tuesday 29th July

Part 1 Briggait Café, Part 2 Main Stage

Break the Chains and This Horrible Traffick- Scotland and Slavery

2 – 4 pm

Travel back in time and meet some of the major players in Scotland’s fight against slavery. Dialogues from David Spens, Eliza Wigham, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Chalmers.

Heading back in time to the period between 1788 - 1844 for readings, music & poetry from abolitionists and freed slaves including Olaudah Equiano, Joseph Knight, Alexander Grant, Janet Schaw.

Book now.


Workshop

Political Song workshop

with John Powles

2 – 4pm

Starting with the Abolitionist Movement, this workshop explores the role of women in Scotland as activists in radical movements and campaigns, from suffrage through to the Bedroom Tax, via Rent Strikes, The Great Unrest, struggles for social justice, UCS, the 1984 Miners’ Strike and the Poll Tax, as well as women’s participation in international and anti-imperialist struggles, including the Anti-Apartheid Movement and Nuclear Disarmament.

Supported by the Workers' Education Association, Scotland

Admission £3


The Briggait, Main stage

Untold Stories, Buried Histories

7 – 9 pm

Do Scotland’s galleries and museums represent the country’s involvement with the North Atlantic slave trade? Why are some histories still too sensitive to acknowledge? Is it time to establish a permanent museum devoted to Scotland and slavery? Join in the discussion. British Sign Language interpreter Yvonne Waddell MA RMSASLI will be present at this event.

Dr Richard Benjamin, Director of International Slavery Museum, Liverpool
Dr Fiona Bradley, Director of Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh
Dr Anthony Lewis of Glasgow Museums
Chaired by Dr Michael Morris of Liverpool John Moores University

Book now.


Wednesday 30th July

Briggait, Main Stage

RCAHMS

2 – 4 pm

The Royal Commission for Ancient and Historical Monuments’ newly commissioned 3D film about the mapping of Kenya is running daily in the main hall. Join filmmaker Genevieve Bicknell & RCAHMS curator of aerial photography Allan Williams, for a special screening and to discuss the stories behind the film. Chaired by Professor Noe Mendelle of the Scottish Documentary Institute.

Book now.

7 – 9 pm

Land reformer Andy Wightman, will discuss the conquests, treaties, and land grabs that brought into being the British Empire and the legacy of this process in Scotland today. Robert the Bruce, Captain Cook, Eddie Mabo and drug dealer James Matheson all feature in the story of how state power is deployed in the oppression of peoples and the rule of elites and of how justice and hope is being restored.

Chaired by Dr Jonathan Charley.

Book now.


Briggait Main Hall

Emancipation Acts

1 – 1:30 pm

Emancipations Acts is a series of site - specific 'tableaux' that can each be experienced as stand alone performance events or followed as a sequence.

Book now.


Thursday 31st July

Workshop

Paul Robeson Workshop

with John Powles

2 – 4pm

Paul Robeson was the son of an escaped slave. This workshop will present Robeson the artist, the activist, the inspiration, the icon … the man. We shall concentrate especially on some areas of particular interest within the context of the Scottish political psyche. Civil rights and social justice for all, as well as anti-fascism, the Spanish Civil War, the Anti-Apartheid Movement and Pan Africanism, as well as Robeson’s connections with Scotland. All will be considered.

Admission £3


The Briggait, Small stage

Poetry and Conversation

5 – 5.45 pm

With Randy McLaren and Nicky-e Melville.

Book now.


The Briggait, Main stage

Sugar in the Blood, Fury in the Soul

7 – 9 pm

Plantations, indentured whites, the legacy of empire and sugar; Andrea Stuart’s ‘Sugar in the Blood’ explores slavery and colonialism through the history of her own family. Chris Dolan’s ‘Redlegs’ is set amongst indentured whites on a Barbadian sugar plantation. Eric Graham is one of Scotland’s leading historians and has written widely on Scotland and the North Atlantic slave trade. Clementine Sandison is a founding member of Open Jar Collective and is currently investigating the legacy of the ‘plantation’ on our global food system. British Sign Language interpreter Yvonne Waddell MA RMSASLI will be present at this event.

Chris Dolan, Writer & Filmmaker
Andrea Stuart, Writer
Clementine Sandison, Artist & Food Activist
Eric Graham, Historian
Including a performance by Jamaican dub-poet Randy McLaren
Chaired by Louise Welsh, Writer

Book now.


Briggait Main Hall

Emancipation Acts

1 – 1:30 pm

Emancipations Acts is a series of site - specific 'tableaux' that can each be experienced as stand alone performance events or followed as a sequence.

This will be a signed event.

Book now.

Barbado’ed: Scotland’s Sugar Slaves

2 – 4 pm

Redlegs are the direct descendants of Scots transported to Barbados by Cromwell after the Civil War. Three hundred and fifty years later they are the poorest inhabitants of the island. Writer and filmmaker Chris Dolan screens his BBC documentary Barbado’ed: Scotland’s Sugar Slaves and discusses the histories that inspired him to make the film.

Book now.


Friday 1st August

Briggait, Café

The Poetry Café

2 – 4pm

Tawona Sithole and friends present the Poetry Café. Choose a poem from the menu and the poet will pop out from the kitchen and read it to you. Double chillies = double danger.

Book now.


The Briggait, Small stage

Poetry and Conversation

5 – 5.45 pm

With Sasenarine Persaud and chaired by Louise Welsh.

Book now.


Workshop

14–18 NOW

2 – 4pm

A specially commissioned workshop led by writer Catriona Lexy-Campbell about the art of letter writing and an opportunity to write your own letter to an unknown soldier.

Book now.


Briggait Main Hall

Emancipation Acts

1 – 1:30 pm

Emancipations Acts is a series of site - specific 'tableaux' that can each be experienced as stand alone performance events or followed as a sequence.

Book now.


The Briggait, Main stage

Scotland, Colonisers or Colonised?

7 – 9 pm

As Scotland approaches the independence vote do we consider ourselves a colonised nation or a nation of colonisers? A final chance to join us for poetry, music and lively well-informed debate before the Empire Café closes its doors.

Introduced by Humza Yousaf, MSP Minister for External Affairs and International Development
Sir Geoffrey Palmer, Professor Emeritus at Heriot Watt University
Sasenarine Persaud, Poet (Guyana & USA)
Lesley Riddoch, Broadcaster & Journalist
Johnny Rodger, Urbanist & Academic
With music from hip hop band Stanley Odd & Glasgow Integrated Voices

Supported by the British Council.

Book now.