TedxBrighton 2015: Losing Control
Billed as “the largest independently organised TEDx event in the UK”, anarchic Brighton is the ideal spot for an open-to-all debate about control. Promising to question government, industry and society, speakers will range from those responsible for the nation’s security, such as e-payment-system designer David Everett, to folk who’ve cut loose altogether, such as kitesurfing champ Lewis Crathern. Other groundbreakers include restorative-justice campaigner Marina Cantacuzino, resilience expert Gemima Fitzgerald and marketing maverick Rory Sutherland. Catch a talk on the UK’s first NHS-integrated primary care and complementary therapy unit – the Brighton Health and Wellbeing Centre – and find out how the EDL (that’s the English Disco Lovers, of course) are using dance to defuse hatred on the frontline of fascist marches.
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Juliet Jacques, Bristol
From BBC3’s quirky romcom Boy Meets Girl and Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover, to the casting of a trans actor in EastEnders and Emmy wins for Amazon dramedy Transparent, 2015 has seen transgender issues permeate the mainstream like never before. However, fictional – or in Jenner’s case, heavily publicised – tales aside, the realities of transitioning remain largely misconstrued and undocumented. Juliet Jacques is one of few visible trans presences in British media, best known for the Guardian column she penned from 2010 to 2012. The Transgender Journey series culminated with the writer undergoing gender reassignment surgery at the age of 30, and her recently published memoir Trans recaps earlier articles and continues her story. As part of Bristol’s ongoing Festival of Ideas, she presents a frank account of modern gender struggles and an extraordinary life.
Bristol Galleries Waterstones, Tue
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Patti Smith In Conversation, London
An evening with Patti Smith is likely to be unpredictable. At a recent reading in Illinois, she cried when an audience member returned a bag of keepsakes that were stolen from her tour van 40 years ago; she presented a birthday cake to the Dalai Lama at this year’s Glastonbury; and she regularly yells onstage about freeing the world. Time hasn’t softened the punk poet’s radical spirit, but her writing reveals a more reflective, impressionistic side. Her award-winning 2010 memoir Just Kids detailed how she and her photographer companion Robert Mapplethorpe found their way to fame in 1970s New York, its depiction of bohemia idealistically underpinned by bittersweet loss. Tonight she will be talking about its follow-up M Train, this time heavy with solitude as she charts her artistic discovery across various continents, visiting the graves of her heroes, such as Rimbaud and Plath, and peppered with memories of her late husband Fred “Sonic” Smith. She is in conversation with novelist Andrew O’Hagan for this Guardian Live event, who will hopefully have the tissues on hand.
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