THURSDAY 30 MAY
hayfestival.org 1pm
1pm
[254] 1pm OXFAM MOOT £8
[257] 1pm COMPASS STUDIO £8
Jane Jelley
Michaela Mahlberg and Anna Cermakova
Traces of Vermeer
Heroines, Heroes and Gender Inequality in Children’s Fiction
Johannes Vermeer’s luminous paintings are loved and admired around the world. We see sunlit spaces, the glimmer of satin, silver and linen; we see the softness of a hand on a lute string or letter. We recognise the distilled impression of a moment of time and we feel it to be real, yet we do not understand how the paintings were made. The few traces Vermeer has left behind tell us little: there are no letters or diaries, and no reports of him at work. Jelley has taken a new path in this detective story. A painter herself, she has worked with the materials of his time: the cochineal insect and lapis lazuli; the sheep bones, soot, earth and rust. She investigates old secrets and hears travellers’ tales. Her research allows us to unlock the studio door, and catch a glimpse of Vermeer inside, painting light.
Fiction provides children with an important space to learn how to make sense of the world. It is also a crucial source for role models. Fictional worlds are not so unlike the real world – especially when it comes to gender inequalities. Based on their work with large collections of texts, Professor Mahlberg and Dr Cermakova from the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Corpus Research will explore fiction from Dickens to modern children’s books, to demonstrate how repeated language patterns reflect a gendered view of society. In association with the University of Birmingham [258] 1pm ST MARY’S CHURCH £10
Szymanowski Quartet
BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Recitals 4 [255] 1pm LLWYFAN CYMRU – WALES STAGE £8
Mark Britnell
Human: Solving the Global Workforce Crisis in Healthcare By 2030 the world will be short of approximately 15 million health workers – a fifth of the workforce needed to keep healthcare systems going. Global healthcare leader and award-winning author Dr Britnell uses his unique insights from advising governments, executives and clinicians in more than 70 countries to present solutions to this impending crisis. [256] 1pm HAY FESTIVAL FOUNDATION STAGE £8
Bidisha, Nikita Lalwani, Eley Williams and Ra Page
Resist: Stories of Protest We live in a golden era of protest. From the anti-gun rallies in the US to the March of Return demos in Palestine, people are taking to the streets and standing up to governments that have fallen out of step with the popular mood. Resist is the second installment of a series of commissions challenging authors to reimagine key moments of British protest through fiction, while working closely with historians, crowd scientists and eye-witnesses to maximise their historical accuracy. Bidisha reimagines Boudica’s revolt against the Romans; Eley Williams rewrites the Rebecca Riots; Nikita Lalwani tells the story of the Tottenham Riots of 2011. All these stories offer a grassroots perspective on very hard-won grassroots progress.
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The last of our four recitals broadcast from Hay this week. Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major; Karol Szymanowski’s String Quartet No.1 in C Major, Op.37. Recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Please arrive in good time. [HD55] 1pm STARLIGHT STAGE £8
Nicola Davies
The Wonder of Trees The award-winning author and scientist invites you to celebrate trees in all their variety as she leads a journey exploring the extraordinary diversity of trees and forests. With fascinating facts and figures, Nicola will encourage children (and adults) to treasure the world’s biodiversity and give tips on how to help stop it slipping away. 9+
2.30pm [259] 2.30pm BAILLIE GIFFORD STAGE £10
Lucy Worsley
Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow Who was Queen Victoria? A little old lady, potato-like in appearance, dressed in everlasting black? Or a passionate young princess, a romantic heroine with a love of dancing? There is a third Victoria – a woman who was a remarkably successful queen, one who invented a new role for the monarchy. She found a way of being a respected sovereign in an age when people were deeply uncomfortable with having a woman on the throne. On the face of it, she was deeply conservative. But if you look at her actions rather than her words, she was in fact tearing up the rule-book for how to be female.