News

Delighted to announce that acclaimed folk musician and composer, Alistair Anderson,  will give the Mary Neal Lecture this year. Alistair is internationally recognized as the master of the English Concertina and a fine performer on the Northumbrian Pipes. 

see here for more details and booking and come along! 

This year’s Mary Neal Lecture with EFDSS at Cecil Sharp House in Camden, London will be given by Jude Kelly OBE. Jude is a highly respected theatre practitioner and currently Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre and a member of the Cultural Olympiad Committee.
The Mary Neal Lecture was begun in 2009 when Lucy Neal, Mary’s great-great-niece and founder of the London International Festival of Theatre, deposited the Mary Neal Archive in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Mary Neal was a reformer, suffragette and radical arts practitioner. A great spirit behind the early 20th century folk dance and song revival, Mary set up The Espérance Club in Somerstown teaching young working girls and children among other things folk dance.

Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent's Park Road, London NW1 7AY
26th May, 7.30pm
See below website for more information:

http://www.efdss.org/events/eventsdetails/eventsId/367/displaydate/2011-05-26

TO READ LUCY NEAL'S INAUGRAL MARY NEAL LECTURE, 'HOPE'S SONG', 2010 CLICK HERE.

Saturday 5th June 2010 was the 150th Anniversary of Mary Neal's birth

Lucy Neal will be giving the Mary Neal Inaugural Lecture at Cecil Sharp House, London in partnership with EFDSS on 5th February 2010. 
More details coming soon...

Lucy Neal will speak about Mary Neal at the EMPAF national conference, entitled "Passion, Partnerships and Empowering", which explores and celebrates partnership working and the participatory arts on 16th October at Derby QUAD  in Derby. For further information please see empaf.com/

Convened by Esther Caplin at Edith Neville School on April 27th this afternoon conference gathered a superb range of participants - architects, artists, educators, secondary school pupils, Kings Cross developers, Camden Council officers and Councillors, urban planners and community voices- to look at what made Somerstown a distinctly interesting pocket of a neighbourhood and creative opportunities for creating a new 'heart' for it.  Sandwiched between 2 large railway stations, Euston and St Pancras, this residential enclave is faced with neighbouring redevelopment and a growing range of national and international ranking neighbours. The area has special qualities: pedestrianised areas, green spaces, a market, cultural diversity, family friendly environments and, along with a heritage of 20th century social housing,  a rich local history of immigration and cohesion. After excellent scene-setting by Jon Snow, Charles Landry and others I (Lucy Neal) sat on a table to discuss culture and creativity. Other tables discussed education, the public realm and physical links and economic development. The Mary Neal Project was mentioned on a number of occasions as a recent example of Somers Town heritage waiting to brought to light. An exciting living trace of all the seeds the Project has sown to date!