Keep printing and carry on

As part of the London Word Festival, Stoke Newington International Airport is proud to once again host The Henningham Family Press.

This time they bring with them Darren Hayman, Joanna Neary & Murray Macauley, The Chip Shop, Universette, Sister Corita, The Screenprinting Nun, and Great Cake Escape

Keep Printing and Carry On celebrates minor British institutions of all shapes and sizes.

Printmaking, music, film and art spill into the streets of a model village, a ‘prints hamlet’ constructed in the comfort of your friendly, local airport. An oblique commemoration that takes as its particular starting point that great article of social comment, the printed poster.

In the current age of instantaneous status-dissemination, on demand expression and with the world shrunk down to the size of a Macbook Air, it’s easy to forget that the printed notice, until surprisingly recently, was the key mass-motivational tool for inspiring both public order and dissent.

From A2 austerity churned out by the Ministry of Information to 60s hopeful pop-psychedelia, tonight the Henningham Family Press collaborate with three very different artists to take a sideways look at British life and spirit, reflected in the waning ubiquity of the poster print.

The changing face of urban and suburban life has been a persistent theme in Darren Hayman’s music. From the lovelorn urban character study of Hefner’s 2000 album We Love the City to his 2009 solo paean to Harlow, Essex, the ‘new town’ par excellence, Pram Town.

Darren will be working with the Henningham’s to create a unique fly-poster print during the evening.

The night will open with the Universettee, the invitational mobile armchair lecture series where speakers present on niche subjects and cult topics.

A flexible syllabus that reflects those taking part, expect anything from Zizek, through Liberian history to Roots Manuva. We present a screening of the Sister Corita The Screening Printing Nun short documentary, revealing the life’s work of inspirational artist and educator Corita Kent who used printing to comfort and empower during the social upheavals of the 1960s and 70s.

There will be an accompanying short lecture and recreation of a Sister Corita print by Murray Macauley. Murray is a printer who specialises in British print history. He has organised international auctions of prints from Henry Moore through to modern Pop art.

Plus sign up for mini-lectures, visit the local cinema, cake shop, book shop and more, all combine in a micro-cosmic slice of British life.

Tickets £8 from http://www.wegottickets.com/f/1423 or £10 on the door.

Commissioned and co-produced by London Word Festival

‘A high rise Robyn Hitchcock backed by Belle and Sebastian this is indie worthy of the name.’ – Financial Times on Darren Hayman