Abney Park Trust launches year-long festival to celebrate ‘historic radicals’

Abney Park Chapel at dawn. Photograph: Haydn Schaare / Abney Park Trust

A year-long festival honouring Abney Park’s ‘historic radicals’ is to kick off next month.

Radical Writers, organised by local charity Abney Park Trust (APT), will feature talks that pay tribute to the many notable figures laid to rest in Hackney’s famous cemetery.

The initial line-up includes acclaimed author Iain Sinclair, speaking on 27 March alongside poet and writer Chris McCabe, who is launching his latest book, Dreamt by Ghosts.

On 11 May, Hackney MP Diane Abbott will take part in an audience Q&A to mark the release of the paperback version of her autobiography, A Woman Like Me.

Events will take place in either the restored Abney Park Chapel or the new Harriet Delph room, an events space next to the park’s cafe.

Nick Toner, festival organiser and APT’s deputy chair, said: “Abney Park is home to many historic radicals, and it’s in their honour that we’re launching this festival.

“We’re proud to be welcoming famous names, engrossing scholars and visionary creatives to the park this year to explore a legacy that has shaped not only Abney but Hackney and beyond.”

Local MP Diane Abbott will take part in a Q&A session

Also speaking at the festival are Hackney-born author Richard Yeboah and academics Bruno Leipold, Sarah Stein Lubrano and Daniel Johnson.

Completing the line-up is journalist Sharon Wright, who recently helped APT fundraise £5,000 for a memorial to pioneering balloonist Margaret Graham.

More speakers are to be announced as the year goes on.

APT works in partnership with the council to promote the heritage, ecology and community life of the Magnificent Seven cemetery and its woodland.

Any surplus from festival ticket sales will be reinvested into its charitable work.

Toner added: “We’re a tiny charity with a big footprint, and buying a ticket to a Radical Writers event this year is the perfect way to keep community-led event programming like this alive.”

More information, including how to sign up for ticket release email alerts, can be found at abneypark.org/radicalwriters.