Join us for a rare screening of the 1994 Arena documentary A Day in The Afterlife about cult author Philip K Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?).

Afterwards, see writers Kate Feld, David Hartley and Irenosen Okojie discuss his speculative / science fiction and imagination. Poet Francesca Beard will also perform a new commission inspired by his work.

Your Local Arena is a unique project featuring iconic films from the archives of BBC TV’s Arena, the pioneering cultural documentary series. It includes new poems inspired by the Arena films and panel talks to explore the continuing relevance of the Arena archives today. The Your Local Arena concept was developed by Lucy Hannah and Speaking Volumes, with Arena’s award-winning director/editor Anthony Wall as creative consultant, and funded by Arts Council England.

David Hartley is a short story writer, performer, and researcher based in Manchester. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from The University of Manchester where he looked at the interconnection of autism and the fantastical, with a particular focus on the film Blade Runner. He is the author of Incorcisms and Fauna, the latter of which was longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize in 2022. Most recently, he was writer-in-residence in Tartu, Estonia for the Prima Vista Literature Festival where he performed a four-hour immersive storytelling experience among a forest of tattooed Estonians.

Kate Feld is the author of the poetry and photography pamphlet Deeryard. Her writing has appeared in journals including The Stinging Fly, The Letters Page and Tolka and in The Art of Being Dangerous: Exploring Women and Danger Through Creative Expression. She lectures in Journalism at the University of Salford and lives in the hills north of Manchester.

Irenosen Okojie is a Nigerian British author whose work pushes the boundaries of form, language and ideas. Her novel, Butterfly Fish, and short story collections, Speak Gigantular and Nudibranch, have won and been nominated for multiple awards. She was a Contributing Editor for The White Review and co-presented the BBC’s Turn Up for The Books podcast, alongside Simon Savidge and Bastille frontman Dan Smith. She is the director and founder of Black to the Future, a multidisciplinary Afrofuturist festival. Her new novel is Curandera.

Francesca Beard is a poet who has worked with audiences and artists in over 23 countries through her work with the British Council. She has been poet-in-residence at The Barbican, BBC White City, The Tower of London, and the Natural History Museum. Her solo shows include Chinese Whispers, How to Survive A Post-Truth Apocalypse and Confabulation.